Comic Review: Wolverine Noir #1

When I spotted this at my local comic shop, I debated between X-Men Noir and Daredevil Noir, but Wolverine seems like the most logical character to pluck from the Marvel universe and drop into a noir setting. I mean, how bad could they really screw it up?

Technically, this has everything you’d expect from a classic noir tale: Logan is a down-on-his-luck, hard-boiled detective who is given a mysterious job by the femme fatal Mariko Yashida. Logan’s partner is the not-so-bright Dog who you may remember from 2001’s Wolverine: Origins mini series-turned-ongoing. Why Stuart Moore decided to draw so much from a backstory that not many people seemed to like in the first place is beyond me. There’s so many unnecessary flashbacks to characters from Origins that you’ll wish they just cut the bullshit and got on with the story at hand.

When the story tries to lean on the noir side, it pretty much rips off the opening of The Maltese Falcon — the first (and  possibly most famous) noir film ever made. If you’ve ever seen The Maltese Falcon or read the novel that it was based on, the first four or five pages of this will seem strangely familiar.

About the only thing this book has going for it is the art. C. P. Smith’s art is gorgeous, stark, and at times downright sexy. Rain Beredo’s colors and textures pop out and make some of the less significant scenes the most memorable.

Somewhere out there, there’s the perfect Marvel noir story just waiting to be told, but you won’t find it here. Wolverine Noir seems more like a gimmick done just for the hell of it than an actual fleshed out noir tale worth reading.

Wolverine Noir #1 – $3.99
Writer: Stuart Moore
Artist: C P Smith
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Editor: Daniel Ketchum