SAVAGE WOLVERINE: KILL ISLAND

"SAVAGE"
Writer & Artist: Frank Cho | Colorist: Jason Keith | Letterer: VC's Cory Petit
Assistant Editor: Jennifer M. Smith | Editor: Jeanine Schaefer
Group Editor: Nick Lowe | Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley | Executive Producer: Alan Fine

Yes, I titled the post "Kill Island" but I listed the story's title as "Savage". Don't ask me to explain it. The story is clearly titled "Savage" within each of Cho's five issues of SAVAGE WOLVERINE, but Marvel's hardcover and trade paperback editions were both published under the title "Kill Island" -- which is a blurb on the cover of issue #3. I agree that "Kill Island" is a much cooler name, but the confusion over the story's actual title seems odd.

Anyway, moving on. I was shocked and pleased to find that there's an actual story here! The adventure begins with Shanna (the real Marvel Universe version of the character) guiding a group of SHIELD agents on a mapping expedition in the Savage Land. Their aircraft crashes on a mysterious island. Eight months later, Wolverine is teleported to the island and teams up with Shanna, the last survivor of the expedition, in an attempt to get off the island. Amadeus Cho, a supporting character in the Hulk's comics from recent years, arrives as well, and then eventually the Hulk himself shows up.

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

Writers: Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray | Pencils: Khari Evans | Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
Colors: Paul Mounts with Christina Strain
Letters: Artmonkey's Dave Lanphear & Natalie Lanphear
Assistant Editor: Alejandro Arbona | Editor: Warren Simons
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley

Storywise, "Survival of the Fittest" is a vast, vast, vast improvement over Frank Cho's first SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL. Palmiotti and Gray squeeze more material into the first issue than Cho covered in his seven. The story begins with a group of pirates boarding the yacht of a crime lord called the Axe-Man and stealing his diamonds. But the ship is attacked by a monstrous leviathan. The pirates escape as the yacht goes down with all hands and passengers aboard.

The pirates, their boat damaged by the sea creatures, arrive at nearby "Monster Island". They run around, chased by dinosaurs and giant bees, and meet up with Shanna, who takes them to her "Swiss Family Robinson" style treehouse, where she now lives with Doc. But the pirates are pursued to the island by Axe-Man and his minions.

The ensuing story covers Shanna's and the Pirates' attempt to get to Axe-Man's seaplane, and their misadventures as they run afoul of a group of savage neanderthals living in a city of Nazi gold, and hordes of veliciraptors out to eat them. After lots of violence and running around the city, our heroes are whittled down to Shanna and two pirates, Dirk, and Ivan. Axe-Man is killed, and his surviving henchmen agree to help the pirates leave the island in exchange for some diamonds.

Shanna shares a kiss with the pirate leader, Dirk, and then he departs with the rest of his people.

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL BY FRANK CHO

"THE KILLING SEASON"
Writer & Artist: Frank Cho | Colors: Dave Stewart & Jason Keith
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft's Rob Steen
Assistant Editor: Cory Sedlmeier | Editor: Axel Alonso
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley

I have to say, nudity protest aside, I think I'm glad I've never bothered to buy a collected edition of this story. For that matter, I'm even happier I never spent the three or four dollars it would've cost per issue when it was first being released. It's just not that good.

But before I get to my criticism, I'll provide a quick summary: A military unit has crashed on an island inhabited by dinosaurs and an old Nazi lab. In the lab, they discover a nubile young woman, a clone developed by the Nazis to be a perfect killing machine, who they name Shanna (after a comic book character). Some of the soldiers are infected by a chemical weapon created by the Nazis, and Shanna, along with the soldiers' leader, "Doc", must travel to the Nazi lab to recover the antidote. They do so and return to camp.

That's it.

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL

This is old news to many comic fans, but please bear with me (or as relates to Shanna, bare with me).

Back in 2005, Marvel produced a limited series under the Marvel Knights imprint, written and illustrated by the great cheesecake artist Frank Cho, titled SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL. It was a reimagining of the character who was originally Marvel's answer to Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, set in its own universe independent of Marvel's main continuity.

The thing is, the title was originally intended for Marvel's adult-targeted MAX imprint, and was to feature plenty of gratuitous nudity. I was looking forward to the series, until Marvel changed it to Marvel Knights. At that point I resolved not to support it.