‘Wolverine’ #27 Review — The Road Most Traveled

Sometimes, there is an issue of an ongoing comic book series that makes one stare off into the distance muttering to themselves, wondering if they actually read what they just read. It feels like, more and more, the solo Wolverine title has these moments — in this particular case centered around one particular character.

It’s Beast, Krakoa. Something has got to be done about Beast.

Truth be told, I’ve been on the fence about the change made to Beast many years ago. That moment he went from the happy-go-lucky jokester scientist (sometimes hiding the pain he was in through that façade) who was on the Avengers and pals with Wonder Man, to the war crime-committing figure that is even more villainous than his Age of Apocalypse dark counterpart.

As I’ve said time and time again, Benjamin Percy has a good handling of the voice for Logan in many respects and has added some intriguing pieces to the tapestry. At the same time, Logan becoming a controlled murderer is a path that’s been tread a billion times, and Beast being an unrepentant evil asshole that thinks he’s the hero wore out its welcome a long time ago. If anyone is deserving of a forced resurrection reset or to be killed and shoved down the resurrection queue for a good few years it’s that guy.

Mostly, this is an issue of Beast making Logan do deplorable things that he thinks must be done while gaslighting everyone and even turning the X-Force base into a damn skull villain lair. There has to be some end in sight for this. I truly hope so because the overall plotlines of X-Force and Wolverine have been intertwined and plodding on for over two years, and my patience was left behind months ago.

While, overall, the artwork of Juan José Ryp with the colors of Frank D’Armata is good, something about it in this issue just feels overly glossy and staticky. Not bad, but just like really smooth and shiny and almost like character stills in some parts. They have some kinetic energy and movement and some of the pages feel a bit more fitting than others, but I still have the feeling from the last issue that something is just off.

Almost too bright and shiny for such a dark and gruesome story, not that the two things can’t coexist together. Again, it just feels like something is missing.

Lettering-wise, Cory Petit is still nailing it; no notes. Using sentence case is something I adore in comics when it’s put into effect because it makes speech seem ‘normal’ in tone. Which lets the use of caps or even smaller text showcase tone a lot better. Also, the bubble work for the alcoholic drunk Sage was a very good touch as it adds to the effect and makes it clear how gone she is in the moment.

Wolverine #27 is now available from Marvel Comics.