Selected Book
Essential Wolverine, Vol. 1 (Marvel Essentials)
- Paperback
- Edition: 2nd
- Author: Chris Claremont, Peter David, Archie Goodwin, John Buscema, Bill Sienkiewicz, John Byrne
- Publisher: Marvel Comics
- Release Date: August 2005
- ISBN-10: 0785118675
- ISBN-13: 9780785118671
- List Price: $16.99
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryExperience Wolverine's battle to keep the feral berserker within in check, while trying to be the best there is at what he does. Special guest appearance by the Incredible Hulk. Collects Wolverine #1-23. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
A lot of Wolverine for a small amount of cash
Rating:
You get the first 23 issues of the Wolverine ongoing series (Vol 1), much of it written by Chris Claremont (Issues 1-8, 10). This series came out when I was in the 5th Grade, and I collected each issue as they came out. I still have most of them horded away in boards and bags in a box, but it's great to have all of the stories in one book that I'm not worried about keeping in mint or near mint condition.
The stories are some of the best Wolvie stories ever told. That sounds like a big claim, but in my opinion it's true. There's a battle with Sabretooth, a story with The Hulk (gray hulk), and some great artwork. The cover of the first issue is one of my favorite Wolvie images ever.
The only downside to the Essential Wolverine is the lack of color. But you could never get 552 pages of color Wolvie for the price of this book. Actually I'm quite surprised this version is as cheap as it is. Compare this to the price of 550 pages worth of other TPBs. Going with the B&W is what makes this affordable.
A must for any Wolvie fan.
Solitary Wolverine Shines
Rating:
I've never liked the character of Wolverine. He always seemed like a poor excuse to have a character representing ego instead of id in the X-Men. He never worked for me as a team player.
In this collection we have the first 23 issues from Wolverine's own title. Wolverine relocates to a steamy, seamy, far east city with the dichotomy of great riches and great poverty. Wolverine unsurprisingly gravitates to the slums.
Wolverine as a solo act works much better. Assuming the persona of "Patch" frees him of the constraints of being a team member and frees the reader to enjoy his brand of mayhem much more. Though a solo book, a reasonable cast of supporting characters is developed including Jessica Drew, various denizens of different strata of Madripoor society and a couple of good villains Bloodsport and Roughhouse. Roughhouse in particular plays a recurring role and is developed to a surprising extent and a surprising conclusion.
Also included is a very fine guest appearance by the grey hulk with great comic effect. The artwork is above average throughout the issues, the scripting well done and they both work together for an enjoyable reading experience.
The one caveat I had is that this is the first Essentials that I had binding problems. In fact the paper totally separated from the cover. Nothing came loose, but the entirety of the book came away from the cover when the glue let go.
Black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...?
Rating:
I honestly don't get the appeal of these books. Why bother making (or reading) black & white reprints of classic four-color comics...? I mean, yeah, the stories are still great and the original comics are hard to find, but a huge part of what made these comics great was the eye-popping artwork, including the bright primary colors: reading them in dull B&W is just plain wrong. Sure, the printing costs are lower, so you can get more pages for your money, but it's more pages of boring, not more pages of fun. It's really a travesty.
On the other hand, it recently occurred to me that these could be used as coloring books... Maybe you could buy a box of crayons to go along with all the artwork that the publishers ruined in this format. (Axton)
Graphic SF Reader
Rating:
A nice cheap collection of the beginning of Wolverine's run as a character popular enough to hold his own as a solo character. His adventures and wandering aren't too bad at all, and a good way to recover these easily.
Generally speaking, this is not the X-Wolverine.
What an Essential volume should be
Rating:
Having read a couple dozen of Marvel's "Essential" series, I've seen the gamut from excellent to awful. Generally, what makes the comics good are exactly the things you'd expect: good, consistent writing and art, strong characters and a decent supporting cast. (This last feature seems to often be the deciding factor for excellence: it's a reason the Essential Spiderman volumes have been exceptional, while the Silver Surfer was not on the same par.) By these standards, the Essential Wolverine is a top-notch book.
Wolverine is, of course, one of the X-Men, but there came a certain point when he became something more than that. I personally feel that he emerged from being a rather one-dimensional character back in the early `80s during the early issues of the "New" X-Men. In particular, during a storyline around issue 130, the rest of the team had been defeated by a band of villains known as the Hellfire Club, but Wolverine, a character who seemed to be the least powerful, came back to rescue his teammates. He did so in a violent manner, with little qualms about killing or maiming, making him a distinct contrast to many other heroes. Later, Frank Miller gave Wolverine even more of an edge in a mini-series and added the first person narration that was rare at the time but is now commonly associated with this superhero.
Not all team characters can stand on their own in their own book, but, as this book shows, Wolverine can. It helps that this volume features a roster of Marvel all-stars: Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Peter David, John Buscema, Archie Goodwin and Klaus Janson (no third-stringers in this bunch). The stories start off during a period when the X-Men had faked their own deaths, and Wolverine goes off to the fictional principality of Madripoor, an East Asian city-state somewhat akin to Singapore. It also bears more than a passing resemblance to the Casablanca of movie fame, a city filled with various lowlifes and people seeking refuge from other places.
Wolverine has a connection with Madripoor going back years and feels quite comfortable in this seedy town. He adopts an alias of Patch (which fools less people than he thinks) and gets involved in various capers, starting with the theft of an evil sword. This introduces some of the major supporting characters, particularly Jessica Drew (the former Spiderwoman turned private eye) and her partner, ex-actress Lindsay McCabe. This caper also gets Wolverine tangled up with old enemy Silver Samurai, but not in a fully adversarial way.
Other stories get more characters introduced, particularly the various crime lords of Madripoor and the coldly pragmatic Prince. Probably the most interesting foe in this volume is Roughhouse who starts off as a simple tough guy villain but develops into someone far more interesting by the final issue. Most of the stories span over several issues, with the last two taking six and seven issues respectively.
As stated earlier, the Essentials volumes vary in quality, but this book is one of the best. With great characters and storytelling, this volume easily rates five stars and, if you enjoy comic books, this is one really fits the definition of "essential."
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