Review: WOLVERINE #1

Writer:  Paul Cornell
Pencils:  Ryan Stegman
Inks:  Mark Morales
Colors:  David Curiel
Letters:  VC’s Cory Petit
Cover:  Ryan Stegman & Edgar Delgado
Publisher:  Marvel Comics

In the movie The Wolverine, Logan lost his healing factor.  With comic books mirroring feature films, Marvel has decided to follow suit.  In the previous volume of Wolverine the arc “Killable” had Wolverine struggling to deal with this new status quo while having all his enemies coming after him.  The most notable being Sabretooth.

Now Wolverine has adopted a new mantra and mindset…..”The Wolverine is dead”.  Why would Logan choose to work with criminals?  Who is “The Offer”?  These questions and more were presented in this brand new number one issue for All-New Marvel NOW!.

Wolverine #1 all-new marvel now interior art
Via Comic Book Resources

What I Liked

Ryan Stegman is a BEAST!  I first became aware of Stegman when he helped launch Scarlet Spider.  Then he became a member of the creative team on Superior Spider-Man.  If you want an A-list artist to help launch a book and get fans to notice, you go to Ryan Stegman.  My favorite panels were when Wolverine was out of costume and in street clothes, grabbing a beer with Storm.

Instead of inking his own work, Mark Morales adds his unique skills over Stegman’s pencils.  This leaves Stegman free to concentrate on the overall quality of the pencils and not do two jobs at once.

The new characters created by Paul Cornell are intriguing.  “The Offer” is a new antagonist that shows promise.  He has to have something up his sleeve to convince Wolverine to work for him.  When Wolverine runs a mission with three new characters, they each have unique abilities and will hopefully remain part of the cast going forward.

What I didn’t Like

I’m going to nitpick Stegman’s art just a bit.  I may be bias towards his Superior Spider-Man work, but I still say what he did there tops his Wolverine art so far.  Part of that is the action in Superior Spider-Man suited Stegman’s talents more than Wolverine does.  Spider-Man is full of kinetic energy swinging through the sky, which lets Stegman be more creative.  I felt like the best moments of Wolverine were the characters standing around talking.

The whole “Wolverine loses his healing factor” story has been done before.  In my opinion, it was done better when Magneto ripped Logan’s adamantium from his body.  I know this is being done for a whole new audience who didn’t collect comic books back in the 90’s.  Hopefully Cornell has a riveting story planned to differentiate the older story from this new one.

Oh yeah, there’s a nice surprise at the end of the issue.  It got a raised eyebrow from me.  It could be what it appeared to be.  Definitely won’t be the first time this act was carried out.  I just have a hard time believing it will stick.

Wolverine #1 all-new marvel now cover art

Summary

Wolverine is very much a “wait-and-see” book for me.  I was never much a reader of his solo adventures; only in one of the primary X-Men books.  It will depend on how long Ryan Stegman remains as the artist.  If history repeats itself, he’ll be rotating story arcs until the big rumored surprise happens in Wolverine #12.

Rating:  3 out of 5

This review is written in partnership with Pop Culture Network.  They can be found at their website http://www.popculturenetwork.com/

#ComicBookChronicles @CBChron founder. Editor-in-Chief of @thekliqnation. Comic book reviewer, podcaster #RABBLERABBLE