Marvel Comics Presents #2 Review

Wolverine: The Vigil Part 2

Writer: Charles Soule

Penciler: Paulo Siqueira

Inker: Oren Junior

Color Artist: Frank D’Armata

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

In part two of Soule’s decade-spanning Wolverine story, we get to see him face off against The Truth once more. However this time in 1950s China by the side of the daughter of the gypsy from the first issue. Unlike the first issue, Soule gets a chance to explore some of the historical context of the story (looking at the 1950s and also the tragedy of the Yangtze River Basin) as well as doing a little character work for Sylvie, the gypsy’s daughter. With the limited page count, it is brief, but helps the reader connect with the character.

From there, there isn’t much new territory yet with this plot as it built around Wolverine fighting this enemy called The Truth, and that is how it goes. What keeps the story intriguing is the unknown narrator and how hints are being given that everything we see is in the past.

The team of Siqueira, Junior and D’Armata continue to be the main attraction for this storyline, in my opinion, as their work perfectly captures the mood of each story beat. D’Armata’s colors especially were really well down this issue as we got to see him tackle bright, sunny days, to morose, dark waters, and some fun power use by Sylvie. Great stuff.

Marvel Age - Mr. Fantastic

Writer: Mark Waid

Artist: Djibril Morissette-Phan

Color Artist: Dan Brown

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

After reviewing the first issue of Marvel Comics Presents, I can fully admit that I completely missed the point of the two rotating stories that were to accompany the Wolverine main story. First off, Marvel Age is placing heroes (and probably villains at one point) at different historical points and seeing how those events could affect our heroes. Knowing this now, I enjoyed this feature even more with Mr. Fantastic in the late 50s space race.

The space race has always been a fascinating time in history as it led to so many technological advancements, and it would make sense that a mind like Reed Richards would be smack dab in the middle of this conflict. Waid finely weaves the other members of the Fantastic Four within his 10-page allotment, but other than Ben, they don’t figure too much in the overall plot, which is okay.

Waid is well known to be a great writer, so it is no surprise that this is a very well written short, but what is the biggest revelation is Morissette-Phan on art. I have never seen Djibril’s work before, but now I will definitely be on the lookout. Without spoiling anything, their design for a certain character (on the final panel), is probably one of the best I’ve seen in years. Complimenting their line work is Dan Brown’s colors. The shadowing itself makes the colors throughout.

Marvel Spotlight - Gorilla-Man

Writers: David & Maria Lapham

Artist: David Lapham

Color Artist: Lee Loughridge

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Second, Marvel Spotlight looks to simply give a one-shot of a random character and this month we get to see a quick story of Gorilla-Man and how he might be tied to Wakanda kinda like Black Panther is. It’s a quick look at what makes Gorilla-Man the character he is and the Lapham’s do an amazing job to capture his personality and his history in just 10 pages with snappy dialogue, a little misdirection and some incredible visual storytelling. You don’t always have to be visually splashy with your panel placement - sometimes simple easy-to-follow boxes are all that is required and that is done really well here. And Lapham’s pencils are nothing without Loughridge’s colors that brightens or darkens the panels when needed.

In all, this second issue was a step up from the first and I can’t wait to see what comes next. The preview shows a combo of Wolverine, Captain America and Spider-Man next issue, so that should be fun. However, I wish they would utilize some of their more obscure characters instead (like Gorilla-Man).