Laura Kinney: Wolverine #7 // Review
Laura is happy to have her boyfriend over for Christmas dinner. She’s so happy that she gives him a nice, long kiss when he arrives at the front door. (Laura’s little sister Gabby is understandably embarrassed.) Laura and Gabby’s dad has made quite a meal. Her boyfriend is impressed. She tells him her dad’s, “the best.” Thankfully, she stops before adding, “there is at what he does.” Her dad IS Logan Howlett after all. Things are going to get awkward in Laura Kinney: Wolverine #7. Writer Erica Schultz continues a journey into the inner psyche of her title character in a story brought to the page by artist Giada Belviso and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg.
After introducing her boyfriend to the dinner on the table, he’s got something outside that he wants her help with. So she heads out to help him with it, but that’s when it happens: the claws pop-out. Why? He’s just gotten down on one knee and proposed to her. And now that psychotic break that had her as a mutant with deadly super-powers? It’s real. Someone’s trying to manipulate her and she’s going t have to break through the illusion to figure out who it is.
The break between fabricated reality and Laura’s waking-life happens at the end of the first quarter of the issue. Schultz has a really solid pacing for the issue that breaks-down the action from there in clever bites of realization that culminate in a clean and cohesive end to a classic “superhero in an illusory fantasy,” story. It’s been done quite often before but Schultz breathes new life into it while exploring the inner life of Laura in clever detail. Though it was always quite obvious that the whole thing was a fantasy, it’s still a little sad to see it end.
Belviso handles the emotional drama of the story with the same kind of over-the-top impact that the aggressive physical action is dealt with. The intensity throughout the issue doesn’t allow for a whole lot of nuance, but it doesn’t really have to. Schultz’s story is so intense on so many levels that it really requires more of an aggressive intensity throughout the issue. It’s pretty intense, but there IS modulation throughout the issue and some beautifully dizzying moments as the story reaches its climax at issue’s end. Quite an accomplishment for a story of this kind.
It’s really, really difficult to do a story of this kind and make it feel fresh and original. With clever pacing and quite a bit of insight into her title character, Schultz manages a very well-modulated false reality fantasy sort of a story. It all works quite well throughout. Schultz is doing remarkably well seven issues into the new series, which is pretty impressive given the fact that Wolverine-type characters have been rolling through the comics rack pretty consistently for decades now. Schultz finds an interesting, new perspective on a beloved character type.
