SUPER QUICK REVIEWS: Wolverine 6, Nightcrawler 2

Wolverine 6
Cornell (w) and Sandoval (a) and Curiel (c) and Petit (l)

Wolverine and his team have been sent by Offer to Madripoor to find an alien item that Sabretooth is trying to get his hands on before Sabretooth can get his hands on it. Logan leads his team to his old bar, disguised as old Madripoor standby Patch but the team is attacked by the Hand searching for Logan. He's whisked away as one of the people teamed with the Hand stays in the bar to deal with the team. It turns out all three are with MI13 and this was all organized by Wolverine. Pete Wisdom, Dane Whitman, and tech guy O run over the plan and give Wolverine a tracker to find the stolen item as Faiza Hussain leads Wolverine's team to their meeting. As "the Hand" flee, Wolverine brings his team step-by-step to the item, losing them just as he comes across Sabretooth.

I think there are parts of this story that are interesting, more interesting than I've found most of Cornell's run on WOLVERINE to be, but it's sometimes bogged down by over-explanation and a desire to maybe be a little more than it outwardly seems. As I intimated last issue, Pinch somehow put some pieces together and decided maybe Wolverine was playing them all and it comes up here a couple of times but it still doesn't really work for me. On top of that, there's a weird segment in here where suddenly narrative kicks in and goes third person omniscient, giving us access to Wolverine's thoughts but in a third person narration. Just weird.

Total Score: 3/5

Nightcrawler 2
Claremont (w) and Nauck (a) and Rosenberg (c) and Petit (l)

Nightcrawler and Amanda Sefton made it out of the fight with Trimega by the skin of their teeth and have set out to find their foster mother from their youthful days in the circus, Margali. They go to Wizendorf, reminisce a bit and flirt a bit more, and then make their way to the typical resting place of the traveling circus. They're promptly attacked by old friends not believing they're who they say they are but eventually they're swayed and celebrate the return of their friends. Amanda and Margali, though, have developed a feud that won't be so easily forgotten but it has to be put aside when Trimega does eventually turn up.

It's a little hard to feel terribly invested in this series as we don't really have a good sense of who Trimega is or why he's so dangerous. Add to that a bit too much exposition and some sickly sweet writing (there are few people who hate exclamation points used outside of shouts more than I) and so far the book is off to a shaky start. I will credit Todd Nauck for some solid art and I'll credit Marvel for getting Jamie McKelvie to do the covers on this series (as well as on MS. MARVEL, while we're talking about it) because they very nearly make it worth it to pick this one up regardless of your personal connection to it.

Total Score: 2/5