Wolverine is far from my favorite comic-book character, and I rarely get into Japanese comic art and animation. Needless to say, Snikt! didn't seem like a series that would appeal to me in the least. But Tsutomu Nihei grabs the reader's attention with some wondrous yet disturbing imagery. While the plot is wafer thin here, the hauntingly beautiful artwork is more than enough to keep the audience engaged. Appropriately, the dialogue is as sparse as the plotting, so there is little to get in the way of the striking visuals.
A stroll through New York City takes an unusual turn when the mutant known as Logan is approached by a young girl who seems oddly out of place. She pleads for his help, and a confused but concerned Wolverine finds himself suddenly whisked away from reality onto an other-dimensional, post-apocalyptic landscape. Separated from the young girl who asked for his help, he finds himself faced by a bizarre monstrosity, a mechanical ghoul whose speed and savagery matches even Wolverine's.
I was struck by how much the artist's twisted, misshapen monsters reminded me of the style of Guy (The Nevermen: Streets of Blood) Davis's dark, organic character designs. Metal and muscle seem to converge in the most unnatural of way in the creature that attacks the title character in this issue. That creature makes for a sharp contrast with the soft, vulnerable quality of the girl who recruits Logan. She seems so fragile, and her presence in the harsh setting makes for an interestingly unsettling effect.
Speaking of which, the barren and tainted landscape in which Wolverine finds himself makes for an impressive visual. Nihei conveys the vastness of the marred scenery, and in the process, hints at the power behind such devastation. The colors reinforce the tainted look, and they further reinforce the notion of how immense a cataclysm rained down on this place. The bleached white look of the human characters' skin is unusual, but it adds an exotic look, and in the case of the girl, adds even more to her tende vulnerability.
While the book is a stunning visual achievement, the writer/artist gives the reader little in the way of actual plot. All we know is that Logan is transported to another dimension, where he's immediately embroiled in a circustance of lethal action. Of course, the title is Snikt!, so I guess edged-weapon action is the point. Still, I want to know more about the girl and what's threatening her people. I wish my mind were as stimulated by this book as my eyes.
