Comics, Magazines and Books from Diamond Distributors for July 31 2013

Digital Comics: Digital new releases available from your local comic book shop are marked below. [DIG] = Digital version available. [DIG/P+] = Print-Plus digital/print combo pack available. For more information, go to www.digitalcomicsreader.com.

COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
JUN130885 3 GUNS #1 [DIG] $3.99
MAY131243 ABC WARRIORS VOLGAN WAR GN VOL 03 (MR) $21.99
JUN130846 ABSOLUTION RUBICON #2 (MR) $3.99
JUN130848 ABSOLUTION RUBICON #2 FINAL JUSTICE CVR (MR) $3.99
JUN130849 ABSOLUTION RUBICON #2 HAPPY KITTY PREMIUM CVR (MR) $9.99
JUN130847 ABSOLUTION RUBICON #2 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
MAY131235 ACG COLL WORKS ADV INTO UNKNOWN SLIPCASE ED VOL 02 $64.99
DEC121207 ACG COLL WORKS FORBIDDEN WORLDS HC VOL 03 $47.99
APR131205 ACG COLL WORKS FORBIDDEN WORLDS SLIPCASE ED VOL 01 $119.99
APR131207 ACG COLL WORKS SKELETON HAND SLIPCASE ED VOL 01 $64.99
MAY130951 ADVENTURE TIME SUMMER SPECIAL 2013 #1 (NOTE PRICE) $4.99
APR130781 ADVENTURES OF A COMIC CON GIRL TP (MR) $9.99
JUN131162 AMULET SC VOL 02 STONEKEEPERS CURSE NEW PTG $12.99
MAY130806 ARCHIE #646 REG CVR [DIG/P+] $2.99
MAY130809 ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #242 [DIG/P+] $3.99
MAY130826 BEST OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG VILLAINS HC [DIG] $24.99
APR131072 BIONIC MAN #22 $3.99
MAY131182 BLOODY MONDAY GN VOL 11 $10.99
MAY130973 BLUFFTON MY SUMMERS WITH BUSTER GN $22.99
JUN130855 CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #6 (MR) $3.99
JUN130857 CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #6 GORE CVR (MR) $3.99
JUN130856 CALIGULA HEART OF ROME #6 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
MAR131252 CAPOTE IN KANSAS HC (MR) $19.99
MAY130784 CHIP PKT MANGA TP VOL 01 $14.95
MAY130937 CLIVE BARKER NEXT TESTAMENT #3 (MR) [DIG] $3.99
JUN130829 CROSSED ANNUAL 2013 #1 GRIZZLY CVR (MR) $5.99
JUN130830 CROSSED BADLANDS #25 FRESH KILL CVR (MR) $5.99
SEP121061 DF WARLORD OF MARS #26 RISQUE RED EXC $19.99
APR130763 DOUBLE JUMPERS TP (MR) $14.95
MAY130763 EHMM THEORY #2 (MR) $3.99
MAY130863 EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT ASSASSINS #13 CVR A HANSON [DIG] $3.99
MAY130864 EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT ASSASSINS #13 CVR B TORQUE $3.99
APR130946 FREELANCERS TP VOL 01 $19.99
MAY130798 GARBAGE DAY GN $9.95
MAY131359 GFT GRIMM UNIVERSE #5 A CVR SEJIC (UNLEASHED PT4) $5.99
MAY131360 GFT GRIMM UNIVERSE #5 B CVR CAPPROTTI (UNLEASHED PT4) $5.99
MAY131361 GFT GRIMM UNIVERSE #5 C CVR TYNDALL (UNLEASHED PT4) $5.99
MAY131369 GFT WEREWOLVES HUNGER #3 A CVR REYES $3.99
MAY131370 GFT WEREWOLVES HUNGER #3 B CVR GIUSEPPE $3.99
MAY131371 GFT WEREWOLVES HUNGER #3 C CVR MYCHAELS $3.99
MAY130764 GHOST TOWN #2 (MR) $3.99
MAY131146 GHOSTS AND RUINS HC $22.99
FEB131109 HARVEY HORRORS TOMB OF TERROR SOFTIE TP VOL 01 $24.99
APR131313 HEROMAN GN VOL 05 $12.95
MAY130857 JIRNI #4 DIRECT MARKET CVR A [DIG] $3.99
MAY130858 JIRNI #4 DIRECT MARKET CVR B $3.99
MAY130859 JIRNI #4 DIRECT MARKET CVR C $3.99
MAY130860 JIRNI #4 DIRECT MARKET CVR D $3.99
APR131216 JUDGE DREDD COMPLETE CASE FILES TP VOL 20 (MR) $32.99
MAY131245 JUDGE DREDD FATTIES GN (MR) $19.99
MAY130816 KEVIN KELLER TP VOL 02 DRIVE ME CRAZY [DIG] $11.99
JUN131376 KINGDOM HEARTS CHAIN OF MEMORIES TP $19.00
JUN131375 KINGDOM HEARTS FINAL MIX TP VOL 02 $12.00
JAN131107 KITARO GN $24.95
JUN131181 KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE TP VOL 40 $14.99
FEB131137 LENORE VOLUME II #8 $3.99
MAY130920 LIBERATOR #2 $3.50
MAY130817 LIFE WITH ARCHIE #31 REG CVR [DIG/P+] $3.99
MAY131318 LIMIT GN VOL 06 $10.95
JUN131155 MARK SCHULTZ XENOZOIC COMPLETE NEW PTG TP $39.95
MAY130799 MIDNIGHT TO DAYLIGHT GN (RES) (MR) $19.95
JUN131066 OPTIC NERVE #13 (MR) $5.95
MAY130933 PLANET O/T APES SPECTACULAR ONE SHOT [DIG] $4.99
MAR130799 PUNCH DRUNK GN [DIG/P+] $12.95
NOV121280 ROY THOMAS PRESENTS THE HEAP HC VOL 03 $47.99
MAY131238 ROY THOMAS PRESENTS THE HEAP SLIPCASE ED VOL 02 $119.99
JUN131316 SAMMY THE MOUSE TP VOL 02 (MR) $15.00
MAY131167 SCRATCH 9 #1 CAT TAILS $3.99
MAY130925 SIMPSONS ILLUSTRATED #7 $3.99
MAY138184 SIX GUN GORILLA #1 (2ND PTG) $3.99
MAY130761 SKYWARD #1 $3.99
MAY130821 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #251 REG CVR [P+] $2.99
APR130762 SUBCULTURE OMNIBUS HC $39.99
MAY130930 TAROT WITCH OF THE BLACK ROSE #81 (MR) [DIG] $2.95
MAR130764 THE TRIP GN (MR) [DIG] $14.95
JUN130835 UBER #0 ENHANCED ED (MR) $4.99
JUN130836 UBER #1 WAR CRIMES CVR (MR) $5.99
JUN130831 UBER #4 (MR) $3.99
JUN130833 UBER #4 PROPAGANDA POSTER CVR (MR) $3.99
JUN130832 UBER #4 WRAP CVR (MR) $3.99
MAY138252 UNCANNY #1 2ND PTG $3.99
MAY131218 WASTELAND #46 (MR) $3.99
JUN131200 WHY WE DRIVE GN $13.95
JUN131356 WINX CLUB GN VOL 08 $6.99

MAGAZINES
APR131212 2000 AD PACK JUN 2013 $21.00
MAY131425 COMIC SHOP NEWS #1363 PI
APR131384 DC BATMAN AUTOMOBILIA FIG COLL MAG #11 DARK KNIGHT MOVIE BAT $20.00
MAY131437 DR WHO MAGAZINE #462 $9.99
MAY131451 FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND SDCC CVR #257 $12.99
MAY131475 FILMFAX #134 $9.95
MAR131483 HOBBY JAPAN JUN 2013 $16.60
FEB131291 MEGAMI MAY 2013 $16.60
FEB131292 NEWTYPE MAY 2013 $16.00
MAY131490 SHADOW DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 74 $14.95
MAY131491 STAR TREK MAGAZINE #46 NEWSSTAND ED $9.99

BOOKS
MAY131474 BEWITCHED AGAIN SUPERNATURALLY POWERFUL WOMEN ON TV $40.00
JUN131159 BIG BIG OVERSTREET PRICE GD VOL 43 $45.00
MAR131315 DEVIL SURVIVOR OFF MATERIAL COLL SC $39.99
JUN131431 FANTASY ART OF CALANDRA SC (MR) $14.95
MAY131315 FRAZETTA SKETCHBOOK SC NEW PTG $24.95
MAR131312 HARUHI-ISM NOIZI ITO ARTWORKS HC $39.99
JUN131314 INCIDENTS IN NIGHT GN VOL 01 $19.95
JUN131154 MARK SCHULTZ CARBON SC VOL 01 $24.95
MAR131163 MULLINS GOLDEN AGE BASEBALL DRAWINGS HC 1934-1972 $35.00
MAY131292 SONICOMI ARTBOOK SUPER SONICO PICTURE ALBUM SC $39.99
JUN131430 SPECTRUM FANTASTIC ART LIVE HC VOL 01 (MR) $29.95
JUN131429 SPECTRUM FANTASTIC ART LIVE HC VOL 02 (MR) $29.95
JUN131474 WALT DISNEYS MICKEY MOUSE TALES HC (RES) $19.95
MAY132307 WARHAMMER 40K ANGEL EXTERMINATUS MMPB $9.99
APR132179 WARHAMMER 40K BEST OF HAMMER AND BOLTER TWO SC $17.50
APR132181 WARHAMMER SKARSNIK SC $14.00

Review: THE SHADOW: Year One #4

THE SHADOW: YEAR ONE #4
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics

WRITER: Matt Wagner
ARTIST: Wilfredo Torres
COLORS: Brennan Wagner
LETTERS: Simon Bowland
COVER: Matt Wagner (A), Alex Ross (B), Chris Samnee (C), Howard Chaykin (D)
The Shadow created by Walter B. Gibson
28pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.

Rated T+

After some years, I’m finally reading a comic book starring seminal old-time radio and pulp magazine vigilante and crime fighter, The Shadow, and I’ve had some mixed feelings about it.  Now, I truly satisfied… at least, for now.

Dynamite Entertainment has brought The Shadow back to comic books.  Dynamite’s latest release featuring the dark avenger who knows what fear lurks in hearts of men is The Shadow: Year One.

Depicting the beginnings of The Shadow’s campaign against crime, The Shadow: Year One is written by Matt Wagner and drawn by Wilfredo Torres.  The adventure begins in Cambodia, 1929 and moves to New York City on October 30, 1929.  That’s when wealthy, world traveler and adventurer, Lamont Cranston, becomes The Shadow and begins a war on evil in America.

As The Shadow: Year One #4 opens, Guiseppe “Joe” Massaretti, top crime boss in New York City, forms some kind of union with the mysterious Dr. Zorn.  Meanwhile, a young newspaper reporter finds that the closer he gets to Lamont Cranston, the farther away the hard-to-find millionaire seems to be.

After being saved from Carlo Luppino by The Shadow, insurance salesman, Claude Fellowes, learns the price he owes the dark avenger.  At the same time, Lupino is the one who needs saving, as he goes on the run.  Plus, in case she misunderstood, The Shadow informs Margo Lane what her relationship with Lamont Cranston will be.

I saw The Shadow: Year One #3 as an improvement over the first two issues of the miniseries because it emphasized confrontation and violence, rather than only talk and character development.  I understand that, early on, writer Matt Wagner was trying to establish the plot, setting, and characters for the series.  However, the series just did not seem like a story that deserved to run under the banner of The Shadow.  It seemed as if the story were waiting for something to really happen.

Now, with this fourth issue, The Shadow: Year One offers the kind of explosive episode that deserves to be called The Shadow.  The gamesmanship, the intrigue, the mystery and suspense; it’s on now, baby!  Oh, I mean… this is most excellent writing indeed.

I have had mixed feelings, to put it mildly, about the art by Wilfredo Torres, but he’s hitting his stride at the midway point in the series.  Now, Torres’ art has a graphic sensibility that recalls Golden Age comic book art.  It’s a visual aesthetic similar to Paul Smith’s art for The Golden Age, a 1990s DC Comics miniseries.  Smith adapted his style in way that would recall Golden Age comic book art.  Torres, in a similar fashion, is doing that with his art for this series, with increasingly good results.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Neil Gaiman's "Wayward Manor" Announced for a Holiday Release

Acclaimed Author Neil Gaiman to Release His First Video Game, WAYWARD MANOR

Game is Supported by a Unique Presale Opportunity, Offering Fans a Range of Exclusive Rewards and Experiences

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Critically-acclaimed, best-selling author Neil Gaiman (“The Ocean at the End of the Lane,” “The Sandman” series of graphic novels, “American Gods,” “The Graveyard Book” and “Coraline”) today announced the launch of his first-ever video game, WAYWARD MANOR. Set in a 1920s Victorian Gothic pastoral estate, WAYWARD MANOR players unravel the mystery of a ghost (player) seeking a peaceful after-life. After a remarkable cast of characters moves into Wayward Manor and wakes him from his post-mortem slumbers, the ghost must find ever-more inventive and brilliant ways to scare them away. As the ghost learns more about the living characters, he also learns more about his own death and after-life, and the danger they are all facing. WAYWARD MANOR will be available just in time for the holidays on PC, Mac, and tablets.

“For quite a while there's been a story that I've wanted to tell, something inspired by the kinds of films that I loved when I was a kid,” said Gaiman. “But I kept running into the same problem: it didn't really feel like a novel. It felt like something that you would have to experience yourself. So today, I'm proud to announce my first-ever game, WAYWARD MANOR.”

WAYWARD MANOR is being developed by The Odd Gentleman (THE MISADVENTURES OF P.B. WINTERBOTTOM and FLEA SYMPHONY), an award-winning independent video game studio, in conjunction with Moonshark, a game publisher co-founded by Creative Artists Agency (CAA). The release is supported by a unique, exclusive presale campaign, offering rewards for fans including limited-edition merchandise, the opportunity to name a game character, and even a private dinner with Gaiman, among others. Presale orders are now being accepted at www.WhoHauntsNeil.com.

About Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is a New York Times Best-Selling author of more than 20 books for adults and children, including the novels The Ocean at the End of the Lane (which debuted at #1), Neverwhere, Stardust, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, The Graveyard Book, and the Sandman series of graphic novels. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and is the recipient of numerous literary honors, including the Locus and Hugo Awards and the Newbery and Carnegie Medals.

About Odd Gentlemen
The Odd Gentlemen is an award-winning independent video game studio based in Los Angeles, California. Debuting with The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom, and most recently releasing the Apple Editor's Choice Game, Flea Symphony, the studio strives to master unique and memorable gaming experiences. Purveyors of fine video gaming, The Odd Gentlemen focuses on games that are humorous and charming with fantastical worlds, quirky characters, and compelling stories that highlight creative and innovative gameplay. More information can be found at www.theoddgentlemen.com or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/theoddgentlemen.

About Moonshark
Moonshark (Stan Lee’s VERTICUS and DANCEPAD, released with Jennifer Lopez) is a mobile game publisher start-up, co-founded by Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the world’s leading entertainment and sports agency, bringing to market original mobile entertainment properties by pairing the most creative minds in entertainment with leading mobile developers. Moonshark funds, produces, markets and publishes app concepts developed in partnership with high-profile talent, finding the best developers to bring these apps to life.

For more information on Moonshark and its upcoming apps, visit www.moonshark.com.

A Devil and Her Love Song: New Love Triangle

I read A Devil and Her Love Song, Vol. 9

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free smart phone apps and comics).

I Reads You Review: BATMAN '66 #1

BATMAN ’66 #1
DC COMICS – @DCComics

WRITER: Jeff Parker
ARTIST/COLORS: Jonathan Case
LETTERS: Wes Abbott
COVER: Michael Allred and Laura Allred
VARIANT COVER: Jonathan Case
36pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (September 2013)

Rated E (Everyone)

Batman ’66 is one of DC Comics’ digital-first comics.  These digital comics are initially released in a digital format to be read on computers, smart phones, and other handheld devices.  Print editions follow digital publication.

Batman ’66 is inspired by the classic American TV series, “Batman,” from 20th Century Fox Television and Greenway Productions.  Batman was a live action television series based on the DC Comics comic book character, Batman, and starred Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin, the two crime-fighting heroes who defend Gotham City.  “Batman’s” original run on television lasted for three seasons, from January 12, 1966 to March 14, 1968, for a total of 120 episodes.

Batman ’66 #1 is the print comic book edition of the opening story, “The Riddler’s Ruse,” from writer Jeff Parker and artist Jonathan Case.  The story opens in Gotham Park, where millionaire Bruce Wayne and his “youthful ward,” Dick Grayson, are on hand for the awarding of the Lady Gotham statuette to the Gotham Police Department.

The festivities are interrupted by The Riddler, who is determined to steal the Lady Gotham, professing a need to protect the work of the statuette’s creator, the late artist, Oskar Villkoop.  Is he really an art lover?  The Dynamic Duo will need the help of another arch-nemesis, the slinky Catwoman, to solve The Riddler’s latest baffling crime conundrum.  Holy Strange Bedfellows, Batman!

I first discovered the “Batman” TV series ages ago when a local television station began airing the show in syndication.  I instantly fell in love with the series, and that the show did not resemble the Batman comic books I was reading at the time did not bother me.  I was surprised to discover that quite a few comic book fans hated “Batman.”  The editors of the Comics Buyers Guide, a weekly publication of comic book news, features, and collectibles, once claimed that “Batman” was the primary reason the public at large did not take comic books seriously.

With DC Comics’ recent announcement of Batman ’66, a comic inspired by the series, I had the opportunity to discover that there are many comic book fans who loved the show.  And we have reason to cheer.  Batman ’66 is the decades-old TV show embodied in comic book form.

Batman ’66 is not a great work of comic book art, but it is a great comic book.  Please, allow me to explain.  Batman ’66 is not Batman: The Dark Knight Returns in terms of its impact on Batman the character and on superhero comics (as TDKR has been for the last quarter-century).  However, for me, Batman ’66 and TDKR are alike because the latter was the kind of comic book that was so much fun for me to read that I read it over and over again.  The first time I read TDKR, it so stunned me that I immediately read it again.  My copy could not be in “Mint” or “Near Mint” condition just from the wear I put on that comic book through repeated readings.

I can’t stop flipping through Batman ’66.  I had so much fun reading it.  That it is so much like the old TV show makes me think Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case are in need of an exorcism.  Surely, they made a deal with some kind of supernatural entity to pull this off.  The witty asides, the droll humor, the campy style, the colorful milieu, the corny moralizing, and Batman’s let’s-all-follow-the-rules approach to everything:  it’s all here; “Batman” is back.

I love Jonathan Case’s eye-popping, pop art aesthetic.  It references “Batman” without being slavish to it.  The composition and graphic design form a wild style that recalls Neal Adams and also the angular photography of the television show.  The art moves and grooves, and Case makes the coloring mimic an old-fashioned two or three-color 3D comic book.  Give that man an Eisner nod.

Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case have put fun first in this new comic.  Digital or print: Batman ’66 is a winner.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux

Strobe Edge: ...but you say he's just a friend

I read Strobe Edge, Vol. 5

I posted a review at the ComicBookBin (which has free comics).

I Reads You Review: WOLVERINE Volume 1

WOLVERINE VOL. 1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITER: Chris Claremont
PENCILS: Frank Miller
INKS: Josef Rubinstein
COLORS: Glynis Oliver (#1-3), Lynn Varley (#4)
LETTERS: Tom Orzechowski
COVER: Frank Miller with Lynn Varley
EDITOR: Louise Jones
REPRINT EDITOR: Ann Nocenti
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Terry Kavanagh
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Jim Shooter
ISBN: 0-87135-277-X; paperback (1987)
96pp, Colors, $4.95 U.S., $5.95 CAN

Wolverine received his first solo comic book in the form of a four-issue miniseries, entitled Wolverine, which was originally published from September to December 1982.  Written by Chris Claremont and penciled by Frank Miller, Wolverine tells the story of Logan/Wolverine’s mission to Japan to learn why the love of his life has rejected him.

For the last decade or so, readers have become used to trade paperbacks arriving shortly after the publication of the story arcs and miniseries that they collect – sometimes as soon as a month after a story arc or series conclusion.  Once upon a time, trade paperback collections were not common.  Wolverine, which collected the miniseries, Wolverine (Vol. 1 #1-4) was published almost five years after the original miniseries first appeared on newsstands and in comic book shops.  Even the indicia for the trade paperback was nothing more than the indicia for Wolverine #1 with a few changes to indicate new dates and prices, as well as the change in Marvel Comics’ ownership.

I suggest that before jumping into this series (and it is worth jumping into) that you read Chris Claremont’s introduction to you story.  That introduction appeared in the original version of the Wolverine trade paperback.  I must note that I am reviewing Wolverine from a 1987 first printing of the trade paperback.  I don’t know if the introduction has appeared in subsequent collected editions of the miniseries.  Claremont explains how he approached the story and why he used it as an opportunity to redefine Wolverine.

For a time, this book was a personal favorite, one I subjected to numerous readings, but I think it has been close to two decades since I last read it.  Reading it for the first time in a long time, I found that (1) I still love this story and (2) there is something about it that has been nagging at me.  After finishing my recent read, I figured out what that something is.  Chris Claremont and Frank Miller were working together to tell the same story, but they were telling it by using different genres.

First, the plot of the 1982 Wolverine miniseries:  Wolverine is spending time away from the X-Men in Canada.  He discovers that all the letters which he has been sending to Mariko Yashida, the Japanese woman he loves, have been returned unopened.  She does not respond to his telephone calls, nor will anyone connected to Mariko help him make contact with her.

Wolverine travels to Japan, where he discovers that Mariko has entered into an arranged marriage to Noburu Hideki.  This arrangement has something to do with a debt incurred by Mariko’s father, Shingen, Lord of Clan Yashida, whom Mariko once believed to be dead.  Wolverine confronts Shingen only to be easily bested in combat by the clan lord, and then, finds himself marked for death by The Hand, an organization of ninja assassins.  Wolverine’s only ally may be Yukio, a mysterious woman of questionable motivations, who is crazy in love with Wolverine.

Claremont states in the introduction that he and Miller “wanted to utterly, ruthlessly and seemingly irrevocably destroy” Wolverine.  They would use their story to make the character better.  Neither creator was interested in the Wolverine that, at the time, was so popular with readers.  That was Wolverine the “pint-sized, hell-raiser with a hair-trigger temper.”  Claremont wanted a character that was more complicated.  Why just play Wolverine as a “psycho-killer” and an animal when he could be a human who struggles with his killer/animal nature?

Claremont reveals in the introduction that he saw Wolverine as a “failed samurai.”  Thus, he wrote a story in which Wolverine struggles to attain pride, self-respect, and honor, while circumstances require him to be a berserk killer.  By exploring this conflict and struggle, Claremont uses character to drive the plot rather than have plot drive the character, which is what would happen if the story was simply about Wolverine killing his adversaries and other assorted people who want to kill him.  Basically, Claremont tells Wolverine’s story as a samurai drama with a side of existential crisis.

Meanwhile, Frank Miller tells Wolverine the character drama as a kind of crime thriller and martial arts ninja movie.  Miller’s popularity with comic book readers isn’t just because of the many unique and varied drawing styles that he has employed over the better part of forty years of drawing comic books.  Miller captures readers with his graphical storytelling – using graphics and illustrations that are connected to tell a story, but Miller does this in an especially visually arresting manner.

Miller has mastered design, not just in the way he presents pages, but also in the way he composes content within panels, connects one panel to another, and how he uses and manipulates space.  He uses the comics medium to suggest, to evoke, to prod, to provoke, and even to challenge his readers.  He goes beyond simply engaging imagination; he goes after the reader’s emotions, and that is what his pencil art does in Wolverine.  Miller tells this Wolverine character drama by visualizing the struggle between man/samurai and animal/killer with bracing depictions of battle, duels, violence, and tests of will.  Whereas Claremont uses dialogue and exposition, Miller uses visceral action.

What else can I say?  I loved going back and reading Wolverine in anticipation of the movie, The Wolverine.  This film is apparently based in part on Claremont and Miller’s seminal Wolverine miniseries, and the filmmakers could not have made a better choice.

A

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux