Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine is a prime example of how great storytelling and fabulous art can make even the most cliché story into something else. ASW #3 is the halfway point in what boils down to a time travel yarn. The disrupted time stream idea is as common in comics as a character dying and coming back but writer Jason Aaron makes it his own, elevating it into something fresh and original.
ASW #3 picks up with the arrival of a Doom Planet, which is to say an entire planet that looks like Doctor Doom, and it’s here to destroy Earth. This is an Earth in ruins, a savage land following a skewed time stream where Wolverine is seen as a messiah here to stop the evil Doom Planet from destroying his people. How and why this all went down is explained in issues #1 and 2, so might I suggest you pick those up. Issue #3 focuses on Wolverine as he takes his last steps towards oblivion. Aaron has a real gift for injecting his own voice into known characters without sacrificing their core. Wolverine is very introspective and reflective but never loses that “to hell with it” attitude so central to the character.
Oblivion comes in a display of shock and awe leaving Spider-Man alone in a time he’s trying desperately to repair. Aaron shows deft ability to layer ideas here by using the action to motivate Spider-Man’s next move, which then plays into this part of Wolverine’s psyche we have never seen before. Having read Wolverine for the better part of twenty years, ASW #3 gives the freshest look into Wolverine’s feelings on death that I’ve ever read. It’s a rich, touching, and beautiful moment, sandwiched between desperation and action. Aaron ties it all together beautifully, leaving the end of the issue with both humor and intrigue.
What works here is that Aaron is allowed to play free with two of comics’ most loved characters. There’s no “real world” ties happening, nothing that has to be maintained for a long-form story arc, so Aaron can write what he wants. A lesser writer would have gone overboard or tried to change Wolverine and Spider-Man but Aaron keeps in control. He understands that if the characters stay constant the story can go anywhere. That’s great storytelling.
The biggest problem with Jason Aaron’s work thus far is he’s often paired with sub-par artists. For Punisher, the painful pencils of Steve Dillon have dogged the series and while Ron Garney did some amazing work on Wolverine: Weapon X, the final issue was given to an incompetant hack that ruined the series for me. On ASW the art is handled by Adam Kubert, which means it’s stellar all the way through. Like his fathrt Joe and brother Andy, Adam Kubert understands what each panel needs to make it work. He’s the Phil Rudd of comic book art in that he draws exactly what’s needed and you can’t imagine it done any other way.
So many artists can do one thing well but Kubert has an eye for detail, strong lines, flowing action, shadow and movement. He brings the action off the page but never let’s what he’s doing get in the way of Aaron’s story. One of the greatest examples of just how good Kubert is comes in a fold out three-page splash at the very beginning of the issue. It’s jaw dropping; an incredibly exciting piece of art. Kubert also has fun with the issue, especially on the near-fisticuffs between Spidey and Wolverine.
Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine is, thus far, one of those masterpieces of the mini-series. I hold no illusions that it could be ruined in an instant (look at what’s happened to Shadowland) but for now everything is working in total harmony. I’m hoping if the series continues with this level of excellence and finds an audience that it could become an ongoing.
