Enrique Alvarado

View Original

Review: Wolverine, PATCH Issue #2

The cover for PATCH issue #2 is pretty badass

Welcome back to Coffee, Cannabis and Comics. If you missed the review of PATCH issue #1 you can check it out here. A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

I’ve gotten to experience the excitement of going to the comic book shop to pick up the next issue only to be disappointed when it’s not there. That was fun, for all of 5 seconds. After walking around for a bit and trying not to get interested in another series, I headed out for another shop in downtown Denver called Mile High Comics. It was freaking huge and slightly overwhelming at first. But once I walked around the entire place and figured out where things were it was a bit easier to digest. Eventually after about 15 minutes or so, I found issue #2 of PATCH. Stopped at my local dispensary as well and for this issue I smoked some Ice Box Pie from Billo and that is where we begin…

Cover Now this cover is completely opposite of issue #1. The cover on issue #1 was primarily dark/black featuring PATCH/Wolverine in a suit, giving me major 007 vibes. On issue #2 we see him with his clothes shredded, his hair disheveled and his claws fully out engaged in a fight with Beth in front of a sunrise(sunset?) background. Beth is also featured on the cover of the first issue, but only her head is visible. She and her brother are mutants with enhancements, just like PATCH. Also one thing to note, the #1 issue I own of PATCH is a second printing.

Looks like we’ll be getting these S.H.I.E.L.D. dossier’s with each issue, great way to recap the previous issue.

Story Love that they did a S.H.I.E.L.D. Dossier again as the opening spread. It gave me a quick overview of issue 1:

At the end of issue 1 PATCH encounters Beth and her brother Gimel, enhanced Russian mutants, that proceed to beat the shit out of PATCH. Leaving him for dead, or so they thought. He gets back up and follows the trail of blood left behind by Beth. Issue 2 opens up with PATCH searching through the wooded area for the two that attacked him, then he notices the SHIELD Helicarrier still up in the area above the area he’s investigating. On the Helicarrier, a soldier mentions something about the mutants not showing up on radar anymore and vanishing.

The text “wip wip wip” is so well placed and written that I can imagine this entire scene perfectly

PATCH is getting attacked once again but by a tribe native to the land, meanwhile a KGB agent Major Tatiana Nemikova shows up to meet with the Prince. The man who hired PATCH in the first place.

It seems like everyone is spying on everyone at this point. Because S.H.I.E.L.D. is spying on the land overhead, Archie and Tyger are also flying around spying on General Coy, who seems to be up to something in the area that PATCH is investigating. Anyways something is going on, the natives of the land are scared of everyone but also investigating why the monkeys of the forest are being kidnapped.

This panel was freaking crazyyyy

Things seem to be all over the place. General Coy and his men happen upon PATCH and the natives but after realizing they are not enemies they seem to be working with each other now. A gun fight ensues, natives are shot down as their bow and arrows prove no match for the guns the army had. BUT THEN PATCH gets back up and starts slicing and dicing the group of soldiers. We are blessed with this badass panel of PATCH’S claws uppercutting a soldier. Again I love how the text is treated across these big action panels.

PATCH and the surviving natives end up reaching a cave and out comes the Russian enhanced mutants. As they take care and help PATCH regenerate, a new character appears. Jean!

Overall Rating I give this a 4/5. There was a bunch of action and awesome panels but I was lost for a second with the different groups. It took me reading a couple times to understand who was all in play.


If you’re a cannabis consumer like me and like to keep track of your consumption, be sure to check out Chronicle below.