Wolverine: Prodigal Son Volume 1 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com.

Rating “T” for “Ages 13+”

Del Rey Manga signed a deal with Marvel Entertainment to produce global manga (or OEL – original English language manga) featuring characters from the X-Men franchise.  The first book from that deal is Wolverine: Prodigal Son.  Written by Antony Johnston (Wasteland, Oni Press) and drawn by Wilson Tortosa (Battle of the Planets, Top Cow/Image), this global manga presents a Wolverine quite different from the one readers know.

Wolverine: Prodigal Son, Vol. 1 opens somewhere in the wilds of Canada at the martial arts school, Quiet Earth School for Young People.  Some years prior, Mr. Elliot, the school headmaster, found a young Logan on the school doorstep and gave the lost boy the nickname, “Wolverine,” after the animal found guarding him.  The boy remembers his name, “Logan,” but remembers nothing else about his past.  Although he forms a cantankerous friendship with Mr. Elliot’s daughter, Tamara, the teenaged Logan is bored and restless, yearning to see the whole wide world outside Quiet School.  When Logan does venture out into the world, he finds a dark conspiracy set against him, one that might reveal his past, but one certainly determined to destroy his present and perhaps, his future.

THE LOWDOWN:  Del Rey Manga and writer Antony Johnston present Wolverine: Prodigal Son as a shonen manga (comics for teenage boys), so this book is filled with the kind of frenetic energy that permeates so many shonen titles.  Johnston has fashioned a well-developed supporting cast, but his focus is on his surprisingly enjoyable take on Wolverine/Logan, whom Johnston presents as a series of dualities.

For instance, he is the loner Wolverine, who doesn’t need the school anymore, but he’s also Logan, whose body and spirit seems welded to his teachers and classmates, with whom he often spars.  Johnston best portrays this in a conversation between Logan and Mr. Elliot that takes place high in the forest trees.  In this scene, we watch Wolverine’s need to escape (which he readily expresses) and Logan’s need for the school (which he barely, grudgingly admits) at war inside him.  He is also Wolverine, the animal that will extend its claws when cornered or when Logan discovers that he is about to lose a fight and lose face.  On the other hand, the character is Logan, more human that the rest of the cast, and the one who struggles to fight for something bigger than himself and for more than just survival and victory.

Artist Wilson Tortosa blends visual styles of American and Japanese comics to create the art for Wolverine: Prodigal Son.  It is American in its attention to detail and texture and in the way Tortosa cartoons human anatomy.  On the other hand, the expressiveness of body language, the sense of constant movement, and the emphasis on emotions and psychological impression comes from Japanese comics.  This style blends the detail and realism of Jim Lee, the line of Andy Kubert, and the grittiness of Yoshinori Natsume (Togari, VIZ Media), with some John Buscema thrown into the mix.

For all that style, Tortosa’s most impressive accomplishment is the way he visualizes the character drama and suspense of Johnston’s story.  He transforms it into an explosive action comic of intense emotions, which captures both Logan/Wolverine’s internal and external battles in a superb graphic narrative.  That’s why Wolverine: Prodigal Son is a flat-out success.  Together, Johnston and Tortosa have produced a great Wolverine manga that is as good as the now-classic, 1982 Chris Claremont-Frank Miller Wolverine miniseries.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Wolverine and X-Men fans will certainly want Wolverine: Prodigal son.

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