X of Claws 4: X Deaths of Wolverine #2

X Deaths of Wolverine #2
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Federico Vicentini
Color Artists: Dijjo Lima
Letterer & Design: 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. 9, 2022

As we jump from the “X Lives” back to the “X Deaths” series, we've thankfully left the naked time travel death match in the past, literally. Now we're back to Moira MacTaggert (which my spell check wants to change to “carpetbagger”) on the run from a vengeance-seeking Mystique, the CIA and, probably, a Phalanxed-out Wolverine.

That last part is confirmed in one of the text pages, which are conveying useful information in this book, as opposed to feeling like filler or a forced effect in some other X-titles these days. Krakoan surveillance picked up a repetitive message of “We are Phalanx” on an unknown frequency.

But Moira's only aware of the first two pursuers, that we know of, when she – a Nobel prize-winning geneticist now on her 10th life and the secret founder of a revolutionary mutant society – robs a gas station in Oklahoma*. On her way out, she calls Jane Foster from a freshly bought cell phone and finds out there is “floronic matter” in her cancer. She presumes the Krakoans are responsible, although there were only slightly more than a dozen who knew she was alive and they didn't have much time to create and infect her with a biological weapon before giving her the boot, so I'm skeptical. Maybe it's Terra Verde, the Central American country with its own plant-based tech that Beast sort of turned into a nation of plant zombies for a while over in “X-Force.”

Moira takes her ill-gotten supplies to a no-questions-asked motel in New Mexico and proceeds to amputate her techno-organic arm, figuring that's how Mystique is tracking her. In-story, it makes sense, but a) Cypher specifically said it wouldn't be used to track her in “Inferno” #4 and b) this is the second time in the last four comic appearances of Moira where she's had her left arm cut off. If it happens in “X Deaths” #4, I will be disappointed but not surprised.

It appears that Mystique is not as honorable as Doug Ramsey (news flash) and is indeed tracking Moira via the arm. But when she shoots the figure in the motel room bed and yanks back the covers, she finds the arm is all that's left of her quarry. Oh, and there's a bomb under the bed that blows Mystique to bits.

Death, of course, is even more of a temporary obstacle for mutants than other comic book characters these days. Maybe, since Mystique is a member of the Quiet Council (Krakoa's governing body, though I figure you know that if you're reading this) and “X-Factor” was canceled, no one will investigate this death too closely. Still, all the members of the Council know the truth about Moira, and I'd think at least some of them would frown on Mystique hunting her down. I get that she's mad about Moira preventing her wife Destiny's resurrection, but Destiny's back and Moira has been exiled. I guess Mystique could argue she's trying to prevent Moira from developing that cure for mutation, but I'm not buying it. Maybe all this will be addressed in an upcoming issue or another title, or maybe it's a bit of logic that some folks think will get in the way of the story.

Meanwhile, the title character, or a techno-organic faximile of him, commandeers a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, repeating the mauled-great-white-shark scene the original Wolverine witnessed while stalking a Lovecraftian whale in “Wolverine” #19 fairly recently. He sends the good old boys on the boat packing and heads off in search of Moira, or possibly Epiphany CEO Arnab Chakladar, who seems to be on the ground floor of this particular iteration of man-machine synergy.

We get another clue to Robo-Wolvie's origin when Forge, on Krakoa, studies the pod-tumor thing in which the mystery man arrived and finds it is Krakoan... but about 1,000 years older than the island.

Robo-Wolvie makes his way from the Gulf to New Mexico, where he barges into the burning motel, steps on Mystique's skull and confirms there's a Phalanx signal with Warlock's signature in the room. Then he accesses the office computer's USB port with his claw, Googles Chakladar and steals a police car to continue his journey. Once-again-one-armed Moira watches it all unfold through a rifle sight and laments the future she fears has arrived rather quickly.

This issue continues the brisk, suspenseful atmosphere of its predecessor, despite the unnecessary gore and questionable nature of Mystique's pursuit. My working theory at this point is Robo-Wolvie is from one of Moira's past lives that ended with techno-organic supremacy and the machines are trying to secure their rise after her resurrection reset. We haven't seen Omega Sentinel from “Inferno” yet, and that's kind of her mission too. So maybe there are multiple machine factions, or maybe they're working together, or maybe, as with a lot of my theories, I'm just wrong.

I guess we'll learn more issue after next. Because when we return to “X Lives,” I think we're going to get more Wolverine bare fighting. (No, that's not a typo.)

* - I originally typed New Mexico. Then I listened to the X-Lapsed episode, where Chris paid closer attention.