Wolverine: Prodigal Son (manga) review

Like X-Men Misfits, this series got canned, so this is the only book in the series. Kinda sad, since I liked the book.

You know, after watching that absolutely horrid movie in 2009, you’d think that I’d be permanently turned off from Wolverine. Alas, I decided to pick this book up from ye not so local library, and was actually quite surprised by it. An important thing to remember is that like the introduction says, you really shouldn’t hang on too much too you’re previous knowledge of the character.

This story starts with a rebellious teenager in a martial arts school somewhere in Canada. We see him beating the crap out of pretty much all of the other students, with the exception of one who breaks his leg. He manages to pin her just like all the rest of the students, just  with more trouble. We find out that the girl is known as Tamara, the headmaster’s daughter, and the guy with the long black hair is Logan, which as we all know is Wolverine’s real name.

After a bit of angst about how Logan’s a freak because he healed that broken leg up in a few minutes, then a major trial that Logan and Tamera have to face, and Logan and the sensei wind up in New York City. This leads to Wolverine realizing that the world is much bigger than he thought it was. Finally, some ninjas break things up leading to Wolverine hunting them down.

The first thing that struck me was “WHY is there a hardcore Japanese martial arts school in the middle of Canada?” something just felt a little shoehorned to make it feel more “manga.” Another thing, if Wolverine has lived his whole life at a martial arts school, how come he knows how to hotwire a car and is a great driver? Little things like this frustrate me a bit, but they don’t necessarily ruin the book.

Overall, this is an interesting alternate take on Wolverine, without worrying about about a million years of continuity. Along with that, the author’s wouldn’t have had to worry about stepping on anybody’s toes if they continued the plot, meaning Wolverine’s actions could have larger consequences than they do in the Marvel universe. They haven’t even made any references suggesting that the X-Men would be involved in this book.

While the plot takes very few risks, I did not find myself wanting to put the book down, which is a solid sign. The art style is a bit rougher than X-Men Misfits, although Wolverine looks a little too bishounen for my tastes, since Wolverine is the paragon of manliness in the Marvel Universe. However, this is an origin issue, so it is quite possible that they could have planned to turn him into a much gruffer, beefier Wolvie we know and love. Alas, without the universe binding the authors, they could go any direction they would like, creating this thing called SUSPENSE, which every project involving Wolverine lacks.

Since this series did not get continued, I would only suggest the book if it was on sale, or checking it out for the novelty of it. Definitely better than that atrocious movie that came out in 2009 though, so I will give it that.

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X-Men Misfits (manga) review

Please note that although this book says volume 1 on the cover, it got canned due to sales not being high enough. It actually sold a lot, but not enough to make the greedy moneygrubbers at Marvel happy.

This one I found at my local library. After about 10 pages in, I began to question whether this was a new take on the X-Men, or a really elaborate practical joke. If not for the production values, I would simply assume that Marvel had released this on April Fool’s day just for the sole sake of pissing off comic book guys everywhere.

Alas, upon checking up online, this is not so. So Del Rey went out and made a shoujo Harem using the X-Men cast, and stripped everybody of any signs of masculinity. My first reaction to some characters was just “Wow… what have they done to you man?” This double true for Magneto (shown right) who is a physics teacher who likes to go on about Human rights and hangs around with the juvenile delinquents known as the “Hellfire club”

Before I discuss plot, it should be noted my familiarity with X-Men mythos extends to having seen the first X-men movie (loved it btw.) and a couple of O.K. comics I read at the library. Anyhoo, this book is about high school student Kitty Pryde and her getting transferred to a new school because she doesn’t seem to fit in at her old one. This is because a few people seem to have noticed that she has this weird ability to phase through objects. (although her skills are unrefined) This has garnered her the attention of a recruiter for Professor Xavier’s academy for “gifted” youngsters. Anyway, being a mutant has forced Kitty Pryde to be transferred to one of those rich kid schools where everybody wears a fancy uniform. Oh yeah, and she’s the only female student in the school. This garners her the attention of a whole bunch of incredibly pretty male students, such as Pyro, Angel, and Alex. I was about to gouge my eyes out from all of the bishounen. Oh yeah, she doesn’t get any attention from the Icy-demeanored Bobby (Iceman,) but seems to get along well with all of the other students. Furthermore, the book seems to focus more on the day-today life of the high school students, such as Kitty Pryde’s relationships and fitting in, with a small thing about mutant rights during the last chapter.

Of course, the bishounen who irritated me the most was MAGNETO, the physics teacher. He generally looks too young to be the holocaust survivor he is in the comics, and just lacks that aura of badassery he seems to possess in almost any other representation.

This book does have its plus sides, aside from making me want to gouge my eyes out from all the bishounen. (Seriously, what about women like Ohno from Genshiken? She’d love it if they took the time to make Proffessor X and Magneto look like the masculine older men that they are) Due to generally throwing away all the old continuities, you never get that feeling of missing some details you get with the mainline X-Men, which lets you relax a bit. Furthermore, there is no sign of the rest of the Marvel universe, which makes me breathe a sigh of relief knowing that they can do what they want with the plot (if they went somewhere) The artwork has a lot of detail put in it, although I would greatly appreciate more character variation, and I would love it if some people managed to look a lot rougher. (This is a bit of an issue in Wolverine: Prodigal son, which I will be reviewing next, but they got character variation better there.) Unfortunately, there is no second volume to this plot, so all we have is an introduction to characters, which will never be fleshed out. Might be worth checking out if you’re into shoujo stuff, but since it wasn’t finished, I have an easier time recommending it to people if it continued, so it’s much easier to show to comic book guys to make them RAGE!

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