Wolverine Annual #1 Review

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by Brian Cronin
in Comic Reviews

This issue marks Gregg Hurwitz's comic book debut, and it is a good one, as he is quite lucky to be paired with an artist as good as Marcelo Frusin, who (I believe) makes his Marvel Comics debut here, with a stunning looking comic book that has a good story, although it is unfortunately a bit familiar.

Honestly, I am a bit confused. Axel Alonso edited this year's Punisher MAX Annual as well as this comic. That book just came out last week. That book ALSO featured the Marvel debut of a writer from another medium (TV's Mike Benson). So wouldn't you think Alonso would want to avoid having each Annual have basically the SAME PLOT!?!

That is not a negative for Gregg Hurwitz, as all he can do is write a good comic book, but it is just way odd to me that both Annuals would feature a crook who spends the entire issue on the run from the star of the book, who the crook knows will kill him, with each writer choosing to make their work unique by really getting in depth with the thought process and background of the crook who is on the run and marked for death.

Hurwitz differs from Benson's story slightly, in that he features an aside where he shows how Wolverine was drawn into a bank robbery that turns deadly. How Wolverine gets drawn in is actually quite sweet, as Hurwitz shows Logan getting a touch of humanity in his life, only to have that humanity snuffed out just as quickly.

Hurwitz does a strong job giving us the story of a petty crook named J. Patrick Smitty, who has been waiting his whole life, all the while convincing/deluding himself that there is still time for him to change his ways and make his life better, which comes into direct conflict with his realization that Wolverine WILL kill him eventually.

Frusin's artwork on this issue is nothing less than stunning. He shows a brighter style than he used on Hellblazer, and a slight bit more dynamic, but still maintaining all the excellent characterization work he did on Hellblazer (and Loveless), where he can convey so much with his facial work. By the by, when I went back to an old Judging Books By Their Covers to get the image of the cover, I noticed I said "This cover does not do justice to how cool his interiors will probably look." I was so right.

This comic is a great look at Wolverine from the eyes of a crook, and it even a nice look at Wolverine's attempt to somehow find beauty in a twisted world. It is a good book. I look forward to Hurwitz' Foolkiller mini-series.

Recommended.

Posted on October 3, 2007 @ 08:01 AM

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18 Comments

yo go re

October 3, 2007 at 9:17 am

Axel Alonso edited this yearâ€™s Punisher MAX Annual as well as this comic. So wouldnâ€™t you think Alonso would want to avoid having each Annual have basically the SAME PLOT!?!

Any chance it was an intentional choice? "Let's see how these two guys do the same story differently?"

Aaron Poehler

October 3, 2007 at 9:20 am

"J. Patrick Smitty"? Come on. Is he a petty crook from the 1930s?

Brian Cronin

October 3, 2007 at 1:33 pm

Any chance it was an intentional choice? â€œLetâ€™s see how these two guys do the same story differently?â€

Thanks, yo, I did mean to bring up that possibility, so thanks for mentioning it.

That certainly is possible, but I would hope that they would mention that in the marketing, so it wouldn't come as such a surprise.

The Goddamn Skateman

October 3, 2007 at 3:43 pm

Sorry to say this but the annual sounds so silly. What does Wolverine have to do with petty crooks? A bank robbery?! Any of Marvel's street-level heroes could have been chosen for the role.

Cayman

October 3, 2007 at 3:47 pm

I look forward to Foolkiller even more than Cronin!

Brian Cronin

October 3, 2007 at 3:57 pm

Sorry to say this but the annual sounds so silly. What does Wolverine have to do with petty crooks? A bank robbery?! Any of Marvelâ€™s street-level heroes could have been chosen for the role.

The issue explains why it was Wolverine specifically to deal with it.

Brian Moranor

October 3, 2007 at 7:38 pm

Great issue. I've been looking forward to this story since it was solicited. I'm unfamiliar with both writer and artist but I think I'll be checking out some other work. While it was kinda flimsy how they got Wolverine into the story, it didn't mean that it wasn't a nice scene.

The Goddamn Skateman

October 3, 2007 at 10:43 pm

I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable in-story explanation, but I'm referring more to the writer's choice of subject matter. Well, what's good is good.

Brian Cronin

October 3, 2007 at 10:57 pm

Oh, I gotcha. Yeah, that's a fair point. I think it was probably a matter of, "Hey, Gregg, want to work on one of our most popular characters?," ya know?

Thenodrin

October 4, 2007 at 7:28 am

So, in a one-shot stand-alone story, Wolverine gets a touch of humanity, only to have it taken from him and he goes to get revenge on the person who did this?

Again?

Didn't we have a discussion a few months ago about writers rehashing the same tired story, convinced that they will be the one who does it better?

Theno

Tobias Drake

October 5, 2007 at 8:43 am

I'd like to point out that not many of Marvel's street-level heroes would have worked. Can you see Spider-Man mercilessly slaughtering this man? What about DareDevil? The idea behind this man's story is that he is on the run from a force of destruction that WILL kill him, and since most of Marvel's protagonist cast are against killing, most wouldn't work. They could use the Punisher, but as has been stated, they did. In another annual. Last week.

But I digress. The point is, it just wouldn't have worked the same if he was on the run from a vigilante that wanted to put him in jail, with no major threat to his wellbeing.

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