Let The Wrong One In: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #42

Most folks buy someone a card or trinket for their birthdays. Not Sabretooth. No, that guy brings gift-wrapped death. It’s bloody, unrelenting, and can’t be returned for store credit.

Bodies continue to stack up as the Sabretooth War continues in the gore-fest that is Wolverine #42. A bloody affair from Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, Alex Sinclair, and Cory Petit.

The spirit of Marvel MAX lives on in an issue full of more gore and death than much else, with threads of character substance stuck between its teeth.

I mean shit, Sabretooth pops the head off of a child and then rips the guts right out of another. Both are in just laser-focused close-up style panels. This is a comic that made me want to sigh, throw up, and nod my head all at the same time. It’s a story that would make some of the previous ‘adult’ versions of Logan’s stories blush or run for the hills.

I’m torn. As a bloody war between Wolverine and Sabretooth, it delivers. Sabretooth promised to bring the pain when thrown into the pit, and with Orchis having denied him revenge on Xavier & company, he’ll make the last of mutant kind and those around Logan suffer. These two foes and their bloody history mean that anything less than pure carnage would not fit their dynamic.

Yet, this feels too gross and too much at the same time. It could be the fact that this is happening as mutants are dealing with another human-led genocide. As the world outside the books is full of horrific things, watching a madman gut children on the pages of a comic book just doesn’t feel right. Angry white man gathers all his angry white buddies so that they can attack and kill a large group of marginalized people, cuts a little too deep.

Look, as I said, this is what comes of a Sabes/Wolverine story. Yet, now just really wasn’t the time for this particular version of that story maybe.

I also can’t help but think that this story in conjunction with most others in the X-Line right now has very Decimation-esque clearing-the-board vibes. Killing tons of mutants when resurrection as they know it currently is off the board (likely forever with the editorial/era change coming). Almost like it’ll be nice and pared down again for the new regime to go back to classics.

There are less clear delineations between LaValle’s and Percy’s writing this issue since it’s all just one fight and bloodbath. I would wager that they are still roughly handling scenes featuring their respective “charges,” so to speak, but it’s harder to tell.

While there are two writers still, the artist side shrinks this time as it’s all on Smith for the art and Junior for the inks.

A lot of heaviness persists, fitting for the nature of the story, paired with the detailed but slightly rough stylings of Smith. This style also comes with a bit of lightness which seems contrasting when depicting some of the brutality of this issue & Junior’s heavy inks, but it somehow works. Even if the visuals leave my stomach churning just thinking about them. Solid panel choices allow the viewer a front-row seat to the horrors, employing solid close-ups and misdirection, letting the action flow smoothly in a firmer realistic way.

With most of the action moving inside there is more for Sinclair to do with the colors away from the snowy backdrops. Similar to how the Krakoa stuff was handled last issue, there is a vibrant lighter tone to the color palette used for the inside of the Greenhouse, with plenty of shadows/darker colors stalking through the pages. Again, it adds a lighter tone to contrast the darkness of everything happening.

Some of the colors though are of a muted quality, keeping them grounded, but also minimizing a bit of the gore. Since the blood is a lesser tone, instead of the sickly bright crimson one might expect. Still horrific things on the page but it’s not quite slaughterhouse gore fest style 100%. More like 97 or 98 percent, so there is that I guess.

Plenty is said and characters have a lot on their minds, with Petit bringing the energy and heat. Words are delivered with impact, character voices sound authentic and solid on the page. Even with most of them still being standard bubbles with standard font, it’s not hard to hear a difference in the voices of the characters. Even the wide swath of Sabreteeth upon the page.

Let’s see how sick to my stomach the rest of this ten-part storyline makes me.

Wolverine #42 is now available from Marvel Comics.