Wolverine #1 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #1
“In the Bones”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE:
A less-than-prominent editorial note on the credits page places this story before X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1, though you could work that out anyway.
After the fall of Krakoa, Logan has headed off to the Canadian wilderness, as he sometimes does, to run around naked with wolves. He hasn’t completely dropped off the radar but he’s made it very clear that he wants to be left alone. Logan attributes his mental state to the trauma of “Fall of X” and associated events, and seems to be saying that now that he’s finally in a position to take some time to drop out of society, that’s what he wants to do. He resents being told that he has responsibilities as a prominent mutant (which is consistent with how he’s been acting in the X-Men books).
The wolves get wiped out by Cyber rather quickly, and Logan blames himself for exposing them to the inevitable attack by one of his villains. A few pages later, one of the campers who survived Cyber’s attack makes essentially the same argument – that the mutants drew Cyber to attack them. He’s not exactly wrong, but given his anti-mutant tone, Wolverine has a lot less sympathy for him, and declares that if Cyber comes back for him then he has it coming. In fact, though, Wolverine does try to protect them.
Logan doesn’t recognise Kurt’s scent at first, which is obviously odd. His only explanation is that his “head’s kind of messed up”, but it feels like a subplot. He mentions later on that he didn’t pick up Cyber’s scent either, and decides that he must just be “slipping”.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Nightcrawler comes after Logan partly out of concern for his mental health, and partly to encourage him to return to the X-Men. He says that things are “bad for mutants now” – a recurring claim in the “From the Ashes” books which is very, very hard to reconcile with the fact that everything we can see is blatantly much better than it was during “Fall of X”. But it’s fair to say that mutantkind is in disarray at the very least. Kurt sees Logan as abdicating his responsibility by running off to the woods.
VILLAINS:
Cyber wants revenge on Wolverine for his long list of defeats. Now that Wolverine is away from Krakoa and other mutants, Cyber figures he finally has a chance of getting to him one on one. He could have done this at any time after “Fall of X”, but maybe he just couldn’t find Wolverine until now. His approach seems to be to kill everyone in sight in the hope of drawing Wolverine out.
The fight between Cyber and Wolverine wakes some sort of sentient metal thing in the vicinity, which regards adamantium as a man-made perversion and seems to possess Cyber’s body after he flees the scene. Hmm.
Cyber was last seen in the X-books in Death of Wolverine #3, where he was killed by being dissolved in acid. He returned to life in Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #8-13, where he was resurrected by a demon as part of a plan to re-form the Slingers, and he spent a few issues claiming to be the Hornet. His new body was indeed metal-plated, so there’s no obvious problem with him showing up in more classic form here.
Lady Deathstrike appears on the bonus page, apparently training some henchmen to help her hunt down Wolverine. She doesn’t think they’re up to standard.
OTHER SPECIFICS:
Page 7 panel 1: “A century ago, he was little more than a boy and I was his drill sergeant…” This and other references to Wolverine and Cyber’s past are referring to assorted flashbacks from Wolverine: Origins – specifically issues #12, #15 and #17. In those issues, Cyber is an agent of Romulus, but the story would gain nothing from bringing that up, and wisely doesn’t. Wolverine’s reminiscence about Cyber on page 23 draws on the same source.
Page 7 panel 2: “Little bastard even bit my eye out.” Marvel Comics Presents #92, I think.
Page 7 panel 4: “Until recently, he’s been living it up in mutant paradise, surrounded by heavy hitters I’m not stupid enough to take on.” Krakoa, obviously. Some stories have Cyber himself as a mutant, at least in his original body, but he evidently didn’t feel like taking up the amnesty.
Page 11 panel 1: “Wolverine and I joined the X-Men around the same time.” Giant-Size X-Men #1. Nightcrawler’s reaction to first meeting Wolverine, as described here, isn’t in that issue, but then it doesn’t actualy show them meeting on panel.
Page 14 line 2: “Orchis. Leavin’ Krakoa. Charles doing what he did.” “Fall of X” in general, and specifically Professor X making a deal with Nimrod in Rise of the Powers of X.
Page 22 line 1: “More times than I can count, I’ve laid there strapped to some machine, listening to people who think they know me…” The obvious reference is “Weapon X”, but Wolverine seems to be talking more generally about all sorts of scientists down the years who’ve treated him as an object of study, however benignly.
“A less-than-prominent editorial note on the credits page places this story before X-Men #1 and Uncanny X-Men #1, though you could work that out anyway.”
But when does it take place with respect to all his other appearances? Since the end of the Krakoan era, Wolverine has appeared in X-Men:the Wedding Special, Blood Hunt tie-ins, Venom War tie-ins, the Hellverine series, Avengers Academy and an Annual that was part of the Infinity Watch series. In all of those stories, he’s in much better mental health than this story. Do these stories take place before or after his time in the woods? I realize that this has long been a problem with major characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine but this is an extreme example. Ahmed stuck a period where Wolverine was in the woods for such a long time that he forgot Kurt’s scent in the middle of a period when Wolverine was appearing in many titles. And in one of those titles, he learned his son was alive- a major development for him. It’s especially odd since Kurt says Wolverine has cut off contact with the X-Men “since we left Krakoa”. Does that mean that all these stories take place after this issue? Just the ones where he interacts with other mutants?
“Some stories have Cyber himself as a mutant, at least in his original body, but he evidently didn’t feel like taking up the amnesty.”
Ahmed doesn’t seem to think Cyber is a mutant. He has Wolverine tell the campers “That dirtbag that did this ain’t one of us.”
““Fall of X” in general, and specifically Professor X making a deal with Nimrod in Rise of the Powers of X.”
More specifically, Xavier tricking the X-Men into thinking he committed murder for reasons that make no sense whatsoever.
Lady Deathstrike seems to be a straight-up villain in the bonus page. That’s odd. She seemed to be semi-reformed, like Deadpool. In her last two appearances, in Deadpool 10 and the Jubilee story in Marvel Voices:X-Men, she ended the stories one good terms with Jubilee and Deadpool.
This issue illustrates the problem with Wolverine’s rogues gallery. Wolverine has four major foes- Sabreooth (his arch-enemy), Lady Deathstrike, Daken and Omega Red. But Lady Deathstrike, Daken and Omega Red have all been reformed or semi-reformed for years. Now normally if Sabretooth was dead and Grayson was alive, you might have Grayson Creed take his father’s place as Wolverine’s nemesis. But Sabretooth War ended with both Sabretooth and Grayson dead. And I can see why Breevort and Ahmed didn’t want to do another Sabretooth or Grayson story immediately after Sabretooth War. (I’m sure they’ll both be back eventually and hopefully Grayson will have a better name than Bad Seed,) But that meant that Breevort and Ahmed had to look elsewhere for villains. So either Lady Deathstrike, Omega Red or Daken had to revert to villainy and it couldn’t be Daken because he has a series.
That’s also why this issue’s villain is Cyber. PAD created Cyber as an enemy for Wolverine in Marvel Comics Presents in 1991 and claimed that Cyber was the one man Wolverine truly feared. But the writers didn’t like this- why should Wolverine be more scared of Cyber than Sabretooth? So he only appeared in two Marvel Comics Presents arcs, an X-Factor arc and two Wolverine arcs before being killed off in 1995. Later, in the 2000s, he was brought back by Daniel Way in Wolverine: Origins, who used him in a few issues before having him killed by Daken 20 issues later. Then he stayed dead until Death of Wolverine 3, where he was brought back and killed in the same issue. Then, PAD, who created Cyber, brought him back in the Ben Reily: Scarlet Spider series since the X-Books wanted nothing to do with him. So basically he was killed off 4 years after he was introduced, brought back twice just to be killed off again and finally brought back by his creator in a non X-book. That’s how little the fans and writers cared for him.
“Does that mean that all these stories take place after this issue?”
I smell another installment of The Incomplete Wolverine!
Also, is Wolverine like the third or fourth mutant to (possibly) be losing his powers since the relaunch?
I’ll take my answer off the air.
You know, there’s an interesting subtext here that I’ll be shocked if anyone picks up on it.
As Paul said, most mutants seem to be doing fine, at least compared to “Fall of X”. The big shift in the status quo is that they’re not all living together in a botanicals-induced cult and they’re not all banding together in violent paramilitary groups.
If Logan gets more time to go camping and, say, Prodigy gets a nice, stable career as a professor, is that really worse than being an X-Man?
Well, there are the rumblings that the governments of the world have embraced an anti-mutant agenda. I wouldn’t say everything is peachy for mutants. However, compared to “Fall of X”, it’s incredibly difficult to make the statement that everything is worse for mutants. The point was even made with Warden Ellis that the US government was basically scraping the bottom of the barrel to pursue their latest genocide scheme against mutants, as if they’ve grown bored with it at this point, and it’s simply another bureaucracy that Congress needs to worry about passing the appropriations bill.
“Kill all mutants funding?” “I vote yes, but less than the previous year.”
It’s just become habit for Marvel to start every X-books revamp with the tag line of “mutants are more hated and feared than ever”. It got to absurdist levels in the 1990s when humanity’s level of hatred for mutants reached “frothing mobs carrying pitchforks” levels.
I guess starting “From the Ashes” by stating “mutants are sort of feared and hated, eh, it’s been worse, things are…ok? Maybe?” didn’t seem like a good marketing ploy.
“Logan doesn’t recognise Kurt’s scent at first, which is obviously odd. His only explanation is that his “head’s kind of messed up”, but it feels like a subplot.”
Feels like a line-wide crossover. I could be mistaken (I’m not actually reading the books), but I thought there’s been examples broughtnyp throughout the line of mutant abilities being a bit off, or wonky.
Uh, yeah, so “broughtnyp” That was supposed to read “brought up.” Dunno what happened there.
I know it’s not anything truly new but the idea that Logan would go to the woods and just live as a wolf indefinitely leaves me rolling my eyes. How long is he doing it? Could he truly do it indefinitely? I know there’s suspension of disbelief but it just feels silly. Not to even mention how it’s yet another “Wolverine is a wolf” conceptualization that seems to sidestep the wolverine as a possibility.
Though to be fair, if he was living in a pack of wolverines it might actually be sillier. Still…
Real wolverines are solitary animals and don’t live in packs.
Unlike our Wolverine who’s constantly looking for someone to team up with or the next team to join.
Yeah, I liked the issue, but I’m also not of the mind that Wolverine, left to his own devices, really just wants to join the cast of the Jungle Book.
For all his usual pontificating about how nature is superior to humanity and all that, I think he’s enamored of a few too many earthly delights to devote his life to hunting, eating, and pooping.
Granted, I haven’t read 90s Wolverine, so I only know him from Wolverine Origins onward, but Cyber is the blandest recurring Wolverine villain I know of.
I’ve had many issues with Percy, but I’ll take a dozen stories with Solem or that big Arakki acid pirate guy over Cyber.
@Moo – “broughtnyp” = it’s a new drug that mutants go wild for, but can induce drooling, sleepiness, leaping about and power freakouts.
RIP, Wolverine’s brown and tan costume. Good night, sweet prince… our time with you was all-too-short, but we cherish it.
GTFO, blue and yellow… no one but the marketing guys wanted you back.
I think Broughtnyp was a member of Youngblood or Cyberforce?
Despite the negative press covfefe broughtnyp
@The Other Michael: I remember Broughtnyp. He was the member of Youngblood who filled the pouches of his costume with little bits of German sausage that he threw at bad guys. He was Youngblood’s wurst member.
@ChrisV: Oh I don’t doubt Marvel is going back to the old ‘hated and feared’ thing. It’s just that to me that’s less interesting than a bunch of former X-Men feeling lost because the team fragmented, even though things are relatively good.
I still remember Cyber as the pictured character on the highest power fighting card in Marvel Overpower.