Excited With A Swirl Of Disappointment: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ Vol 6

Once upon a time, basically the early 2000’s, Marvel Comics had Wolverine appearing in a good portion of their publications. One couldn’t shake a clawed fist without stumbling across the best there is at what he does. Some books even make the joke that it made no sense that he could be on like six X-Men teams at exactly the same time.

In his supposed drive to protect Krakoa, by any means necessary, Beast has taken that idea and turned the dial up way past eleven at this point.

Even as Krakoa is falling in real-time, one of the longest tenured books of the era keeps chugging along as Wolverine By Benjamin Percy Vol 6 arrives. The volume collects issues 31-35 of the series from Benjamin Percy, Juan José Ryp, Frank D’Armata, and Cory Petit.

Truth be told, this is a hard series to review at times. Often stories are compared to roller coasters, with highs and lows, and this might be one of the most rollercoaster-y books to be on stands right now. When it’s high, you better believe it’s soaring. With the lows though, it’s another story. Those lows are not so low that the book is bad.

No, it’s even worse than that. Ever get the whole “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” style lecture from someone you admired or cared about? Imagine that feeling but aim it at a comic book series featuring one of the biggest characters of a line. Yes, Logan, I’m not mad at parts of your series, I’m just really disappointed.

Beast has been doing war criminal stuff for far too many years, getting even worse since Krakoa began. A Logan versus Beast situation was inevitable since the first issue of the current X-Force series began in 2019. Waving plotlines across that book and this one, Percy finally reached the point of no-return for the duo. In the previous arc/volume, Beast brainwashed and used Logan as a weapon and that blew up in his stupid furry face.

Here we get the next bit of that as Beast goes rogue to “protect Krakoa, by any means necessary” by creating his own council of Beast clones and mindless Wolverine clones as weapons. And overall, it’s fine.

I think Percy is a fine writer and does Logan great justice. Some of the plotlines have been very cliché to Logan but that tends to happen tons with the character. Unfortunately, one of the weaknesses in his longer-form stuff is dragging out plotlines and beats for far too long. To the point where it feels more of a chore than a joy to get through them.

At first, the arc is able to make like this is fun stuff. We got giant plant skull robots, Wolverine clones used as assassins at Beast’s whim, Beast clones kept under the thumb of Beast Prime, some Maverick shenanigans and the freaking plant skull robot used Wolverine clones as claws to take down a submarine. This is some damn fun and brutal comics right here.

From there it’s just circle talk, plotlines being left dangling once again, and nothing much comes of the whole affair. Beast slinks off to be dealt with…no idea when or where. The line is running out of time, quite literally, as the end of the era is just a handful of months away.

Artistically, the work of Ryp has grown on me, but truth be told, it still feels wrong for this book. There are some scenes where it’s dynamic and pops and works, and then in others, it goes back to feeling relatively static. I think the overall glossiness doesn’t do it many favors, but the moments where it’s working are pretty darn good. Those moments include some of the fun comic moments mentioned above.

All that shininess is also present in the colors that come from D’Armata but they also have a good depth and weight to them. As Ryp’s artwork has settled into the tone of this book so too have D’Armata’s colors. There are a lot of lighter colors and tones on display mixed with the darker ones that really carry the action and moments, as this is a very dark book at its core. A lot of brutal things happen but together they make sure that while we feel the brutality and the outcome it doesn’t move into a gore-porn sort of level.

Petit has plenty to bring to the pages as anything with Beast means plenty of dialogue or captions because boy does that furry boy like to monologue, even to himself. Using sentence case brings stability to things and creates that unifying sort of normal/neutral tone that can be built off of to create changes in tone, volume, etc… whenever it is needed. Little flairs of personality are dotted through each character’s words, giving them flavor and feeling.

Overall, it’s kind of a shame in a way that the two longest tenured books of the line ultimately were more spectacle than bite. As much as I love the Krakoan era, this kind of describes the line at the end of the day. Lots of bold ideas, some great execution, tons of unexplored potential, and at the end of the day a lot will be forgotten.

For all its ups and downs, I’m not sure this series will be fully remembered in time. Bits and pieces perhaps, but it’s so tied to one era and way of being, it’s sure to be lost in the sands of time.

Wolverine By Benjamin Percy Vol 6 is now available from Marvel Comics.