Wolverine: Xisle

(Marvel, 2003)
™ and © Marvel Characters, Inc.

What makes Wolverine such a perfect role model for arrested development cases everywhere is [the fact that] he’s really kind of a jerk. Although in New X-Men, Grant Morrison has tried to make him an adult, in his own titles Wolverine has continued to wallow in his own supposed rebel chic as America’s Best Loved Trauma Victim. His real mutant power? Not having to face the consequences of his actions.

That changes, when ward Amiko calls Logan on his bad behavior at a fun fair and he naturally gets drunk, waking up on a mysterious island to find his great healing factor no longer gives him an immunity from bad decisions. Looking (thanks to beautiful art by Jorge Lucas) and paced more like a European graphic novel than a traditional Marvel slugfest, Bruce Jones’ deceptively simple scripting continues to keep the reader off-balance. Is this another Weapon X mindgame? A weird life metaphor? Just a dream? I have no idea, and, after decades of comic-book reading, that’s really saying something.

— S.A. Bennett

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