MCP #1 – Wolverine

Marvel Comics Presents #1 (Wolverine)
“Save the Tiger, Part 1 of 10: The Good Guy”
Writer – Chris Claremont
Pencils – John Buscema
Inks – Klaus Janson
Letters – Tom Orzechowski
Colors – Glynis Oliver
Assistant Edits – Michael Rockwitz
Edits – Terry Kavanagh & Michael Higgins
Chief – Tom DeFalco


What fresh hell is this?!


I don’t think any of the regular readers were expecting this… heck, even I wasn’t really expecting this… but… we’re gonna be attempting the “right the ship” here at Chris is on Infinite Earths.  The place has been… kinda directionless of late, and believe it or not, that’s weighed on me quite a bit.  I feel pretty guilty for shifting the focus of the site to a primarily audio repository.  I mean, that’s not what visitors of this site “signed up for”, ya know?


So, how does a guy fix that?  Welp… he might just dig back into an old bag of tricks.  Longtime readers will remember that for the majority of 2019 the focus of this site was a little project called Action Comics Daily.  That was where I looked at every single story from every single issue of Action Comics Weekly… and, there’s a wonderful (if I do say so myself) Archives Page featuring the entire deal that you can check out if you are so inclined.  Just click’a the gif’a below:

Action Comics Daily… as uneven (story-qualitywise) a project as that was sort of like being covered in a warm blanket.  It was comfortable… it was mine… it was ours.  It allowed me to still provide daily content, while not spending hours and hours (and hours) writing and formatting every day.


So, how does one follow up a project like that?  Well… maybe we take a trip across the street and see what Marvel was doing right around the same time.  Marvel Comics Presents… was originally intended to be a weekly comic!  Perhaps, since it is an anthology, even an answer to Action Comics Weekly!  Cooler heads eventually prevailed, and instead of hitting shelves every single week… MCP would go bi-weekly.  Well, that’s close enough for me!


So folks, friends, wonderful visitors… welcome to Marvel Comics Chrisents (not to be confused with Marvel Comics Croissants… which, might be a decent merch idea!)… I hope we survive the experience!

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We open with Wolverine looking over the city of Madripoor.  Boy, I remember growing up, anytime I’d see the word “Madripoor” my eyes would glaze over, and anything else in whatever room I was in would suddenly become a lot more interesting to me.  Worth noting, the view here is lovely.  Logan gives us the quick-n-dirty on this little island principality… and we learn that it, like many civilized places on the planet, has what you might consider a “nice area” and a “not so nice area”… thankfully, we’re not being all that subtle here, and so they’re called Hightown and Lowtown.  You can probably figure out which is which.

Anyhoo, Logan heads into the Princess Bar, as he’s looking for a fella named O’Donnell.  Turns out, the Irishman (I’m assuming) is in the middle of getting his butt-kicked by a bunch of street toughs.  We know they’re “street toughs” as they all have really bad punk-rock hairdos.  Wolverine interjects, and starts beating up the baddies.

As he rocks their worlds, we get the usual internal monologue regarding his unbreakable Adamantium skeleton and his Mutant Healing Factor… heck, he even shares that he’s Canadian!  Remember when comics used to treat each issue like it could be somebody’s first?  A lost art, I tells ya.  Wolverine tosses all the punks until just one remains.  The geek grabs a human shield and threatens to blow her brains out if the stranger with the muttonchops takes another step.  Logan’s all “go ahead and kill her…” but warns that as soon as the trigger’s pulled, he’ll be on him like white on rice.  The punk decides that discretion is the better part of valor, and bolts out the joint.

We wrap up with Wolverine greeting Mr. O’Donnell… and meeting Sapphire, the recent human shield, who gives him a peck on the cheek.  Logan explains that he’s here to meet Dave Chapel… hmm… do I make the easy jokes about Rick James and cocaine?  Nahhh.  Turns out, Dave Chapel is… dead!  Suddenly, Wolvie’s warm reception turns stone cold as all of the bat patrons draw their weapons on our man.

—


Anyone else getting those Action Comics Daily chills?  Just me?  Should I have my temperature taken?


This feels a whole heck of a lot like an opening chapter we would have read back last year in ACW… and, I tell ya what… I really like it.  It feels like a homecoming in a way… though, I am known to over-romanticize things, so your mileage may vary.


Here, Wolverine introduces us to both himself and the city of Madripoor… and does so without it coming across as an expositional dump.  I mean, it’s wordy, yes… it is Chris Claremont after all… but, it never feels like a lecture.  Claremont’s got this style down to an art form.


We find out he’s here to chat up a fella named O’Donnell… about another fella named Dave Chapel.  That’s really all we get… but, as an opening chapter in a brand-new title… I kinda feel that’s all we need.  We get nice action… Wolverine gets to show his stuff… and talk tough.  What more could I ask for from an eight-pager in an anthology?


The art here is very nice… though, I always found Buscema’s Logan as looking a bit too old.  Not in an “Old Man Logan” sort of way… just in the frumpy, “pro-bowler” or “competitive eater” sort of way.  Ya know what I mean?  Hopefully it won’t be long until he’s under a mask… though, I suppose that’ll remain to be seen.  I’ve actually never read these stories before, so I’ll be experiencing them for the first time along with y’all (well, those of you who have also never read these).


Tomorrow: (A not-so-Giant-Size) Man-Thing!