Marvel Universe vs Wolverine 1

A title like that, I thought this would just be some fairly lightweight all-action adventure. Then again, I suppose Mark Millar’s tremendous Wolverine: Enemy of the State more or less fulfilled this title as well, and was entirely serious. One note is that this has to be a What If alternate world story (not that it states that), since a few heroes have already been finished off in this first of four issues, and I bet there will be lots more.

So what we actually have is people’s DNA being changed, making them into predatory cannibals – the first victim we see is Spider-Man, who kills and eats the Rhino. Top scientists investigate – Reed Richards, Henry Pym, Hank McCoy, T’challa, plus Dr Strange just in case – but with no success, and more and more people are affected, mostly not superbeings. Eventually Wolverine comes to the conclusion that all that can be done is to kill them, and we see him massacring some X-Men. Presumably the plague spreads more and more, and Wolverine is resistant, perhaps because of his healing ability, and there will be lots of battles: the ultimate motivation of a comic like this is surely another chance to see Wolverine killing lots of superheroes, though how he’ll deal with for instance Thor (one of several big guns on the cover but not inside), I have no idea.

It’s all written with real intensity. Maberry has a good ear for dialogue and thought, and excellent judgement of what to say and what doesn’t need saying, keeping it appropriately terse for Wolverine but still carrying lots of emotional charge, and without resort to the usually cliched way Wolverine thinks. This is quality scripting, with genuine force.

I like the art enormously too. Campbell seems to be one of those rare artists who can catch the virtues of a pretty photorealist style without the drawbacks. He handles light and shade superbly, cuts down on detail in all the right places, gives strong expressions, makes action dynamic, times and lays out everything very well and gives us a bunch of really strongly composed panels. He also inks with both fluid precision and rough edges where appropriate – his judgement of every aspect of this comic is exemplary. Laurence Campbell is entirely new to me, and I think he’s one of the best new artists I’ve come across in the mainstream in recent years, perhaps up there with someone like David Finch, foolish as that is to state based on one comic.

I should also mention the colouring here – Campbell leaves plenty for Lee Loughridge, space and opportunity, and Loughridge makes the absolute most of it, again selecting well between realism and atmosphere, and adding considerably to a lot of scenes.

So while I expected something rather more simpleminded, even silly, I’m delighted I was wrong – this is a really strong comic on every level. It also gives us Wolverine alone fighting and killing superheroes, so I am sure it won’t disappoint readers who just rolled up for that kind of thing.