Everyone’s favorite X-Man gets the manga treatment in WOLVERINE: PRODIGAL SON — VOLUME 1, the introduction to which claims to render the character as “something entirely new.” And you know what? That’s just what it does!
Written by Antony Johnston and drawn by Wilson Tortosa, the story finds Logan as a teenager living at the Quiet Earth martial arts school in the Canadian forest. He’s the best student there, and knows it, which doesn’t always endear him to the rest of his classmates. The exception is Tamara, the daughter of headmaster Mr. Elliott. They clearly have a thing for each other.
The two team up to carry out a seemingly impossible mission Mr. Elliott forces on them. Either they succeed, or they’re punished. They succeed, and Mr. E takes Logan on a trip to New York. Things don’t go so well. In fact, they’re ambushed by a horde of ninjas, and his instructor is kidnapped, so it’s up to the unpolished pupil to get him back before he’s killed.
This Wolverine may look like a young version of the Wolverine you’re used to, albeit with no costume. Tortosa’s big difference in character design is making his claws not the sleek, shiny metal ones, but rough, gnarled things that resemble those nasty “world’s longest fingernails” you’d see in GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS.
Wolverine turns out to be an ideal character to transplant into a story that’s all about the Asian influences, even if neither the writer nor artist are Asian themselves. Those infamous “action lines” give depth to the pages’ playing field, although in the later chapters, panels are overly drawn, making it difficult to tell exactly what’s going on.
But the important thing is that this new perspective on one of the world’s most well-known superheroes is also one we’re anxious to follow further. —Rod Lott
