Quipping And Snikting All The Livelong Day: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #20

Many people have debated the idea of there being such a thing as too much of a good thing, but one thing that is harder to debate is that there is indeed such a thing as too much Deadpool. A character that has often become a constant fourth-wall-breaking killing quipping machine, one has to walk a fine line with the character because the line between just enough and too much is way too thin.

Right now, the return of Wolverine’s solo series for Destiny of X is doing a precarious tight rope walk on that thin line.

Because of the recent X Lives Of Wolverine/X Deaths Of Wolverine sibling series, there really wasn’t a gap for Logan (and members of X-Force) or their writer Ben Percy as there was for all the rest of the X-Line following the end of Inferno at the start of the year. While some books, new and old, are diving into new stories with this Destiny of X era, Wolverine is picking back up storylines that were explored and started before the momentary break.

One’s mileage will vary with this book because not only is it very Deadpool heavy, but it’s also very much a very Logan type of book. It even starts off with Wade’s narration going on about how much of a lone wolf but ultimate team player and guy who always is there to save everything type of person Logan has been turned into decades ago.

Despite having a ton of series to his name in the last decade or two, Deadpool is a character that is hard to nail and far too often leans into the too much category as discussed above. Most times he appears and many of his series relied too much on the quipping fourth-wall-breaking bloody action, while the most recent run to be seemingly overwhelmingly liked and ran the longest dove very deeply into who he is as a person and his emotions. Percy hits the quippy notes right, even slinging some fire at the X-Fans on Twitter through Wade, but it starts to very much lean towards that “okay this is a bit much” area without falling in just yet.

Also, for a twenty-page issue, it feels like not much actually happened by the end other than the return to a previous plot and moving forward with the CIA plot and a cliffhanger that was spoiled months ago if one reads any interviews or catches promo material. It takes ten pages to get to the actual plot with the CIA, as the first pages are showcasing Logan saving the day and Deadpool’s increasingly wild and failing attempts to get on Krakoa.

Adam Kubert continues to prove that stories featuring Wolverine are right in his wheelhouse, as the issue looks fantastic. The stuff that he does in the intro with the panels, all the closeups and guiding shots, and intriguing borders are so darn good. Such depth and detail to be found within all the panels, especially so in the really wide full pages shots.

Definitely helped by the solid color work of Frank Martin for those first intro pages and then from Dijjo Lima for the rest of the Krakoa/CIA story pages. Both sets of colors bring the bright moments solidly with a lot of weight to them, with a heavily shadowed filter that does this really interesting sort of splotchy bit of shadows that pop up across many panels (the best way I could describe it).

Cory Petit delivers on letters, as usual, giving all of Wade’s bubbles that Wade Wilson feeling to them and nailing the tone/volume as usual. I bring it up in so many reviews, but truly when letterers do that little thing of changing font size or style for raising or lowering the ‘volume’ of dialogue it’s so appreciated. It makes it feel real and tells us how the words are being spoken rather than us having to guess or assume.

Wolverine #20 is now available from Marvel Comics.