By Zeb Wells, Joe Madureira & Jock (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN: 978-1-84653-557-4
Company kick-start initiative Marvel NOW! having reinvigorated the entire continuity, assorted varieties of X-stars generally began life anew and this sharp, scintillating compilation – gathering issues #6-11 of Savage Wolverine (published between August 2013 and January 2014) – captures two of the feral fury’s most savage sagas in a volume reaffirming the character’s breadth and versatility.
In the first triptych, scripted by Zeb Wells with art by Joe Madureira, the Canadian Crusader is feeling his hard-won humanity slipping away again as he languishes in guilt over all the people he’s killed.
Even fellow Avenger and naive ray of sunshine Spider-Man is unable to lift his spirits, and things take an ever darker turn when svelte and sullen assassin Elektra turns up, looking for a favour…
Ninja organisation The Hand – currently led by Wilson Fisk, the American crimelord known as The Kingpin – have stolen the corpse of former hitman Bullseye and, having been killed by the dead man before being resurrected by ninja magic herself, she is determined to stop the criminal cult from offering the same unique service to her murderer…
In need of a like-minded ally she wants Wolverine to join her in raiding Fisk’s New York fortress, leaving him unaware that Kingpin is undergoing a crisis of management and has previously reached out to Elektra…
Fisk’s grip of the Hand is not uncontested and a troublesome faction has called in the cult’s Arbiters to test the colossal Gaijin’s worthiness. A highly formalised challenge having been issued, the big boss is expecting a revived killer-corpse to come after him and has therefore resorted to recruiting former foes to his cause…
The increasingly incensed berserker mutant of yesteryear slowly resurfaces as Wolverine and Elektra wade through an army of ninjas – and the sinister supernatural forces of the Arbiters themselves – but are still too late to stop the resurrection ritual.
Tragically for Fisk and the rebel faction alike, the Arbiters have their own agenda and what comes hunting for the Kingpin is a far crueller weapon than a mere zombie assassin…
The second tale in this collection couldn’t be further from the seedy, double-dealing international crime scenario.
Written and illustrated by the ever-entertaining Jock, the untitled 3-part tale is a moodily enigmatic mystery which begins with Wolverine’s sudden and extremely painful arrival on an alien world.
The transplanted tracker has no idea how he was taken or where off Earth he is, but nonetheless brutally tackles bug-beasts and marauding monsters in his solemn, stoic struggle to stay alive.
His abductors have another surprise in store and release a small boy to hunt the mutant, but Logan soon turns the tables and befriends – or more accurately “tames†– the wild child whom he names Kouen…
The boy shares all his mutant abilities and even has retractable metal claws…
Their odyssey of survival on an unforgiving world is cut short when the mysterious technicians running the experiment try to reclaim their guinea pigs… and make the mistake of letting Wolverine find their secret lab….
They make an even bigger one when they let him see the ranked canisters – each with a small pitiful copy of Kouen in it…
With covers-and-variants by Madureira, Jock, Mike Perkins, Walt Simonson & Francesco Francavilla, Savage Wolverine: Hands on a Dead Body returns the mutant megastar to realms and milieus generally ignored in his recent mainstream appearances, and certainly lives up to its name here with this brace of fast, furious and blisteringly bombastic visceral yarns: a stirring reminder of days past and mysteries still to be resolved…
™ & © 2013 and 2014 Marvel & Subs. Licensed by Marvel Characters B.V. through Panini S.p.A. All rights reserved. A British Edition published by Panini Publishing, a division of Panini UK, Ltd.