Spider-Man/Wolverine is now a third of the way through its six issue run, and while the art remains pleasantly attractive, I'm distinctly sceptical about the writing.  This was the problem with the previous Matthews/Mavlian collaboration, where the book looked great but the plot was ropey at best.  Unfortunately, we seem to have the same problem here.

Last issue, you'll recall, Spider-Man was hauled in by Nick Fury to rescue Wolverine.  Fury gave a passable explanation for getting in an outsider, namely deniability.  But he didn't really explain why Spider-Man, nor does this issue really answer the point.  If anything, Spider-Man seems spectacularly unsuited for combat in remote woodlands, something that he spends much of the issue reiterating.

But the "ropey plotting" klaxon really starts wailing when, having rescued Wolverine, Spider-Man inexplicably decides to accompany him to Paris to investigate something else entirely.  This has nothing whatsoever to do with his original mission, and you might have thought that Peter would feel inclined to go back to New York what with having an actual job there.  For that matter, it beggars belief that SHIELD would parachute Peter into the middle of nowhere with no means of calling for somebody to pick him up, or even telling him where he actually was.  But the writer wants to ramble on about Peter and Logan making their way to civilisation in a comedy manner, so we're expected to turn a blind eye to all this.  No sale.

I'm not entirely sold on Matthews' grasp of Wolverine's character, either.  He seems to think he's writing the Punisher.  While Wolverine's fairly blase about deaths in the course of combat, I don't see him as being quite so keen on intentionally killing his opponents as he seems to be here.  It's not a million miles off or anything, but it feels subtly wrong.

Still, the art's quite nice, in a slightly over-rendered sort of a way.  It's easy to quibble - Mavlian has given Wolverine lots of scars to indicate how hard he is, somewhat missing the point that the character's primary power is healing.  But I do rather like the wispy, hazy look of his work.

As a story, though, this is increasingly unpromising.

Rating: C+

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