Wolverine #01 — Feel My Claws

January 7th, 2011

 

Best Japanese song title since Beam My Beam.

Impressions:

Well, this wasn’t anywhere near as terrible as I was expecting. Still terrible, mind you, but after hearing from all sources that Iron Man was the ‘good’ one of the two initial Marvel properties, I feared the worst. It ended up being a lot more action packed than the exceedingly dull first episode of Iron Man though and it wasn’t even half bad at it. Sure, Wolverine having his butt handed to him in a kendo duel by some old Japanese guy is horrible for a number of reasons, but at least they did a resoundingly mediocre job of it. I’m also still trying to figure out how on the rooftop, the two guys ended up struggling on a raised ledge. That means that despite having guns, both of them must have climbed up onto it in order to engage in fisticuffs, whereupon one decided that the best way to win the fight was to hug the other.

Don’t let my glowing praise fool you though, this was still a soulless trainwreck with almost all of the same problems as Iron Man. The only ones it really resolved were the lack of action, the excessive CG, and the lack of evil rapist elves as the protagonist. While the action scenes aren’t awful, they’re not that good either, and the rest of the show remains really static and just plain unpleasant to look at. Heck, it begins with almost a minute of silent panning down onto the city, and then after the OP, does it again. The characters and plot remain as wooden as they were in Iron Man as well. Wolverine is more concerned with sipping Canadian beer and flashing his abs than being… well… Wolverine. Too much claw feeling probably. No wonder he has hairy palms.

In any case, bleh. I do think it’s better than Iron Man, but it’s still uninspired, unambitious, and exceedingly dull. I doubt existing fans of Wolverine will enjoy seeing him completely neutered like this which just leaves people who get frisky when they see Canadian pseduo product placement. It’s not even a decent faux-Canadian beer, like LaBott’s or Woulsen Ice. Freaking Japanese Canadian mutants and their crappy taste in fake beer.

Preview:

Obligatory hard-boiled woman.

Posted in Anime | 7 Comments »

7 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Celestial says:
    January 7, 2011 at 9:51 am

    beam my beam watashi no hikari beam my beam let’s go bub

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QObigvC5zAw

  • Nanaya says:
    January 7, 2011 at 10:20 am

    I read ‘Feel My Claws’ as being sung in the style of ‘Live to Win.’ It’s simultaneously awesome and cheesy.

  • DmonHiro says:
    January 7, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    I guess we can look forward (?) to Omega Red and Lady Deathstrike?

  • Kabitzin says:
    January 7, 2011 at 9:56 pm

    If only his wifebeater had a healing factor.

  • Shingo says:
    January 7, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    Japan’s counterattack to Hollywood?
    Iron Man and Wolverine.

  • Milky-way says:
    January 8, 2011 at 12:58 pm

    Is because japanese creators should make japanese anime not some american shit super hero serie. But whatever.

  • Drew says:
    January 16, 2011 at 4:58 pm

    Well, what do you expect? Wolverine vs. old guy in a kendo fight. If they play it by the book, Wolverine would kick his ass five ways to next Tuesday! That isn’t a good way to start a show, having your hero absolutely own everything that comes their way. They gotta balance it somehow. Making the old guy some super kendo master but have Logan’s super healing keep him going seemed a fair trade off.

    It could’ve been better, yes, but it could’ve been worse. A lot worse. I mean, look at how much Japanese stuff gets remade by Americans. Dragonball Evolution? The Ring? A lot of good Japanese stuff is made into pure crap here. I honestly, and wholly, expect the same in reverse.

    When given that, this was a LOT better given it could’ve been a total crap pile. Ya gotta be fair to it in that regard. You’re right in that it was kind of dull and uninspiring, but it’s American work in Japanese hands. It’s bound to not be good. I’d say if it keeps with the action displayed so far, it’ll be good enough.