Graphic Novel Reading Group discussion

I'm interested. Will email about this later today (no gmail access right now).

Read issue 1: Generally not a big fan of Wolvie, but his stories can be fun when done right and Cho's involvement here intrigued me. Shanna's here to give Cho a partially dressed attractive woman to draw, but she's also portrayed as a strong character who's on par with Wolverine in battle (and smarter under pressure in at least once instance, which was a nice touch). The set-up is cliched but fine. Typical Savage Land pulp adventure here - mysterious happens to investigate, savages to fight, Wolverine vs dinosaurs, etc. Nothing terrible impressive but not bad either.

The lead-in prose was a bit odd, emphasizing Wolverine as a savage with little of the man inside left when what we got was a rational Logan who goes into berserker rages when in intense battle. Nothing wrong with either take on the character, but they aren't the same thing so the intro and comic seemed at odds.

Ready for #2.

I am in for this one.

Read issue #2: More light action fluff. The introduction of a new character helps lift the story a bit, but not much of consequence is happening. Wolverine's also starting to look a little incompetent in the effort to show Shanna can hold her own. Still a reasonably fun read so far though.

Ready for #3.

I'll join in.

Read issue #3: The two story threads start to intertwine nicely and what's sure to be the backbone confrontation of the remaining issues is set up. Not much more to say here - still as expected, still nothing extraordinary, but still good enough.

Ready for #4.

This is really the first I'm seeing of his work. It's quite good. The action is clean and easy to follow even when conveying frantic and violent encounters, and I like Wolverine's visual look here.

Of course Shanna is gorgeous, but a nice surprise is how strong she's being portrayed both in character and action. The closest thing to pin-up poses for her have been while she's fighting or other moments of strength (with the occasional slapstick moment, but Wolvie's getting those too). It's clear he's trying to tailor his work to the characters and story, which is always a plus.

Will have to check out Liberty Meadows sometime.

I don't recall reading any other works by Cho, but I enjoyed the action in #1. I'm liking the art si far as well and I am interested in seeing where the story goes from here. Ready for issue 2.

Read issue #4: Progressed nicely towards the expected confrontations/developments. Until the last page, which was completely out of the blue and could make the conclusion very interesting or very stupid. Wolverine's been working his way through a Savage Land checklist of creatures to gut. I'm anticipating some consequences for Shanna's miraculous recovery.

Ready for #5.

Finished: Ugh. The action and art are on par with the previous issues (i.e. good) but the story takes a nosedive to finish in my opinion. The surprise appearance at the end of last issue isn't explained nor needed, just there to add fight scenes. The resulting chaos leads to an "end" that has become more frequent in comics and drives me crazy - you find out that the entire story you've been reading is essentially set up for something else. It's ok to lay in cliffhangers and threads for future stories, but not at the expense of any real resolution to the one you've been telling.

Oh, and breaking the scale of ridiculousness: (view spoiler)[Wolvie stabs Hulk with his claws through HULK'S BRAIN. Hulk appears pages later to battle a monster and says he owes Wolvie "a headache." Um, NO. Hulk's healing does not extend to laughing off having six pieces of metal driven through his head in minutes. (hide spoiler)]

So this issue took the over-the-top tone of the comic way too far for me, didn't provide much resolution and generally was disappointing. As a whole the comic was a fairly fun romp that didn't pretend to be anything else, so I wouldn't say to avoid it, although I can't really recommend it either.

Done with #2, again, the art is great! I'm not sure I'm with the story much at this point, but am interested enough to continue. I enjoyed Amadeus's appearance and am interested in seeing how he will fit into the story. Next up, #3!

Not much to say here, #3 gave us a bit of history of the island, which was nice. Also a good amount of action to keep the story moving. Ready for #4.

I'm interested in reading Savage Wolverine! I'll send you an email.

The action took a step up in #4, which was the best issue so far, in my opinion. Now to see how it all ends. Bring on #5.

This was a fun story, but the story did feel a bit weak. I'm not a fan of Wolverine, so I always enjoy seeing him get hurt or humiliated. So those scenes amused me. Amadeus Cho is always great, so I liked his appearance. Shanna was done well. She was competent and intelligent.

Frank Cho's pretty famous/infamous as a cheesecake artist. He draws sexy women looking sexy, preferably with few clothes. And always huge breasts. But I do like that, implausibly large chest aside, he did give Shanna a fairly strong body. She looks like she's got muscle. Also, he mostly avoided cheesecake poses in favour of more natural ones. And, of course, his art in the rest of the series is great.

Overall, I wouldn't rank even rank this as one of the best Wolverine stories of 2013, let alone one of the all-time great Wolverine stories, it was harmless, low-stakes fluff.

Way back when, the '90s?, I rather thought Frank Cho was someone to watch. Liked his Liberty Meadows comic strip. Then he got fixated on drawing breasts (it seems, not to imply he wasn't fixated on breasts to begin with).

Still, I excitedly read this set of issues when they first came out. It was nice to see Cho again, and it wasn't horrible. Did end up giving me an unfinished feeling, though. Did give me an excuse to read a Marvel comic. I rarely read in that universe.

I agree with Mike, this story took an extreme nose dive at the end. It left more questions than answers and was definitely not one of the best Wolverine stories.

I really liked the illustrations. In fact, I think they out shined the story in this one. I think Cho went a little crazy with proportions on Shanna, but hey, it's fantasy, I suppose. ;)