iWolverine #1: Mean Machine, Mean Machine!

So I know what a lot of you are thinking and yeah the name is silly, I like it in a tongue and cheek goofball kinda way but iWolverine is a silly title. Ya know what makes it even better though? Albert himself is no joke. When you take the best Wolverine writer of all time Larry Hama (which he is) and reunite him with one of the weirdest yet most interesting and underused parts of the Wolverine mythos: Albert and Elsie Dee. I’ll admit the little girl robot trope is “meh” but if it means I get to keep reading about the bizarre nature of Albert under the pen of Larry Hama then I’m 100% for it.

I mean think about it, what do you get when you take the savagery of Wolverine, the efficiency of a high tech machine and a desire for peace but not pacifism? You get one ridiculously good read. iWolverine reads like a wake up slap to all the naysayers that like to pretend superhero comics in the late 80s/90s were all bad. A lot definitely suffered from edgy overload but books Wolverine (I’m talking pre-devolver arc that never became a thing) and stuff like Sabretooth: Deathhunt proved that gritty sometimes gory tales could be done without overdoing the edgy factor and making great stories. This issue is no exception to this, as we see Albert slice and dice his way across Madripoor, we’re given exactly what we signed up for: intense action, good art and just enough of a cliffhanger to make us satisfied with the first issue while eager for the second.

If I had one complaint it would be that this makes me yearn for more Hama stories about characters like Albert, Wolverine and Sabretooth which I’m sure we won’t get in the overzealous amount that I want. But that aside this is just a well done book all around. The art gets the job done well in particular the fight scenes, which let’s be real when you got a guy like Albert on a mission of vengeance that’s really what matters and the covers by Juan Jose Ryp are fantastic.

Although I would like to see a longer series than 2 issues, I get it we got lucky that this kinda fit into the 2020 event gimmick so it’s a don’t look a gift horse in the mouth situation so a 2 piece from Hama and company is far, far better than nothing at all ya dig? More than anything it’s just a fun time seeing the dust knocked off this particular corner of the MU and seeing Albert and Elsie Dee featured in anything again.