Middle Of The Pack — Reviewing ‘Wolverine: Blood Hunt’ #2

Take Wolverine, some vampires, and bake at 400 degrees for twenty minutes. Normally, a recipe for a decent simple meal. Unless something in the ingredients spoiled or wasn’t quite right.

That’s how you end up with something like Wolverine: Blood Hunt #2. A culinary mishmash from Tom Waltz, Juan José Ryp, Guru-eFX, and Cory Petit.

Marvel Comics publishes so many Wolverine related stories, the bar any book has to step over is not really that high. Yet, every so often there is a series that finds a way to tunnel under the bar, or at least trip over it. This series is not the tunnel situation, but one that definitely trips and cartoonishly stumbles over the bar on their way to a potential pratfall.

Look, when the book has to spend the first few pages (a fight scene at that) dropping caption box after caption box to explain every character and beat, it’s not great. This is Waltz’s first foray into the Marvel sphere, but the likelihood that anyone picking up a random Wolverine event tie-in book is new to the character or company is slim. We’re talking about a corner of the industry very much focused on courting the same aging dwindling fanbase with as much nostalgia as possible.

What’s on the page is fine. Nothing special, nothing different, and really nothing fun. Just a bunch of posturing, conversations about why Wolverine is so important, very little connection the actual event, oh and Logan being oh so talkative. I’m not for a Logan that just grunts and all that jazz, but holy crap is the Logan we’ve gotten in recent books just an exposition vomit machine. Both verbally and through captions, just pouring words out like a broken faucet.

Ryp’s artwork is a type that I mention many times, not exactly something that appeals to me. Very glossy and smooth, often a bit static in development, and feels somewhat off for a Logan series for some reason. Like it’s not bad by any means, but just really fits the overall vibe of the book: just fine. I will say it’s less static than when he first picked up drawing Logan stories midway through the recently concluded Krakoan era Wolverine series.

Being a darker tone book the color palate from Guru-eFX is very gloomy and shadowy. Going for more toned-down beats alongside the new everlasting night from the Darkforce shell. Even the costumes of the characters are more low-key, nothing really vibrant or eye-popping. Which fits since that isn’t really what you expect with most Logan stuff, outside of his normal flashy yellow and blue costume which isn’t present here.

Did I mention that Logan has a ton of things to say? Pretty sure I did somewhere in my own sea of words, because I too have a lot to say. My words though don’t have all the little visual highlights that come from Petit’s handiwork. Even as the captions are pouring around us, they aren’t becoming overwhelming or messing up the page status. Various flairs and additions bring more emotion and kick to the words, letting the volume and tone remain perfectly clear.

Wolverine: Blood Hunt #2 is now available from Marvel Comics.