After last month's fill-in issue, Wolverine gets back down to business with the arrival of new creative team Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi.  The operative word, by the way, is "new" rather than "permanent."  The last word was that Loeb and Bianchi were committed through to the end of this arc, with issue #55.

Bianchi is an Italian artist, and this is his first work for Marvel, following a couple of relatively high-profile assignments at DC, most notably the Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight miniseries.  It's obvious why the American publishers have snapped him up; it's beautiful work.  He has the dynamic action sequences, a strong sense of narrative, and a distinctive sense of grace.

Now, that's not to say it's perfect.  There are a couple of moments that look a little bit too polished, somewhat in the manner of Greg Land.  And there are a couple of curious storytelling devices that look a little bit out of place in a modern superhero comic.  Not many artists still use trails of translucent shadow figures to symbolise acrobatic sequences, and dusting off the technique for Wolverine seems a little off, because he's just not that sort of character.

But that's nitpicking.  Bianchi has made the most of what the script gives him, and the results are pretty much great.

Then there's the writing.  Jeph Loeb has carved out a niche as one of the top writers of mainstream superhero books, and nobody would deny that he knows how to entertain a crowd.  He's certainly a solid professional who knows his stuff.  But there's something about his writing that's never really connected with me.  And it's mainly because of stories like this, where he seems to be taking the safest, most commercial approach rather than bringing anything new to the table.

So, once again, we're back to Wolverine fighting Sabretooth.  I can't really criticise that as a concept.  For one thing, it's been a while since Sabretooth was used in this book.  For another, he's recently been added to the cast of X-Men, so somebody had to deal with Wolverine's reaction to that.  This book is as good a place as any.

But it's done in a terribly perfunctory manner.  The pairing may make sense, but it's also well-trodden territory, and it needs a writer to find a fresh angle.  What do we get here?  Wolverine walks into the room where Sabretooth is watching TV, starts a fight with him, and they continue fighting for the rest of the issue (subject to a flashback near the end).  That's barely even an angle at all, let alone a fresh one.  Loeb's attempt to jazz it up boils down to a few implausible lines of dialogue, where Wolverine and Sabretooth discuss Latin maxims.

To be fair, according to Loeb's interviews, the plan here is to do the definitive Wolverine/Sabretooth story that defines their relationship once and for all.  I question the wisdom of doing stories about the past in Wolverine when there's already an entire monthly title, Wolverine: Origins, doing the same thing.  But fine, maybe Loeb does have a fresh angle.  The thing is, there's no sign of it here.  On the strength of this first issue, it's just a generic Wolverine/Sabretooth fight that we've seen many, many times before.

Oh, and there's also a bizarre back-up strip which seems to think it's making some sort of amusing meta-point about the way Wolverine's character has changed from his debut in Incredible Hulk through to the absurd extremism of Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk, but just ends up seeming gimmicky.

I've read an awful lot worse than this, but at the end of the day, this issue sees a brilliant artist pouring his best efforts into a decidedly uninspired story.

Rating: B-

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