Dark Wolverine #87

After having his Maramasa wrist claws stripped from him by his father, Wolverine, Daken ends up in Rome, Italy, and has a few run ins with thieves of all sizes.
 

The Good

I'm digging on Mierco Pierfederici's art in this. It's soothing and the coloring is really great. My favorite part about all the art is the shading. The lighting effects on objects and characters feels natural and it pops out, but not in a bad way. Sadly, that's all I liked about this issue. Normally, I really enjoy this book, but not this month.
 

The Bad

Obviously a fill-in issue, and a average one at that. This is nothing more than filler between the last Romulus story and the upcoming FrankenCastle cross-over. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy both Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu's writing, but this story falls flat. This normally incredibly enjoyable book hits a wall at issue 87 as Daken talks to a child thief and an adult thief for the entire issue. Nothing else happens. It's a lot of inner-monologue of Daken brooding about the recent events revolving around a story where the primary theme is "the hunter becomes the hunted." This could have been a good eight page story, but it's drawn out over a whole issue.
 

The Verdict 2/5

This is usually a great book, but this fill-in issue is not. Skip is and wait for the Frankencastle storyline. Other than my enjoyment of Pierfederici's art, and moreso the lighting and shading, there was not much here I did enjoy. I will say once again, I really enjoy this book, but sometimes you get a not-so-great fill-in issue in between storylines.