A Sense of Doubt blog post #1386 - The SWITCHEROO - Return of Wolverine, Justice League, etc.Time for me to write about comics. Given how much I love them, you would think I would manage to write about them weekly.
So, here's a thing. It's the old bait and switch. Marvel starts with one artist, an artist that fans are hungry to see work as he doesn't come out with too much and it has been a long time since he did a monthly book.
Steve McNiven is the artist and the much heralded return of the "real" Wolverine is the comic. Charles Soule is an up and coming writer, and so this broke my new rule in which I am not buying into any (or not many) limited series, preferring to read thgem in trade when they are done.
BUT I loved McNiven since Meridian for Crossgen, and then of course Civil War and Old Man Logan; AND you would think I would pay more attention to writers on comics first and foremost being a writer myself, but I don't, so Soule hit my radar as I am loving his Inhumans work in 2014 and 2015, but then really caught my eye with his run on Daredevil, which he started in December of 2015 (so basically 2016).
And so Marvel hooked me with this GREAT creative team and so overcame my waning interest in adding to my monthly pull for more limited series that may not be that earth shattering after all. But even more than writers, I follow artists, which is why I am buying Infinity Wars, which is not all that great, but, um, DEODATO is.
Anyway, the first issue looked SO DOPE, and it read well, too. I was intrigued.
Check out this interior art from issue #1 by McNiven:
I am not the only who loved this stuff.
https://www.monkeysfightingrobots.co/return-of-wolverine-1-hes-back-bub/
Monkeys Fighting Robots gave it a 4.5 out of 5.
Mysteries are something that Charles Soule is very good at crafting and unraveling. Readers will be right there along with Wolverine as he tries to navigate and piece together his surroundings and just what hell is going on.
Who are these scientists suffering around every corner? Who is this villainous devil, Persephone? Who are we supposed to trust and how does Logan fit into it all? Is that Omega Red?! There’s plenty of questions being asked and knowing that Soule is behind the wheel means the answers will most likely be satisfying ones.
Return Of Wolverine #1’s biggest hits come from the phenomenal art team. It’s great to have Wolverine back, but the way he’s depicted here is what blows the doors off of the hype-bus.
Steve McNiven and inker Jay Leisten are the MVPs of this issue. It’s not just that we get a great looking Wolverine, but we get the best Wolverine possible. He’s a bloody, shaggy, hairy mess. He’s not a handsome or slick stud superhero, he’s a rugged animal that wears his experience all over his body.
and then issue two.......McNiven is gone.
Enter Declan Shalvey. And it's not just a filler as Shalvey helms the art on issue three, also.
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Shalvey. His work with Warren Ellis and Jordie Bellaire on Injection is some of my FAVORITE comic work of the last three years.
And the covers continue to be by McNiven, which is part of the SWITCHEROO, the ol' bait and switchy.
Now, I don't know. I am not a fully tapped in rabid, Reddit-reading, Internet-trolling, massive alerts set on my phone, fingers on the pulse of the comics industry comic fan. For all I know Marvel was completely transparent that McNiven was on issue one only, and then Shalvey would take over. Or for all I know, McNiven's wife is ill or something. I don't know.
BUT this is the kind of series that Marvel should have had and probably did have in the can for a long time leading up to its release. Hell, they probably banked the "return" series while they released the "Death of Wolverine" series.
Still, despite the fact that there was no drop in quality, I feel cheated. I felt like I was promised McNiven for the entire run, and then Marvel reneged.
Check out this interior art. It's great stuff; Declan rocks, but it's not the same.
YOU DON'T READ COMICS gave issue #2 an 8/10:
https://www.youdontreadcomics.com/comics/2018/10/25/return-of-wolverine-2
The art by Declan Shalvey and Laura Martin isn’t as uneven as McNiven’s art in the last issue. The action scene is dynamic and exciting, and Martin’s bright coloring matches what one could expect from a fight under a cloudless sky on a boat. However, as good as the art is, it doesn’t have the big feel that Steve McNiven’s does. It’s more consistent, but going from McNiven’s more realistic style to Shalvey’s almost cartoonish style is a bit jarring, and doesn’t really fit the tone of this book. That might have more to do with Martin’s bright colors than Shalvey’s pencils, but the stylistic change in art in this book feels strange.
Return Of Wolverine #2 is a better comic than the first issue because it focuses on a well-drawn, well-written fight, instead of the cliche early-90s Wolverine story that Soule is laying out in the book so far. The end of the issue sets up a reunion that many fans have waited years to see, but that’s really the only thing to look forward to with this story if you’re a long time fan of Wolverine. This one still has a few of the same problems as the last issue, but it also does a few more things well.
ButMonkeys Fighting Robots gave it a 2.5 out of 5.
https://www.monkeysfightingrobots.co/return-of-wolverine-2-debuts-the-hot-claws/
Writer Charles Soule continues his epic story bringing our classic Logan back into the scheme of things with Return Of Wolverine #2. This issue really heats up in the claw department, but not there’s not much else going on.
The first issue of this series was a brutal, bloody masterpiece that turned the hype up on Logan’s return in a major way. Artist Steve McNiven checked all the boxes needed to get readers even more excited than we already were. Return Of Wolverine #2 is a different story.
A lot of the tonal shift falls on the shoulders of artist Declan Shalvey. Sometimes a brilliant artist gets put on the wrong title, that’s the case with Shalvey. He’s a spectacular comic book artist but the unpolished cartoon style we’re exposed to here just doesn’t stack up to what McNiven established in Return Of Wolverine #1.
So, that's a good way to put it. TONAL SHIFT.
Yeah, that.
HERE'S the collected round ups for all the issues:
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/return-of-wolverine/1
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/return-of-wolverine/2
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/marvel-comics/return-of-wolverine/3
Same sort of thing with DC's The Justice League.
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/justice-league-(2018)
I had dropped the book because I had too many titles that kept falling into the back log as they did not get read each month.
And then, JIM CHEUNG.
I am always going to buy a book drawn by JIM CHEUNG.
So when DC shares the cover art for the new Justice League for 2018, I was all in IMMEDIATELY, especially once I saw that Scott Snyder was helming the scripts.
Issue One was great!
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/justice-league-(2018)/1
And then, the SWITCHEROO.
As of issue two, Jorge Jimenez helms the art. And though this is definitely a tonal shift, it's also a bit of a step down in quality. Jimenez is a fine artist, but he's no CHEUNG.Both Snyder and Jimenez are replaced by Tynion and Mahnke, which is much the same in terms of two creators who are fine in their own right, but are hardly on the same level as Snyder and Cheung.
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/justice-league-(2018)/7
And then Cheung is back for issue seven the difference is remarkable.
I see Cheung is the solicited artist for #17, and so this may be the dangling carrot that keeps on the title.
Still, like the Wolverine issues, some very fine artists have had a go at the new Justice League for DC, such as Mikel Janin (#8), whose work I loved on the too short lived Grayson title. Also, Francis Manapul and Guillem March, both of whom are fine artists, but still, not in "league" (heh) with Jim Cheung.
This is an interior from issue one by Jim Cheung:
Still, the praise for this run of the Justice League has been high.
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/justice-league-(2018)
This is an interior from issue #2 by Jimenez:
The art is very good in both, but the differences are clearly visible.
I mean, come on, CHEUNG IS CHEUNG. Others are not.
And that double page spread from issue one I shared above is more amazing than the reduced image shows. DOWNLOAD it and blow it up on your machine!!
Don't make me promises and then renege comic book universe.
Here endeth the lesson.
Word.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1812.07 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1252 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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