Jock takes a stab at writing, drawing 'Savage Wolverine'

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

Growing up in the UK exposes future comic-book creators not only to tea and biscuits but also antiheroes in titles such as Judge Dredd and 2000AD.

Wolverine definitely fits that same bill for the acclaimed artist Jock, and the character's such a natural fit for him that he's illustrating and, for the first time in a big way, writing a new story arc of Marvel Comics' Savage Wolverine beginning with issue 9 in September.

"He's just totally over the top," says Jock (the pseudonym for British artist Mark Simpson). "You can draw him as gnarly and violent and extreme as you want, but it's never enough! I love characters that can handle extremes, and he's definitely an extreme."

Jock takes Wolverine and puts him in a fish-extremely-out-of-water tale: Set in what the creator describes as "the far-flung future," the sci-fi story finds the clawed mutant member of the X-Men crash-landed on an alien planet having to adapt and survive to his new surroundings.

However, the world holds some secrets that are unearthed as the three-issue arc progresses.

"Logan has the power of regeneration as we know, but he'd only ever be able to regenerate his own cells," Jock explains. "So what if thousands, maybe even millions of years in the future, the world around him has continued to evolve, and he's left literally, a Neanderthal man?

"He always chose to be the outsider, but now he has no choice. He doesn't fit in."

Setting it in the future gives Jock a clean slate in terms of his own creativity as well as cast. When readers meet them, he says, "it's not clear exactly how they fit into things. Yet."

Because Wolverine has been around for so long and he's a play-his-cards-close-to-the-vest sort of guy, he's perfect for pretty much rolling with a bunch of different story settings, according to Savage Wolverine editor Jeanine Schaefer.

"In the universe, he's super old," she says. "He's seen so much more than any one person ever will: He's traveled the entire world; he's been to outer space and other dimensions; he probably speaks 17 languages.

"And while we have a lot of characters who are in similar situations, there's something about his Man With No Name bearing where there's no situation I can think of that Wolverine wouldn't take a second, sigh, shrug and then charge right in to confront it like he was born to do just that."

In Jock's cosmic tale, however, Wolverine's adaptation situation involves carving his place in a weird environment with various assorted beasts instead of a specific alien race. For example, in the first issue the antihero's doing what he can to ascertain some kind of sustenance and way of life.

Because he's such a bullish character in general, though, he can survive pretty well, Jock says. "Also, at this point in our story, he's been around a long time, so he doesn't take any crap. Not that he ever did, mind you."

Frank Cho took the Savage Wolverine title literally, setting the first arc of the series in the Savage Land. Jock's exploring the character's savagery in a different fashion: "I wanted to show Wolverine at his most primitive and basic, and get to what makes him tick. He's a constant, while the world around him changes."

Schaefer wants the book to be a project where creators with very distinct points of view can come in and stretch their legs — Savage Wolverine issues 7 and 8 feature an arc guest-starring Elektra and Spider-Man by writer Zeb Wells and artist Joe Madureira.

She's known Jock for a while, and with his work on 2000AD titles like Judge Dredd and Vertigo Comics' The Losers, Schaefer wanted to see what his aesthetic as a one-man creative team would look like on a Wolverine book "that I think can take a little more molding," she says.

"I'm so excited for people to see what he's doing. The core of the story feels big to me, and he's saying something about the character that we haven't explored before. Not to mention it's got style by the truckload."

There's only a handful of superheroes he has a "real urge" to work on, says Jock, who's always been intrigued about writing and drawing his own stories. And Savage Wolverine gives him a chance to relish scratching that very different itch with an adamantium claw.

"It's a perfect set up — being able to tell an out of continuity tale and have carte blanche to play around with things with no fear of repercussions," the creator adds.

"As Jeanine put it: 'Come in, tell the story, drop the mic and leave.' "