Written by: Ales Kot
Art by: Ricardo Ortiz and Lee Loughridge
Publisher: Image
Wolf has always been a somewhat trippy comic, jumping between dead strange and hard to follow. Oftentimes I know what’s going on, but it can take a few reads. I don’t consider this a flaw though, at least not exactly. I respect the hell out of a story willing to tell its tale without any hand holding. Wolf is paced the way it needs to be passed, and if you can’t keep up, well shame on you.
Issue #9 though is…well, color me confused as hell.
As far as I can tell, our would-be heroes are still off to save Wolfe from whatever’s going on with him. There’s a lot of fighting and banter as the werewolf breaks away. She’s faster than the other two. However, there’s also a guy thinking about killing himself and I have no idea who he is, and the old guy on the cover certainly seems important. I also don’t know who he is.
On the plus side, the humor is still kicking, Freddy is a complete badass—though his fourth wall break was out of place—and the ending is pretty smashing. There’s some really good character work here.
The pacing of the issue is also nice. It’s frantic and tense, and despite me wallowing in confusion, I was still engaged. I don’t need to know these other characters to know that Wolfe is in trouble and our would-be heroes are in way over their heads. I don’t need to understand the ending to know that something really bad maybe just happened. I now eagerly await the next issue to find out what.
On the art front, it’s fantastic. Ricardo Ortiz and Lee Louhridge are really giving us their A game here. The colors are vibrant as hell, the action is well-choreographed, and comedy third thing.
As a comic, I really like Wolf. It’s strange and confusing and not always pretty, but it has been a good read so far, and I’m really excited to see where it goes. If you’re reading, then you should be happy with this one, even if what’s going on is about as clear as…I got nothin’. Pretend I just said something clever.
