I'm a sucker for team-up titles. Among my favorite books as a kid were DC Comics Presents and The Brave and the Bold, and once I ventured into the Marvel Universe, Marvel Team-Up. It was a great way to discover new characters, especially obscure ones that didn't merit their own titles. Now, Marvel's latest attempt at a revival (anyone remember the abysmal Spider-Man Team-Up of the mid 1990s?) doesn't exactly use obscure characters, but Kirkman has fun with the traditional team-up premise. The story doesn't take itself too seriously, but it also employs universal notions of alienation and anger to which the reader can relate.
While on a lunch break at his high-school teaching job, Peter Parker witnesses one boy use superhuman powers to get a bunch of bullies to back off, and Peter immediately identifies with the boy. He tries to reach out to the isolated youth as Spider-Man, but his efforts to reach him unfortunately coincide with Wolverine's search for the lad, who's been identified as a mutant by Cerebro. As is often the case, a misunderstanding pits the two heroes against one another, as the friendly neighborhood wallcrawler tries to keep the powerful teen out of the reach of Wolverine's adamantium claws.
Kolins has always boasted something of a stark style, and that holds true here as well. But somehow, he still manages to keep things light as well, maintaining the inherent sense of fun that's such an important part of these team-up titles. The end of the issues takes a predictable but creepy turn, and Kolins captures that darkness nicely as well. The colors here are fantastic, reinforcing the energy when it's called for and enhancing the tenser moments as well. I was particularly impressed with the eerie grey tone used to flesh out Spider-Man's webbing.
Kirkman won me over immediately with the first page, which succeeds in capturing the true comic potential of a Wolverine/Spider-Man encounter far better than the recent team-up story in Ultimate Spider-Man. Wolverine is the gruff Oliver Hardy to Spidey's lovable Stanley Laurel. It's actually a shame there's not more of that dynamic at play here.
Ultimately, this story is about those kids in school who are victimized by the superficial social structure and about what happens when they reach their breaking point, when they lash out. Kirkman's plot is far from subtle, but it gives Spider-Man a reason to be involved in the story. More important, it resonates not only with Peter Parker, but the reader as well. 7/10
