Review: Wolverine Vol. 1- Hunting Season

Quick Summary

Pros: The book’s mystery is compelling right up until the end.

Cons: The conclusion to the book is poorly handled. There are a lot of inconsistencies throughout the read. The artwork isn’t that great.

Overall: This is a book with an average story and a disappointing ending. Though the middle of the book contains some interesting and compelling mysteries, the conclusion makes the ride feel a little less worthwhile. Plus, inconsistent characterization of both the book’s villain and Wolverine make it hard to become overly invested in what is going on. Overall this is a book where the negatives just slightly outweigh the positives.

Story

Wolverine Vol. 1: Hunting Season is a book that constantly borders on interesting, while failing the deliver at the end. It presents Wolverine as he uncovers the mystery behind a dangerous new enemy. While the mystery itself is enjoyable, the payoff isn’t significant enough to justify the journey. On top of this, inconsistencies and pieces of contradictory information make for some confusing characterization.

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The major driving force behind this collection’s plot, and the best part of the story, is the mystery behind what is going on. What could cause a father to try to kill his son? What could cause that son to go out and kill others? Why is the Watcher present? Why is S.H.I.E.L.D. acting strange? What are the villain’s real motives? These questions pop up throughout the reading and keep readers entertained in the moment and wanting more in the future. They make the journey through the book enjoyable as you are constantly looking forward to learning more about what is going on.

In terms of resolution, these mysteries vary in payout, though most of them end up being worth it. They weave a narrative about a confused collective intelligence making its way through a strange and alien world. Seeing this unravel slowly is satisfying and keeps the mystery from going stale.

The disappointment around this mystery doesn’t set in until the book’s conclusion. In only a few pages, Wolverine slashes the main bad guy and a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative knocks out the rest. It throws away any complexity that was built up through the villain’s slow reveal. It also just makes for an unsatisfactory ending in general as everything is wrapped up too neatly in too short of time.

In addition to a subpar ending, inconsistences throughout the narrative plague this book. For example, the book’s villain starts out killing indiscriminately and even seems to torture people for fun. Then, as the story progresses, the villain goes on about how much they hate the loss of life but are willing to sacrifice it for the continuation of their ideals. Wolverine is built up in almost the exact opposite way. He spends an annoying amount of the book’s time lamenting over how much he hates killing, only to relish the moment he is finally able to kill the book’s villain. It doesn’t make sense and completely dulls the characters’ motivations to a point where they barely matter.

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Art

Like the book’s story, this collection’s artwork is also a mixed bag. The first four issues, done by Alan Davis and colorist Matt Hollingsworth, are simply not that good. Neither characters nor environments have a level of quality one would hope them to have. Specifically, character faces look incredibly off as the level of detail starts to dip into the uncanny valley.

The next two issues, done by Mirco Pierfederici and colorist Andres Mossa, are better but not great. The more detailed lines give characters and locations a more visually pleasing aesthetic. However, this level of quality caps out at average and never rises above that. The last two issues in this collection are not bad, but they are nothing special either.

Continuity

Wolverine Vol. 1: Hunting Season is the first volume of the Wolverine Marvel Now! series. Marvel Now! is not a continuity reset at all; it is more of just a good jumping on point for readers. This means that, although there are stories that come before this, an in depth knowledge of Wolverine’s past is not really required to enjoy this series.

This volume also references stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.

• Wolverine mentions his son dying. This happened in Uncanny X-Force #34 and is collected in Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender: The Complete Collection Volume 2.

The story started here will be continued in Wolverine Vol. 2: Killable.