One thing that has been missing from the Marvel Universe over the last few years has been high-adventure comic titles. Stories with exotic locales and strange creatures; stories that harken back to the dangers and mysteries found in early comics as well as men’s adventure magazines of the 1950s and ’60s. These days, things seem to revolve around inner-team conflicts and heroes slugging it out against heroes in ideological grudge matches. The sense of fun has diminished, replaced by a dreary landscape of ho-hum.
But have no fear, because Frank Cho and Jason Keith have arrived with Savage Wolverine, a book that brings back that rollicking good time that has been eluding the industry for years, and they do it by literally dropping Wolverine straight into the Savage Land.
Handling both the writing and art chores, Cho (like Wolverine) is very good at what he does. The imagery pops, a hard-hitting blend of Doug Wildey and Steve Rude from the front cover to the last page cliffhanger. Cho is comfortable drawing everything from sea monsters to S.H.I.E.L.D. ships to dinosaurs to his trademark beautiful women, in this case Shanna the She-Devil. The action scenes play well, but there is a small reliance on the quick edit method of showing the fight scenes. The other minor complaint is that the inks are at times too thick.
Jason Keith’s coloring is solid, utilizing the oft times played out “red sky” in a way that actually works: a device to convey Wolverine’s berserker rage.
The story itself is interesting and, yes, fun. Shanna, serving as a guide, works alongside a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. geological surveyors to map a very remote part of the continent when suddenly their ship is mysteriously pulled down, crashing onto the jungle floor. Eight months later, Wolverine mysteriously drops from the sky into the same section of the Savage Land. The two heroes find one another, and a team-up is born.
So for those keeping score at home, that’s two mysteries in this issue, and both within the first five pages, pages also filled with danger, exotic locales, and strange creatures. The rebirth of high-adventure comic books has happened, and it is in extremely capable hands.
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