X of Claws: X Lives of Wolverine #1

Most of the comics I write about here are throwbacks to my youth, favorite or odd moments tying in with current trends, or stories I've been curious about but never got around to reading. I still buy new comics, but I'm not a regular New Comic Book Day shopper and do most of my keeping up through the library, Hoopla and, recently, Marvel Unlimited.

It's that last option that got me thinking I could do a sort-of contemporary read-along with a title or event of interest on the app, which is usually about two to three months behind what's hitting the shelves.

I thought about the new “Heroes Reborn” series and kept on thinking about it as each issue and a host of tie-ins arrived. Maybe the new Darkhawk? I think we're already on issue 3.

As I've mentioned before, I've been having a blast reading the latest era of X-Men with the X-Lapsed podcast. Marvel Unlimited is a great way to follow along, and I have been buying the relaunched flagship title and “Inferno” as they came out.

So with the “X Lives” and “X Deaths of Wolverine” debuting, I figured that might be a good place to try a #CurrentEvents-style series. I'm curious to see where it will go but reluctant to sink all my new comic-buying income into one weekly series, especially given my up-and-down reaction to writer Benjamin Percy's work on “Wolverine” and “X-Force.”

Then Marvel was kind enough to drop the first issue on the app the same day it arrived in shops, which really cut into my procrastination time. But let's go ahead and give it a try, shall we?

For a more detailed synopsis of this and every other current-year X-title, I commend you to the capable hands of Chris at X-Lapsed. This is meant as more of a discussion, though spoilers will follow, so consider yourself warned.

X Lives of Wolverine #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Color Artist: Frank Martin
Letterer & Production: VC's Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller
Cover Artist: Adam Kubert & Frank Martin (plus a cast of thousands for the umpteen variants)
Production & Additional Design: Jay Bowen
Assistant Editor: Drew Baumgartner
Editor: Mark Basso
Senior Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Released: Jan. 19, 2022

Pitched as the next “House of X/Powers of X” (two series that are one; I guess that way you get two #1s?), all I knew about this story is it would give us the chance to find out if Wolverine's title of “the best there is at what he does” extends to time travel. You'd think Cable or Bishop might have been a better choice (well, maybe not Bishop), but maybe they were looking for someone who would sell more books or, in-story, was already alive in the era(s?) to which they'd be traveling.

That was the logic in the “Days of Future Past” movie, and it seems to be the approach they're taking here, as Wolverine is sent back along his own personal timeline to prevent the infanticide of Charles Xavier by Omega Red, who is apparently using the Quantum Leap method of time travel.

This issue brings the long-gestating Russia storyline from Percy's “Wolverine” and “X-Force” runs (speaking of two series that are one) front and center in the goings-on of Krakoa and whatever new direction the books are going now that Jonathan Hickman has stepped down as the Head of X. Mikhail Rasputin is pulling Omega Red's strings, sending him to occupy the bodies of the Xaviers' gardener, butler and midwife. Red even sees his own reflection in mirrors in a Scott Bakula-like touch. He also brings along his life-draining coils and pasty complexion.

Wolverine's challenge is to keep young Charles Xavier alive and maybe not go all stabby on the innocent bystanders Red has commandeered. It's a gruesome sequence of events with some suspense that had me wondering not if Chuck was going to be offed once and for all but how they might fix it if he was and whether that would involve another “Age of” story with Legion.

Jean Grey and Professor X are the ones telepathically sending Logan through time. The Wolverine-Jean relationship is one of the great unrequited loves in comics, or it was until this quasi-open relationship thing where Jean is making time with him and Cyclops. That's one of my biggest irritations with this era, but they don't seem to be dwelling on it much, so in my head canon, Logan still loves Jean from afar and is free to flirt with that vampire-hunting nun, I guess? OK, maybe he needs to expand his social circle.

Another point of interest for those of us who've been following the X-titles since HoXPoX is Omega Red's confirmation that his resurrection was edited to make him an unwitting triple agent. The ethics of resurrection have been a great discussion point the last couple of years, but sometimes those topics seem to get put on the back burner. Don't get me wrong; I want to see folks flying, punching and blasting in addition to philosophical debates, but this particular incident was one I'd nearly forgotten about.

I don't know if I want to see Percy's stories front and center for the line, but I am glad to see a payoff for two years worth of reading. To me, these titles work best when there's a balance of doing their own thing but acknowledging the overall themes, and that seems to be what's going on here.

I presume the early digital release of “X Lives of Wolverine” #1 was a marketing move, and a good one at that. I don't know that the first issue of the companion series will get the same treatment, and I figure subsequent issues will be on the regular Marvel Unlimited release schedule. If that's how you're reading this series, please feel free to join me and share your thoughts on the series.

Unless I get sidetracked on a Secret Defenders deep dive.