I got this book for the same reason I bought Blood Hungry, because I like to see a different take on a classic character. In Blood Hungry I kinda of knew what I was getting into having read Sam Keith books before hand. With the Inner Fury graphic novel I had no idea what I was going into other than the clue of the frantic sketch-like art on the cover and this was one book that could be judged by its’ cover.

The reason I say that is bercause the art inside the book is similar to the cover art, frantic with scratch marks and stray sketch lines all over the place. The art didn’t bother me so much as I find non-standard art refreshing, but for some reason it did distract me from the story just a bit.

The story seemed to match the artwork in so much as it was a bit frantic itself. Other than a single panel with Nick Fury this book doesn’t really have any characters anyone will recognize other than Wolverine himself. Let’s get to the spoilers.

Spoiler

Nick Fury explains to Wolverine that they captured a Hydra courier with a message regarding Wolverine, but then warns Wolverine that it is probably a trap. Wolverine heads off to Chicago to go get himself killed and runs into a strange looking Hydra agent who attacks him and then calls for back-up. Wolverine take down the bad guys with the help of a dwarf who soon explains that Wolverine has been dosed with a nanotech virus designed the strip the adamantium from his bones which has the painful side effect of forcing that adamantium to burst through his skin in the form of long spikes.

Pissed off, Wolverine joins the dwarf in a plan to track down the maker of this nanotech virus to procure an antidote. On the path to find the nanotech designer with the moniker of the Whale – who is another little person – Wolverine has a bizarre a dream reminiscent of an LSD hallucination that covers almost as many pages as the trek to find the Whale. The Whale as it turns out is the victim of Hydra who was forcing him to make the nanotech virus. As it turns out, Wolverine’s dwarf buddy is really a bad guy using Wolverine to track down the scientist who had escaped from Hydra’s grasp.

At the end the dwarf explains that there is no cure for the nanotech virus. Wolverine resets his immune system by slamming his claws directly into his own brain. This action apparently resets his immune system which removes the nanotech virus from his body… Ok. Wolverine then kills the dwarf and walks off into the sunset carrying the diminutive Whale.

So this is definitely an interesting Wolverine read. Don’t look for it to blow you out of the water or anything, but it’s certainly a twist on the generic cape title. Blood Hungry was a better graphic novel though.

Story
Artwork
Value
Can It Stand Alone
Cool Factor
Average