Laura Kinney : Wolverine #5 // Review
Bucky has just stepped on a landmine. The good news is that the model of landmine in question usually has a 1.5 second time delay before it actually goes off. The bad news is that neither he nor his ally Laura have super speed. To make matters worse: there’s a giant robot that’s coming to attack them and it’s really, really big. That’s when Laura asks Bucky if he trusts her. And he asks her if he has a choice. Things are very complicated for the two heroes in Laura Kinney: Wolverine #5. Writer Erica Schutz continues a very fun run with a very appealing Wolverine in an issue brought to page and panel by artist Giada Belviso and colorist Racehlle Rosenberg.
Laura and Bucky are tracking down a renegade scientist named Henrick Schneider. He may have some pretty heavy tech protecting him, but it’s not going to be any challenge to two trained superhuman warriors. The problem is that Schneider knows this and he’s already put his plan in motion. The food. The water. It’s all been contaminated.The mutations have already begun. There are a lot of innocent lives in the ballance and now Laura and Bucky are in a very bad place.
Schultz moves thee action through the pages with a deft and wity hand. It’s a buddy action story where the buddies in question are a young woman and a semi-immortal warrior who is eancient as hell. It’s a fun dynamc between the two of them as they have similar background s and similar personalities...but they come from completely different worlds. Schultz has a very clever grasp of this that delivers a very deep connection between the two characters as they roll through some pretty dark places.
Belviso allows Laura to spring around th panel with a kind of grace that the original Wolverine is rarely offered. The bulky, little guy is sharp and powerful, but he lacks the lithe grace of Laura. Belviso amplifies her balletic action in some very powerful motions and actions that arc and slash across the page with impressicely agile impact. Belviso also manages to deliver quite a bit of power in the less aggressive, more silent moments, aided as she is in deliering mood with the smartly nuanced coloring work of Rosenberg.
Schultz really ives into the darkness around the edges of the action. Her work on the series has had the opportunity to move in directions that haven’t always been totally accessivble to superhero comics. There are a couple of deaths in the issue that feel particularly heavy even though they’re not exactly major characters who have been around for very long. This is quite an accomplishment on Shchultz’s part. She’s able to really lower the boom on a couple of homicides even though they’re not characters that had been all that prominent prior to...well...this particular issue actually. Once again, Schultz is showing that she’s one of the more appealing writers in mainstream superhero comics today.
