Wolverine MAX #1

A little bit of Wolverine goes a long way. For the most part, he is like Creed from The Office: the more sparsely the character is used, the more powerful the effect. It doesn’t take very long for the character’s vulgar, blood-thirsty nature to become too much, and this creates a dilemma for writers of Wolverine centric series. Obviously, the readers are interested in the character if they’re buying the book, but there’s still an important threshold to be aware of. And this concern increases exponentially for Marvel’s MAX series, one geared towards mature readers, with a mature rating.

Thankfully, it appears Jason Starr (Doc Savage) knows this. Wolverine speaks infrequently, keeps his inner monologue down, and is generally very tamed in the opening issue. This is almost entirely due to the way the story unfolds, which incapacitates and derails Logan’s sense of self and many other things within the opening pages.

On the aforementioned opening pages, Starr makes good use of MAX’s extended freedoms, allowing Wolverine to ponder curse words while making his way through an incredibly frustrating situation. The cussing is natural and makes perfect sense, and if anything was too toned down for the situation. Starr employing this technique was incredibly refreshing, especially after Deadpool’s recent MAX outing, which besides being deplorable in and of itself, was inanely vulgar and seemed more focused on the fact that it was allowed to curse than anything else.

But Starr’s high points also dwindle towards his low points. Though the decision to not have Wolverine in readers’ faces, shouting, swearing and killing things was a strong one to open the series, not a whole lot actually happens, and there’s too much left to be desired when it’s all said and done.

Artistically, Roland Boschi (X-Men) and Connor Willumsen do a very good job. The biggest addition is the stylistic differences between flashbacks and what is happening in the present. The flashbacks are murkier and a bit harder to understand, where as the art that takes place in the present tense is crisp and very aesthetically pleasing.

Overall, this is a very promising #1 issue. It sets up for a second very well and does an important job of bringing readers into the series. It would make sense for them to let Wolverine out of the proverbial cage as things progress, and if done carefully, it can be a powerful way to build the character and for Starr to leave his mark on Wolverine.