Giant-Size Wolverine

By: Kurt Amacker
Review Date: Sunday, October 08, 2006

David Lapham brings his uniquely literate take on superheroes to "House of Blood and Sorrow" in GIANT-SIZE WOLVERINE. A macabre tale set in rural North Dakota begins when a robot and a burned man crash in the small town of Waverly. Leelee a young girl born into a pariah family takes the charred figure home. She brings him water and watches as the wounds covering his body quickly heal. He seems nice enough, though he inquires about the black eye given to her by her father, Horace. Only, Horace hasn't been himself in a long time. Something evil living in the basement attached itself to his spine and took control a long time ago. To complicate things, the backwoods townspeople think that the giant robot fell from space and that the beclawed mutant that rode it down is an alien. If that couldn't thoroughly occupy Wolverine, the robot survived the crash and its owners have come to reclaim it.

While "House of Blood and Sorrow" belongs firmly to the "rural horror" sub-genre, Lapham writes with an earnestness that stops it from falling to sheer camp. Much of the material with Leelee and Horace wallows in a filthy atmosphere worthy of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE. But, Lapham and artist David Aja have a little fun mocking the backwards-ass inhabitants of Waverly through some light redneck chatter and amusing facial expressions. And, you can't help but laugh at the sight of a killer robot lumbering between farmhouses. Aja's art really completes "House of Blood and Sorrow." With a combination of stark, rural grit and carefully placed visual humor, he alternately elicits sympathy, horror, and laughs. His work evokes Bill Sienkiewicz, but he draws with greater realism and humanity. Still, Wolverine's hair looks about two feet tall. But, I'm not complaining. A more realistic visual style would only have hampered the atmosphere.

Lapham walks the fine line between camp and literature effortlessly, leaving us with one of the best Wolverine stories in recent memory.

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