Wolverines #4 Comic Book Review-Good Comics, Badly Drawn
By Roger Lee
While the whole Death of Wolverine/Logan Legacy/Weapon X Program/Wolverines meta-storyline is actually pretty darn good, occasional comic book issues in this extended story arc end up frustrating readers. Wolverines #4 is one of those frustrations.
Wolverines #4 Cover
While the story and the character introductions and development by the writers are usually pretty good, the art has at times been not so good. In this, the fourth installment of the weekly Wolverines title, the art falls down badly. Indonesian artist Ariala Kristantina is fairly new to American comic book creating, and, while her art on her Deviant Art webpage is interesting in an unfinished, semi-amateurish manner, she is by no means ready for the big time as a sequential artist needing to follow a storyline or script.
Wolverines #4-Siphon and Fantomelle
Her art appears rushed and/or unfinished. While the plot and dialogue by writer Ray Fawkes moves along and takes us toward the oncoming encounter between our heroes and Mr. Sinister, the artwork makes it very hard to follow along with what is happening. Several times, I looked at the panels and pages trying to figure out just which character I was looking at, and only by reading the dialogue and narration was I able to find out. For example, one of the “Wolverines” was rescuing/fighting Fantomelle’s boyfriend. I am still not sure who the superhero character was with the boyfriend. At one point it seems that Mystique is impersonating Sabretooth, but again, the art is so rough and unfinished in appearance, I needed to read the dialogue a couple of times to figure out what was happening. That should not be necessary in a properly-drawn and inked comic book.
Similar to problems with other weekly comic titles like the Batman Eternal title over at DC, the publisher has to find enough artists to churn out the weekly book. This means that while one issue (like #3 of Wolverines) had pretty good art, the cash-paying customer cannot count on a quality visual product on a consistent basis.
If Kristantina were the ongoing artist (please…no!) then I would be sorely tempted to drop this title as a buyer and as a reader. The story development by Ray Fawkes is good, but the art in this issue was painful to endure.
Wolverines #4-Fantomelle Escapes
If you really want to see what is going on with the Wolverines and their attempt to infiltrate Mr. Sinister’s lair, I would say skip this issue or buy and read it with the knowledge that it has confused, badly constructed art. We know that the next issue is drawn by Jonathan Marks. Not sure if that will prove to be a huge improvement, but we shall see.
I long for the days of Kirby, Ditko, Buscema, and the other artistic gods of Marvel. Sigh!
Next: Keep Up With The Wolverines: Check out the Review of Wolverines #3