French writer/artist Richard Isanove, known mostly for his work on The Dark Tower series, takes a full swing at everyone’s favorite mutant in Savage Wolverine #14. This series is a bit different, opting to focus on random Logan (aka Wolverine) stories that stand outside the continuity of the normal Marvel Universe. Issue #14 jumps back in time. Back to the late thirties when Prohibition was the law and Logan was out breaking it.
November 1933. Ontario, Canada. Mounties riding through blustery tundra, stumble upon an old car, seemingly abandoned. In this roadster lies a barrel of hooch. Suds. The Devil’s Juice. In short, Logan is smuggling illegal alcohol through Ontario and the Mounties are having none of it. They give chase, thinking their mounted abilities might help police the lone smuggler with the extraordinary sideburns. Logan escapes, as only Logan can, and rolls back to a waiting getaway car. In the car is his longtime buddy and fellow smuggler, Elias.
Elias runs a small five and dime store with a secret bar behind it. Logan, an old friend of the family, has been mixing up and delivering a very powerful brand of hooch for his buddy. Now that he’s safe, drinking, and surrounded by Elias’s family, Logan lets his guard down, which turns out to be a bad idea. Prohibition was a rough time, especially for those without bone claws and healing ability. However, as always, when the chips are down, the Wolverine goes snikt snikt.
Isanove is penning a rarity here, a Wolverine tale that does not include him screwing Storm, running a school, or being an Avenger. Marvel was smart to launch Savage Wolverine, because it gives the faithful a place to go just to enjoy stories of Logan before he became a necessity for every series Marvel puts out. Isanove has a nice writing style, fluid, and spiked with dramatic tension. In this first part of the arc, Isanove seems to make Wolverine a little too huggable, but that could all change as the story rages on.
The artwork is interesting, and how much you enjoy will depend wholly on your excitement for fine-art style comic book work. Savage Wolverine #14 looks a bit like it’s being told through scenic, Norma Rockwell-style postcards, but, oddly, it never feels stilted or lacking in action. In this first installment, the art seems to hold up, I’m just curious if the style will prove too quaint for the heavy violence sure to follow.
I’m glad Savage Wolverine is around. It’s a superb playground that allows talented creators to give their ideas on the enigma that is Wolverine.
(4 Story, 3 Art)
