Wolverine Revolver – When you get past that face…

So I was on twitter and the cover for Wolverine: Revolver shows up, written by Victor Gischler, art by Das Pastoras, and letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna. I’ll be completely honest, the first thing to get my attention was the incredible color pallet and rendering work of Daw Pastoras. It’s like nothing else, incredibly beautiful. Then I saw Wolverines face on the cover. What the hell. How could an artist that has such amazing color skills and the ability to render out characters draw a face like that?

I immediately sent it over to Kenric and Casey to get their take on it, both agreed with me, what the hell was up with that face? That mouth? And those muscles, how could those be? I mean look at the bat demon in the background, the costume, it’s all so good! then that face!

From there I looked up some of his other works, and holy hell it’s breathtaking. Das is a Spanish artist, and his art has a very European comic art feel to it, most specifically in the faces. Now, I will tell you Wolverines face on the cover is the worst one in the entire book. I’m not sure how this got past editorial to be approved for the cover.

Let’s talk about the story.

The story Victor Gischler weaves here is pretty basic and ties into Wolverine’s massive healing factor as a giant plot point to what has to be done. Essentially he’s tracking this bat demon because he killed an Indian Chief. The first half of the book is the bat demon in human form and Wolverine playing Russian Roulette in an underground gambling ring. Shocker, Wolverine ups the ante by getting himself shot in the head then recovering from it.

The first part of the second half is Wolvie and the bat demon duking it out, the final part is Wolvie disposing of the still alive pieces of the bat demon.

I actually really enjoyed this story, even though it’s predictable, there are no stakes in the book, nothing on the line, no real threat to Wolverine. It’s a fun little story that’s an aside to super hero stuff, but with a hero in it. Oh, and lots of violence.

Let’s talk about that art.

The art in this book has it’s ups and downs and really is not a good representation of Das Pastoras’ real talent. Clearly his talent lies in colors and rendering. He has a extremely well thought out plan with his layouts on the pages and how he visually tells the story. Color choices, or rather pallet that is used, is beautiful. It very much reminds me of Simon Bisley or Glen Farby (though their styles are both very different).

Only thing I can really complain about is the faces, specifically the teeth. It is a little off putting in this book. Again, looking at other works, and oddly enough once I looked him up I have read a few other books he’s drawn and enjoyed them. Sadly it did take me out of the story a little as I was reading because I kept looking at them and cringing a little. Not all of them mind you, just some. Though I do think it would be good to note that a persons teeth are directly below once nasal opening in the skull and not pushed out to the lips. Everyone kinda has horse teeth. Again, I’m not here to bash on his artwork, because a lot of it truly is lovely. this book is just not the best example of his work. It’s like if you look at my early comics, the art is terrible. So terrible I took them out of circulation.

Also…why is Wolverine in costume on the cover? He never appears in costume in the entire book.

Final verdict?

Honestly? I’m glad this came across my feed and I took the time to go grab it online and give it a read. Even though the story is a little lacking and predictable, it’s well done. I did enjoy it from start to finish, I do enjoy stand alone tales that really don’t have a point but take you on a journey. That’s what this book did for me.

If you can look past the face on the cover and want to give this book a chance, I think you will have fun with it.