Wolverine: Origins #9

December 26, 2006

Quick Rating: Meh
Title: Savior Part Four
Rating: Parental Advisory

Seeking the Carbonadium Synthesizer, Wolverine remembers his past with the Black Widow.

Writer: Daniel Way
Art: Steve Dillon
Colors: Dan Kemp
Letters: Randy Gentile
Editor: Axel Alonso
Cover Art: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Marvel

So let’s recap here – Wolverine has found out about some son he never knew he had who is currently being mind controlled by some obscure evil people. Omega Red, meanwhile, is dying, so he’s kidnapped Jubilee because somehow this will help him get his hands on a device that the Black Widow has. Wolverine wants the device too, because it can synthesize the mysterious element that can negate his son’s healing factor without killing him, the same element that’s killing Omega Red – Kryptoni… um… “Carbonadium.” Wolverine stops during all this, of course, to remember a time he trained the little girl who would grow up to become the Black Widow.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

There only seem to be two purposes behind this series: show Wolverine in his brown and orange costume that everybody likes so much and work in as many continuity shoehorns as possible. The problem is, all of these continuity implants are only serving to make even more confusing a character whose past is responsible for half of the Tylenol purchased by Marvel readers annually, most of it pretty much out of the blue.

Elevating a frustrating storyline is Steve Dillon’s artwork, which is always good. Dillon’s strengths lie in characterization and storytelling. The only caveat, unfortunately, is that (Punisher notwithstanding), Dillon’s style isn’t particularly effective on a straight-up superhero story, so that brown costume that is in fact half the reason for this title’s existence doesn’t actually look that good.

This whole book feels superfluous to me.

Rating:5/10

X-Men (2010 Series) #2

August 27, 2010

Title: Curse of the Mutants Part Two

Writer: Victor Gishler
Penciler: Paco Medina
Inker: Juan Vlasco
Colorist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover: Adi Granov
Associate Editor: Daniel Ketchum
Executive Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Last issue, the vampires set off a bomb in San Francisco that’s turning people – including former X-Man Jubilee, into vampires. As Wolverine and Colossus set out to find none other than Dracula himself, they find an ally in the Marvel Universe’s most accomplished vampire slayer – Blade.

This is the title that’s supposed to mix in the X-Men with the rest of the Marvel Universe, and so far Victor Gishler is pulling that off with aplomb. Blade’s participation in this issue feels very natural and unforced, and just the fact that the vampire legions are the Big Bad here takes this storyline quite a distance outside of the X-Men’s usual wheelhouse. Gishler also seems to be doing a bit of a Dracula homage, substituting Jubilee for Lucy Westenra (which will probably upset some readers, considering how Lucy’s personal story arc ended up). “X-Men versus Vampires,” just as a concept, sounds kind of hokey, but Gishler is pulling it off.

Paco Medina is working pretty well as the artist here. His style is a perfect fit for the X-Men characters, and although the pages wouldn’t necessarily stand up as a horror comic like you’d usually find the vamps in, he’s still doing a solid job with them. Adi Granov gives us a nice cover of Blade versus – well… blades. It’s a nice piece of art, but it is fairly generic, which is my only complaint about it. I’m liking what Gishler and company are doing here.

Rating: 7/10