So is “Savage Wolverine” always going to take place in “Savage Land”?

Cause if so I’m getting off now.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of The Savage Land – a half-rate Skull Island from King Kong – and over the years whenever a Marvel title I was reading took a detour to the Land my interest faded and I check out.

“So why the fuck did you buy Savage Wolverine #1 when the fucking title proclaims it’s intentions from the get go?” You may ask me. Well, yeah, I don’t really really have an answer for that except I’m a sucker for #1 issues.

And honestly, a lot of the Marvel Now – oh excuse me I mean, NOW! – books have been really great and a welcome sight for a DC die-hard like myself where the NEW 52 is crumbling under the weight of bad editorial decisions and lackluster creative teams comprised of comic book stars from years ago whose best work is behind them. Marvel has been stepping up and delivering fantastic reads and so I figured I would give Savage Wolverine a shot.

And what kind of comic fan doesn’t love Wolverine? Dude is like the best comic book character ever created and over the years has been the recipient of fantastic comic books starting with the Claremont/Miller mini series from the early 80’s, to Kent Williams awesomely painted Havoc/Wolverine “Meltdown” series, on to his own first on-going series featuring stunning work by the likes of John Buscema, Marc Silvestri, ,Mark Texeira, and Adam Kubert. And who can forget the landmark Weapon X Series by Barry Windsor-Smith that finally gave us more of Wolverines past then was ever reviled at the time.

It is clear that where Wolverine goes good art and story usually follows.

Usually.

There have been miss steps along way. A character well used such as Logan can’t escape suckiness for ever. It’s inevitable that sooner or later someone is going to get their grubby hands on him and do something that just doesn’t ring true to us fanboys. And that’s just what happened here on Savage Wolverine.

I get what Frank Cho is trying to do here – bring a sense of fun and pulp to Wolverine. I see him taking a page from Mark Waid’s Daredevil series where gone is the grim and gritty and replaced by grins and goofy. Perhaps Marvel issued down a mandate stating “Do shit like Wade did on Daredevil. Dude won an Einser for that shit.” Whatever the case Savage Wolverine is a bit off the beaten path for Logan.

And that’s not to say that there isn’t any “SNITK” action to be found here – ol’canucklehead still pops those claws and fucks up of natives and dinosaurs, but when the fighting is done this “Savage” Wolverine acts more like “Stand-Up” Wolverine. Cracking jokes about Mama Logan and where he keeps his house keys. Really? Come on man, Wolverine is best at what he does, and what he does isn’t telling jokes. And dude, there was a time when hanging out with Shanna the She-Devil would have led to jungle fever, but here Wolvie acts like he doesn’t even notice Shanna’s tig old bitties that are barely hanging in there behind that leopard spotted bathing suit. (I fucking noticed. Jesus Frank).

I will give it up to the art though, which I dug and thought was well done. Is it enough to keep me coming back for more Savage shenanigans? Probably not.