The second issue, confident that the first sufficiently hooked you in and set the stakes, strides from one gorgeous action sequence to the next with style and grace from the entire art team that is firing on all cylinders.
Written by Chris ClaremontCover by Frank Miller
Penciled by Frank Miller
Inked by Joe Rubinstein
Colored by Glynis Wein
Lettered by Tom OrzechowskiWolverine’s in Japan on a mission of the heart, if he can survive the Hand first! Plus: everyone’s favorite riotous ronin, Yukio!
Claremont’s pulpy tone carries on from the first issue but is far more welcome and put to better use as it provides context to the fights and makes the reader savour each page as they devote more time to it rather than glazing over them. The text itself reinforces the fact that Wolverine is as tactical as he is vicious, despite that viciousness only being on display in the art itself. What strikes me about the writing is how Claremont manages to convey the harsh curt dialect of Logan while showing an intelligent thoughtful man behind the gruff, violent exterior.
After losing a fight in the first issue, the second one seems to be making a serious effort to prove what a formidable warrior Wolverine is. In introducing the Hand, a clan of Ninjas, they are trying to have their cake and eat it by having Wolverine fight ten off at once while insisting they are in fact a formidable threat. This just about works, mostly thanks to Miller drawing the Hand in fighting positions that make them appear competent while Wolverine tells us how good they are even if he’s “the best.”
This balancing act is also helped by the rest of the art team making the henchmen really stand out. The inking and coloring of the Hand’s robes is stellar and the action sequence near the end is equally as visually interesting. In action scenes, there are times where either Wolverine or the background behind him is presented in an unrealistic color that adds a lot to the artwork itself. It isn’t entirely clear what the intention was behind this decision but it manages to always complement the coloring around it.
All of these positive qualities are particularly pronounced in a double splash page after the first page that highlights a great deal of what I mentioned above. It’s one of those Frank Miller pages that, as a younger fan, you’ve seen before out of context and understand why it is so iconic in the context of the comic itself.
In the last review, I mentioned that Wolverine’s love interest being the inciting incident could end up festering into a serious flaw if she is dropped to the side in subsequent issues once Wolverine was where he needed to be. This thankfully didn’t happen, as she is featured in the second issue, once more in a peripheral sense, but there none the less. It does strike me as odd that the crux of the entire story revolves around a romantic subplot when romance is the last thing I would associate with the appeal of the miniseries but it does, somehow, manage to work.
Despite the first person narration throughout, the reader is afforded an omniscient perspective and knows more than our main protagonist does. This reduces the noir detective feel of the previous issue and makes it more akin to an espionage film with exotic locales and various moving parts being explored beyond the main character. That being said, the physical threat of the forces working against Logan are severely lacking by the end of the issue with the threat instead manifesting from the sense that Wolverine may be outsmarted if he is not careful.
Overall, this issue builds strongly on the foundation of the previous issue. Behind all the aesthetic artwork, there is a sense that Claremont is progressing the story forward enough to keep you wanting more but seems more intent on highlighting what Miller does best: action.
