Wolverine continues "Return of the Native".

This storyline is growing on me.  It's a fairly slow-paced affair, but as usual with Greg Rucka's stories, it's all about the details.  Rucka and Darick Robertson do a wonderful version of Sabretooth - he's so much better when he's not just a psycho, but a scheming bastard to boot.  After all, he's meant to be a cat.  He ought to enjoy playing games with his prey.

The Native is still a rather underdeveloped character, which is an inevitable problem when she isn't allowed to talk.  She's still really just a distaff version of Wolverine, immediately post-Weapon X.  But then, that's not really a problem - her function in the story is to act as a mirror for Wolverine, rather than to be much of a character in her own right.  Native is really more of a plot device than a person.  Technically there's three people on the mountain, but really it's just two - Wolverine and Sabretooth.

Robertson's art is typically excellent.  His mountain landscapes are beautiful, and he's got the level of subtlety needed to carry a story which is light on dialogue.  It's all in the body language, and that's one of the things that raises Robertson above the pack.

Unfortunately, Marvel seem to be determinedly clinging to a policy that all blood has to be black.  In this comic, that's utterly absurd.  It opens with three pages of Sabretooth following what's clearly meant to be a trail of blood, but is rendered in muddy grey.  The same happens whenever anyone's wounded.  For god's sake, this is a Marvel Knights book.  It's got a PSR+ rating.  It's completely idiotic to have a comic which shows Native stabbing Sabretooth in the eye sockets, but doesn't allow him to bleed in red.  The gore level is already way up past the point where anyone in their right mind would give a toss about the blood being red.  Whoever came up with this idea needs a good slap.

Still, there are no major problems with this book, and a lot of strengths in the art and details.  It's paced on the slow side, and it'll doubtless read better in the trade paperback.  But there's plenty to enjoy.

Rating: B+

back | continue