X Deaths of Wolverine #1
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Color Artists:
Dijjo Lima with Frank Martin
Letterer &
Design: VC's Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller
Cover Artist: Adam
Kubert & Frank Martin (plus a bunch of 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. 26,
2022
A while back, I decided to do a current-ish read-along with the “X Lives of Wolverine” and its companion series, “X Deaths of Wolverine.” Those plans were thrown for a mild loop when Marvel released the first issue of the former on the Marvel Unlimited app the same day it hit shelves. But I adapted, and figured I would pick up the rest on the regular delayed online release schedule.
Then, last week, Marvel added the other nine issues to the app, thus demonstrating they do not take into consideration my schedule when running their business. I guess this means I'm not an influencer.
Nevertheless, I'm going to attempt to do Apocalypse proud and demonstrate my fitness at reading and then writing about it. I may not be the best there is at what I do, but let's give it a whirl.
“X Deaths of Wolverine” #1 (or “X of Claws” #2, as I like to call it) picks up directly from another X-limited series, “Inferno.” I'm about to spoil the crap out of that, so if you haven't read it yet, do, because it's pretty good. But please bookmark this page and come back after. It's the least you could do. I did warn you about the spoilers after all.
The striking cover shows a rather Phalanx-y looking Wolverine, which presses my nostalgia buttons because the lead-up to the “Phalanx Covenant” storyline way back when, and the story itself, were all sorts of awesome. It also ties into the current X era themes of the dangers machine intelligences pose to both mutants and humans.
I know it seems like I'm digressing, but, despite the title, Moira, not Wolverine, is the featured character in this issue. Wolvie doesn't even make the character list on the title page. Unless he's the one who belongs in that blank box?*
In “Inferno,” Mystique and a newly resurrected Destiny blasted Moira with Forge's Neutralizer Gun, un-mutanting her like she was a character the studio wanted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before the Fox acquisition. That was so they could kill her for preventing Destiny's resurrection on account of how Destiny used her precognitive powers to uncover Moira's plans to cure mutation in a past life and led the Brotherhood to kill her in particularly brutal fashion. Moira confessed that she still had that cure rattling around in her mind as maybe the ultimate solution to mutantkind's suffering.
Cypher and Warlock kept the duo from breaking Krakoa's spottily enforced first law (kill no human), and even gave her a techno-organic arm to replace the one Mystique amputated to remove a tracker and be a jerk. Unhappy with the way she'd manipulated so many, they also told her to hit the road.
Aside from my natural verbosity, I'm recapping this because the issue itself does not go into much detail about why Mystique is out to kill Moira. Obviously it would add to the story to have read “Inferno,” but it should be a little clearer for those that haven't (or at least have an asterisked editor's note pointing folks in the right direction).
That's what Moira's doing in the opening pages here, plowing a commandeered sheep truck through a Krakoan portal to prevent pursuit by a still ticked-off Mystique. The portal was growing at what I thought was Stonehenge but a quick Google suggests is the Standing Stones of Callanish. Either way, I think it might be an example of why the British are so irked with the mutants over in “Excalibur.”
Foster transforms into her latest alter ego when Mystique reveals herself as a nurse and attempts to finish the job of killing Moira. Moira escapes when Valkyrie smashes out a window, allowing her patient to... jump and fall several stories onto a car? I've looked at this a couple times, and I can't see how she survived the plunge. Maybe Chris at X-Lapsed knows.
Moira scores some new clothes and a new hairdo but can't quite escape the notice of the CIA. She grabs an agent's gun and makes a getaway. The confrontation occurs in an Epiphany store, where a hologram is pitching a memory enhancing synthesis of man and machine, once again recalling a big no-no about post-human machine life from Moira's past lives.
My initial thought was the Phalanx-esque Logan is another time traveler, hunting Moira. But a text page outlines information and upcoming public appearances of Epiphany's CEO. So maybe Moira, with her own Phalanx-looking appendage, is eventually going to send that Wolverine back in time to prevent Epiphany from helping the machines eradicate mutants. Perhaps that's a little tainted by some spoilery information I've heard, because I honestly can't cite any evidence that Robo-Wolvie (maybe it's Albert?) is actually from the future, other than he looks futuristic.
Like “X Lives” #1, this is a fast-paced story that moves forward while touching on themes that have been key to the new stat-X quo. I look forward to seeing where this goes.
The issue carries a parental advisory, although I'm not sure why. There's violence but compared to “X Lives” #1 and others, it's relatively tame and not particularly gruesome. Better safe than sorry though.
* Foreshadowing!
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