Released on February 19th, 2020
The Spider-Man comic book I reviewed yesterday actually came out yesterday. The problem was, at least here in PA, comic shops are closed because of the virus pandemic (never thought I'd be saying that in my life). One of my local comic book stores, Comic Universe, posted a picture on Instagram of the new books on the shelf on Tuesday (they were apparently allowed to sell the books on Tuesday because comic stores get their books on Tuesdays and, fuck, might as well attempt to sell 'em if you got 'em). But the owner of Comic Universe noted that no one is allowed in the store so he was still doing curb side pickups for now and that he had sent a letter to the governor asking if it was okay to stay open even if he only allowed one person inside at a time. So the comic books that came out yesterday might actually end up being worth something considering that very few people besides comic book store owners probably have them. Next week is April and it looks like there won't be any new comic books coming out in April. Technically they could just release them digitally only but that would kind of fuck over the comic book stores and people that don't buy digitally and so they're not going to do that. Will we get new comic books in May? Probably not early May, anyway, as it takes time to print them and everything. One model that the University of Pennsylvania had said that the pandemic wouldn't reach its height in Philly until mid-May. I guess this is because New York City has 20,000 cases or something absurd and eventually that'll filter down here. The virus started in China then Italy was the epicenter of contagious people and deaths and now it's the U.S. Great. What a lovely Spring! And, apparently, it's only going to get worse. So what better way then to block it out and escape into the wonderful world of comic books! Well Wolverine #1, unfortunately, is a pretty bleak, violent, downer of a book. It features a black market drug cult led by a powerful woman that can make you kill or maim yourself AND Dracula! So it has it all. I can't really remember the last Wolverine solo-series, though he's seemingly always around in various books (except for a few years ago when he was killed off then came back to life somehow) and this is probably like the twentieth #1 or something absurd. Marvel puts out so many #1's that these days that no one really gives them a second glance anymore (this book pretty much flew under the radar for whatever reason). But the X-Men in general got a huge boost last year when they brought on Jonathan Hickman to revitalize the books. This book has a somewhat famous artist, Adam Kubert, but a writer I've never heard of (Benjamin Percy). I just googled him and found at that he's written four novels. He's also currently writing X-Force and has previously written Green Arrow and Teen Titans for DC. While this first issue isn't particularly awesome or anything, it is pretty entertaining and has a few interesting plot points. The weird thing is that there are two full stories in this book (it was $7.99 by the way...and they wonder why kids don't read comic books). The first story is drawn by Kubert and is about the petals from Krakatoa (the mutant island where the X-Men now reside) being used as a drug on the black market. The one in charge of said black market is a mysterious woman known as The Pale Girl. She can make you kill yourself. And she makes Wolverine kill his friends. The second, superior story is drawn by Viktor Bogdanovic, who draws like Greg Capullo, which is a good thing. There are vampires in Paris and it just so happens that Dracula is in charge. What a shocker. Also, the villain Omega Red has been ordered by Dracula to infiltrate Krakatoa. My only question is...if there are two, completely different stories...then what the hell are they going to do in #2? Will they always have two competing tales in every issue? I could just read #2 as it's already out and on my ipad. Maybe someday, if the world doesn't end. **1/2
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