WOLVERINE #7 (X OF SWORDS Pt. 16): Sometimes When You Win You Lose…

This is a fascinating and cleverly written issue that adds to the banana’s idea of this contest being extremely none traditional (pro tip please read this week’s books IN ORDER) and most certainly not just ten sword fights between competitors which I honestly didn’t see coming and shame on me for having such a lack of imagination. Percy and Duggan start us off with a loss but it’s not the namesake of the book who loses but rather Magik as she comes up against the crocodile with an attitude and X-Twitter fan favorite Pogg Ur-Pogg (and I say Pogg cheated not waiting for the one count) before turning the issue’s attention to Wolverine himself.

What’s so interesting to me is how Percy and Duggan write Wolverine being oh so typically Wolverine in every sense from his attitude in combat against Summoner, his animal magnetism and flirtatiousness with Storm to his downright orneriness with everybody in general but then have him “fail” not once but TWICE just being himself. Admittedly there are some spanners thrown into the works here which include Wolverine’s promise to Solem made previously which bears full fruit (not in a good way either) as well as Saturnyne picking a ridiculously inconvenient time to take a small measure of revenge against Wolverine for the slight from earlier (see last week’s and this week’s MARAUDERS issues for the full picture)

The issue also gives us a look and details of several of Otherworld’s kingdoms like the floating kingdom of  Roma Regina but the one we see the most is the broken reality of Blightspoke. Percy and Duggan brilliantly rationalize the idea of why that environment is chosen as the place for Wolverine to fight Summoner and I really enjoy how the ending of that fight as well as the consequences of the end of that fight resonate further in the issue, there are several moments completely caught me off guard and that’s what’s so fun about this issue nothing goes the way you think it will as Percy and Duggan throw surprise after surprise making for  thoroughly engaging read all the way through.

Then there’s the art and quite frankly for me, this issue rates a perfect 10 in the visual department on all fronts starting with Adam Kubert’s cover which is nothing short of masterful and brilliantly colored by Frank Martin. Joshua Cassara’s interior art sees every single panel of every single page is a literal banquet of exquisite detail from bottles in the background as Wolverine drinks with Storm to the rain-spattered cobbled streets of the crooked market there isn’t a single panel that isn’t beautifully detailed. The combat scene in Blightspoke is an absolute psychedelic work of art in every respect including the gonzo paneling as every inch of every page is filled with mind-boggling detail of some sort beautifully colored by Guru-eFX that never loses the glorious details Cassara puts into everything including the facial expressions and details of the characters themselves. Regardless of what one may feel about the subject matter or the writing this issue certainly shows us very conclusively why Cassara was chosen as one of Marvel’s Stormbreaker talents this year. The whole issue is a visual delight.