By Zack Quaintance — As a writer, I’ve been reading Benjamin Percy’s work for some time, long before I made any sort of move to go from steady reader of comic book trade collections to an active weekly comics blogger. My first exposure to his work came in 2009 or so, when a friend recommended his debut short story collection to me, Refresh, Refresh, which features a blistering title story about the savageness of war...underscored by the deep emotional pain it inflicts upon the communities from which soldiers come. There was a vague interest in technology present as well, plus an ending story that starred a lone man on a motorcycle in the nuclear-weapon scarred Pacific Northwest, fleeing in one memorable scene from a pack of crazed (and maybe mutated?) hounds.

Looking back now — having read hundreds of additional pages of Percy’s prose writing as well as a mighty stack of his work in comics, primarily that at DC — I’m sort of awed by how much of his career interests were laid out in that one set of stories, and how you could see the writer’s strengths so clearly. I did not, however, find Percy’s interests or voice to really show through in his earliest comics work at DC. His work at DC was strong enough, particularly the early issues of both his New 52 and Rebirth runs, but there always seemed to be something stopping him from really going all in, and it gave rise to a level of disinterest that occasionally showed up in the work.

With his recent work at Marvel, however, all of that is gone. This was apparent from the first few issues of X-Factor late last year, which gave Percy a chance to be violent, funny, and also write some of this story in prose, due to the Hickman-establishing Tom Muller-design pages. That book has continued to be great, and now the second new X-Men title from Percy has arrived — Wolverine, and hoo man, is it a great fit of creator to character. Everything that he focused on in that first story collection can be directly applied to Wolverine, and in this first story it is. He’s also paired with just the best two possible artists for this project.

Wolverine #1, with its hefty $8 price tag, is essentially two (over-sized) comics, the first of which is drawn by Adam Kubert with Frank Martin colors, and Adam Kubert has been drawing Wolverine since before I was reading Wolverine comics. He has a thorough grasp of the tragic and reluctant savagery that belongs to this character, and he knows what makes this character tick. He’s also honed a number of excellent and efficient ways to depict Wolverine and his interiority, be it in action scenes that somehow read as both clear or frenzied, or in quiet moments of regret and inevitable desperation. Wolverine is a character an entire generation of comics grew up sketching (and hey, maybe they still do? I’m not so young anymore…), and it’s a major credit to Kubert that he’s still finding new and impressive ways to draw him.

The other story in this book is illustrated by Viktor Bogdanovic, who I’ve long felt destined to become a superstar artist, based on the consistently standout work he did at DC, from his work on the ill-fated New Age of Heroes to his recent fill-in issues on Aquaman. Bogdanovic is a Romita sort of artist, in that his work askews photorealism for grandiose imagery that has a uniquely comics look to it, as reductive as that sounds. His work is a bit more over-the-top than Kubert’s Wolverine pencils, which is by no means a bad thing, especially given that he’s tasked here with drawing a story that is essentially Wolverine versus Vampires. I’ll type that again — WOLVERINE VERSUS VAMPIRES. It’s good fun all the way around (and also somehow ties into some Jason Aaron Avengers issues from a few months ago, because that’s the level that Marvel is currently at with its interconnectivity). 

There were a lot of reasons I liked this comic, but the fit of the creators to the character is chief among them. There’s also an evident enthusiasm to the work in this book, as if everyone involved has been building their career toward working on this. It’s nice when that kind of excitement comes through in stories about corporate-owned superhero characters beholden to larger IP interests. Anyway, another thing I really liked about this book was there’s a lot of new material in it. There are nods to Wolverine’s past, to be sure, but the creative team is prolific in how additive it is to his mythos, giving us new supporting cast members and new threats. 

I haven’t read many solo Wolverine runs in my life, with my previous favorites being Chris Claremont’s original work with the character, as well as the early 2000s story that gave Wolverine an origin. If I were a betting man, though (and I’m most definitely not), I’d wager that of all the new Dawn of X titles, this is one that ends up being most memorable, provided it stays as strong as this debut.

Overall: About as good of a Wolverine comic as we’re liable to ever get, this issue serves up two distinct stories from a set of creators who seem like they were destined to work on this character. There’s also a surprising amount of new editions to the Wolverine mythos in these 70 pages. 9.8/10

Wolverine #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Adam Kubert & Viktor Bogdanovic
Colorist: Frank Martin & Matthew Wilson
Letterer: Cory Petit
Designer: Tom Muller
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $7.99Solicit: THE BEST IS BACK! Wolverine been through a lot. He's been a loner. He's been a killer. He's been a hero. He's been an Avenger. He's been to hell and back. Now, as the nation of Krakoa brings together all Mutantkind, he can finally be... happy? With his family all together and safe, Wolverine has everything he ever wanted... and everything to lose. Writer Benjamin Percy (X-FORCE, WOLVERINE: THE LONG NIGHT) and legendary artist Adam Kubert (X-MEN, AVENGERS) bring the best there is to his new home! PLUS: The return of OMEGA RED!

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.