Wolverine has been on a series of teams to host the Hellfire Gala; this week, his final one is with Spider-Man. Sporting a new Orchis spaceship, this issue is one long adventure as the two try to take the fight directly to the enemy with mixed results. Can Spider-Man help him, let alone survive the experience? You find out in Wolverine #40.
The answer is yes, of course, as Spider-Man has his own “Gang War” crossover to contend with. Wolverine #40 is a mostly fine action adventure, punched up by Benjamin Percy’s fun dialogue for Spider-Man. He’s a bit more of a sad sack with good quips than he’s been in other Marvel titles, which is nice to see. The story picks up rather quickly and has Wolverine rush into a fight he isn’t prepared for. Neither is Spider-Man, who has no time to prepare himself.
Captions help convey that Wolverine is the best he is at what he does, but only if it’s helping others and with others helping him. It’s a somewhat weak argument, especially when he doesn’t give Spider-Man much chance to help out as best he can. When the going gets tough, though, it’s entertaining to see Spidey using webs to keep their spaceship together or saving Wolverine in more than one way.
Ibrahim Moustafa draws some strong action and heroic scenes, especially in the first half. The art gets a touch rougher as it goes on, but it’s easy to follow with stakes captured well. When a Sentinel is about to fall on a person, the use of shadow to convey how tall this thing is isn’t lost on the reader.
Never take a man’s hot dog.
Credit: Marvel
The results of the adventure are a bit weak. Wolverine comes away with something, but it’s thanks to something happening off-panel. It’s also never explained why Wolverine is rushing into battle without giving Spider-Man a single second to comprehend what they’re doing. It makes Wolverine seem brash and not tactical, though it never says that’s the point.
There have been a handful of good team-ups in this stretch of the story arc, but there have been some duds, too. This issue is more in the middle, with some fun moments, albeit mainly at the expense of Wolverine. For that reason, it’s a bit of a relief this story arc comes to a close as I’m happy to get back into Wolverine being more in line with the X-line, or at the very least, more structure as Sabretooth War starts.
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