From Hell’s Heart, I Stab At Thee: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #24

Because the Avengers and Eternals decided it was a good idea to create a whole new Celestial to stop the Eternals’ attack on the mutants, the whole world is now being judged individually to decide the fate of the Earth. If there is one person that knows they deserve judgment and is hard enough on themselves, it would be Logan/Wolverine.

In the past, I’ve been a bit tough on Wolverine, and the X Lives Of Wolverine mini which was basically a spinoff from this and X-Force, for the long-form storytelling that sees the same plotlines going and going with some resolution here or there. I’ll be eating those words with this issue because Wolverine #24 is a pretty solid example of tying into a big event while progressing a main plotline of the series.

No matter how much the character shows up since X of Swords, I’ve yet to come to like Solem as a character or concept but forcing him and Wolverine into a team-up to try and kill a god/Celestial while avoiding the forces of hell (the Hell Bride they scorned during XoS) piques my attention. Any of my concerns about the pace of things aside, the thing that will not be disputed here is that Benjamin Percy writes a darn good Logan. Just that opening with him hunting and monologuing about all the hurt that he takes and why he deserves it was just some solid Wolverine stuff.

After dabbling in some Logan action during the aforementioned X Lives of Wolverine miniseries, Federico Vicentini leaps aboard the main Logan series to handle the artwork in this issue. There is a sharpness to his work here that works well with the smooth and well-developed action sequences within this issue. A lot of the shots are very angular, with the point of view almost always tilted, which isn’t bad as it sometimes adds a cool perspective. Some very interesting paneling work going on too as the panels are not standard, allowing for a lot more flexibility in shape and scope that helps move the story along.

Frank D’Armata does some very solid and great work with the coloring here. There is a very intriguing mix of color styles here where we start with cooler types for Logan’s entrance and then some really bright vivid intense colors for Hell while the colors for Solom’s entrance feel more washed out, almost matching the tone of his white/gray skin, compared to the outside world that is shown on the same pages. Even with the tonal changes for each area or space, they all flow together and have the same heaviness and darker qualities that fit a Wolverine-centered story.

Energy is something that can always be found when Cory Petit is handling the lettering on a series, and we get that here. I truly love when a letterer uses sentence case in dialogue within a comic because it allows the tone/volume of any given conversation to become clearer. That’s because this sets what a normal tone is so that when the text gets bigger or smaller or has other emphasizers added we easily realize that now someone is yelling or whispering far easier.

Wolverine #24 is now available from Marvel.