Marvel has made a lot of nostalgia-tinged miniseries for the past few years, but what makes Spider-Man & Wolverine so unique is that unlike the other minis, this one is set squarely in the present day. While not as continuity-heavy as their respective solo series, Spider-Man and Wolverine’s team-up book smashes the two Marvel titans together and throws them into a world of espionage and action. Under writer Marc Guggenheim and artists Kaare Andrews and Gerardo Sandoval, the first volume The Janus Directory will certainly please those wanting to see Spidey and Wolvie throw down against some of their famous enemies (and each other), but those looking for a deeper story will probably be best suited elsewhere.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Spider-Man & Wolverine Vol 1: The Janus Directory!
After learning that the mysterious Janus Directory is going to go live, Wolverine tracks down Peter Parker to help him find it before more nefarious people do. Featuring the names, aliases, and missions of every covert agent that has ever been a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolverine knows Parker will want the chance to learn more about his secret agent parents. As the two make their way into an abandoned S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, they’re attacked by Kraven the Hunter and Omega Red, who have been hired by mysterious forces to prevent them from gaining access to the directory at all costs. As the two heroes square off and subdue the villains, Spidey gains access to the directory, and makes the worst discovery possible: Wolverine was the one who murdered his parents all those years ago. As the two come to blows, they quickly learn they still have to work together to keep the Janus Directory out of the wrong hands, and deal with a new enemy: Dreadshadow.
Marvel
Let’s just get this out of the way: Spider-Man & Wolverine Vol. 1: The Janus Directory isn’t going to win many awards for “Best Comic Series”, but this is a trade that promises Spidey and Wolverine on the cover with some bombastic art, and it delivers that for sure! In the best ways, The Janus Directory feels like a throwback to early ’90s Marvel, complete with over-the-top art, witty mismatched pair banter, throwback costumes, and an oversized villain with a name picked from the best parts of the “edgy Thesaurus”. For the most part, that’s pretty fun, but there is a lot of exposition that grinds the book to a screeching halt whenever we get them. They happen so often with such similar page layouts that it almost feels like they were just cut and pasted into the book over and over. Not to mention that there are a lot of plot points that are picked up and subsequently forgotten about until the end of the collection when the final part of the book rolls around.
Marc Guggenheim’s script is to blame for a lot of these momentum-halting monologues, but he does have a good handle on Spidey and Wolverine’s banter. While not quite as entertaining as his bickering with Deadpool, Wolverine’s back and forth with Spidey still has the fun vibe of two people who are really good friends despite everything pointing to the contrary. Guggenheim also gets credit for inserting this story pretty cleanly into both character’s current status quos in a way that’s entertaining but also not very distracting. You see Peter on a date with his on-again/off-again girlfriend Shay at the beginning, but other than that this is a story that could take place at any time in the character’s history.
Arguably the plot point of the book that I have the most issue with is the fact that it reminds me that Richard and Mary Parker were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, an aspect of my favorite character that I have always memory holed (and Teresa Parker, for that matter). The “Jason Bourne” angle suits the story fine for Wolverine’s part in it, but doesn’t quite fit with what I personally like in a Spider-Man tale.
Marvel
Easily the main selling point of this collection is the art from Kaare Andrews, who brings the bombastic action as only he can. After returning to the Marvel fold with last year’s Spider-Man: Reign 2, I was surprised to see that Andrews didn’t also script this series as well. Taking that responsibility off his plate definitely allowed him to go the extra mile with the art in this issue, with some really bold and unique panel layouts throughout the collection. Small touches like the panels flipping upside down as Peter is watching the footage of his parents, or the huge splash pages when Wolverine and Spider-Man have their big confrontation in issue #2 really sell the spectacle that Andrews and Guggenheim try to create with the series. Even when Gerardo Sandoval has to pinch hit for the fourth issue the momentum remains, largely because of how close Sandoval and Andrews’ styles are.
For all the work Guggenheim does with the story and attempts at creating some connection between Spidey and Wolverine through their shared espionage past, it’s a bummer that the end result is a little lackluster. Dreadshadow could have been replaced with really any other villain, and by the time he actually shows up he feels like another narrative aspect that the plot doesn’t seem ready to fully take on.
Spider-Man & Wolverine is a series that features the two heroes team up, fight, get sent to the Savage Land, wear their fan favorite suits (Spidey in the black costume and Wolverine’s brown and tan one), fight a bunch of their big villains, and try to uncover a mystery. Adding Dreadshadow in when it could have been one of the four other villains in the series would have made a bit more sense, and prevent the final two issues from feeling like a complete rundown of how Dreadshadow planned all of this.
While it has some fun throwback moments, Spider-Man & Wolverine: The Janus Directory feels less like a story and more like Kaare Andrews had a lot of cool things he wanted to draw with Spider-Man and Wolverine, and then Marvel had Marc Guggenheim compile a story from the art.
You must be logged in to post a comment.