I have to admit that I have had no interest in the recent exploits of the Amazing Spider-Man, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine or Uncanny X-Force. So why is it that I have been hopelessly hooked on the odyssey that is Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine?
The answer is simple. Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert have reached into the Marvel Universe, picked out two polar opposite personalities and thrown them together in their own wacky buddy comedy and the result is a hoot. Something like this could easily turn into ‘The Time Traveling Adventures of Smart-Ass and Bad-Ass’ but the creators are far too sharp to let it happen. Kubert has always had a crisp, clear style in his work and a level of detail that pulls you into every scene. He is perfectly suited to a series that treats us to such an array of fantastic environments and characters but never feels silly. And this is a comic where you have to shoot a Phoenix force bullet at a Doctor Doom planet. Meanwhile Aaron crafts a joyously spontaneous journey but brings enough depth to our two heroes to make them more than caricatures on a romp. If the story occasionally teeters on the brink of ludicrous then it’s the down-to-earth quips or surliness of Spidey and Wolvie that pulls the reader back.
The only danger for this comic is that throwing a character through time like a rag doll leaves little in the way of explanation. If you leave your audience hanging on for too long it can become irritating. As my right honorable friend Mr Innes once remarked to me about The Return of Bruce Wayne, ‘Where is the chase and how do I cut to it?’
Joe Read.
