Wolverine: The Best There is- Contagion

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1-6

by Charlie Huston, Juan José Ryp (Artist)

When Wolverine faces a problem of the villainous kind, there's a good chance he'll use his Adamantium claws to whip up a lethal solution to it. What happens, though, when he faces an opponent who becomes a much bigger problem if he's killed? Enter: Contagion, a bold new addition to Wolverine's rogues' gallery. But first, Logan must contend with Contagion's defenders, the aptly named crew known as the Unkillables.

Collecting: Wolverine: The Best There Is 1-6

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Marvel, Fantasy, Thriller, Superheroes, Fiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Charlie Huston is an American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book writer known for his genre-blending storytelling and character-driven narratives. His twelve novels span crime, horror, and science fiction, and have been published by Ballantine, Del Rey, Mulholland, and Orion, with translations in nine languages. He is the creator of the Henry Thompson trilogy, beginning with Caught Stealing, which was announced in 2024 as a forthcoming film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler. Huston’s stand-alone novels include The Shotgun Rule, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Sleepless, and Skinner. He also authored the vampire noir series Joe Pitt Casebooks while living in Manhattan and later California. Huston has written pilots for FX, FOX, Sony, and Tomorrow Studios, served as a writer and producer on FOX’s Gotham, and developed original projects such as Arcadia. In comics, he rebooted Moon Knight for Marvel, contributed to Ultimates Annual, and penned the Wolverine: The Best There Is series.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worse ever Wolverine series… ever! Supposedly a 'mature' book, but really badly trying to get a mainstream audience and thus finding none. Really terrible. I'd say words cannot explain, but evidently they can! 2 out of 12, lacklustre One Star read.

2012 read

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one just didnt appeal to me. It seemed to drag on and on. I think this could have been a three issue story and been twice as good. The whole story just seemed to spin its wheels. I did like the art from Juan Jose Ryp, who I remember from Avatar Comics. But the story itself was just wordy and plodding. It was confusing as well, but I think that was just because it moved so slowly. I usually like Charlie Huston's writing, but this was just not up to his standards.

It had warnings all over it, and it was very violent, but it was stupid violence in most cases. Also, the curse words were blanked out, and the blood was colored black. I suppose it was ultra-violent, but if that's the case and you're going to post warnings, go ahead and make the blood red and leave the curse words.

If you are a die-hard Wolverine completist, or a fan of Ryp's art, then read this one. Otherwise, I'd skip it.

[zxvasdf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm amazed at the low rating scores this book has gotten. This is hands down one of the best Wolverine stories out there, and one of the most viscerally violent Marvel tales. I don't think anyone has explored Wolverine's healing factor in the depth the way Charlie Huston has. Let's just say we should be grateful that we aren't near immortals with apparently infinite regenerative capabilities.

Wolverine is a hostage of the Contagion, who is a walking talking vault of diseases. Contagion can literally construct any strain of known diseases within minutes... he is pursuing a cure for his son (or so he says) and having exhausted all strategies (his laboratory is filled with tissue samples from a legion of Marvel superheroes and villains), he decides to put Wolverine's immune system to the test.

Our anti-hero goes through a gauntlet of ultra-violent physical abuse, high psychology mental abuse, soul abuse (yep), and a round of allergies from hell.

I don't think anyone can mistreat Wolverine any more than Charlie Huston has but I would like to see them try. The man can take it, I tell you! Wolverine's will is as hard as his adamantinum bones. His suffering couldn't have been drawn better by Huston's artistic partner in crime, Ryp. The details are insane, and in tandem with Mossa's high quality coloring, grounds this work for a visceral, in your face experience.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Putting all those hashtags is sure going to get this comic the PG-13 rating it always wanted. Never mind the violence and blood, it's those darn... I mean #### curse words... I mean #### ##### words... sorry, #### ##### #####. Yes, that's what I wanted to say.

The story starts off slowly, but the revelations mid-way kept me interested. You need quite a bit of stomach for the imagery, given the graphic violence, but there is also a scientific aspect to the bad guy's experiments.

Winsor poisons Logan with some powerful hallucinogens he secretes on his skin. Logan gets the urge to kill everything around him, but uses his claws to stab himself in a very PG-13 manner, thanks in part to the hashtags. He goes on a bloody killing spree back to the source, meeting several characters working for Winsor.

All the characters Logan cuts up beyond recognition are ok when he is taken to Winsor's lab. They are all unkillable, pretty much like Logan is. Winsor's purpose for Logan involves his mortally ill son, Flip, whom his own father infected and is now looking for a cure.

Logan figures out most of the truth after weeks of grueling experiences with Winsor's henchmen. Winsor is in reality looking for a cure for himself and is using his boy just to keep Logan cooperative. Logan will have to face the henchmen once more before escaping. Being that he is a good guy, his weaknesses will again be used against him.

[Светослав Богданов · Rating 5 out of 5]

Накратко историята. Върколакът е пленен от висок, слабоват мъж на име Уинсър който обича да колекционира неубиваеми създания за да може да прави експерименти с тях. Той използва смъртоносни вируси, унищожителни чуми и най-различни разновидности на рак, които поради собствената му мутантска същност живеят в него.

Уинстър разказва на Върколака, че целта му е да използва наученото за да открие лек за изродения си син, продукт на сексуален акт между близки родственици (сещате се за какво говоря).

В желанието си да помогне лечението на детето, Върколакът се съгласява доброволно върху него да бъдат извършени кошмарни експерименти. Мутантската способност на Логан за самолечение е подложена на максимума си от Уинстър който извършва всякакви садистични експерименти върху него.

След седмици на безмилостни мъчения, хлапето споделя на Върколака, че всъщност изобщо няма нужда от лечение, а всички експерименти са единствено за собствените облаги на Уинстър, да открие лек за себе си и всички зарази, които тялото му възпроизвежда.

Разбирайки, че е измамен, Върколакът отприщва цялата си ярост срещу Уинстър и подчинените му в една кървава саморазправа в която хвърчат какви ли не части от тела (буквално).
Горещо препоръчвам всичките 12 броя, защото историята е много силна, а артът е страхотен.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine is an incredibly overexposed character--yet it doesn't mean he isn't a good one. The Well-Journeyed Man who can't remember his past is rife with story potential. Sadly--much of his best work is continuity bound.

That being said--Wolverine is very much like Swamp Thing--he's a solo character who has gotten some of the best talent on him during his life. Some examples include--Enemy of the State/Old Man Logan, Wolverine by Miller and Claremont, Origin by Jenkins/Kubert, Weapon X by Barry Windsor Smith, an epic run by Jason Aaron--and a fairly well-written death by Charles Soule. Logan by BKV and Risso, Greg Rucka's Run, Guggenheim's Run, Evolution by Loeb and Bianci, Blood Debt by Steve Scroche, etc.

He's a man whose lived for two hundred years and has fought in every war and been to every bar. It's stock character, but it's not a bad base.

So that's the case of Wolverine: The Best There Is--a relatively self-contained and standalone tale. This is Wolverine as a grindhouse exploitation film. It's Wolverine in a dog fight. It's seedy. It's like Aronofsky's The Wrestler...Two Star Script with 4 Star Acting and Direction.

[Ashe Catlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I quite liked it but it feels like a guilty pleasure, the start was a bit jarring.

What I liked
• The fact that Wolverine wasn’t just a brawler but wasn’t the smartest either. He’s somewhere in the middle which not enough writers seem to get.
• Contagion, his monologue was great. It’s also having Wolverine face a villain he can’t beat up without consequences.
• Contagion’s posy, they all come off differently. Definitely a colourful bunch, the stand outs are definitely Madcap and the Asian Cougar they were all kinds of weird.
• The fact that it didn’t glorify the violence in the book, given the subject it would be quite easy to do but this simply cut away and mentioned what happened briefly which was nice.

What I disliked
• All the bleeped out swearing, if you’re going to let a book swear then do it. There Is no point in censoring it, also I have no idea what swear word this is #####, I got the rest but that confused me.
• It was a bit dialogue heavy at points and could have been cut down.

[Max Ostrovsky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is nowhere near one of my favorite Wolverine books. It is closer to the bottom, if not the actual bottom, than anything. The art, while interesting and 'well-drawn,' was comic book cliche - big boobs (and all the drawing angles and close-ups that focused on boobs) and gratuitous violence and gore.
Okay, I get as a Wolverine story, there aught to be violence and gore - how could there not? Adamantium claws? Damn right, there will be violence and gore. But it was gratuitous and the story seemed to be built around the boobs and violence.
The story was Wolverine cliche as well. No surprises. Minding own business. Someone in trouble. Wolverine investigates. It's a trap. Wolverine is hurt. Repeatedly. Oh no! How will he get out of THIS one? blah.
One saving grace (okay, it didn't save the story) was some information that added to the Wolverine lore that I found interesting about his healing factor. But. That. Was. It.

[Adam Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

On-par with Frank Tieri's bottom of the barrel Wolverine books, this reads like it was written by a thirteen year old virgin who just learned to swear but hasn't taken any creative writing courses yet. It's very proud of its unimpressive manhood and just keeps shouting at everyone how big it is.

There's a scene in the beginning where Wolverine has been picked up hitchhiking and the dialogue seems to be written by someone who's never read a book with Wolverine in it, nor seen a cartoon or movie with Wolverine. It's embarrassing fan fiction.

There is no reason to ever read this, unless you're being paid at least four figures.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wild story, way over the top, but really liked it. The team of 'unkillables' is interesting, the villain is sufficiently dark, and the whole story is blood-drenched fun. I would compare it a bit to Morrison's run for a few reasons, but primarily it's absurdly unbelievable but compelling story. The second half (volume 2) goes awry a bit by introducing some incredibly '90s-style characters, but it all comes to a nice finale, so I'll forgive that.

Also: really good use of obscure characters. I have a soft spot for that level of detail.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing cast of characters. Very gory and a little nasty at times. I'm interested to see how the story continues from here, but don't necessarily know if I'm going to read the second part? Wolverine went through the ringer with this one for real.

Felt very true to Logan's characterization. I think my favorite section was towards the beginning, when he's exposed to the Corruptor chemical at a party and quickly realizes that he could lose all control of himself and chooses not to. That balance of impulse and humanity is what makes him a compelling character for me.

[Tom Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

Won in a raffle.

[Frans Kempe · Rating 3 out of 5]

wolverine faces Windsor a mutant with the capability to produce viruses. A look into Wolverines healing factor in a gory way

[Nagic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Wolverine story was pretty good. It dives deep into his healing factor, which is very interesting. I also thought that the villain was great.

[Conor Pickle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well-written, but the story was so incredibly batshit and uninteresting, and the art was dreadful

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has lots of #### fill-in-the-blank swear-words, so this review #### will too.
It is really #### hard to come up with a new Wolverine story, indeed our beloved (anti-hero) hero has been through just about it all.
That is why this was a nice surprise!
Visceral and twisted are the best words I can come up with for this edgy story.
Or maybe acidic and raw.
Although I never felt like he really got Wolverine's face right, the art was disgustingly gorgeous.
I Loved the super detailed, dark and twisted art,
well, ... except for Wolverine's face.
In fact, the super #### detailed gore from Ryp's pen brought out the shock of violence that Wolverine's claws represent in a fresh new way.
#### sick!

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

You have to be a very peculiar type of comic reader to like this type of stories. They are great, but predictable. You know every single turn the story will take, and not even the dialogues are that surprising. Still, it's written in an absolutely interesting way, and even though at times it's too violent - and the artist, Juan José Ryp, certainly portrays that violence in a very vivid, yet beautiful way - it's still a very good read.

Personally, I loved it. I usually enjoy more plot twists than this, but having a kid calling Logan on his bullshit was pretty much amazing. And even though I'm not a big fan of gore, the torture scenes were breathtaking, for both the art and the plot, written by Charlie Huston.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Look, I'm a big Wolverine fan, as well as a Charlie Huston fan, so when I saw a used copy of this for sale cheap, I snapped it up. I was even attracted to the gory, horror-tinged artwork. Then I had to spoil it all by actually reading the story, which was a talky, nearly incomprehensible mess. The creators are trying to to be edgy and "intellectual" at the same time, but the whole thing is brought down by overkill in the icky-ness department. Far too much philosophising during the mayhem as well, and with with tiny print in overly packed word balloons. Also, I found it laughable that such a gory book replaced far too many dirty (and unnecessary)words with ####. Lots of blood, bile and boredom for me. Skip this and read "Old Man Logan" instead.

[Shivesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

An uninspiring story cloaked in a more serious themed, graphic Wolverine ethos. Imagine if they really showed the reality of a Wolverine was all about, including mostly the blood and the claws, and you got the aim of this book. Unfortunately the artwork is degraded by the incomplete and poorly thought out narrative, with sketchy motivations for all involved, including our clawed mutant. Just not an enjoyable read. And I did not like the characterization of Logan as a dumb brute. He may be an animal at times, but he is still a man who is the best there is at what he does.

[Vinnie Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of this two parter story starts off incredibly well. The violence is graphic but necessary and the main villain Contagion is definitely one to remember. Don't understand why this has to say 'not for kids!' but puts hash tags in for swear words. Wolverine definitely is a lot more interesting when out on his own as he is almost a wild creature and is great to watch without the constraints of the X-men around him.

[Corey Timmins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story feels like a S&M sex story of Wolverine, and not in a good way. The writer was exploring his own fetish so much that he truly missed his mark on who wolverine is and how the character would react in his story. None of the characters are developed at all, and even with wolverine Tortured throughout the book he is written such that I could not feel sympathy for him.

Poorly written, great art work.

Mature themes, Adults only recommended.

[Erin Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've had this forever and finally read it! I love Wolverine in the movies, but I've never read one of the comic books. My young sons wanted to buy this for me years ago because they know I love Wolverine. I have to say it was pretty good! I'm more into horror graphic novels really, but this was pretty good!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't always liked Charlie Huston's forays into comics and this one started out pretty bad. But it actually got better as it went along, until a finish that was almost memorable. I'd say 3 1/2 stars on this one.

[Mirco Parisi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first wolverine story i've read and i'm very proud about it! The graphic is stunning and the amount of violence makes this run so much funny!
Wolverine is being captured and became part of experiments about his healing factor!
Absolutely worth buying.

[Emma Alice Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like An Eli Roth Take On Wolverine

I would classify this as a horror comic book more than a superhero comic book. It's absolutely brutal. It's a logical continuation of Wolverine that is obviously best for adults (specifically ones who have no problem with heads flying off the bad guys).

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst! I couldn't read it. Stylized to the point of being unrecognizable.

[Rafael · Rating 1 out of 5]

the art is really great it fits the story well. but wolvie cutting girls hair with his pinky up like that .. no that's not wolverine

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuánta violencia gratuita y desaforada. Y con una historia detrás y todo. Y muchos personajes raros con poderes "inmortalizadores" de varias calañas. Muy entretenido, sí señor.

[Jeremiah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best comics I've read so far, I recommend it if you're not squeamish.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Repetitive, but entertaining.