Awakening of the Beast Carl Apsdell’s first work with Mauro Casalese as part of the Marvel Knights project about a clawed mutant gives us the origin of James Howlett from a wealthy family in Canada. The pages of comics come to life on the screen, minimal dynamics (we are already used to it), quite an interesting story. In Gavin Hood's film X-Men: The Beginning. Wolverine" for us in a few minutes the exposition showed the first makings of the beast and revealed the pedigree.
In this mini-series, we plunge into the childhood of a sick and weak boy. A rich manor, servants, a strict and grumpy grandfather who does not let any scum into the house. The story is told by a girl named Rose, who arrived at the estate as an assistant. We see how the children develop, as the son of the driver Logan joins the company of James and Rose. It seems that we are not looking at a project about mutants, but about aristocrats of the 19th century.
The tension begins to increase as the children grow up. The antagonists are becoming more vivid, and the affairs on the estate are strained by the contradictions of the conservative views of his grandfather and the liberal, good actions of his father. Against the background of the general atmosphere, the servant's son also takes a special interest in the girl. The main story boom is brewing gradually, and you know when it will happen. James, on the other hand, takes a back seat, allowing conflicts to bypass his already weak body.
The key turn is the boiling point, which leads to stunning consequences and the appearance of the beast. Unfortunately, the expected twist, which was in the aforementioned film, we did not see (it was literally shown from the outside), but we were allowed to know the following events.
The plot takes Rose and James to the cold corners of the United States, where to somehow feed, you have to work hard. The directors convey the growing up of the characters and the change in their physiology very beautifully, casting fleeting glances at the mature James, then at the revealed Rose. Here an interesting melodrama looms, which, given that Rose is one girl surrounded by miners and quarries, begins to reflect on the perception of the main character.
The story plunges the main character into a heap of problems, scandals, only to temper his character and show us what happens to a person who is constantly repulsed, insulted, beaten. Acutely social is the problem of the chef character, who is called Cook. An example of how to release anger on the weaker and defenseless.
Why did James become Logan? The series provides the answer, showing us a completely new, transformed character. Here we were able to convey the childhood of a mutant who went through numerous problems and obstacles. The story picks up when James is forced to fight himself for love while endangering loved ones. This project shows why Wolverine prefers solitude and peace.
The final episode vividly demonstrates the reaction of people to a mutant who is dangerous even to himself. Impressive are the hanging ghosts of the past, because you are waiting for a new discovery, which was also presented in the first solo novel about Wolverine, but the cartoon goes even further, cruelly and bloodyly showing us that jokes with claws are bad.
This is a great story that presents us with the transformation of a stunted boy into a bloodthirsty beast.