I've got to admit, I'm pretty hyped for the X-Men sequel. I liked the first movie quite a bit, and it looks like they're adding some of my favorite characters into the mix as well as providing an interesting backbone to the story. My only worry is that with so many characters, there won't be a lot of room for the film-makers to explore as much as they could. Which is where these comic-book prequels come in, theoretically, at least from a creative point of view. Commercially, their point of existence is obviously to build up anticipation for the movie and more importantly give movie-goers an easy entry point back into the comics.
Like X-Men 2 Prequel: Nightcrawler, Wolverine builds off of established continuity in the comics while remaining accessible to new readers, and shows off what happens to one of the big characters before the movie even opens. Unlike Nightcrawler, however, Wolverine deals with characters we've already seen on film, and the characterization of both of the characters reads more like their comic-book incarnations than their movie incarnations. Despite the movie Sabretooth being remarkably dull, I still would have preferred that Vaughan had remained with the more consistent characterization.
For the story to work, however, Vaughan needed Sabretooth to be a bit more rational and sympathetic, and so we get a toned-down and considerably more intelligent character. The Wolverine/Sabretooth rivalry is one that has been pretty much played out in comics, at least for my tastes, so I didn't have much interest in another fight/team-up against a worse foe story, but as with Nightcrawler, originality isn't the point so much as accessibility, and this does have that. Vaughan puts Wolverine and Sabretooth up against the same foes that Nightcrawler faces in his prequel, and in so doing provides a good excuse for why Sabretooth's character doesn't return for the sequel, as well as a story that will whet the appetite for those who have been awaiting more Wolverine.
A lot of the work in this story seems to have gone into making the fight between Sabretooth and Wolverine imaginative and exciting to look at, and I have to give Vaughan credit for making both characters look good. Sabretooth comes across as a dangerous foe, and Wolverine's gasoline trick shows off his tough guy side. There's also a sort of buddy comedy dynamic that develops between the two that softens their relationship more than I would have liked but provides for interesting characterization at any rate.
Like the other prequel, this one comes with great art, and in this issue it's courtesy of Tom Mandrake and Dan Brown. The colors are a great example of how to do dark and moody without being muddy or dull, and Mandrake is great at giving a sense of motion and the feral sensibilities of the two lead characters. I particularly like that he echoes the first movie in some ways, notably with the bar environment where the whole thing starts and with Sabretooth's use of a tree to swat Wolverine early on in the fight.
