A Safe If Unexciting Debut: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #1

Wolves run through a snowy tableau. A man runs along with them. They are being hunted. The opening to Wolverine #1 is like many other Wolverine stories. In that, it is an apt beginning. For better or worse, much of this issue reads like the platonic ideal of a Wolverine comic. In that, it delivers exactly what it says on the tin. But it also goes no further. 

Like so many other “From the Ashes” comics, this debut takes place some unstated amount of time after the end of Krakoa and the fight against Orchis. As has happened before, Wolverine has decided he’s done with the constraints, sacrifices, and frustrations of civilization, and has retreated to a wolf pack in the Canadian wilderness (please note here that wolves and wolverines are different animals despite the shared letters in their names). From there, the comics runs down a checklist of familiar tropes.

An old enemy who tormented Wolverine in his youth? Check (here, it’s Cyber, the Peter David-created heavy with adamantium skin who debuted in Marvel Comics Presents back in the 1990s). A friendly member of the X-Men popping in to remind Wolverine of his connections? Check (Nightcrawler). Wolverine reluctantly springing into action despite “having given all that up” to save some bystanders threatened by the villain? Check. Berserker rage? Check. Being forced to let the villain go to save his friend? Check. 

It’s certainly not the worst thing to kickoff a new series — especially one starring one of the most popular and backable characters in all of comics — by playing the hits. And to the issue’s credit, the art from Martín Cóccolo is top-notch. Taking advantage of the increased page count, he relies heavily on medium-focus panels that makes the action feel large — because everything in each panel is bursting at the borders.

Kudos go to colorist Bryan Valenza as well. Despite the relatively bland palette of the setting — a wilderness setting where everything that isn’t snow is covered in snow — the art still pops. Even before Wolverine (reluctantly, of course) dons his brightly colored superhero attire before springing into action, Valenza is able to keep the action from blending into a visual blur by making subtle distinctions between the various cool blues and whites of the setting.

At the same time, there’s something disappointing in how safe Wolverine #1 is (it also doesn’t help that Cyber, who is basically a poor man’s Sabretooth, isn’t the most compelling or unique of villains). Given the baked-in sales success of a Wolverine series, this should be the place to try something new rather than rehash the old. Yet it’s hard not to argue with the logic of giving fans exactly what they want, and there’s no denying this checks the expected boxes. It’s also rarely a good idea to critique a story for being something it’s not. But hopefully the familiarity of the beats in this story will give the series the room to stretch a bit going forward.