Continuing the story in Magipor, the fourth issue of 1988’s “Wolverine” keeps Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and her best friend Lindsay McCabe around as a power struggle takes place between two crime lords.
Written by Chris ClaremontCover by John Buscema
Pencilled by John Buscema
Inked by Al Williamson
Colored by Glynis Oliver
Lettered by Tom OrzechowskiWolverine fights Roughhouse and Bloodscream on the streets of Madripoor.
The opening of the comic pulls the reader in with an overweight man running away from the two super villains on the cover. Following the man’s tragic death, we see Magipor police fish out the body from the water as “Patch” inspects the body for clues. This opening reinforces what was already clearly conveyed in the previous arc; that the lack of superheroic costumes allows Claremont and Buscema to more explicitly convey the various genres associated with superhero comics such as crime and horror as we see in the opening.
Glynis Oliver also deserves some credit for capturing the atmosphere with characters in the nighttime so often being silhouetted in a dark but visible purple. This techniques creates a sense of darkness during the nighttime while maintaining a sense of visibility. The sense of mystery of course hinges on the narrative created by Claremont which is slowly parsed out from the murder in Lowtown at the beginning to the penthouse in Hightown at the end.
The two antagonists introduced at the start of the issue are by no means on par with some of the more compelling villains Marvel has created over the years. But they do a satisfactory job in presenting themselves as a physical threat to our hero and manage to distinguish themselves from one another in very clear ways.
Rudimentary as it may be, Roughhouse as the bulky, loudmouth who’s a little too forward with the ladies and Bloodsport as the slim gothic professional who speaks in a overly sophisticated manner work effectively as henchmen for a bigger bad guy that provide a challenge to Wolverine and his allies for the time being.
When it comes to noteworthy henchmen all that really matters is that they can fight in an engaging way against the hero. In this category, they both excel with Bloodsport necrotic super powers creating an impending sense of death and Roughhouse being a big tough brute that can take a punch and give one out in equal measures.
The lack of flamboyant costumes means the artwork is often deliberately plain by comic book standards but the Tyger’s dress stands out all the more with is bright yellow and black ink allowing for the entire art team to make their presence felt on her dress.
In defending the Tyger, a rising figure in the Magipor underworld, from these two hired killers allows Logan and the more traditionally heroic Jessica Drew to argue over whether or not to help the lesser of two evils.
The moral complexity of helping a crime lord who has lines she won’t cross really highlights why Wolverine is so often regarded as an anti-hero. It also adds an interesting dynamic to the two heroes and distinguishes their motivations from each other. This is an important conversation for the overall series as it provides some good worldbuilding for Magipor and helps differentiate the two heroes’ outlooks from one another, even if they come to the same conclusion.
The introduction of Karma has that nagging feeling of feeling of being out of the loop, having not read about her time as an X-Man and trying to get a sense of her relationship with Logan. This surprised me as Chris Claremont, up until this point, has been fairly good at efficiently bringing newcomers up to speed without delaying things for too long for those who already know. That being said I’m interested to see how her loyalty to her uncle, Nguyen Coy will conflict with he disapproval of his criminal dealings against the Tyger. Even if it is a little too familiar to Mariko’s conflict in the Wolverine mini-series.
