Written by Antony Johnston, Art by Wilson Tortosa
Del Rey, 198 pp.
Rating: Teen (13 +)

Wolverine: Prodigal Son is the first of two series to come out of a Del Rey/Marvel deal to reimagine X-Men characters into new forms inspired by the tropes of shonen and shojo manga. This series takes the Wolverine that comic and movie fans are familiar with, strips him down to the bare essentials, and takes him in a whole new direction. In the hands of Antony Johnston and Wilson Tortosa, the titular character is now a teenager who was abandoned at the steps of a Canadian martial arts school and raised in virtual isolation from the real world for years. He has no memory of his life prior to arriving at the dojo, but sadly for Logan and his friends the past he can’t remember is about to come calling.

Considering that this adaption is supposed to be influenced by shonen manga I felt that there was little about it that screamed modern-day shonen. Wolverine himself is a big problem; a moody and angsty teen who seems prone to brooding and complaining about being a freak, he spends the first half of the volume doing nothing but moping and kicking ass in sparring matches. Unlike most shonen characters that share his outcast status, Logan seems less than motivated to prove his worth or dedicate himself to some goal. We get glimmers of the famous berserker rage that’s a Wolverine hallmark, but it feels like less of a brutal fury and more like a typical teenaged temper tantrum. While events in the second half of the book might force him to overcome his shortcomings and hopefully gain some direction, not to mention a chance to cut loose with a real berserker rage, throughout most of this first volume I actually found him to be kind of annoying.

While the story possesses certain tropes of the genre—the secret powers that lie within a young protagonist, a feisty female companion for whom he seems to harbor affections—it doesn’t seem to adhere to them too strongly. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Lord knows that modern-day shonen could stand to shake up the formula a bit more, but at the same time I wonder if this will impact its ability to appeal to the shonen manga audience. The story is fast-paced, with a focus on fights and confrontations that keep up the momentum but leave me feeling like I didn’t really get to know anyone beyond Logan himself, and even he comes off a bit flat.

Tortosa’s art is generally strong and I like most of his character designs. His take on Logan is nice and fairly recognizable despite his young age. There’s some modification to his trademark hair, but I thought he did a good at preserving the slick-backed horned look to it. Logan’s trademark sideburns and leather jacket are also present, but Tortosa has wisely done away with the plaid shirts he’s often shown in. Unfortunately, I thought the action scenes were a bit hit or miss. Several seem to have a nice flow and sense of energy to them, while others are nearly impossible to follow as the action and movements were buried and obscured beneath mountains of speed lines. On more than one occasion I was left to wonder what just happened and to whom.

Overall, I found this to be an odd beast and difficult to review given the various interviews talking about the shonen influence and how it’s aimed towards that crowd. I came away with the feeling that it was more likely to appeal to the comics crowd than the manga crowd, but given the former’s penchant for running from anything that looks like it may have some level of Japanese influence to it, I’m not really sure how well it will fare with them, either. Still, it’s only two volumes and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to see how it turns out. Hopefully, it’ll read better in one large chunk.

Volume one of Wolverine: Prodigal Son is available now.