Savage Wolverine #21 finds the young lord Logan smack in the middle of World War 1 as a sergeant in the American army, war-weary & dreaming of a simpler place/simpler time. The issue centers around a seemingly routine mission for he & his battalion involving putting the paws to some Germans, cutting their supply lines & communications, etc. Though a handful of soldiers roll out for the mish’, the bulk of the work is carried out by Logan da Gawd & his fellow mutant squad mate & unlikely companion Sergeant Bellamy (or “Link” as Logan nicknames him in one scene), who’s ability allows him to mind-meld with the German camp’s commanding officer & feed vital intel directly into L’s brain (talk about overcoming handicaps).
The real focus of this issue is filling in another blank in Logan’s overwhelmingly murky past & thus further humanizing the legend in the process. Through these time-period vignettes, the reader gets to see these personal social relationships with people outside other melodramatic mutants & megalomaniacal villains. And that’s cool because Wolverine is like the Stone Cold Steve Austin, blue-collar everyman of the homo-superior game & we always get hints about the checkered history, but it’s somewhat fulfilling to see some the dirt big homey had to do in the name of choices that weren’t as black & white then- before the Weapon X experiments & near-apocalyptic story arcs.
Real spit- wasn’t a huge fan of the artwork after the 1st read. It all felt a little too cartoony for me, especially given the particular circumstances Savage Wolverine #21 covers. But after giving it a couple more spins I better understand what Quinones was pulling off with it, as some panels have this 1930’s war poster feel to them, giving the whole book almost a propaganda feel (which, though still not crazy about, I appreciate & enjoy a bit more. Way more than the artwork in SW #15 but thats another story).
John Arcudi handles the writing fairly well, though to be fair there wasn’t too much room for any depth save standard banter between soldiers. There is a particular flip that Quinones & Arcudi pull off using the 1st few panels & the last few panels that are the true highlight of this particular issue, where Logan’s dream of being in Paris & sharing a drink with a passerby becomes this impressive deja-vu sequence when he finally corners the German commanding officer trying to radio help. Shit felt like the turn of a good poem, breh.
Though not the most dynamic read, still worth the peepage. It’s a well done jigsaw piece to the mosaic that the Savage Wolverine series seems to be building from the fragmented, clandestine origins of everyone’s favorite biological weapon turned superhero. Stay woke & enjoy, Bub.
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