Something, Something, Wakanda, I Guess: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #39

Krakoa has fallen. Wolverine’s worldwide guest star-filled revenge tour continues, as the menacing Orchis set their sights on Wakanda.

It’s time to slice and dice alongside Black Panther in Wolverine #39 from Benjamin Percy, Juan Jose Ryp, Frank D’Armata, and Cory Petit.

On the one hand, this issue is a whole lot closer to actually placing Wolverine in the middle of Fall Of X than some of the previous ones. On the other hand, this is a totally skippable lackluster issue. So, you win some and you lose some.

Look, this issue is fine. It’s not bad, it’s just mediocre. It’s pretty much just a standard fare of Wolverine fighting, slicing, and dicing through people and things, with a pretty blah guest star role. By the end, it accomplishes pretty much nothing and doesn’t do anything to help with the very uneven aimless feeling that comes with Fall Of X as a whole.

Every character, even the lead, just sort of feels like cardboard cutouts being moved around to service a plot. There is no real inherent danger or intrigue, the Orchis folks are just plain old soldiers and the Wakandan criminals just have metal teeth and such. Even the ‘drama’ between Logan and T’Challa is pretty lame. Logan, for no reason, decides to take a swipe about T’Challa losing Ororo despite apparently believing that she and every other mutant right now is dead.

Supposedly Fall Of X is months after the Hellfire Gala (the hell it is), and other mutants are openly running around. Yet, Logan believes he’s it and rather than, I dunno, do something about it, he claims to be keeping quiet while getting revenge. Sorry, bub, running around screwing up every Orchis thing you can find is pretty much the opposite of keeping quiet. If we didn’t know that the X-Office has regular meetings about stuff, I would swear that no one talked at all before deciding what to do in this event.

Sure feels like it, though.

Artistically, it’s all fine. Ryp continues to do what he does in the series, still a bit less static than when he first came on board the series. Some interesting fight scenes are showcased, though some of the facial expressions are borderline demented in a few spaces where I don’t think they were meant to be. Doesn’t help that many of the settings outside of the brief moments in Birnin T’Chaka (the ‘seedy’ city of Wakanda that Panther now calls home) are pretty bland.

I mean, they have a final fight in a rocky plain quarry.

Some of the colors are solid and pop. Others feel a bit muddy and rough, which again could be to the fact that there is only so much one can do in such bland settings. D’Armata has a smooth sort of style to the colors, and they flow pretty well for the most part. Giving some life to the surroundings and the heavy fighting nature of this issue.

A ton of the lettering comes from the very verbose Logan captions we get here. Petit does what he can with them, finding ways to make them flow and work. In some cases, there are just so many they sort of load up and make panels feel crowded. That being said, they do nail the voice and personality we expect from Logan.

Like other X-books lately, the data pages are quickly devolving again to just be pages for the writer to tell us a bunch of stuff without showing it; a glut of exposition and ways to forward the overall plot. I mean, one pages even tells us that Logan stole an Orchis ship right before literally showing us that.

Could have just shown us that fact. Really, it feels like this whole thing was just an issue to give Logan a ship. I’m just saying.

If one is a completionist with a series, then I guess this is a must-read. Otherwise, this arc is one that can easily be skipped if one wants to save a few bucks or is just waiting for the Sabretooth War storyline.

Wolverine #39 is now available from Marvel Comics.