Check out the weirdest noir detective story this side of Chinatown from Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, Frank Martin, and Cory Petit as Wolverine #14 goes noir!
Tony Thornley: It’s late here as I wander the internet streets, yearning to talk more about Wolverine and justice. How are you doing, Pierce?
Pierce Lightning: The only light that spills through my blinds are the headlights of each subway train that pulls into the depot behind my house. The air is stale – a mixture of two-day-old cigarette butts from an ashtray I should probably empty and the slice of pizza I left in the air fryer when I was drunk. It’s one of those nights, Tony – one of those nights that you hope a new issue of Wolverine comes across your desk. One of those nights… that you’re gonna do something about it.
Shall we?
Madripoor Nights
Tony: So once more into the breach, Logan descends on Madripoor. Now, this is a very different circumstance than the last time we visited Madripoor with Logan. Instead of a classy James Bond joint (starring Patch!), we’re getting a detective noir. Honestly, I dig it. There’s the overwrought narration, the cliched image of a morally compromised detective giving an underage petty criminal a little wink. Then, of course, there are pirates jousting on jet skis.
Wait.
We’ll get to that in a bit.
I enjoyed this issue, and the shift in tone is a big part of that. However, I think this goes back to what we said with Wolverine #13 before the Gala. It feels like the series is two different books mushed together. I don’t think I’ve disliked a single issue Kubert has drawn. Except for Cassara’s X of Swords issue, the other Wolverine issues have just fallen short.
But Wolverine #14 is a pitch-perfect detective noir. I had a LOT of fun with it.
Pierce: I’ll be honest, as soon as we dropped into Madripoor, I rolled my eyes a bit. Not only have we been here recently in this run, but consistently going back to locations with historical significance to a line or character rather than going somewhere new always feels a little bit like a cop-out.
I considered Logan probably wasn’t too happy about being in Madripoor, so I did what he would do: cracked a beer and trudged onward. Like you, Tony, I was pleasantly surprised.
Benjamin Percy doing a noir-influenced Wolverine story hits me where I live. While it’s fun to get solo books that feel wildly disconnected from what a character is doing elsewhere in a line, it’s clear that arcs like that vampire story weren’t playing to Percy’s strengths.
Tony: Oh definitely. A few people in the CXF Slack pointed out Wolverine #14 has many similarities to Percy’s Wolverine audio drama “The Long Night,” and I cannot disagree with that.
Pierce: I was just about to say that! It has many of the same hallmarks of that work. It’s nice to see Percy revisit that particular well in Wolverine #14 because it got many of us excited for him to take on the character in the first place.
Corporate Comics Strike Again
Pierce: Is this a perfect issue? Nah. But it’s fun as hell.
The interrogation scene, in particular, was one of the strongest parts of the book. I thought Percy’s framing work so well. I don’t think this type of story is surprising at this point, but there’s something to be said for just having your expectations met.
Tony: Yeah, I agree. After he meets those expectations, Percy’s able to do some fun stuff. The creepy flashback to the Russians fighting a strange attacker on the Marauder or Emma’s psychic interrogation? It’s not that they are elevating anything. It simply clicks.
It doesn’t hurt that Kubert continues doing some great work. The only thing that doesn’t work is his version of Emma. Who feels off.
Pierce: Glad it wasn’t just me that thought so. It almost felt like Chris Bachalo stood in for a couple of panels or something. It’s not the kind of work we often see from Kubert, but maybe we can chalk it up to experimentation with a different style? Especially as Percy seems to shoehorn her storyline in there a little bit. It doesn’t feel like Emma gives us any info that Sage couldn’t have given in another way.
Tony: Yeah, it feels like she’s only there so no one can say, “Hey, why isn’t this a Marauders plot?”
Pierce: Percy gives us a quick line on why it’s not precisely an X-Force story also. Writing corporate comics is definitely an obstacle course but one that Percy seems to have navigated fairly deftly here.
Yo-Ho, Yo-Ho, A Pirate’s Life For Me!
Tony: After a tip from Sage based on the witness statement, Logan heads to the high seas. I love the new locale Percy and Kubert dream up. Frank Martin on colors has also made this location drop with atmosphere.
Welcome to Truant’s Cove, the home of pirates in Marvel’s Earth-616. It’s like the entirety of Pirates of the Caribbean, except metal. Here’s giant galleons, crumbling buildings, and the ribs of a creature so massive that Atlantis is probably missing a sea monster. Honestly, I wish the team had spent half the issue exploring this place because you know it would be worth it.
And it’s here that we meet this massive, hulking pirate master of Arakko (Sevyr Blackmore) as he’s jousting with other pirates on the most radical jet skis this side of Waterworld.
Pierce: Give me an entire book about Truant’s Cove. Full stop.
I am all in on finding out what the hell is going on here, and this is where Percy’s Madripoor business paid off. He needed it to ramp up to the pirates on jet skis, and in a lot of ways, Madripoor helps ground the relative silliness at the end of this book. I hope we get a lot more here moving forward.
The fact that Wolverine #14 manages to make itself relevant to both X of Swords and the Hellfire Gala is a clever bit of writing from Percy. It helps establish this story as more meaningful to the overall menagerie of this era of X-Men.
Tony: Yeah. I wish more stories after XOS dug into just the weird mutants of Arakko going out and causing problems. I think it would have made the reveal of Planet-Size work way better, but it also adds a unique wrinkle to Reign of X in general.
Plus, if they did more of this sooner, we would have gotten a return to the character find of X of Swords earlier. We knew he would return in this issue since solicits came out, and frankly, the reveal would have been way better if we didn’t. I loved that last page. With Logan in silhouette, Blackmore reveals the culprit of the Marauder’s piracy is none other than Solem.
Pierce: Given everything going on in the X-line, I had mostly forgotten about Solem, but I was happy to see him return. The fate of Arakii mutants post-X of Swords has felt like a narrative thread waiting for pulling. Now, we start to see the fruits of that pulling.
We’ll have to wait and see if they become as important a part of the X-Men’s world as, say, the Morlocks. Overall, this is an era that keeps on giving by doing everything to avoid dropped plot points. Unfortunately, this leads me to believe that the vampire plot will become relevant again at some point, but hey, they can’t all be winners.
I am very impressed with Kubert on Wolverine #14. While some of the characters may have felt a little off-model, he leans into the angles and lighting of classic noir. Shout out to colorist Frank Martin for understanding the assignment as well. Martin has always been a colorist adept at backing up his blacks – keeping contrast and balance on the page – but the grounded nature of the story lets him live in that space.
I don’t think letterer Cory Petit was responsible for my favorite sound effects this issue, though – that looks like it’s all Kubert who seems to have some fun blending them into the art. (I’m more than happy to be wrong, though!) The best one had to be the “Tug! Tug!” when Logan pulls at the nostril of the guy he’s interrogating with the very tip of one of his claws.
Tony: I absolutely agree. The art was stellar—a massive hat-tip to Martin and how moody his colors are. I thought Petit’s letters in general landed. His dialogue and captions were pretty standard, but the SFX were great, whether Kubert or Petit.
Let’s hope August’s issue lives up to this one, eh?
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Can’t say this enough. Pirates. Jousting. On. Jet skis. It’s Mobius B Mobius’s dream come true.
- Do you think Sevyr is pronounced like “sever” or “severe”?
- It depends on how he’s feeling that day.
- What’s with Wolverine and missing noses? We know that Percy knows all about that, but I’d venture to guess that’s an era of Logan’s history that most Wolverine fans would rather not see referenced.
- I have a lot of questions about the jetskis. Were/are there jetskis on Arakko? Did Sevyr have to practice at it? Who showed him? Do the other pirates know how to jetski? Where did they GET the jetskis?
- Krakoan reads: ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Pierce Lightning is a longtime comics journalist and critic, singer for a band called Power Trash, and staving off the crushing heel of capitalism with every fiber of their comic book loving being.
