All-New Wolverine

All-New Wolverine

Few things in comics are as instantly recognisable as Wolverine. The trademark three claw slashed X is an image engrained into the public pop culture consciousness. If you asked the average person on the street to describe Wolverine, they’ll jump between the Blue/Yellow jumpsuit and angular headpiece, or Hugh Jackman. I expect more would outline Australia’s favourite son. Which goes to show Hollywood’s impact on these long-standing characters.

That got me thinking… We are getting more accustomed to comic characters jumping into other mediums, but how many have leapt the other way? Characters that started on the small or silver screen that have morphed onto the page.

There are some notable examples:

·       Phil Coulson – I remember watching Ironman (2008) for the first time and thinking “Who’s this? Why have they invented a S.H.I.E.L.D agent when there are dozens of existing ones?” but Clark Gregg’s portrayal of the character had enough public appeal for him to get his own T.V. show.  He first appeared in Marvel comics in Battle Scars #6 (2012). 

·       H.E.R.B.I.E – This lovable member of the Fantastic Four is a real nostalgic deep cut. Back in 1978, DePatie-Freleng Enterprise and Marvel Comics came to a compromise to replace Jonny Storm with the floating robot for their cartoon, after realising the Human Torch would be too expensive to animate. He made the leap to comic form a year later, in Fantastic Four #209. 

·       X-23, Laura Kinney – The star of this review! Wolverine’s gender swapped clone first appeared in Cartoon Network’s X-Men: Evolution (2003). She was recently a key part of Logan (2017), played wonderfully by Dafne Keen. With Hugh Jackman picking the claws back up again for his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Deadpool 3, I personally hope Dafne does the same. Laura first emerged on the page in NYX #3 (2004). 

·       Harley Quinn – Batman: The Animated Series (1992) brought several new characters to Gotham, but the biggest success is Harley Quinn. She’s such a fan favourite, she’s hard to avoid. Harley as played by Margot Robbie appeared in multiple recent movies, The Suicide Squad (2021) and Suicide Squad (2016) being the high and low points respectably in my view. She will also be in the musical sequel to Joker (2019), in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024), played by Lady Ga Ga. She made her first canonical comic appearance in Batman: Harley Quinn #1 (1999).

What am I reading? All-New Wolverine, issues 1-35, 2021. Written by Tom Taylor, illustrated by Juann Cabal, David Lopez, Leonard Kirk, Ramon Rosanas, Marcio Takara and Nik Virella.

What’s it about? Wolverine is dead, long live Wolverine! Logan is in his final* resting spot, and it’s time for Laura to take up the mantel. The All-New Wolverine must face her past as a weapon and forge her future as hero, joined by her younger sister/clone Gabby (A.K.A Honey Badger) and their pet Jonathan… an actual wolverine.

As you might be able to tell by the issue count, this is the entire run of this comic. My wife bought be the hardback omnibus. 864 pages. I won’t attempt to summarise what happens in this as it spans multiple years and crosses multiple Marvel events.

*Temporary resting spot; Death of Wolverine (2014) by Charles Soule, followed by Return of Wolverine (2018) by Charles Soule.

What’s good about it? Tom Taylor gets it. To me, he really nails what a superhero comic should really be about. When he writes a hero, he fills the page with heart, humour, and humanity. When he writes a villain, they are the most hateful thing in the book. There is always a deeper meaning to his work, a social flaw or cultural wrong he wants to rectify or draw attention to. He writes a pulp romp with a message. The ideal comic formula.

On the other hand, I’m not saying his work is formulaic. This series twists and turns at a fantastic pace. Mind swaps, shrinking-down-to-go-inside-a-person, an enormous immortal dragon, pirate ships, space travel, a pandemic, a jump into the future and zombie sloths… You never know where you’re going to end up from one issue to the next.

Logan was the best there was at what he did, and what he did wasn’t very nice. He was a killing machine. Six knives strapped to an indestructible ball of rage. Forever tormented by what he’s done and what was done to him. Logan was only truly heroic when he sacrificed himself or when he mowed down armies of robots or aliens. Laura wants to be better than her father. She has suffered all the same pain, caused all the same pain, but she needs to break the cycle. She embraces this chance to be a hero for the world and to be a guiding light for Gabby.

Gabby steals this series. Often, I find characters that constantly quip exhausting, but her sunny disposition and childish patter is the perfect counterpoint to a stoic Wolverine. Unlike Deadpool (who isn’t so annoying in this), her humour is rarely cruel, just witty. I’m a big fan of heroes having pets: Superman needs Krypto, Batman benefits from Ace, even Topo, Aquaman’s Octopus has his place. But Jonathan the Wolverine is a delight every time he’s on the page.

What did I struggle with? You may have noticed I’ve not mentioned the art so far… its fine. That sounds overly dismissive, but it just looks like a modern Marvel comic. Due to Marvel’s scheduling, its common for the artists and colourists team to change throughout a long ongoing series. To avoid tonal whiplash, most of Marvel artists’ work feels similar. This similarity is… well… boring to me. I like to see either; One consistent bold art style, or a mix of contrasting art styles. I love a sharp left turn in the visuals in any medium.

I must clarify none of the art is bad. All the pages are well constructed, with great panelling and fantastic design. It’s a good-looking book. The only analogy that springs to mind is like eating a tube of Pringles™: Fun, filling, enjoyable, but imagine eating six subtly different flavoured tubes of Pringles™ in a row…

Maybe it was because I’m read this in an omnibus format. I tend to buy things in trade*, so I don’t have overly long to wait and so I can avoid stacks of floppies**. If I was reading comics as they were initially intended, consuming a variety of titles every month as they come out, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

*Normally a small selection of individual comics combined into one paperback format. Marvel tends to do these in lumps of four or five issues. DC vary a lot more on the size of their trades. Usually, trades would try to encapsulate a specific story arc, like a series of TV.

**An individual comic. They vary in length, but the standard is 20-30 pages long. Like an episode.

Would I recommend? Yes. Undoubtedly yes. This has been one of my favourite mainline Marvel titles in recent years. It’s right up there with Al Ewing’s Immortal Hulk and Chip Zdarsky’s Daredevil.