Title: Daken: Dark Wolverine Vs. X-23: Collision
Written By: Marjorie Liu & Daniel Way
Illustrated By: Giuseppe Camuncoli, Marco Checchetto, Ryan Stegman, Agustin Padilla, and Sana Takeda
Review: This Marvel graphic novel is set in the 2010 story arch "Wolverine: Road To Hell", and brings together a total of six comics from two of the three series that intertwine in said story arch.
Overall, this graphic novel tells the story of Daken meeting Laura Kinney, X-23, his kind of, sort of sister and explores his developing feelings of what I can only describe as familial ties to her.
Overall, this graphic novel tells the story of Daken meeting Laura Kinney, X-23, his kind of, sort of sister and explores his developing feelings of what I can only describe as familial ties to her.
It also, however, tells the story of Daken seizing control of the crime ridden city of Madripoor, so he can "go beyond the Weapon X" as a mutant with help from none other than Malcolm Colcord -- AKA Mr. Sinister. Yeah, because there's no way that could possibly ever go wrong and when it inevitably does go wrong, it leads to Daken teaming up with X-23 to bring Colcord down.
On a different part of the scope, the story continues to explore Laura's journey to find herself with Gambit along for the ride as a sort of sidekick. Although this time she seems a little less unsure of her own humanity, unlike in previous volumes of the X-23 series.
If nothing else, I could say that this graphic novel was wrongly titled. We actually get to see very little Daken V. X-23 action. We see them working together more than anything else throughout the novel, so I can only conclude that the title was chosen to grab the attention of Marvel fanboys who love a good fight scene and the possibility of seeing Daken ripping X-23's clothes to shreds. Even in a incestual, yet nonsexual but still kind of gross to think about sort of way.
God, what is wrong with me?
Anyway, the writers did an excellent job, penning a deep story with lots of plot twists. The story is emotionally gripping and does not disappoint in the action department. It's definitely one that will keep first-time readers on the edge of their seats.
The different art styles are a little hard to judge because the artists' independent styles are so vastly different from each other, though I will say the artwork in the very beginning of the novel was not to my liking. It was very rough and crude, and at times looked like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Luckily, though, the artwork did improve and is overall quite beautiful, in my opinion. Honestly, if I had to pick a favorite artist from the five that worked on this novel, I'm not sure I would be able to, but I definitely look forward to seeing more of their work in the future.
Overall, I'm going to have to give this one an eight out of ten. Honestly, I have to say, it would have received a ten out of ten, but I really just feel there wasn't as much as emotional depth to this story as there should have been and I really feel like Daken did not develop much as a character at all. I mean, yeah, he found out he has a clone for a sister, who is a complete and total badass and that he sort of doesn't hate her. Other than that, though, he really doesn't seem to change or develop or evolve in anyway, to me.
Maybe it's because I haven't read a lot of the comics about Daken. What can I say -- he's not my favorite character or even my favorite villain, for that matter. That's mostly because his existence really just screws with the continuity of the Marvel multiverse as I know it, but let's not get into the argument of whether or not Wolverine banged chicks other than Mariko in Japan and that it is a multiverse, so pretty much anything can happen. There's more to it than the continuity thing, but I won't go into it because it's like I said, he's not my favorite character. Hell, though, I survived The House of M -- AKA The Biggest Marvel Mind F*ck Of All Time -- so I can survive Wolverine having an estranged son.
But there also didn't seem to be very much character development for X-23 this time around, either. Which is weird because in the previous volumes of the X-23 series, she was all soul-searching and questioning her humanity, on a journey to find herself. In this graphic novel, the issue was rarely addressed.
In the end, though, I believe that eight out of ten is a fair score and, honestly, it's more than what I expected to give this particular graphic novel. Excited though I was to read it, I didn't really have high hopes for it just because Daken was in it (see above). Though, I will admit, he did manage to get some good jokes in.
I may or may not end up revisiting this graphic novel after I have finished collecting and reading the individual series, which make up the aforementioned Wolverine: Road To Hell story arch, but until then, my opinion probably won't be changing any time soon.
So, I guess, the only question that remains is: Is this graphic novel worth buying?
Well, it really depends on the reader. If you're a die-hard Wolverine fanboy, then yes. Hell yes. That means it's also probably a yes for X-23 or Daken fans just because they're related to Wolverine.
However, if you're a Marvel or X-Men fan who really just thinks Wolverine is meh or is sick of all the hype he gets in the movies, then you could probably skip out on this one.
At the end of the day, though, I would still probably recommend this graphic novel to readers of both those categories for two reasons: 1) It is not specifically a Wolverine story, so the Wolvie haters really don't have anything worry to whine about because whether they like or not, Daken and X-23 are not the same characters as Wolverine and it'd be ignorant of them to assume they were. 2) It is a hell of a good story.
Sure, it may have featured one of my least favorite Marvel villains of all time and there wasn't nearly as much character development as I'd have liked, but at the end of the day, the story still makes it worth reading. In my opinion, anyway.
God, what is wrong with me?
Anyway, the writers did an excellent job, penning a deep story with lots of plot twists. The story is emotionally gripping and does not disappoint in the action department. It's definitely one that will keep first-time readers on the edge of their seats.
The different art styles are a little hard to judge because the artists' independent styles are so vastly different from each other, though I will say the artwork in the very beginning of the novel was not to my liking. It was very rough and crude, and at times looked like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Luckily, though, the artwork did improve and is overall quite beautiful, in my opinion. Honestly, if I had to pick a favorite artist from the five that worked on this novel, I'm not sure I would be able to, but I definitely look forward to seeing more of their work in the future.
Overall, I'm going to have to give this one an eight out of ten. Honestly, I have to say, it would have received a ten out of ten, but I really just feel there wasn't as much as emotional depth to this story as there should have been and I really feel like Daken did not develop much as a character at all. I mean, yeah, he found out he has a clone for a sister, who is a complete and total badass and that he sort of doesn't hate her. Other than that, though, he really doesn't seem to change or develop or evolve in anyway, to me.
Maybe it's because I haven't read a lot of the comics about Daken. What can I say -- he's not my favorite character or even my favorite villain, for that matter. That's mostly because his existence really just screws with the continuity of the Marvel multiverse as I know it, but let's not get into the argument of whether or not Wolverine banged chicks other than Mariko in Japan and that it is a multiverse, so pretty much anything can happen. There's more to it than the continuity thing, but I won't go into it because it's like I said, he's not my favorite character. Hell, though, I survived The House of M -- AKA The Biggest Marvel Mind F*ck Of All Time -- so I can survive Wolverine having an estranged son.
But there also didn't seem to be very much character development for X-23 this time around, either. Which is weird because in the previous volumes of the X-23 series, she was all soul-searching and questioning her humanity, on a journey to find herself. In this graphic novel, the issue was rarely addressed.
In the end, though, I believe that eight out of ten is a fair score and, honestly, it's more than what I expected to give this particular graphic novel. Excited though I was to read it, I didn't really have high hopes for it just because Daken was in it (see above). Though, I will admit, he did manage to get some good jokes in.
I may or may not end up revisiting this graphic novel after I have finished collecting and reading the individual series, which make up the aforementioned Wolverine: Road To Hell story arch, but until then, my opinion probably won't be changing any time soon.
So, I guess, the only question that remains is: Is this graphic novel worth buying?
Well, it really depends on the reader. If you're a die-hard Wolverine fanboy, then yes. Hell yes. That means it's also probably a yes for X-23 or Daken fans just because they're related to Wolverine.
However, if you're a Marvel or X-Men fan who really just thinks Wolverine is meh or is sick of all the hype he gets in the movies, then you could probably skip out on this one.
At the end of the day, though, I would still probably recommend this graphic novel to readers of both those categories for two reasons: 1) It is not specifically a Wolverine story, so the Wolvie haters really don't have anything worry to whine about because whether they like or not, Daken and X-23 are not the same characters as Wolverine and it'd be ignorant of them to assume they were. 2) It is a hell of a good story.
Sure, it may have featured one of my least favorite Marvel villains of all time and there wasn't nearly as much character development as I'd have liked, but at the end of the day, the story still makes it worth reading. In my opinion, anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment