Cyclops 1, Savage Wolverine 18

Cyclops 1
Rucka (w) and Dauterman (a) and Sotomayor (c) and Caramagna (l)

Scott Summers has left his team behind in order to figure out his life in space with his newly discovered father, the space pirate Corsair. Also in Corsair's Starjammers are Corsair's girlfriend Hepzibah, and aliens Korvus, Ch'od, Sikorsky, and Raza Longknife (as well as Cr'eee, whose role I don't want to categorize as "crew member"). Scott has interacted with all of them in varying degrees but wishes that he'd spent more time with his father as the issue starts. He'll get his chance, though, as the Starjammers successfully fight off a Badoon ship and capture it for themselves, with Corsair making the decision that he and his son will take the ship (meant to be driven with a crew of two) and he'll show Scott some of the wonders of the galaxy he's explored.

Story
It's a nice little father-son tale to kick things off. So many heroes in the Marvel Universe can be boiled down to "daddy issues" so it's nice to see Scott get a chance to connect with his, even if it's a bit of a strange circumstance. There are little hints here and there throughout the book that Scott is learning a lot about his surroundings and the people with him, happily taking in any and all information he can. The Badoon strike doesn't really constitute a giant threat as it's just our means to get from one spot to another in this first issue, but it serves its purpose well. There's no hint of a bigger ongoing story just yet, with this issue primarily establishing Scott's new world and the way he's feeling about it all. 4/5

Character
Scott has a lot of time for introspection aboard the ship and it's fairly worthwhile introspection. Obviously he cares that he gets to have a relationship with his thought-dead father and that he gets to carve out a little spot in his life but there are also signs that point to the idea that he's running away from his problems on Earth as much as he's trying to explore space. He's seen his future, both his own personal future and the future of the people he loves, and it's all scared him. Now he's found at least a temporary leave from it and he's taken it. We also get some characterization from Corsair and the Starjammers in varying degrees, enough for us to make some early judgments about them though they're not the focus of this issue. Solid work by Rucka to get us onboard with the series as a whole. 5/5

Writing
The writing is solid, both in the dialogue and in Scott's personal narrative and his letters to Jean. I tend to get skeptical of people writing for children because I think it's so easy to go too hard one direction (making them too childish) or the other (making them too adult) and it's very hard to find that medium but, for all intents and purposes, Rucka seems to be doing a good job of it here. The pacing is pretty good, particularly picking up in the fight scene and then managing to slow again a bit as things return to normal. Good work starting everything off. 5/5

Art
Dauterman does a pretty good job throughout the issue, not an easy task considering how many diverse characters are in this book. Still, he manages to draw them all well and draw them with some level of emotion. There are also a couple of nice bits here and there where you can see Scott or another character peeking in from the background inquisitively as some other important thing is going on in the foreground. Nice little touches like that can go a long way to building a series. 5/5

Miscellaneous
The series is off to a good start. It's maybe not my favorite book out there and it didn't necessarily blow me away on issue one (that's a hard ask for every single book and I don't expect, I'm just trying to temper my rating) but it certainly did what it set out to do.

Total score: 5/5


Savage Wolverine 18
Van Meter (w) and R. Ellis (a) and Redmond (c) and Petit (l)

The year is 1963 and Logan has stopped in the southwest at a bar on his way traveling through the country. Though he keeps to himself, he overhears a few farmers and other laborers talking about how their immigrant help has begun to take the trains out to California and come back with all sorts of ideas about how much they should be paid and about unions and so on and so forth. The idea doesn't sit well with the white farmers and they get to discussing how to intimidate their hired help to stop them from acting on such ideas. Wolverine leaves at this point, still headed out of town, but he ends up getting turned around and has to stay with one of the farmers, far more sympathetic to the immigrants. He spends the night there and learns a little more about their plight. The next morning, as the farmers move a tractor on the rails to detour the train past their little town, Wolverine strikes, protecting the leader of the movement and forcing the farmers to reconsider. The train comes and everyone who wanted to head to Sacramento leaves while Wolverine discovers that JFK has been assassinated.

Story
There are maybe a few too many moving pieces here and there, which tends to be the problem in a lot of single-issue stories. There's a lot to take in but Van Meter still manages to perform pretty admirably, making it all tie together well (though it doesn't necessarily come across that way when you're trying to summarize it quickly). It's a nice little story of a man with the power to make things happen making things happen and protecting people. It's a nice look into one of the smaller stories in Wolverine's life and it's worth telling, even if it was maybe a little cramped here. 4/5

Character
There are a number of characters who get screen time in this issue so there's not a lot of time to develop any one of them more than another. Still, Van Meter makes sure that we have enough of an understanding of these characters to understand the larger situation and the stakes of the issue, which is really all you can ask from a single-issue, particularly in a series like this where we're not really making huge strides on understanding who Logan is or how he's changing, we're seeing moments from his past that were just pretty cool moments. Logan keeps in character and performs the way we'd expect him to, which is really all we can ask from this one. 4/5

Writing
The writing is solid. As I intimated above, things are a little cramped in the book just because there's so much story and so little time to get it out but it comes across strongly enough. Even without knowing too much of the history of the time, you can really get a sense of everything that's happening and why without too much effort on Van Meter's part. Hopefully she'll get a chance to do more work with Marvel soon. 5/5

Art
Like the writing, the art is solid. The emotions are conveyed pretty strongly and the action, limited though it is, works well too (plenty of Wolverine's claws and silhouettes and what have you). I wouldn't call it astonishing work but then again, art is pretty subjective. It works for this story. 4/5

Miscellaneous
Another solid book from this series. Looking forward to Gail Simone's story next.

Total score: 4/5