Wolverine #24: Sometimes, Less is MOR

Martin Cóccolo’s return to Wolverine is a welcome one. For the past few issues, Julius Ohta was the artist for the series. Ohta is not a lesser artist than Cóccolo by any means; they are simply different. Ohta excels at drawing action: the skirmish between the villainous Mor and Wolverine in this comic is less engaging than the fight between Taskmaster and Wolverine in the previous issue. Cóccolo, on the other hand, excels at drawing emotion. Wolverine’s face displays such a wide variety of emotion. There’s a wisdom in Wolverine’s eyes that Cóccolo’s art displays. In a story like this, where action takes a backseat to dialogue, the art needs to emphasize the characters rather than the combat; this is Cóccolo’s specialty. Paired with the colors by Jesus Aburtov, this comic persists as a visual beauty on the shelves. 

Unfortunately, this series persists with unoriginal new villains. Outside of his design, Mor is incredibly unengaging. Halfway through the comic, the story pauses for an expositional scene about Mor. While this flashback makes sense for the scene it’s involved in, the comic comes to a grinding halt for it. The flashback adds context for Mor and his motivations, but it hasn’t been earned yet. Readers have barely spent two issues with Mor as a character, maybe twenty pages total between Issue 23 and Issue 24; Mor hasn’t presented himself as someone interesting enough to warrant a backstory justifying his motivations. Furthermore, Mor’s backstory is extremely cliche. It’s the typical scientist-gone-mad backstory that readers have seen in Marvel dozens of times before, and it adds little to the character. Perhaps not adding a backstory at all and leaving Mor with a mysterious nature would’ve added greater intrigue into the character. 

In terms of writing, the issue has two contradicting aspects: the sharply written character and the formulaic story he operates in. Saladin Ahmed is an incredibly talented writer for Wolverine. Logan swings his claws about three times in this issue; it doesn’t focus much on action. Rather, this issue is primarily driven by the characters and the plot. Ahmed continues to paint Wolverine as more experience-driven rather than instinct-driven. Wolverine is still a violent man, but he’s much more intentional with that violence. He reasons with Mor, sympathizes with him, instead of resorting to slashing and clawing. As with the rest of this series, Ahmed’s Wolverine stands out as a distinct portrayal that is faithful to the character’s progression over the last 50 years. However, the plot itself is nothing to write home about. It’s a very basic premise that readers have seen before. Alpha Flight’s appearance, as revealed by the cover, happens right when a reader would expect it. The trope is so overused that it’s surprising that the comic went with it.