New Avengers / Transformers #2

Worst Wolverine ever.

The second issue of New Avengers / Transformers came out this week giving us little more than met our eyes. In issue one, the Avengers (sorry, NEW Avengers) go to Latvaria to see what Dr. Doom's latest scheme is. But guess what, there are Transformers there. Near the end of the issue the Transformers and Avengers finally met with Captain America shouting the order to attack the hulking robots. Issue two begins from there and you can probably guess at least half of what happens. It seems like nearly every Superhero crossover book has the heroes fighting one another at some point, and New Avengers / Transformers is no different. Although, the Transformers do have some cool ways of taking out the Avengers. The story does get its own feet after the battle between both hero sides is over and there may be some surprises in store in issues three and four.

My beef with the series isn't the cookie-cutter crossover arc of the first one-and-a-half issues because that stuff is kind of expected of crossovers, but the cover of issue two. The Wolverine on the cover is the absolute worst representation of Wolverine I have ever seen. This Wolverine looks like a bloated balloon animal and his face almost has a pig snout. I think I would actually rather see the atrocious X-Babies Wolvie than this God-awful drawing. The cover was done by Jason Pearson, probably best known for his work on the Body Bags series. His Prowl looks just dandy and ready to shoot some chumps for robotic justice, but that Wolverine makes my eyes writhe in pain. The art on the interior pages by Tyler Kirkham is perfectly fine.

The cover for issue one was great, done by a few other artists. It featured Optimus with Captain America freedom jumping amidst fire or an explosion. At the back of issue two is a teaser of sorts for issue three showing its cover, done by Ed McGuiness. It has Skywarp and Iron Man locked in combat. Skywarp looks A-OK but Iron Man is not looking his best which is odd since McGuiness usually produces good art. Iron Man is in such an awkward pose and his armor looks strange. I don't follow Iron Man, so I don't know if its one of his regular armors or a special Transformer-busting armor.

Iron Man still looks tons better than Wolverine, though. I'm sorry to say that if you want the worst picture of Wolverine you'll see, look no further than New Avengers / Transformers #2.

- Shawn - 08/18/07