Wolverine #13 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Renato Guedes (pencils), Jose Wilson Magalhaes (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: It always comes down to those damned ninjas.

What’s Good: In another flashback into the past of a “Wolverine victim,” Jason Aaron gives us an inside look into the Hand.  Overall, I enjoyed Aaron’s take on the ninja cult You get your honor-based suicides, your unsettling scenes of children killing each other, but most of all, Aaron adds a very, very unsettling wrinkle to the Hand with the role of its women.  I won’t spoil it, but in both dialogue and….occupation….it’s genuinely disturbing stuff and due to Aaron’s writing of it and Guedes’ unnerving illustration of these women, it may very well be the creepiest thing I’ve read in a major Marvel comic this year.

The art continues to be solid.  Renato Guedes’ action scenes are fast and fun and his illustration on the world of the Hand is appropriately dark with a hint of the grotesque.  His level of detail is rock solid as always and there’s little to complain about, particularly given that Matthew Wilson continues to find the best possible palette for Guedes’ work.

And oh yeah, we get one hell of a cliffhanger as well.  It’s really one of those endings that’ll leave you salivating for the next issue, but without feeling cheap or leaving you feeling cheated.

Wolverine #12 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Renato Guedes (pencils), Jose Wilson Magalhaes (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: The story is revealed behind another of the Red Right Hand, as is the demonic source of their power.  Meanwhile, Wolverine finds himself in a two-on-one fight to the death.

What’s Good:  Did you like Jason Aaron’s Ghost Rider?  If you did, you’re going to absolutely love this issue, because that’s the Jason Aaron we get this month, in force.

Between the insane violence, the gruesome satanic rituals, the hooded cultists, the animal parts, and the creepy possessed kids, this is Aaron heading back to the world of grindhouse horror.  That’s a very good thing, because it’s something he does very well and it’s very distinctly his own.  It makes for a Wolverine comic that’s far from the norm.  It’s creepy, gruesome, and has a grimy, over-the-top, low budget feel.

Going along with this is Aaron’s twisted humour.  The two villains we get this month are, as usual, demented in concept and brilliant and comedic in dialogue.  There’s also a gag in this issue relating to how one of the Red Right Hand’s members seeks catharsis that is…well…it’s hilarious and it feels like something Garth Ennis would come up with.  The visual image we get from this sequence is, in itself, unbelievable.

Much like the last two months, Aaron also gives us a flashback to recount the history of one of the Red Right Hand’s faithful.  Thankfully, he does deviate from the formula a bit here.  The flashback is a single prologue an isn’t spread throughout the issue, and it’s also much more contemporary.  It’s also very different insofar as what Wolverine is guilty of.  This month, Logan’s wrong is entirely accidental and unbeknownst to him.  While he’s looked like a monster over the last couple of months, here, he’s just in the wrong place at the wrong time.