Wolverine #17
As Wolverine, Domino, and a returned Maverick deal with a threat to Krakoa, Jeff Bannister has his own problems in Wolverine #17, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Lan Medina, colorist Cam Smith, and letterer Java Tartaglia. Percy drops another banger, one that combines action, characterization, and atmosphere to tell a killer story.
While Jeff Bannister, Wolverine's friend in the CIA, makes a discovery about the head of the X-Desk, Wolverine and Domino learn about a threat to Krakoa. Talking it over at the Green Lagoon, they get a surprise- Maverick. He agrees to go on the mission with them for a fee, and they leave. Bannister decodes the bug he found but is called away from the office to get lunch. Wolverine, Domino, and Maverick take care of the threat, while Bannister discovers everyone in his office dead when he comes back. He takes his daughter on the run but is greeted by someone familiar.
The key to this issue is the atmosphere. Percy uses narration from Bannister, talking about following the head of the X-Desk and making his discovery to set the right flavor for the comic. Like its sister title X-Force, Wolverine is all about black ops, paranoia, secrets, and the bloody missions all those things entail. Percy uses that to his advantage in this issue. By having Bannister narrate the book, it gives it a tone that pays dividends in the installment. Bannister is watching his own bosses and spying for Logan. The way he feels about the whole thing informs the story and the way it's told.
There's a vibe of who can be trusted throughout this issue, so it sets off alarm bells when Maverick shows up in the comic. He doesn't betray the mutants, but the whole thing is so unsettling because of the tone that Percy has built throughout this issue. Bannister's story being intertwined throughout the chapter also helps add more to the vibe, especially when he finds the people in his office killed. It primes readers to expect a betrayal, especially with what they know about Maverick, but it never comes. That doesn't stop things from feeling off, and that works so well for this story.
Medina's art is solid. Adam Kubert is a tough act to follow, and Medina is playing catch-up. That doesn't mean the art is terrible, but it's also not spectacular. It feels like a lot of other fill-in art from the X-books. Everything looks good enough that it doesn't detract from the script. The action scenes are pretty cool, though, so that's a plus.
Wolverine #17 works so well because of how the tone builds throughout. It's that black ops vibe, that feeling that it's all going to fall apart because someone isn't who they seem to be, makes the whole thing work so well. Medina's art works, but Kubert is tough to come after. It all works so very well, though.
