Ink of Blood

(This review may contain spoilers).

So… if I’m completely honest, my original interest in Marvel, or at least the X-Men, probably stems from Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of Wolverine.

I liked the opportunity to see Logan’s first appearance. I did, however, feel that he was unnecessarily cruel to the Hulk. While the first comic did a good job of showcasing Logan’s abilities and how determined/stubborn he is, I also thought that the comic showed a slightly different aspect to the Hulk. In many ways, he does strike me as a child who has an innocent way of looking at the world.

I thought the second set of comics were particularly intriguing. While there wasn’t much shown of the new world generally Wanda had created, I liked the fact that I could see the after-effects on Logan. Learning about his past with Mystique added an extra dimension to his character… though I was disappointed to see that he could technically be classed as a villain. While the crowd he ran with were criminals, my opinion of him went down several notches by the end of the flashback sequences.

I liked the different styles of artwork in the two different comics. It was good to see how the atmosphere changed from a more lighthearted feel to something a whole lot darker.

Even for a villain, I’ve felt that Mystique is a lot more than that. I felt the second set of comics showcased her grey nature especially well. I wouldn’t root for her to win against the heroes, but I’m interested in learning more about her and perhaps seeing a redemption-style arc for her character, especially in light of her connection to Nightcrawler, one of my favourite X-Men.

It was really good to see Logan interacting with Scott and I would have liked to see him with more of the others, heroes and villains. Even though these two sets of comics didn’t show much in the way of Logan struggling against his nature, I could see hints of that.

I liked being able to learn more about Logan’s past and I did have a lot of sympathy for him the more I discovered. I’m sure I’d like to read more of his comics in the future.