Wolverine vs. Sabretooth
DVD
Based on the comic written by Jeph Loeb
Screenplay adapted by Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by Simone Bianchi
Directed by Carl Upsdell
Shout! Factory
Not Rated | 66 Minutes
Release Date: January 14, 2014
Cover Price: $14.97

Welcome, one and all, to the world of Marvel Knights and the animated features available therein. This week I am pleased to bring you the motion comic Marvel Knights: Wolverine Versus Sabretooth. I will admit that I’m still on the fence as to whether I like this medium or not. I do appreciate that it’s one more way to grab the attention of folks who might otherwise not pick up a comic, but I wonder sometimes if this format will stand the test of time.

If you are unaware of how this all works then allow me to enlighten you. Taking the original comic, frame by frame, parts are dissected and given life by allowing for some basic movement on screen. By stringing together the panels, we are given some fairly clean motion that preserves the integrity of the source material…mostly. Sometimes, as with all adaptations, parts of the original must be sacrificed for the sake of fluidity and continuity. This particular motion comic seemed to be more or less intact, though it might still confuse the newbies.

I don’t know if you saw a little film last year called The Avengers. I know it flew under a lot of people’s radars, so I’m not surprised if you missed it. If you were one of the few people who went to see The Avengers and you stuck through the credits you got a quick shot of Thanos, one of the major bad guys in the Marvel Universe. Well, Marvel comics has been pushing Thanos to the forefront ever since the movie came out with a big role in the first arc of Avengers Assemble, and now he’s getting a limited series detailing his origin titled Thanos Rising. The series comes out in April and features the writing talent of Jason Aaron (Wolverine and the X-Men, Astonishing Thor) and art by Simone Bianchi (Wolverine, Shining Knight).

This will be the first time Aaron and Bianchi have worked together, so we get arguably Marvel’s best writer teaming up with a fantastic artist with a beautiful painted style. Add in a big time character and you get one exciting mini-series. Check out the cover for the first issue of Thanos Rising below and make sure you pre-order this series from whatever source you get your comics from.