Review: ‘Predator Vs. Wolverine’ #1 Is Exactly What You’d Want
by Tony Thornley
The Predator has menaced most of the universe. This time around though, he’s facing the best there is, and what Predator Vs. Wolverine #1 does in its debut isn’t very nice… And that’s what makes it so much fun.
Benjamin Percy, Ken Lashley, Greg Land, Andrea Di Vito, Juan Fernandez, Frank D’Armata, and Cory Petit chronicle the greatest hunt of Wolverine’s long life…
Logan has only been the hunted against one opponent. Now the hunt is finally nearing its end. Before it draws to a close, learn how it began, and how the battle between Logan and a young Yautja warrior has continued throughout the years.
One of my favorite crossovers is Batman/Predator. It took both concepts, mashed them together perfectly and gave us an incredibly engaging story to go with it. That’s exactly what Percy does here, and uses Logan’s history to his advantage. This series will let Percy go nuts on genre, and that’s incredibly exciting. The bulk of the issue spent on a western manhunt, something that would have felt at home in a John Ford movie, up until the scifi twist entered the picture. It’s a hell of a lot of fun, and that’s exactly what this needed to be.
The art, unfortunately, is a bit more of a mixed bag. The opening and closing- by Lashley and Di Vito- are both great. Both build up tension, with a great sense of pacing and strong sense of motion. Land’s pages are much weaker. I try not to jump on the bandwagon knocking on the artist, but here Logan seldom looks like himself, or even the version depicted in Origin. The Predator gets weird too, with weird anatomy, awkward posing and more. He does do plenty to make the action engaging and exciting- with solid layouts and such. Still it’s disappointing to have such poor art on such a fun book.
The colors are very good though. Fernandez matches his style to the line artist, and helps bring the pages to life. D’Armata’s colors are moody throughout, fitting the period and the setting just as much as the story he’s helping tell. Petit does just enough to tell the story, keeping his work on the letters in the background without taking away from the story.
Predator Vs. Wolverine #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Overview
This is a great story. The art doesn’t always live up to it though, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth picking up by any means.
