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| Front cover of Claws TPB by Marvel Comics |
Score (out of 5 Capes)
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| 3.5 / 5 Capes |
A fun if very limited 3-issue run collected into one trade-paperback.
My Review
Logan the Wolverine, flying on an ordinary commercial airline for some reason, has his whole flight gassed and diverted to an isolated island.
Black Cat, hired for a risky heist, is likewise double-crossed, gassed by a fake gem, captured and whisked off to that same island.
Easy as that, two of Marvel Comics' most famous sharp-clawed characters, are turned into prey in a larger plot: rich big-game hunters have paid a pretty penny for the opportunity to hunt and kill our heroes. If they can make it to a beach and a boat on the opposite side of the island, Wolverine and Black Cat are free to go - if the hunt's organizer, Kraven the Hunter, can be believed.
Wolverine and Black Cat fill these pages with Spider-Man-like (and he makes a brief cameo) clever banter and dismissive insults, while trying to survive, turn the tables and get to the bottom of the whole thing - I mean, isn't Kraven dead? If so, how can he be putting on this hunt, and why is he not doing the hunting himself? And what are Arcade and White Rabbit doing at the fringes of the whole affair?
Each of the six hunters on the island has their own unique approach, but their cumulative time in the story amounts to just a handful of pages, and most of them blur into just an amorphous band of hunters. They are quickly forgotten, despite the frightening prospects of the whole setup.
Given a two-minute head start before the well-armed hunters begin their pursuit, Wolverine and Black Cat face a wide variety of weapons - arrows, bullets, fire, even missiles. But almost always fired from a faceless opponent. When the giant robots appear, we start to understand that there is a larger plot afoot, a true mastermind beyond the island's would-be hunters.
Can Wolverine and Black Cat survive? That's the first order of business. Next, can they unmask the mastermind, thwart their plans and ultimately escape with their lives?
The whole story was originally told in three fast-paced limited-series comics, all collected in this single, thin volume. The page count was filled out nicely, though, with an extensive peek into artist Joseph Michael Linsner's sketchbook.
If the extra features text is to be believed, Linsner first had the idea of a Black Cat + Wolverine team-up and even prepared several sketches. He shopped the concept around and landed with writers and frequent collaborators Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray. How often have these two worked together? Check out the number of times "with Jimmy Palmiotti" appears on Gray's list of works on Wikipedia!
The result of Linsner's artistic vision and concept, combined with Palmiotti and Gray's plot and pacing, is a brisk, fun, brutal, sassy and sexy story. We are left wishing for more while also gasping for breath.
Linsner's visuals are smooth, blending the razor-sharp claws and muscled machismo with softer, fur-lined cheesecake. He knows how to arrest the eye and uses his artistic control of the project to drive the feel, which matches well the light touch of the narrative by Palmiotti and Gray.
Sure, the plot has some facile moments while, miraculously, all the weapons find their target in Wolverine's flesh while barely scratching the Black Cat. But the rapid-fire and clever banter and the growing romantic tension between Cat and Wolverine gives us a delightful conclusion.
Only three issues? More please! (and, spoiler alert, we will look at the sequel, Claws 2, in a few weeks).
What I loved
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| Artist sketches of Black Cat |
The "special features" add so much to this thin package. Most prominent are the peeks into artist Linsner's sketchbook.
The extensive bonus feature includes dozens of quick concept rough-ins, more refined and inked panels and a handful of finished images. It gives a fun behind-the-scenes peek, shaping proportions, the all-important eyes and mouths, whether a scene works better flowing left-to-right or the opposite.
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| Artist panel sketches |
Linsner clearly had fun on these stories and it shows as he experimented with different poses and arrangements before settling on the ones best known in the published pages. And with so many bonus pages included, we the readers get ample opportunity to admire the process, vision and end result. Wonderful!
What I didn't love
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| Six useless hunters |
The whole plot of the story revolves around Wolverine and Black Cat, kidnapped to an isolated island, attempting to survive and escape while being chased by several wealthy big-game hunters who paid millions each for the privilege.
So it is very frustrating that the hunters are so useless.
Each apparently has their own favourite weapon or expertise. A handful of them get a brief solo battle with one or both of our clawed heroes, only one of whom shows the least level of competence.
As the central, surface-level plot thread, it is annoying how little time is spent on them and how incapable they are once in the narrative spotlight.
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| Black Cat and Wolverine are both targets but with different results |
There is also a stark difference between the physical suffering Logan must endure while Black Cat finishes with barely any scratches, just a tear or two in her costume.
Sure, one has legendary mutant healing abilities, and only putting him in a series of battles that end with arrows, bullets, fire even a hungry sea monster taxing the limits of his healing can make this feel like a fair fight.
Except he does very little to protect the Cat - like covering her ears as the missiles approach? Gee thanks, my hero! We don't especially need to see equal harm and equal suffering between our two heroes, but repeated scenes of Wolverine being nearly obliterated while Black Cat gets a new scratch all add up to a ridiculous one-sidedness.
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Quick Reference Details
Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray
Artists: Joseph Michael Linsner
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: Feb, 2007
Parental Rating: Teen
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| Back cover of Claws TPB by Marvel Comics |
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