By Zack Quaintance — Wolvenheart #1 is a slick-looking comic that operates with the exact right amount of absurdity appropriate for a story about a time-travelling werewolf hunter. It’s an entertaining read, one that bounces through the ideas it needs to establish in order to pull off its world-building, doing so relatively efficiently. It’s also one of those comics that finds new narrative ground by combining past ideas, a bit like fusion cuisine at a restaurant or a mix by a DJ that specializes in mash-ups.

Wolvenheart #1 is, to put it reductively, a mash-up of roughly 18th Century mythical monster hunting (think Van Helsing, who actually appears as a character here) with a time cop story (think Time Cop, or for a more timely reference, think Legends of Tomorrow). The mash-up is pretty seamless too, although the tone of the book does seem to oscillate a bit between genres. For example, the opening is very much rooted in horror genre tropes, while the second and third act of the comic is more of a sci-fi timestream romp, albeit one with horror genre touches. It lends the proceedings a fresh feeling at parts, sowing surprises where there otherwise might not be any.

This book is pretty to look at, too. Artist Alejandro Giraldo has a clean style with his linework, one that feels kinetic in action sequences and assured during talking head scenes. The character designs make it easy to tell the difference between the different figures, even if our protagonist looks a bit like a magician cut from the Criss Angel mode. Ultimately though, it’s a great artistic space to operate in, given the mash-up of the genres and subject matters, and Giraldo handles it all well, really blowing up the action sequences and lending a great aesthetic to small details, especially the weapons that the hero wields throughout. 

Not to go into spoiler territory, but the book’s primary strength is the way it builds toward a shock at the end of the of this book, putting Wolvenheart #1 in a place where it feels like a tantalizing start to what may be an epic larger story...but we’ll need the other six parts of the tale before a determination can be made. 

Overall: Wolvenheart #1 is a rollicking, mash-up of a comic that combines old-timey monster hunting with time travel police work. It’s a slick book that builds well to a last-page cliffhanger, sure to bring readers back for more adventure. 8.0/10

Wolvenheart #1
Writer: Mark London
Artist: Alejandro Giraldo
Letterer: Miguel Angel Zapata
Publisher: Mad Cave Studios
Price: $3.99

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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.