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Aug 11

Ms Marvel & Wolverine #1

Posted on Thursday, August 11, 2022 by Paul in x-axis

MS MARVEL & WOLVERINE #1
Writer: Jody Houser
Artist: Zé Carlos
Colourist: Erick Arciniega
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Mark Basso

Well, here’s one for the completist file – at least from an X-books’ perspective. Not so much for Ms Marvel, of course. I really don’t get Marvel’s publishing approach to this character – you’d have thought the TV show would be a good reason to get her solo series up and running again, but instead we’re getting Infinity Comics and team-up books.

In classic Marvel style, while this is labelled Ms Marvel & Wolverine #1, it’s actually the first issue of a miniseries where, you guessed it, every issue is called Ms Marvel & Insert Name Here #1. Because you wouldn’t want people to be able to figure out what issue to read them in, would you? Or have something that they can actually call the series? Or make it straightforward to find them on Marvel Unlimited?

Anyway, this is the first part of a completely fine Ms Marvel comic, but one which is of no particular interest from an X-books point of view. It’s not a Ms Marvel and Wolverine team-up, really – it’s Ms Marvel and the X-Men. Is Wolverine a bigger draw than the X-Men? In 2022? I’m a bit sceptical.

Kamala drops by to visit the Treehouse like all the other tourists, and spots a weird robot insect thing. When she investigates, the X-Men get suspicious. But fortunately we’re spared the normal misunderstanding and fight, since Wolverine recognises her (and besides, Jean Grey can read minds and knows she’s not a threat). A whole swarm of the robot insects attack; Ms Marvel helps the X-Men fight them off. Another swarm shows up after the core team has left, so Ms Marvel fights that one alongside Wolverine, Storm and a bunch of B and C-listers. The end.

I mean, not the end, obviously – there’s the whole plot point about who was responsible for the robot insects, and that’s going to be covered in future issues – but if you’re treating this as a one-shot and assuming that the X-Men aren’t going to randomly stick around with Moon Knight for the next issue then it’s all rather generic. Perhaps some reason will become apparent in future issues for using the X-Men here, but really it seems like they’re playing the role of generic target here. I guess that with the Avengers off in the middle of nowhere, it’s a toss up between the Treehouse and the Baxter Building if you want a major superhero target in Manhattan these days.

The point of a team-up book ought to be interaction with the co-stars. On that point the book is… okay, I guess? Jody Houser certainly knows Ms Marvel’s history. We’re duly reminded that Wolverine was one of the first superheroes Kamala met, and that she spent some time on the Champions with a time-travelling younger version of Cyclops, so she does have some links to these characters. Carlos’s art is perfectly solid; he can handle a large cast, he’s got the style of the Treehouse, he can do a decent swarm, his robot insects pretty good. His Wolverine is convincingly sulky.

But this feels like a throwback to the early days of Ms Marvel when she spent a lot of her time being overawed by more established characters, and then being validated by teaming up with them. An actual team-up with Wolverine would be a nice enough character clash, but still quite familiar territory for him – still, you could do something playing off Logan’s history mentoring the likes of Kitty and Jubilee. But he doesn’t really stand out from the crowd here, and the X-Men’s role is just pretty routine.

It’s fine. It’s decently paced, everyone feels in character, it looks pretty good. It just doesn’t do much beyond that.

Bring on the comments

  1. Omar Karindu says:

    I wonder if the all-digital model is a bit like Marvel’s early -200s experiment with digest formats.

    They assume the youth market won’t be anywhere near a direct market shop or the GN section of a bookstore, so material for that market is digital-first and smartphone-formatted.

  2. Si says:

    Is the Ms Marvel stuff being promoted outside of Unlimited itself? I imagine they’d do well if you got free issues on the studio web site and around the place on Disney sites, with links to more on the paid app. I don’t know, was the show a hit with the kids or was it just another MCU show?

    I do have trouble accepting that your more upbeat characters like Ms Marvel and Spider-Man would hang around with mass murderers like Wolverine. I know it’s part of the conceit of the shared universe and anti-heroes in general, but it still seems weird.

  3. Mark Coale says:

    I think one of the downsides of streaming is no independent viewing data figures.

    Do we know any real figures for the D+ shows?

  4. The Other Michael says:

    Oh look, a mysterious figure collecting DNA from random characters for mysterious reasons.

    And it’s not Mister Sinister this time.
    Or is it.
    Or is it Arnim Zola?
    Or the High Evolutionary?

    Hey whatever happened to Xraven?

  5. MasterMahan says:

    It is Ms. Marvel. The Inventor back from the dead seems the most likely.

  6. Bengt says:

    How is this series not called “Ms Marvel Two-in-One”?

  7. Omar Karindu says:

    Si said: I do have trouble accepting that your more upbeat characters like Ms Marvel and Spider-Man would hang around with mass murderers like Wolverine. I know it’s part of the conceit of the shared universe and anti-heroes in general, but it still seems weird.

    To a younger,, non-comics audience, Wolverine is that dude who’s on lots of branded merch and, maaaaybe, that dude from some older movies or cartoons. The “conflicted guy who sometimes kills, but isn’t a killer” angle is much less visible from that perspective.

    There’s also the way antihero characters like Wolverine, the Punisher, and, more recently, Deadpool all seem to appeal greatly to a kind of adolescent/pre-adolescent idea of “mature” or “edgy.” They do well with kids who want to imagine they’re past “kids’ stuff.”

  8. Miyamoris says:

    My personal headcanon is that the younger heroes don’t know the full extent of Wolverine’s murderous activities. As for Spidey… well there was that old Soviet Union adventure where he mostly got that Logan’s world is more complicated and a bit out of his reach, I guess.

  9. Luis Dantas says:

    Do you mean Germany? In the Spider-Man Versus Wolverine one-shot published in 1986?

  10. Mark Coale says:

    In sliding time continuity, would Spidey have been around for the USSR (or West Germany) now? I presume not.

  11. Chris V says:

    Nope. I think Peter Parker would have become Spider Man in 2002 now. I’m guessing they were in the all-purpose nation of Sin-Cong.

  12. sagatwarrior says:

    Well, considering the fact that the Ms. Marvel are repeatedly cancelled, I guess they going by this approach to drum up support.

    Mark Coale says:

    “I think one of the downsides of streaming is no independent viewing data figures.

    Do we know any real figures for the D+ shows?”

    Well, if the show isn’t on trending topics or viewing figures are hidden, then that should be enough to tell you things are doing.

  13. Miyamoris says:

    @Luis sorry for the late response but yeah, that one. mixed up the country oop.

  14. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    Spoilers for issue #2, if anybody cares.

    Issue #2 came out yesterday – sorry, “Ms Marvel & Moon Knight #1” – and it remains x-related due to the antagonist behind the robot swarms. It’s the man with the peacock tatoo from xeno. Remember them? Benjamin Percy sure doesn’t seem to, considering when we’ve last seen that subplot.

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