Broken Frontier

Wolverine is the best at what he does. Seems like people are catching on, cause someone wants a whole army just like him.

This comic moves at a brisk pace. Start in Colombia where shadowy people with claws are taking out resistance to some spooky corporate power. Fade to San Francisco where Wolverine helps out a reporter on a subway car before meeting up with Maverick. The other product of Weapon X has intel on said corporate entity. It all finishes up on the storied border of the United States and Canada, this time in the Washington proximity.

The pace is meant to emulate the kind of globe hopping exposition of the modern action film. You get intrigue and action out the gate and fill in the blanks later. This is an effective means for starting a visual story and while a few too many blanks may be left at the end of this issue, it is a good enough introduction. Especially given the timing, thematics, plot line, and, of course, the minute detail changes to the mythology of Logan contained within this book. Much like last year’s Invincible Iron Man #1, this book is meant to cash in on the X-Men Origins: Wolverine due in theaters in a few weeks. Hopefully a few movie goers will happen across a comic store and pick this up.

That’s the idea anyhow. Problem is, Marvel hasn’t quite figured out how to make the general public aware of their bread and butter product yet. There are no pictures of the cover of this book on the ubiquitous posters for the movie in theaters across the country. No blurbs about picking up the new Wolverine book in trailers or tv spots. No comic shop locator ads attached to the movies or even worse, the DVDs. As far as the general public is concerned, comics are dead and Marvel treats them like an ancillary product to the bigger profit of the Hollywood spectacle.

It’s a shame too, because what this book does well is capture the Weapon X mythos in short order. It is a serviceable jumping on point, assisted by Handbook files in the back (and the recently released Wolverine Saga) for the more curious reader.

However, for the more entrenched comic fan, it is far from a must read. There is very little substance here. The meat of Wolverine character is all shown in a cutesy scene surrounded by typical Wolverine mystique. It is by all means a solid comic, but when it is the fourth entry in one character’s stable of ongoing titles, it really needs to up the game. Otherwise, it is just more dilution of the market. And that is something that you would think companies would be trying to avoid in this economy.

Garney’s art is nice here. The layouts are dynamic and the action, the little there is, easy to follow. It is definitely a superior display of skill to the inkless art of Skaar Son of Hulk. Funny how that one little step refines and clarifies comic art. Here, the artist shows why he is an esteemed artist with a twenty year career behind him.

This is not Jason Aaron’s best work, you want to see Scalped, or even Ghost Rider, to see what the writer is capable of. In fact, those works make the promise of this book overcome the lacking of this premiere issue. There is no doubt that he will take the reader on a great journey, it just feels like this first issue should have a little more meat to it. A little more action. A little more story. Or heck, one or two more people fainting from blood loss from tangling with the old Canuck.