Comic Analysis Donikowski

1. Comic Analysis
Darrin Donikowski

2. Abstract
• The issue that I read had varying degrees of backstories about the relationship of
Wolverine and Mystique. It started out in 1921 in Mexico where they both were
held prisoners and were about to get executed; Wolverine for being a horse thief
and Mystique because she was a mutant with blue skin. The page then jumps into
modern time where the issue shows Wolverine is actually hunting Mystique for an
unknown reason to a new reader. Wolverine actually kills a woman whom he
believes Mystique transformed into. Then it cuts to where Wolverine and the
leader of the X-Men Cyclops have a discussing about how Mystique betrayed the
X-Men. They talk about how they want her dead and that Wolverine is happy to do
it for them. It shifts back to Wolverine hunting for her tracks her down in Iran.
Mystique escapes by blowing up a building and running away. The story shifts back
to Mexico where they escape the Mexican prison somehow and both walk away
together showing the start of a friendship. Then Wolverine finds the dead body
who was murdered in the first hunting sense and he is surprised by it. Wolverine
confronts a shadowy character that has the custom of Wolverine but has red hair
like Mystique. The towns people see Wolverine who they watched murder the
woman earlier and the conclusion is that Mystique morphed to look like Wolverine
and Framed him for murder to help her escape and slow down Wolverine from
hunting her.

3. Focus/Themes
• Choice of Moments
• Body language/Facial Expressions
• Use of Panel views
• Violence/Vangence

4. In an Action to Action panel it will show a
single subject preforming a series of
actions. In the comic book world it is
usually in the middle of combat
In the Wolverine comic panel shown is
illustrates A to A but the stabbing of his
claws into the women panel by panel.

5. Establishing shots show a long
distance panorama view of
where the characters at the
beginning of a new scene to set
up the location.
In the comic panel the
illustrator starts off a new page
with an establishing shot of
Cyclops that gives the location
and time compared that differs
from the previous page.

6. A moment to moment is where the comic
panels show a characters single action or
movement in a series of panels.
In the comic strip is
shows Mystique’s legs
run and her changing
back into her normal
self while running
outside of a building she
is about to blow up.
That is a M to M
because all it shows are
her legs running and
nothing else in the
panel.

7. Subject to Subject is where the panels will go
back and forth from one thing to another. Every
panel will have something or someone different
in it.
The comic strip is a S to S because it shows
Wolverine and Cyclops having a discussion and
the different camera angles that are displayed
with a different character being the focus on
every panel.

8. Anger is an emotion that characterized
as clenching of the teeth, eyebrows
pointed down, and crinkling of the upper
nose.
Here in the above cut out Wolverine is clearly
displaying anger. Even with his mask on you can still
see crinkling of the upper nose and pointed
eyebrows. Along with that you can definably see the
clenching of his teeth.

9. The symmetry of
the body with
your hands at you
side symbolize
confidence.
Wolverine is showing his confidence by standing
symmetrical and his hands at his side. His clenched
fist shows his strengths and defiance shown in this
photo.

10. Delaying suspense is where you put the
establishing shot at the end of the page
to create the aspect of suspense and
mystery.
In this panel it is the first page of the
comic where you have no idea where
Wolverine is until the last scene where he
is in a Mexican jail.

11. The camera views can
show a variety of
different of positions.
Usually the camera will
be at an angled upward
to show a character who
is in control or powerful.
Here in the comic it
shows Wolverine
towering over
Mystique as a Middle
Eastern man. You can
tell the artist wants to
tell you Wolverine is
under control and
powerful in this
situation

12. Silence is a technique used in comics to
convey that it is all at one time and
happens all at the same time.
In the panel the comic goes a whole page
without saying a word. It is showing that
the men are getting ready for a battle and
are going to go after Wolverine who is also
shown on the panel.

13. In the body language section it explains that by
crossing your hands you are conveying a hostile or
defiant attitude.
In this scene Cyclops has a hostile attitude that he
conveys through his body language. This is where
Cyclops is angry that Mystique betrayed the X-Men
and he asks Wolverine to go and track her down to
kill her. That is why he has his hands folded back
turned because he is hostile toward s Mystique.

14. Interdependent is where the
picture and the text are needed
equally to get the message
across to the readers.
In this scene Mystique is telling
Wolverine that she was born
with the wrong skin color.
Wolverine assumes that she is
black and she says a bit more
exotic then that. Without the
art you would not know what
she was taking about
considering that she has blue
skin and can change he looks
totally to match another
person.

15. Picture specific panels need the
picture to tell you the story and are
not dependent on what the world
says.
In the comic panel there are gun shots
going off. If you just read the text that
says fuego you wouldn’t know what ws
happening. Fuego is Spanish for fire, so
if you didn’t have the picture you would
think that a building was on fire or
something to that effect without the
gunshots.

16. Association is where the
font style reflects the
sound of what is going
on in the panel.
The comic shows the SNIKT
sound that Wolverine’s
claws make when he
extends his claws out of his
hands.

17. Another emotion that is drawn
by combining two different
emotions is being spooked. It is
created from fear and surprise. It
is characterized by an open
mouth, raised eyebrows, and a
wrinkled forehead.
The kid in this panel is spooked at
Wolverine because he is both
fearful from him yelling in his
face and surprised at the
retractable claws that came out
just inches from his face.

18. The way that
surprise is conveyed
in a drawing is
characterized by
the raised eyebrows
and open mouth.
Mystique is
surprised when she
first saw Logan who
is beating up prison
guards after being
shot multiple times.
She has the same
open mouth and
surprised look on
her face.

19. A worm’s eye view
is where the
camera view is
from the ground to
give a different
perception hen just
a normal eye level
shot to mix up the
views.
This worm’s eye view is
showing Wolverine
standing over a dead body
he found. You can tell it is
a worm’s eye view
because you are at eye
level with the body on the
ground and you are
looking up at Wolverine.

20. Aspect to Aspect is where you are transferring
to a different place or character on each of the
panel stages.
This page shows the preparation that men are
doing to prepare to fight Wolverine as he is
extending his claws to get ready for a fight as
well. It is an Aspect to Aspect because it is
going back and forth showing each men in a
different scene.

21. Panel flow is how you are meant to
read the comic panels in what order.
Usually you read let-to-right and up-
to-down.
In this comic page this is the most
creative panel flow that I could fine in
the comic. It goes the long first panel to
the three on the right then finishes with
the bottom two panels.

22. Conclusion
• The comic of Wolverine is a very violent and
vengeance based comic that has a backstory of
Wolverine and Mystique that is unknown if you don’t
read the comics that come before it.
• Overall the flow is very basic but has some
complicated concepts that involves an impersonation
I didn’t pick up on until the second I read it.