MCP #4 – Wolverine

Marvel Comics Presents #4 (Wolverine)
“Save the Tiger, Part 4 of 10: The Ordeal”
Writer – Chris Claremont
Pencils – John Buscema
Inks – Klaus Janson
Letters – Tom Orzechowski
Colors – Glynis Oliver
Assistant Edits – Michael Rockwitz
Edits – Terry Kavanagh
Chief – Tom DeFalco


We’re back on the Marvel side of the street… with another issue of Marvel Comics Presents!  Let’s check in with our leading man…


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We open with Wolverine waking up… chained and bound.  He is soon joined by Sapphire Styx, that woman who wouldn’t stop introducing herself back at the Princess Bar… and who, kinda sucked out his soul with a kiss last chapter.  She’s here… well… to pretty much do the same thing again.  It would appear that she’s some sort of energy-vampire or something.  She plants one on him, which envelops him in darkness… and leaves him as gentle as a pup.

Enter: Mr. Roche, Razorfist, and some dude whose just really happy to be there.  Roche introduces himself as the “Crimelord” of Madripoor… which is kind of adorable, and he plans to do whatever it takes to pry some information out of our hero.  He wants information on “The Tiger”… and they’re going to get it, one way… or another.  He motions to the fella who’s just really happy to be there… and it looks like it’s about to be torture time!

Back at the Princess Bar, Jess and O’Donnell chat a bit about the curious hairy stranger that popped by earlier.  Jessan doesn’t remember him, but notes that he said he knew her in the “old days”.  O’Donnell reminds her that she’s a different person now.  She acknowledges this fact, and comments that she doesn’t even miss the woman she used to be.

From here, we get a page and a half of Wolverine being tortured.  The tormentors finally decide to throw it in for the day, and leave our hero to his lonesome.  It’s here that Chris Claremont dutifully reminds us that our main man is packin’… both razor-sharp Adamantium claws… and a Mutant healing factor.  For those keeping score, I think we’re now four-for-four on those reminders!  He cuts himself free of his shackles, and after a time, stumbles his way out of wherever the hell he’s being held.  Unfortunately for him, he stumbles right into the path of… Razorfist!

Ol’ Fist… well, he kicks the weakened Wolvie’s ass… stabbing him in the throat… and tossing him into the drink, which rushes right into a waterfall.  Hmm… Roche ain’t gonna find out what he wants to know this way, will he?  Whatever the case, Razorfist salutes the assumed dead Wolverine, and laments that they could’ve been great enemies.  Well, maybe don’t flatter yourself too much there, Fist…

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While I enjoyed this, for what it was… I gotta say that this was probably the weakest chapter of the Wolverine story up to this point.  Doesn’t make it bad… just makes it “not as good” as they had been.


It’s mostly an expositional episode… but, it’s done quite well.  It never feels like we’re being lectured… or just having information “dumped” on us.  Right now, as a sister-project here at the site, I’m going through the recent House of X/Powers of X event… and, I wish there were more of this in that… than what we’re getting there.  Claremont was able to “show don’t tell”, or perhaps more accurately “show and tell”, whereas today… we’re just dolloped scoop after scoop of info-dump.


Even though all we’re getting here was information… about Roche, about Jessan… it doesn’t ever feel like we’re reading a page in a textbook… and for that, I can’t not like this for what it is.  That said, there also isn’t all that much for me to expound on here… it really is a case of “it is what it is”.  A foundational chapter, from which we’ll hopefully build on in future installments.


Good… not great.


Tomorrow: Man-Thing!