What’s In The Box? — Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #43

War is hell. Logan and Creed sure would know, having been through many as chief dealers of violence and death. Their current personal war is no different, with everyone else taking the brunt of the violence and death for them.

Part three of the Sabretooth War has begun as Wolverine #43 brings more players onto the blood-soaked board. From Victor LaValle, Benjamin Percy, Geoff Shaw, Alex Sinclair, and Cory Petit.

Sure, it’s wild to see mention of the drug that is nostalgia in a Wolverine book, featuring a character who spent most of the last few decades wrapped up in nostalgic storytelling. At least it’s being called out a bit here, so there is that.

Anyway, on to the main story.

Think of this issue as a bit of an ultra-violence palette cleanser because the violence moves back down to simpler levels. Just some minor gutting, jaws/tongues ripped off, and dead boy heads in glass cases. Wild how that is somehow a bit softer than what the previous chapters have brought.

I’m going to guess that LaValle took a bit more of a hand in this one since a good chunk of the book focuses on the Sabretooths and the Exiles. Stuff that he of course was behind building in the two Sabretooth mini-series.  Kind of a bummer that there are referenced adventures that both the Sabretooths and Exiles went through off-page, which I’m guessing might have been part of the previously announced third mini that ceased to be for this. Really hope we’re not about to see the Exiles and their little society that is working better than Krakoa be wiped out.

Then again with the era changing and so much being clearly wiped from the board, my hopes aren’t very high.

It’s a fine issue. Most of the Logan and Creed stuff is that aforementioned nostalgia stuff, pointing at their past and why Creed wants to kill Logan. He sees it as ‘saving’ the man since Logan refuses to go back to being who he was with Creed, which Creed thinks was the real/best Logan. A whole lot to unpack there.

At least there wasn’t wholesale bloody butchering of children in this issue. That’s…something, I guess.

A ten-part bi-weekly event means that no one artist can bring it to life each and every issue. Especially since there was likely very little lead time for such a project, being the nature of modern comics as a beast. The previous issue was all on Cory Smith, and this third part falls to Shaw after they shared pages in the first issue.

There is a razor-sharp roughness permeating what Shaw brings to the page. Fitting since that is what this type of story really needs to fit the brutal beyond rough tone that has been chosen. Heavy shadows are everywhere, characters feel larger than life thanks to panel choices that keep the point-of-view very close to the action. Except in the wider memory montage pages which have more room to breathe, compared to the other pages that are meant to feel confining with all the death and tension.

A bit of a muddiness sort of can be felt at times, but seemingly on purpose. Adding to that heavy nature and making some of the brutality actually a tiny bit less graphic in nature. It almost feels exaggerated with some of the proportions and beats, which work. Even the more visceral pages don’t feel as gore-porn-like as some of those in the previous issue, scaling back a tiny bit it feels like.

Just like the previous issues, Sinclair brings a bit more muted color palette to play. These are characters who are regularly surrounded by darkness and heaviness, the world is very gray and murky for them. Sinclair captures that feeling quite easily. Again, the choices for the coloring (chiefly the avoidance of crimson or dark red blood) help lessen the brutality just a bit. We feel it, but it’s not just completely overwhelming this time around.

All that is not to say there are no poppier colors at play. This is a superhero-adjacent book full of people who regularly wear flashy costumes and employ flashy powers. Those more vibrant colors stand out, even if they are also reigned in just a bit to not be completely separate from the overall tone.

A handful of characters hold the spotlight here, both in actual dialogue and through captions (mostly Logan and Creed there). Petit makes sure they are all distinct and carry the right emotional or powerful resonance. Personalities are completely felt, each of the Sabreteeth having their own thing and the various other characters feel authentic.

Three bloody chapters down, seven more to go. Can’t even imagine what other over-the-top gross things are still to come.

Wolverine #43 is now available from Marvel Comics.