Rating: 3.5/5 – A worthy successor to the first series? Not yet.
Although it’s been a while, twelve years if you can believe it, I have fond memories of the first Origin series. Andy Kubert was at the top of his game and the writing by Paul Jenkins held my attention, and had me waiting each month for the next installment of Wolverine’s origin. So when this newest series was announced, although I was a bit nervous about the new creative team, especially the lack of colorist Richard Isanove who I felt really contributed to the overall look, I was excited to see where they’d go with this story and just what this new creative team would bring to Wolverine’s story.
After reading this first issue, I think I’ll need to see more to decide whether or not this series can hold up to the first. This first issue is a pretty straight forward tale written by Kieron Gillen that can stand on it’s own. This first issue has Wolverine living and hunting with a pack of wolves, tapping into his animalistic side and treating that pack of wolves as though they were his family. As they come across what looks to be a lost bear in the woods, that interaction has dire consequences for all involved. Wolverine is the only human in the book so the story lacks dialogue, relying only on Logan’s internal monologue. It’s a sad tale that seems to set up some future story points, but doesn’t add much to Wolverine’s overall origin. The writing was solid, but didn’t leave me eagerly awaiting the next issue.
As far as the art goes, a different Kubert brother (Adam this time), is on the art chores and although the art is pretty, it lacked that painted feel that the first series brought. Previous colorist Richard Isanove gave that series what I felt was a distinct and mature look. Origin II’s colorist Frank Martin does a great job, particularly towards the end of the issue, but to me it just didn’t stand out as much. Only the acetate cover really stood out for me as making this more than just another Wolverine book. I’m on board for the remainder of this series as I have faith in this creative team. But, they only have four issues left to have this book be a worthy successor to the original Origin.
Reviewed by: Shawn Hoklas – shawn@comicspectrum.com
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Bob read this last night and must agree that it was pretty mediocre….
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