X of Claws 3: X Lives of Wolverine #2

X Lives of Wolverine #2
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
Production & Additional Design: Jay Bowen
Assistant Editor: Drew Baumgartner
Editor: Mark Basso
Senior Editor: Jordan D. White
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
Released: Feb. 2, 2022

Check out the previous installments of the saga I call “X of Claws” here (“X Lives of Wolverine” #1) and here (“X Deaths of Wolverine” #1).

Rather than starting where either of those ended, this installment begins around 1900, when a young James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine is fighting a chained polar bear in Northern Canada. Well, I'm sure we all had hobbies in our youth that look weird in hindsight. A crackle of X-shaped psychic energy seems to indicate present-day Logan quantum leaping into his younger self, but alas, he doesn't confirm this with an “Oh boy” to acknowledge his predicament.

Instead, he punches the bear, then hoists himself out of the arena, tossing an angry gambler to the enraged beast. This seems to be a serious breach of time-travel etiquette, which Jean-Grey-as-Dean-Stockwell points out. But, as becomes increasingly clear in this issue, Logan is not too concerned about stepping on butterflies. In fact, he seems intent on doing so.

While the first issue of “Lives” focused on one particular time jump, to the night of the birth of Charles Xavier, this one bounces between several eras. I found the accompanying Marvel Unlimited series “The Life of Wolverine” to be rather helpful in setting the context for these events, even if it is basically an illustrated Marvel Handbook entry.

We see Wolverine during an intimate moment with his wife Itsu in Jasmine Falls, Japan, made even creepier and more unnecessary by Jean psychically popping in and smirking. Omega Red leaps into Itsu while she and Logan are sprawled stark raving naked on the floor. The issue has enough violence and gore to earn it parental advisory, but this segment and subsequent scenes seem unnecessarily “mature.” No, this isn't a kids title, but I'm not sure what is accomplished by making sure we know they're au naturale.

We finally get back to the Team X cliffhanger from the end of the (first) first issue, where the newly arrived Wolverine bolts from Sabretooth and Maverick to find Charles Xavier. But as he makes his way through the Colombian jungle, he remembers the specifics of this mission: he, Sabretooth and Maverick destroyed a drug lab but also murdered hundreds of villagers to send the message “Fear America more than you fear the cartel.” Presumably at least Logan and Maverick were mind-controlled into it. Sabretooth probably didn't need any prompting.

As Jean warns him there are consequences to the actions he takes, Wolverine goes back to his partners, shoots Maverick in the leg and blasts Sabretooth with a grenade to make sure they can't carry out the plan before he rushes off to save Charles.

That's interspersed with a flashback, or forward, or some way, showing Omega Red's enlistment by Mikhail Rasputin. Seems Red was on a mission for X-Force when Rasputin isolated him and removed the synthesizer that helps him deal with the radioactivity of the carbonadium in his body, but also allowed Beast and X-Force to use him as a triple agent against the Vampire Nation. Since Red is now working for Rasputin and company, does this make him a quadruple agent? No one told me there would be math in blogging.

The ever-present X-text pages fill in more blanks about how this time-hopping quest came together, which allows the story to focus more on action than exposition.

And as circa-1900 Wolverine races to the rescue on a dogsled, one of Xavier's ancestors is menaced by a mutinous crew between whom Red keeps jumping to stoke the flames.

The issue closes out with Wolverine and Omega Itsu's nude brawl, as Wolverine is impaled on one of his foe's coils and considers the consequences of having to kill his wife, who's doomed to die anyway. He determines the primary consequence is his son Daken, then apparently figures, “Why not?” before popping a claw and slashing.

On the plus side, this issue didn't go the way I was figuring. I expected a Team X story where time-traveling Wolverine had to save Professor X from Omega Red again, not this time-jumping blitz. Wolverine literally confronting his past by shooting and stabbing it is problematic from a logic standpoint, but makes sense storywise.

But where the (first) first issue saw Logan try to temper his violence even as it was necessary to protect the past, this one seemed to revel in it. I know it's foolish to lament violence in a Wolverine story, but one thing I like about the character is the way he tries to rise above his nature. Granted, there's not a lot of room for diplomacy in these circumstances, but stuff like Omega Red slicing a guard in half on that X-Force mission is excessive without serving any storytelling purpose.

There's no appearance of robo-Wolverine or Moira MacTaggert or any other elements of “X Deaths” here, at least none that I noticed. The wild nature of the story kept it interesting, but overall I was less impressed with this go-round. Still curious to see what comes next, though.