Wolverine #50 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Wolverine #50
By Al Kratina
February 7, 2007 - 22:26

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Jeph Loeb
Penciller(s): Simone Bianchi ( Evolution part 1) Ed McGuinness ( Puny Little Man)
Inker(s): Simone Bianchi & Andrea Silvestri
Cover Artist(s): Simone Bianchi

Wolverine celebrates its 50th issue in style, with a new creative team, a double-sized issue, and a massive battle between Sabretooth and Wolverine. Wait, did I say “style”? Because I meant “rote familiarity”. Forgive me if I seem glib, but pushing an issue of Wolverine in which Sabretooth fights Logan is like hyping an episode of CSI because it's got a murder. You know what would be a surprise? If in any given issue, Wolverine didn't fight Sabretooth, and maybe went 20 minutes without saying 'bub' like he learned to speak by pumping diesel at a truck stop.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fly off the handle like that. It's just that new writer Jeph Loeb's first story arc promises to reveal the secret history between the two characters, and I feel like maybe he's lying right to my face. I've been through this before. We all have. Wolverine is 5 feet of fur and claws. The only thing that makes him appealing as a character is the mystery that surrounds him, which amplifies his hard edge and destabilizes his personality. That's not to say that I don't want to know his true origins and background, it's just that I'm well aware that Marvel will never tell us. I've already wasted enough time with Wolverine: Origins to decide that the regular monthly series has no interested in canceling itself by solving the mystery, and I have no illusions that this arc will reveal anything concrete about the two characters.

Too bad, because Wolverine #50 is good. The confrontation between Sabretooth and Logan is brutal, as are some of the flashback scenes that invariable form the bulk of any given Wolverine comic. The dialogue is fast-paced and snappy without being overly hip, and Wolverine's hatred for Sabretooth is really felt by the reader, communicated effectively through dialogue and first person narration. The issue is actually comprised of two stories, the first detailing the beginnings of the two characters’ battle, and the other re-telling the tale of Wolverine's first encounter with the Hulk, altered and distorted by Logan’s hazy memory. The first story is exciting, and the second is alternately an intriguing meditation on memory as it relates to comic book continuity, and Jeph Loeb passive-aggressively lashing out at Canada. The art in the first story, by Simone Bianchi, is beautiful and fluid. It almost gets to the point where it's too pretty for Wolverine, but then he gives us truly feral portrait of one of the two combatants to harden it up again. The layouts are well designed as well, with symmetrically arranged panels in the dialogue scenes contrasted with tilted, uneven panels and splash pages in the battle scenes. As for the latter story, Puny Little Man, Ed McGuinness' burly, cartoonish pencils fit the lighter tone well, and the fake dot-matrix coloring by Dave McCaig is an interesting, if familiar, technique of presenting a comic book flashback. The layouts in this story are effective as well, making good use of negative space on one of the pages. So, while Wolverine #50 is probably making a promise it can't keep, Loeb has worded the promise well, and Bianchi makes the lie look so pretty, I almost don't mind hearing it.

Rating: 7 on 10