Wolverine: Soultaker

(Marvel, 2005)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

There’s something about trying to translate a manga sensibility into an American comic book that doesn’t work, and this issue is a prime example. The story is simplistic, and the art (a combination of manga and U.S. styles) is too jarring. I’m not sure whether it’s the combination of styles, a lack of talent on the artist’s part, or simply my distaste for U.S. comics featuring a style that is not actually a style but the term for all Japanese comics. I’d like to give the artist the benefit of the doubt, but the combination of a stiffly drawn Wolverine and big-eyed females in the same panels is hard on the eyes.

Yukio steals an artifact, so Wolverine brings her to see an expert who claims that they have just brought evil to all of them. Right on cue, ninjas attack and kill the expert, and Wolverine promises revenge. There is nothing redeeming about this series.

— Ian M. Feller

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