Daredevil is possessed by a demon, Thor is battling through Hell and now Wolverine is down there too? What is going on over at Marvel? Why has “Hell” suddenly become their answer for everything? Even the New Avengers are battling some demonic force. It’s enough already. Wolverine #1 was supposed to re-launch a new era for Logan (aka Wolverine) after the events of the last few years. Sabretooth, Daken, Norman Osbourne, so much has happened to the man who goes ‘snikt snikt’ it was a good time to re-launch his series.
So what does Marvel do? They make the first issue incredibly boring and then reveal that the Devil has some plan to torture Wolverine in Hell and so forth and so on. Marvel tries to keep readers from rolling their eyes too badly by hiding how Wolverine got into this mess but it doesn’t work. It’s all still incredibly cliché.
The first three pages are yet another “we are what we are but we strive to be better” speech this time from Wraith who is now a pastor. Seriously, how many thousands of these conversations has Wolverine had? We get it, he’s tortured, he’s trying to be good when he’s got a bad side, move on already.
Wolverine #1 is a large bag of cheap tricks from Marvel trying to hide that this story arc is incredibly lame. When a mysterious attack hits Wraith’s church we’re forced through another “I knew I’d die but didn’t think it would be him” monologue, then there’s the big reveal, which is basically Wolverine all messed up coming to kill Wraith.
Don’t worry it’s not really Logan; it’s just his body possessed because Logan’s spirit is in Hell. That brings us to the final cliché trick where the Devil gives another well-worn speech about how his life of evil has turned boring but now he’s going to really go to town on Wolverine. This is like an amalgam of bad scenes from a B horror movie, not the re-launch of a top tier character.
The only thing saving Wolverine #1 from being a complete disaster is Jason Aaron’s writing. This is solid proof of how good he is because he manages to make the worst idea for a first issue bearable by keeping the writing lean and economical. A lesser talent would’ve had Wraith’s opening speech go on for pages or dragged out the Demon Wolverine reveal. Aaron must know this is a convoluted plot and he tries desperately to make it entertaining.
Renato Guedes brings his A game into this issue art wise and that also lessons the blow of how stupid this all is. I love how Guedes draws Wolverine in these pages. His face is etched with the hardship of his life and Guedes even manages to keep the two-pronged hairstyle from back in the day. Action wise Guedes isn’t given much but when he’s allowed to he opens up the panels really well.
I’m not giving up on Wolverine after this issue because I love the character and I love Jason Aaron’s writing. I lived through Jeph Loeb’s horrific turn on the series and weathered the butchered art in the last issue of Weapon X so I can roll with this junk. I just hope the series gets out of this arc fast and figures out what it wants to do. I also hope Marvel stops relying on Hell to give their heroes foes to battle. Try imagination, you are supposed to be the House Of Ideas right?
