Written by Charlie Huston
Illustrated by Juan Jose RypWolverine’s healing factor has gotten him through some tough times, but its limits are put to the test when he’s caught by Contagion, a man nurturing a deadly obsession with unkillable mutants. However when Logan discovers the true purpose behind the torturous experiments he’ll wish he could have died on the slab.
Oh dear. It’s not often that the internet seems so wholly united when it comes to comics, but one of those rare flashes came when they checked out Wolverine: The Best There Is and said, their voices as one: “What the hell?” Then, a month later: “No, seriously. What the hell?” Now one arc is complete, and it’s time to look back at this troubled book’s life thus far. Let’s take a look and find out indeed, what the hell, after the jump.
Charlie Huston first broke into the comics game on a revival of Moon Knight with David Finch, proving the old adage that all you need to spike interest in a character is a crime writer and a detail-oriented artist. Now, Marvel seeks to capture lightning in a bottle again, by applying that same formula to a floundering, little-known character named Wolverine. From the “NOT FOR KIDS!” disclaimer on the cover, one gets the sense that this was meant to be a MAX book — something that, in my mind, is reinforced by the fact that they hired Juan Jose Ryp, a South American artist who made his bones drawing sex, blood and gore for Avatar (his credits include both the presidential-assassination story Black Summer with Warren Ellis, and Vivid Comix with porn studio Vivid, so, you know). It was an idea that had promise: take Wolverine, take a hard-boiled writer, take an artist who doesn’t shy away from gory details, and combine them to tell the stories that Logan can’t get away with in the main product line.
What we got was… well. You know how in that one movie Casino, Joe Pesci swears so much that they had to bring in a ringer to redub most of his lines for the TV version, only it sounds nothing like him, so you spend the entire time focusing on how off the dubbed Pesci lines sound rather than paying attention to what’s happening in the movie? Reading Wolverine: The Best There Is is not a dissimilar experience. I spend more time wondering what this book was supposed to be than I do focusing on what it is. This is probably better for me, all things considered, because what it is… uh, can I get back to you on that?
I had hoped that #6 would wrap up the first arc, “Contagion,” in a way that brought some sense of context to the absolute insanity of this series, in addition to tying up a completely ludicrous plot. A man with the power to generate diseases has taken an interest in ‘unkillable’ people — such as Wolverine — and is performing experiments on them. Wolverine has gotten to the bottom of his plan, as well as through all of his super-healing henchmen, so it’s time to… well, put everything right. Right? The ending of “Contagion” contends that more gonzo equals more better, but really, that’s a double-edged sword.
Maybe taken all in one lump, the story will read better, and Wolverine: The Best There Is will come off as a concentrated LD-50 of LSD or something — a beyond-bizarre Wolverine tale so excessively over-the-top it’s sublime. In single-issue doses, though, what we get are things like a cliffhanger being resolved in the space of a page, one villain being dealt with through vaguely new-age mutterings, and another projectile-vomiting into Wolverine’s face for like six straight pages before Logan beats him by rubbing the guy’s face into a naked man’s sweaty stomach. This is a very glib reading of it, of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that these things happened, and were meant to somehow resolve something.
So why read Wolverine: The Best There Is? Well, for one thing, vomiting enthusiasts, this issue’s got your number. For another, somewhat related reason: the art. Juan Jose Ryp has toiled in semi-obscurity for a decade and now he’s got his big break, drawing what is maybe the most insane story Marvel has chosen to publish since Trouble. Everyone starts somewhere, though, and Marvel would do well to hang onto this guy — he’s not to everyone’s tastes, of course, but no one is except for maybe Adam Hughes. Still, when you need something to look brutal — ugly, but good ugly — I can think of few better men in the business. Even if The Best There Is remains incomprehensible, at least it will look amazing, you know?
Still, just because it looks pretty is no reason to recommend it wholeheartedly. Wolverine: The Best There Is is a comic book so confused by its own remit that it confuses us, in turn. It’s like a dirty joke without a punchline — or like a MAX comic with all of the sex, swearing, and explicit gore edited out, but not the hints of what they wanted to accomplish. We’re left with the teasing suggestions of these things, and in the end, that’s not enough to sell it. As Mobb Deep so eloquently put it, “there ain’t no such things as halfway crooks.”
Final Verdict: 4.5 / Pass
