The moment I realized there was an exclusive ‘Wolverine’ title drawn entirely by Mike Mignola, I couldn’t help but to immediately grab it, without even knowing what it was going to be about. All I knew was, Walter Simonson is the writer in this, and being a mega-issue, I kind of acquired this solely on the faith I have for these two comic book talents, and of course, being a Wolverine tale, is not like I really needed to give it much of a thought, and I wasn’t disappointed.
The story takes us in current time- for back in 1989-, with Logan arriving at an unknown (although, must likely African) jungle, which later would be revealed as the “Savage Land”, where he’ll met a primitive tribe who’d think of this new visitor as a sort of “fallen God”. Logan will be challenged by the tribe’s greatest warrior, the Chief, and they’ll combat in order for Logan to become the new Chief in the village. With this new range, he’ll be living among these people for a certain amount of time, until Logan realizes there’s a new threat on that land, one that involves one of the X-Men’s greatest foes: Apocalypse.
Imagine my disappointment at realizing the very cover of this mega-issue revealed the twist of the story, which is Apocalypse as the main baddie, although, there’s another twist relating to him, but that one I’ll skip over. Aside from that, this entry in the Wolverine collection was actually pretty good. Nothing excelling, and it is clearly not among the 10 bests solo-titles of the mutant, but fans will be pleased by this; Wolverine living among tribal-jungle people, being considered a demi-god by his people, fighting dinosaurs, having a hand-to-hand combat against the freshly introduced Apocalypse, it hit the proper spots. But the thing is, there isn’t really an outstanding element in this, with the exception of Mignola’s art- which is worth the price of acquisition by itself-, the story doesn’t tell us much about Logan’s character. We already know Logan is a savage, when it comes to fighting, and we already know he does have a certain friendly relationship with Nick Fury, from ‘SHIELD’, but other than that, there’s nothing new.
This was a quick fun reading that uses one of the best characters from Marvel to tell a humble and unambitious story that will entertain, and will please the eye with its art, but won’t go further. I will bet this doesn’t even affect the main storyline in the ‘X-Men’ comic books, which is kind of a shame because its final frame has an important revelation regarding the character’s fate.
It is a nice addition to anyone’s collection, and again, Mignola’s art alone is worth reading, but there’s isn’t much of a substance in this, perhaps this will be a miss for more demanding readers.