Review: Wolverine: The Best There Is #1 By Charlie Huston

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Wolverine: The Best There Is #1

Written by Charlie Huston

Art by Juan Jose Ryp

What the **** did I just read? Seriously, what in the blue hell was that? Naked Wolverine in a dog collar being led around by guys talking about how he has mutant shit? Hillbillies putting mutants in collars and having them dog fight? This not even being important? There were more censors in this book than in a mainstream Mark Millar or Garth Ennis book, and they added nothing to the story. What’s the point of this book? What’s the draw? Why did Wolverine need a new ongoing series, and why was this guy chosen to write it? I mean, say what you will about Marvel, about milking characters, about abusing cash cows, but I mean….the last few Wolverine books have been readable. The Jason Aaron ongoing series is so far the longest I’ve last on a Wolverine solo book in years, and it’s because it’s a solid and fun book. Wolverine Origins didn’t do that for me, Dark Wolverine didn’t do that for me. Those both lacked the kind of pull that made me want more out of a title, and the recent Daken book suffered from having the most inaccessible first issue I’d seen in years. So what’s the problem here?

Well, for one, Huston hasn’t ever read Wolverine before, and I know in light of the Secret Six review that one of our staffers put up the other day that maybe I should watch my accusations, but I swear to God, if this guy has ever read Wolverine before, he needs to go back and check his source material. Here we’ve got a Logan who keeps calling a girl babe, makes American Idol jokes, goes night clubbing, and cuts womens hair with his claws. For a minute I honestly thought I was reading about the Zohan in comic book form, I was honestly convinced. This book comes across early on as ‘mature’ and ‘adult’ for the sake of it, but then again, as previously mentioned, they spend the first few pages talking about if Logan has mutant powered crap while leading him around naked wearing a dog collar. This book is for mature readers in the same way Tosh.0 is for mature audiences. I mean, if anything, this book probably could have been deemed more mature with puke jokes, because about all they pull off is bad toilet humor and a Wolverine who may or may not be looking for a job on Bravo.

Where story is concerned….there isn’t much of one. Huston is debuting a new villain in this arc, possibly even a group of them, and we get to see them but….well, about all I got is that they all have attitude issues, one has acid spit, one guy seems to be mentally handicapped and able to come back from anything, and the cannibal who can’t wait to have an endless meal. These are the villains we have given to us. These schmucks. Where’s Omega Red? Where’s Sabretooth? Where is ****ing Bloodscream? Yes, new rogues are nice, but have a damn limit for their ‘extreme’ and ‘mature’ actions or else it feels like you’re writing the uber villains from the mind of a thirteen year old boy.

This book just isn’t good. At all. It’s not even redeemable in the way that I dug Rise of Arsenal, because for as horrible as that book was, it had novelty value. It had a purpose, I mean, they dragged a character I loved through a field of excrement to get there, but the book had novelty value as an extreme fall from grace and slamming into rock bottom. This book doesn’t have that, this book is just plain bad. It’s lazily written by someone who’s version of badass and extreme would make my teenage cousins groan. This book prays to sell on the nature of Wolverine being the star, and a big Parental Advisory warning on the cover. I’d rather read Deadpool Corps than another issue of this book.

The art is probably the most redeeming part of the issue, but even then I keep getting this MAX feeling on the style, which is probably why I like it. It’s not a gorgeous book, but it does look nice. It’s not very gritty, but the violence is well captured. Wolverine for the most part looks pretty awesome, and while I hate to word it like this, the times when he doesn’t look badass? When he looks like he’s experimenting with his sexuality. There are quite a few moments in this book where Logan appears….well, as the gay friend of the girl he’s supposedly dating. Both in how he’s drawn and how he’s acting, he just….he doesn’t act like Logan. He has giant urges to go and dance, and he cuts peoples hair in a nightclub. He just doesn’t act like Wolverine for the majority of the issue, and it’s distracting that he looks like our favorite violent Canadian. And for some reason the artist decides to have everyone in the nightclub get into a giant brawl that our foreground characters just opt to not acknowledge. Ah, what the hell, who am I kidding? The art feels like a poor man imitating Steve Dillon, it’s like a fourth rate Punisher book starring Wolverine.

Who decided this book would be a good idea? Who dubbed this a story in need of being told? With the acknowledgement of Marvel that they need to cut back on auxiliary title by solo characters, and the cancellation of Thor: The Mighty Avenger, why does this book exist? Did anybody bother to read it before it came out? Did someone in publishing lose a bet? Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Huston has some long term goal that will make the book worth it come issue six. Or maybe it’s just another bad Wolverine ongoing series by another writer who thinks that cursing and decapitations make his book edgy and mature. I would rather read Crossed than another issue of this book.

I’d also like to point out that this book shipped with SIX covers. SIX. Yes, I only put five up on top, you know why? Because one of those six variant covers was blank white. Why in the hell did this book need six covers?

Overall?

1/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.