Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914
Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II
Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team X
Part 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X
Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age
1974-1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985
1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991
1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997
1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003
2004 |2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
2010 | 2011

It’s 2012, and we’re in the first year of Wolverine as the headmaster of his very own school. At this point, Wolverine is still a member of the X-Men (well, half of them), the Avengers and X-Force as well as having a solo title. But compared to last year, 2012 is relatively restrained.

We left off with Wolverine vol 4 #20, which was the first part of another Japan storyline. But this is where Marvel goes through its brief enthusiasm for legacy numbering, and so the numbering jumps to…

WOLVERINE #300-303
“Back in Japan”
by Jason Aaron, Adam Kubert, Paul Mounts, Ron Garney, Billy Tan, Jason Keith, Steve Sanders & Sotocolor
January to March 2012

That’s a somewhat abbreviated credits list, as issues #300 and #303 have a lot of artists credited on them.

Anyway, Wolverine heads to Japan, where a war between the Hand and the Yakuza is brewing. The Hand are controlled by the Kingpin at this point, but Hand boss Azuma Gōda wants rid of him. Gōda hires Sabretooth as an ally, and kidnaps Wolverine’s foster daughter Amiko – for once, not to get at Wolverine, but because her boyfriend Shingen Harada II is the rightful heir to Clan Yashida. Shingen responds by making his debut as the new, hi-tech Silver Samurai; he’s not an outright villain yet, but an upstart who Wolverine and Sabretooth both view with disdain. Ultimately, Wolverine rescues Amiko himself, then goes after the Hand. During all this, Wolverine has sex with Yukio, who is actually a disguised Mystique (with enhanced powers that stop him recognising her by scent). Wolverine then slaughters a lot of the Hand ninjas in Tokyo, which Gōda views as a wonderful opportunity to get rid of the dead wood and rebuild from the core Hand organisation that remains in the shadows. Of course, he winds up getting killed by Wolverine. Having apparently defeated the Hand – or this splinter faction, at any rate – Wolverine is ready to return home, albeit with a sense of vague dissatisfaction about the whole thing.

What he doesn’t know is that Sabretooth, Mystique, Silver Samurai and Lord Deathstrike form an alliance to take over Tokyo organised crime, and effectively seize control of the Hand. (Or part of it? Kingpin keeps showing up in Hand stories for a while.) That’s Sabretooth’s status quo for the next few years.

Moreover, Mystique sends photos of her liaison with Wolverine to Melita Garner, which her to dump him off panel before the next issue – an odd direction given the efforts that were made to haul her to New York in the first place.

This isn’t great. Bits of it are very over the top, but the tone is inconsistent. The art is rickety at times, and the last thing Aaron’s stories needed at this point was yet another upstart junior villain.

DAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE #21-23
“Lost Weekend”
by Rob Williams, Matteo Buffagni, Andrea Mutti, Guru eFX, Rachelle Rosenberg & Riley Rossmo
February & March 2012

These are the final issues of Daken’s solo series, and they’re odd, but quite good. Daken is terminally ill, and decides to avenge himself on Wolverine one last time. In a typically convoluted scheme, he drugs Wolverine with a powerful hallucinogen and lures him to New York. Daken plans to bomb the headquarters of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, hoping that the collateral damage to bystanders will damage the reputation of superheroes (who are “stupid”).

The story is intentionally vague about Daken’s motivations in all this. The Thing accuses him of targeting families because he resents his own abandonment. At one point, Daken claims that he’s just frustrating everyone by leaving them a meaningless puzzle. But when Wolverine finally corners Daken, he shows no interest whatsoever in Daken’s motives. Daken escapes by claiming to have left a bomb at the school, forcing Wolverine to race back there (which is … quicker than just phoning…?). Instead of a bomb, he finds a toy Wolverine doll left for him by Daken. Daken’s closing narration says “I so desperately wanted to leave him with nothing.”

WOLVERINE #304
“One More Round”
by Jason Aaron, Steve Dillon, Ron Garney, Paul Pelletier, Matthew Wilson, Matt Milla, Rain Beredo, Andy Troy & Chris Sotomayor
April 2012

In Madripoor, Sabretooth holds a party for Wolverine’s rogue’s gallery, and Wolverine attacks it. He singlehandedly beats up everyone but Sabretooth, and declares that this is his way of inverting the annual attack tradition; he’ll be back next year, he says. This is Jason Aaron’s final issue – though he’s still writing Wolverine and the X-Men for a while yet – and it’s basically a reprise.

DEADPOOL vol 4 #50-54
“Dead”
by Daniel Way, Carlo Barberi, Walden Wong, Ale Garza, Sean Parsons & Dommo Sanchez Amara
February to May 2012

Deadpool learns about a serum that can shut down his healing factor, and wants to get his hands on it so that he can commit suicide. He ropes in the rest of X-Force by telling them that the serum shuts down all super-powers (it doesn’t) and that it’s in the hands of the Kingpin (it isn’t). In fact, it’s in the hands of Spider-Man villain Tombstone (Lonnie Lincoln). After a diversion to deal with snipers Cubrilovic and Van Burian, X-Force find that Kingpin and his loyal Hand forces are also searching for the serum. When they eventually find out that it has no effect on anyone but Deadpool, Wolverine is furious that Deadpool risked the whole team for his personal death wish. X-Force start hunting Deadpool down, but by the time they catch up with him, he’s has taken the serum, lost his powers, and changed his mind about dying; X-Force agree to take him back.

UNCANNY X-FORCE vol 1 #25-29 and #31-34
“Final Execution”
by Rick Remender, Mike McKone, Phil Noto, Julian Totino Tedesco & Dean White
May to December 2012

Wolverine and Age of Apocalypse Nightcrawler rescue Deadpool from White Sky, an organisation that makes cloned assassins. White Sky’s forces include the Omega Clan – Omega Black, Omega Red II and Omega White. The Omega Clan are clones of the original Omega Red with false memories, who believe they’re avenging a wrong done to them by X-Force. They’re also part of a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – along with the Shadow King, Sabretooth, Mystique, Daken, Age of Apocalypse Blob and the Skinless Man (Harry Pizer) – who kill Fantomex and kidnap Evan Sabah Nur.

X-Force don’t get a chance to go anything about that, because without Fantomex to keep under control, Ultimaton kills Gateway and blows up. The team survive the explosion because Psylocke triggers Gateway’s powers and sends them to a dystopian future, Earth-12928. There, they meet Earth-12928 Deathlok, who explains that in this timeline, Evan became Apocalypse, and X-Force defeated him. But then X-Force started killing all criminals, and after that they started pre-emptively killing anyone who had made up their mind to kill. Peace and prosperity have been achieved at the cost of X-Force’s totalitarian rule. (X-Force members in this timeline include older versions of Wolverine, Cable, Hope Summers, Punisher and Giant-Man.)

Deathlok clearly intends this as a cautionary story, and Psylocke is duly horrified, but Wolverine thinks it sounds like a pretty good outcome, really. In a last ditch attempt to change the future, Deathlok attacks, but gets gunned down by members of the future X-Force. Psylocke tries to kill herself, but her life is saved. Since Psylocke is a major figure in Earth-19298 history, the timeline is briefly destabilised, but sorts itself out quickly, which everyone takes to imply that X-Force do indeed make the decisions that lead to this point. A flashback in issue #35 reveals that before  departing, Wolverine learns that in this timeline, Daken killed the Jean Grey School students are Wolverine passed up the opportunity to kill him.

Once back in the present, X-Force go after Evan. Once again, they debate whether to kill him in order to prevent the ascension of Apocalypse. Psylocke argues that killing the first Apocalypse clone only made matters worse, and makes the very reasonable point that her teammates seem more willing to make excuses for Daken, who has actually killed people, than for Evan, who hasn’t. Meanwhile, Deadpool heads off to rescue Evan alone, hoping for evidence that anyone (i.e., even him) can be redeemed.

Mystique tricks AoA Nightcrawler into switching sides, and he helps the Brotherhood to capture Wolverine. Daken then yells at Wolverine for quite a bit, mocking his unsuitability to run a school. Daken says that he used to hate himself because of Wolverine’s hero act, but now he’s being true to his nature. Wolverine replies that he doesn’t hate Daken – he just thinks it is sad that Daken is so desperate to impress and to be respected. He tells Daken that he has given him pass after pass, and Daken never takes the opportunity. He admits that he might be partly to blame for letting Daken be raised under Romulus’s influence.

Daken explains that the villains’ plan is for Shadow King to possess Evan and use him to annihilate the school. For his own part, Daken wants Wolverine to be remembered as a villain, and also wants to justify his own life by proving that some people are just inherently irredeemable. X-Force rally, and Wolverine and Daken fight in the ruins of Genosha, where Wolverine kills Daken. Afterwards, Wolverine cries, regretting his failure to protect Daken. Sabretooth claims to have engineered Wolverine into a position of killing Daken so that it would torment him for the rest of his days. (This is too close to the Red Right Hand story, but fortunately it’s not that central to the plot.) Evan tries to attack Sabretooth, but Wolverine stops him, telling Evan to look around him and see where revenge leads. Sabretooth leaves satisfied, but Wolverine – although haunted by the thought that he could have raised Daken properly – hopes that Evan may have been set on the right course.

This is the finale of Remender’s lengthy X-Force run, which holds together remarkably well as a coherent story. The core of it all is whether Wolverine and X-Force really are people doing the dirty work that needs to be done, or whether they’re just a bunch of murderers making rationalisations to themselves.

UNCANNY X-FORCE vol 1 #35
“Rainbows, Puppy Dogs & Sunshine”
by Rick Remender, Phil Noto & Frank Martin Jr
December 2012

The final issue of the series is an epilogue. X-Force have disbanded. Logan returns to the village of Shirakawa-Go to bury Daken. Finally, Wolverine, Psylocke and Deadpool use White Sky’s technology to re-create Fantomex, but wind up with three of him – the traditional Fantomex, Cluster (the female one) and Charlie (the dark one).

In X-Men Legacy #260.1, Wolverine is absent at a school board meeting when the N’Garai attack the school.

X-MEN LEGACY vol 1 #261-263
“Lost Tribes”
by Christos Gage, David Baldeon, Jordi Tarragona & Sonia Oback
January to March 2012

Exodus shows up at the school, demanding that the mutants end their schism. But after speaking to the school’s X-Men, he decides they were right after all – Hope is the messiah, and Cyclops is risking her in battle, which is madness. Therefore, Cyclops must die. Wolverine insists that the School X-Men try to stop Exodus before alerting their counterparts on Utopia – he argues that there will be plenty of time to send a message if they fail. Rogue quietly tips off Utopia anyway, expecting their X-Men team to show up as reinforcement. Unfortunately, she gets Generation Hope instead. Both teams join forces up to defeat Exodus. Wolverine yells at Rogue for going behind his back, and somewhat surprisingly, she agrees that he turned out to be right.

X-MEN LEGACY vol 1 #265
by Christos Gage, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona & Rachelle Rosenberg
April 2012

A non-speaking cameo, supervising the kids at play.

UNCANNY X-MEN vol 2 #9-10
by Kieron Gillen, Carlos Pacheco, Cam Smith & Guru eFX
March & April 2012

Cyclops’ X-Men team up with the Avengers to deal with assorted alien attacks co-ordinated by Unit. Wolverine is there as one of the Avengers, and glares at Cyclops, but has no dialogue.

X-CLUB #1
5-issue miniseries
by Si Spurrier, Paul Davidson & Rachelle Rosenberg
December 2011

A single panel cameo of Wolverine watching Cyclops’ press conference on TV and calling him a jackass.

CARNAGE, USA #1-2 and #4-5
5-issue miniseries
by Zeb Wells & Clayton Crain
December 2011 to April 2012

Wolverine and his fellow Avengers team up with Scorn (Tanis Nieves) and a team of symbiote-equipped Navy Seals – Lasher (Marcus Simms), Agony (James Murphy), Phage (Rico Axelson) and Riot (Howard Ogden) – to save the small town of Doverton, Colorado, from Carnage.

MARVEL DIGITAL HOLIDAY SPECIAL 2011, second story
“Logan’s Lost Lesson”
by Kurtis J Wiebe, Patrick Scherberger, Cory Hamscher & Veronica Gandidi
December 2011

As punishment for trashing Beast’s lab, Logan forces some of the kids to play ice hockey, and is mildly irritated when they enjoy it. Very disposable.

In a flashback in Wolverine and the X-Men vol 1 #17, the X-Men complain about having Doop at the Jean Grey School, or are just baffled about why he’s there. Wolverine shuts down the conversation but refuses to explain Doop’s presence.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #5-7
“Mutatis Mutandis”
by Jason Aaron, Nick Bradshaw, Walden Wong & Justin Ponsor
February & March 2012

The Jean Grey School loses access to Angel’s money when Kade Kilgore bribes the Worthington Industries board to have him declared incompetent. (Since Angel clearly is mentally incompetent at this point, the bribery seems superfluous.) To raise money, Wolverine goes to a space casino with Kid Omega. Kid Omega starts his redemption arc by actually helping Logan to escape the casino when the guards turn on them – somehow or other, Logan is badly injured in the process, with his legs getting twisted despite the adamantium. In the epilogue, it turns out that Krakoa could just have created a supply of diamonds all along. This is another very silly arc, and a lot depends on whether you find that sort of thing irritating or endearing.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #8
“A Little Impossible”
by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend
April 2012

Beast concludes that Logan’s adamantium was bent using some sort of matter transmutation ray. While he collects the technology to reverse it, Logan resumes teaching from a wheelchair. To his surprise, Kid Omega avenges him by leading his class in an attack on the casino. (Wolverine gets healed off panel afterwards.)

ASTONISHING X-MEN #48-55
by Marjorie Liu, Mike Perkins, Andy Troy & Jay David Ramos
March to November 2012

This is the start of Marjorie Liu’s run, and it was solicited as “the most controversial story of 2012”. The X-Men are attacked by the Marauders and Chimera, who are all under mind control. The investigation leads to Hatchi Tech, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. contractor owned by Karma’s half sister Susan Hatchi (Da’o Coy Manh). That’s the A-plot of this arc, which is basically a Karma story, and Wolverine’s role in it is pretty marginal. This arc is best remembered, though, for the wedding of Northstar and Kyle Jinadu in issue #51; Wolverine’s at that too, and he meets Kyle’s parents. Basically, Wolverine is here to add familiarity to the X-Men team and he’s sidelined pretty quickly.

INCREDIBLE HULK vol 4 #12
“Riot at the God Complex”
by Jason Aaron, Carlos Pacheco, Roger Bonet & Frank Martin
August 2012

Wolverine and the Thing fight the Hulk when he tries to break into a hidden S.H.I.E.L.D. base.

AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE #9 (epilogue)
March 2012

“Months” after the main story, Wolverine is at Avengers Mansion when the Young Avengers come to visit. It’s a cameo.

In another flashback in Wolverine and the X-Men vol 1 #17, Wolverine passes an unconscious Doop in a school corridor, and tells him to keep up the good work.

WOLVERINE #305-308
by Cullen Bunn, Paul Pelletier, David Meikis & Rain Beredo
April to June 2012

Cullen Bunn kicks off his short run as writer by tying up a loose end from Jason Aaron – Dr Rot still has a trigger word that he can use to control Wolverine. When Wolverine notices his blackouts, he investigates Dr Rot and tracks down the villain’s mutilated father Mr Newton (whom he puts out of his misery). Meanwhile, one of Wolverine’s mind controlled killings is witnessed, prompting a police investigation; Melita Garner takes an interest and tells the police about Rot.

Wolverine tracks Rot to his dilapidated ancestral home, where Rot is accompanied by his “family” – Nurse Fester, Charlie Chainsaws, Baylee Ann, Tater, Mother and Atremus Nicodemus Rottwell (apparently random people whom Rot has cast in the role of relatives). Rot claims here that his mother’s side of the family were renowned killers, and that he wants to regain their reputation. Rot torments Wolverine with ECT and apparently removes brain samples through his nose. When Melita shows up with FBI Agent Wells, the sight of her in danger apparently shocks Wolverine into breaking free of his programming, and Dr Rot’s trigger phrases no longer work. Wolverine swiftly defeats Rot and his bozos, but finds that he has lost some of his memories again, apparently for good – in particular, he no longer recognises Melita.

This doesn’t actually write out Melita – we’ll see her again soon – but it’s another attempt to put a stop to her relationship with Wolverine. It also restores the “memory gap” idea which Brian Bendis had tried to put a stop to during House of M. All that being aside, while this arc is a lot less creepy than the first Dr Rot arc and has some fairly obvious reset-button destinations in mind, it’s still quite good on its own terms.

According to issue #314, over the following weeks Logan meets with Melita a dozen times in the hope that his memory of her will return, but nothing changes.

Issue #309 is a fill-in story with Wolverine and Elixir, and we covered it in the 2010 post. Issues #310-313 are the “Sabretooth Reborn” arc, which we covered last year.

X-FACTOR #238
by Peter David, Paul Davidson & Rachelle Rosenberg
June 2012

Wolverine asks X-Factor to look into some murders that might be connected with Banshee or Siryn.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #0 (Scarlet Witch story)
by Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Cho & Jason Keith
March 2012

Just a background cameo at Avengers Mansion.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE vol 2 #1 and #6
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Bagley, Danny Miki & Paul Mounts
March to August 2012

More cameos. In issue #1, he’s at the celebrations for the opening of the new Avengers Tower. In issue #6, he’s among a horde of heroes who gather to deal with the approach of Thanos.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #17
“Wolverine’s Secret Weapon”
by Jason Aaron, Michael Allred & Laura Allred
September 2012

A Doop spotlight issue, mostly flashbacks, bizarrely published bang in the middle of the Avengers vs X-Men crossover. In the framing sequence, Wolverine assures Deathlok that Doop is there for good reasons. It doesn’t really make sense for this to take place in publication order, so I’ve brought it forward.

With that out of the way, we now enter the massive Avengers vs X-Men crossover. There’s a lot of this, filling a good chunk of the year.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #9
“Day of the Phoenix, Dark Night of the Soul”
by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey & Chris Eliopoulos
April 2012

This issue overlaps heavily with Avengers vs X-Men #1, but all of Wolverine’s significant scenes appear in fuller form here. The Avengers and the east coast X-Men learn that the Phoenix is on its way to Earth. Wolverine believes it will head for Utopia and take Hope as its new host – something that Cyclops will welcome as the rebirth of the mutant race. But to Wolverine, Hope is an out-of-her-depth teenager, and Cyclops is a religious lunatic. Even so, Wolverine doesn’t want to fight the Utopia X-Men. But he reluctantly agrees to join the other Avengers in heading to Utopia. (Cap gathering his Avengers team is also shown in flashbacks in New Avengers vol 2 #24 and Avengers vol 4 #28.)

NEW AVENGERS vol 2 #24
by Brian Michael Bendis, Mike Deoodato, Will Conorad & Rain Beredo
April 2012

The Avengers wait politely on the Helicarrier while Captain America tries to persuade Cyclops to let them deal with Phoenix. It goes predictably badly, and so Cap calls in the Avengers to fight the Utopians (as also shown in Avengers vs X-Men #1).

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #2
12-issue miniseries
by Jason Aaron, John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Laura Martin
April 2012

The Avengers fight the Utopian X-Men, with Wolverine on the Avengers’ side; Domino and Sunspot both call him a traitor. (A version of this fight also appears in Avengers vol 4 #25 and in a flashback in Wolverine and the X-Men vol 1 #10.) Wolverine and Spider-Man sneak inside to find Hope, who is already glowing with Phoenix energy. Wolverine tries to kill her, so that she won’t become Dark Pheonix. She easily defeats him, and leaves Utopia. (A version of this scene also appears in Uncanny X-Men vol 2 #11.)

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #3 (part 1)
by Ed Brubaker, John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Laura Martin
May 2012

Wolverine finally comes round from his beating. The Utopians have surrendered, but the X-Men team themselves escape.

AVENGERS ACADEMY #29
“Protective Services, part 1”
by Christos Gage, Tom Grummett, Cory Hamscher & Chris Sotomayor
May 2012

The Avengers (including Wolverine) take the Utopian teens plus the handful of remaining adults to Avengers Academy for safe keeping. X-23, currently in the Academy cast, complains that she took Wolverine’s advice and went her own way, only for him to bring the war to her doorstep anyway. He agrees with her, but asks her to help deal with the new arrivals.

Quite a lot of Academy students are milling around in here, but it’d be a stretch to say that Wolverine actually interacts with them.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #10
“Avengers vs X-Men … vs X-Men”
by Jason Aaron, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey & Victor Olazaba
May 2012

Cyclops shows up at the school, and tries to persuade Wolverine to stand with “the X-Men”. Wolverine insists that his group are the X-Men, and argues that Cyclops is gambling the fate of the world on his weird religious ideas. But he still lets Cyclops go. Afterwards, many of the X-Men at the school argue that they should join the fight on Cyclops’s side (and Rachel helpfully breaks the plot, by pointing out that she had the Phoenix Force for ages and she was just fine). So Wolverine is alienating even his own X-Men by this point.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #3 (part 2)
May 2012

Rachel grudgingly uses Cerebra to track Hope for the Avengers, but it shows five different locations, because every big crossover needs side quests. Rachel secretly leaks the same information to Cyclops. The Avengers split up: Wolverine joins Captain America, Giant-Man and Sharon Carter in heading for the Savage Land. But Cap rightly suspects that Wolverine will kill Hope if he gets the chance. When Wolverine confirms that, Cap first tries to bench him, then boots him out of the Quinjet and strands him in the Antarctic.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #4 (part 1)
12-issue miniseries
by Jonathan Hickman, John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Laura Martin
May 2012

Hope rescues Wolverine. She tells him that she thinks she can use the Phoenix to re-start mutantkind, but she wants him around to stop her if she turns out to be wrong. He agrees to give her a chance.

WOLVERINE AND X-MEN vol 1 #11
“Got Hope?”
by Jason Aaron, Nick Bradshaw, Walden Wong, Norman Lee & Justin Ponsor
May 2012

Wolverine and Hope fight off an attack by the Shi’ar Death Commandos – Flaw, Colony, Offset, Shell and Krait – who also want to kill Hope before she can become Dark Phoenix. Hope plans to head to the Blue Area of the Moon, where she expects to meet the Phoenix. Wolverine realises that he will never be able to kill Hope – not because she reminds him of Jean, but because he sees her as a child. So he secretly tips off the Avengers about where they’re going.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #4 (part 2) to #6
12-issue miniseries
#5 by Matt Fraction, John Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Laura Martin
#6 by Jonathan Hickman, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales & Laura Martin
May & June 2012

Wolverine and Hope steal a rocket from A.I.M. and travel to the Blue Area, but the Avengers are waiting. Cyclops’ X-Men also show up, and a fight breaks out just as the Phoenix arrives. (The fight is also seen in Uncanny X-Men vol 2 #13.) Iron Man tries to destroy the Phoenix, but all he achieves is to divert it from Hope and split it between Cyclops, Namor, Emma Frost, Magik and Colossus. These cosmically empowered X-Men – the Phoenix Five – leave with Hope and set about creating a utopia on Earth.

Now that he’s failed to stop the Phoenix, Wolverine’s main role in the story is over, and he fades into the background. The Avengers try to kidnap Hope; it doesn’t work, but Hope is so freaked out by the Phoenix Five that she decides to go with them anyway. Increasingly paranoid, Cyclops decides to wipe out the Avengers.

AVENGERS vol 4 #29
by Brian Michael Bendis, Walt Simonson, Scott Hanna & Jason Keith
August 2012

The Avengers take refuge in Wakanda, and Captain America enlists the aid of Professor X. But after getting involved in one fight between the two sides, the Professor decides that he can’t bring himself to get involved, wipes everyone’s memory of his involvement, and leaves. Another version of this fight appears in Wolverine and the X-Men vol 1 #12, mostly from Rachel’s point of view.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #7-10
12-issue miniseries
#7 by Matt Fraction, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales & Laura Martin
#8 by Brian Michael Bendis, Adam Kubert, John Dell & Laura Martin
#9 by Jason Aaron, Adam Kubert, John Dell & Laura Martin
#10 by Ed Brubaker, Adam Kubert, John Dell & Laura Martin
July & August 2012

Wolverine takes Hope to K’un Lun to be trained by Lei Kung the Thunderer. Then, he hangs around on the fringes of the plot. The Avengers defeat Magik and Colossus, whose Phoenix power simply transfers to the remaining hosts. In a flashback in issue #12, the Avengers are briefed by Iron Man on the importance of Hope and the Scarlet Witch.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #15
“On the Eve of Battle”
by Jason Aaron, Jorge Molina, Norman Lee & Morry Hollowell
August 2012

Hope and Wolverine are now entirely reconciled, and he tells her about Jean Grey. Iceman apologises for taking Cyclops’ side. Wolverine happily welcomes Iceman back to the fold and claims to be glad that Iceman stood up to him. So Iceman also points out that Wolverine is “missing far too often to be an effective headmaster”, stabs people way too much, drinks terrible things, and really needs an effective costume. The issue ends with Professor X, Angel, Beast, Iceman, Wolverine and Rachel Grey setting out together for the final battle – in other words, the original X-Men, but with Wolverine and Rachel graduating to take the place of Scott and Jean.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #11-12
12-issue miniseries
#11 by Brian Bendis, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales & Laura Martin
#12 by Jason Aaron, Adam Kubert, John Dell & Laura Martin
September & October 2012

The X-Men, the Avengers, Professor X and the Hulk fight Cyclops and Emma Frost, the two remaining Phoenix hosts. (This fight also appears in Uncanny X-Men vol 2 #18 and Wolverine and the X-Men vol 1 #18.) The Hulk takes out Emma, but that just leaves Cyclops as the sole Phoenix with its full power. He then kills Professor X. In the version in Wolverine and the X-Men, before Professor X dies, he tells Wolverine how important the school is, and asks Wolverine to promise never to close it.

Wolverine tries to kill Cyclops, but gets blasted aside. Cyclops then starts to turn into Dark Phoenix (as also seen in Uncanny X-Men vol 2 #19 and X-Men Legacy vol 1 #273). The Scarlet Witch and Hope defeat Cyclops, and Hope briefly claims the Phoenix for herself. But – sentimental bit here – Hope’s destiny is not to wield the Phoenix, but to have the strength to let it go. So she and the Scarlet Witch proclaim “No more Phoenix”, the power dissipates, and mutants reappear around the world. As for Cyclops, he goes to jail.

Wolverine doesn’t have that much to do in the back end of this event, but it’s an important turning point for the X-books since it finally ends the “verge of extinction” phase – and means that the school now has a supply of new students.

In the epilogue, Wolverine stands in the background while Captain America interrogates Scott. Scott claims that he was ultimately vindicated – the Phoenix did save the mutant race. Wolverine is distinctly unimpressed, and refuses to join the conversation because “I’ve got a eulogy to give.” (Unfortunately, it’s kind of hard to make this scene fit with Professor X’s actual memorial service in Uncanny Avengers vol 1 #1, but maybe there was more than one.)

In the prologue to Avengers vs X-Men: Consequences #1, Wolverine tries to take some of his students to Wakanda to help with the post-Phoenix rescue efforts, but Storm warns them off – since the Phoenix Five attacked Wakanda under a mutant flag in Avengers vs X-Men #8, all mutants are now unwelcome in Wakanda.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #19
“More Pencils, More Books, More Teachers’ Dirty Looks”
by Jason Aaron, Nick Bradshaw, Walden Wong & Laura Martin
October 2012

While all this was going on, Broo has been shot in the head. Wolverine hunts for his attacker, but only finds a fake trail laid by the Hellfire Club to taunt him.

Wolverine doesn’t appear in issue #20, which is the debut of Shark Girl (Lara Dos Santos) – since she joins the school, he presumably meets her around then.

DAREDEVIL vol 3 #13
by Mark Waid, Khoi Pham, Tom Palmer & Javier Rodriguez
May 2012

The Avengers help Daredevil trick assorted supervillains into believing that the valuable “Omega Drive” has fallen into the hands of the evil organisation Black Spectre.

AVENGERS ACADEMY #38
“Crosstown Rivals”
by Christos Gage, Tom Grummett, Cory Hauscher, Rick Ketcham & Chris Sotomayor
October 2012

The first annual teacher/student flag football game between the Jean Grey School and the Avengers Academy. This time, Wolverine certainly meets Finesse (Jeanne Foucault), Hazmat (Jennifer Takeda), Mettle (Ken Mack), Reptil (Humberto Lopez), Striker (Brandon Sharpe) and Veil (Madeline Berry). Wolverine gets his own back on Giant-Man for dumping him in the Antarctic during Avengers vs X-Men, then settles back to drink.

ASTONISHING X-MEN ANNUAL vol 1 #1
“Welcome to the Family”
by Christos Gage, David Baldeon, Jordi Tarragona & Veronica Gandini
November 2012

Northstar and Kyle’s belated honeymoon is interrupted when Northstar has to help the X-Men deal with the Friends of Humanity, who have put out assassination contracts on Kyle and other human allies.

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN vol 1 #21-23
“The Greatest Freakshow on Earth” / “Big Top Hell” / “The Last Frankenstein”
by Jason Aaron, Nick Bradshaw, various inkers and Laura Martin
November 2012 to January 2013

The school staff are kidnapped and brainwashed into working for the Murder Circus, led by Frankenstein’s Monster and including the sorceress Calcabrina. The Monster is hunting down Max von Frankenstein of the junior Hellfire Club. It’s mainly a story about the students having to free the teachers, and setting up some back story for Max. It seems to be designed for a sequel that never happened. Again, a lot depends on your silliness threshold.

AVENGERS vol 4 #31-34
“End Times”
#31-32 and #34 by Brian Michael Bendis, Brandon Peterson, Mike Mayhew & Jason Keith
#33 by Brian Michael Bendis, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson & Jason Keith
October & November 2012

This is the final Bendis arc. The Avengers pick up an emergency signal from the Microverse, which turns out to be the returning Wasp (Janet van Dyne). Wolverine doesn’t have much to do at all, though he does help to summarily despatch the villainous Lord Gouza in the last chapter.

NEW AVENGERS vol 2 #31
by Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Gaydos & Rain Beredo
October 2012

Wolverine has a cameo at the Mansion as Luke Cage and Jessica Jones announce their departure from the Avengers.

AVENGERS ASSEMBLE vol 2 #9 and #11
by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Stefano Caselli & Rain Beredo
November 2012 and January 2013

Iron Man and Bruce Banner have a bet over who can find missing scientist Sergei Sorokin first; Captain America beats them both. Wolverine is among the Avengers tracking their progress and enforcing the bet.

UNCANNY AVENGERS vol 1 #1-4
“New Union”
by Rick Remender, John Cassaday & Laura Martin
October 2012 to February 2013

Logan delivers his eulogy for Professor X. He talks about Xavier’s commitment to winning round doubters by protecting them. And he explains how Xavier has helped him to make hard, principled decisions – although since the example he gives is not breaking into Cyclops’ jail cell and killing him, and Remender usually writes Wolverine as somewhat hypocritical on this score, we probably shouldn’t take that entirely at face value. More plausibly, Wolverine regrets that mutantkind failed the Professor, rejecting him and letting him die without seeing his dream come true.

With human/mutant relations worse than ever after the Phoenix Five’s antics, Captain America announces a new Avengers team, led by Havok and comprising both human and mutant heroes, to try and win hearts and minds. Wolverine is deeply sceptical – partly because it’s Havok, but also because he rejects the whole idea of a “mutant community”. (“It’s just more of the cult Kool-Aid Scott was selling.”) Some of the anti-mutant hate is actually due to the Red Skull (a clone of the original), who has become telepathic after stealing Professor X’s brain. His S-Men – Honest John, Dancing Water, Dangerous Jinn, the Insect (Tsar Sultan), Mzee the Living Wind and the Goat-Faced Girl – show up in New York with a psychically enthralled Scarlet Witch and Rogue, who then “confess” to carrying out mutant terrorist attacks. During the ensuring fight, Mzee uses his powers to supposedly make Wolverine see his most dreaded future – but what he actually sees is a reprise of Daken’s death. When he learns that the Skull has violated Professor X’s corpse, Wolverine flies into a berserker rage, but gets quickly knocked out and sleeps through the rest of the arc.

Uncanny Avengers has the same long-form plotting as Remender’s X-Force, but it isn’t as strong – a lot of it is about the shortcomings of identity politics, and it deals with that theme in a very heavy handed and simplistic way.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN: CONSEQUENCES
5-issue miniseries
by Kieron Gillen, various artists and Jim Charalampidis
October to November 2012

Wolverine reluctantly agrees to speak to Cyclops and try to persuade him to get the rest of the Extinction Team to surrender. That conversation fills most of issue #2, and it’s very good. Scott insists that killing Professor X was an accident, but Logan argues that Scott knew what he was doing when he set off down that road. Cyclops also argues that he is doing what needed to be down for the greater good, a moral lesson that he learned from Wolverine. If Wolverine had had his way, the mutant race would still be dying out. Cyclops tries to provoke Wolverine into killing him in order to become a martyr and avoid what he assumes will be a prison murder anyway. Wolverine figures out what’s happening and refuses: “Only you can take all the fun out of wanting to murder someone you hate.” At any rate, Cyclops refuses to tell the Extinction Team to stand down until he’s told where Emma and Hope are.

Wolverine reports back to SHIELD and SWORD on this, and also argues that Cyclops shouldn’t be in “that two-bit prison”, but gets nowhere. (He meets SWORD empath Sydren here.) When the only other mutant prisoner in the jail is murdered, Logan comes to visit Scott again. He believes that Scott didn’t mean to kill Professor X, he says. But while Xavier gave “ideas … patience [and] kindness”, Scott was the “role model” who “showed me how it was possible to be a better man.” Logan says that Scott is acting wildly out of character and that they need the real Scott back. But instead Scott breaks out of jail with Magneto’s help. When the Avengers finally show up, the warden gives Wolverine a note from Scott, wishing him well with the school. Logan will teach the children the spirit of Xavier’s dream, and Scott will keep them alive. Now that Wolverine is being the better man, Cyclops can be the one who does what has to be done.

This is a good series, which completes the role reversal of Scott and Logan – more or less. Scott has taken on Logan’s role, but as a political radical reflecting his original ideals. And Logan hasn’t so much become a role model, as found himself forced to try and fill the void.

SAVAGE WOLVERINE #6-8
by Zeb Wells, Joe Madureira & Peter Steigerwald
June to September 2013

The Hand are still chafing under Kingpin’s leadership. Kingpin tells Elektra that the Hand’s Arbiters (Mikaru, Shikaru and Kinjin) have sent a resurrected Bullseye to kill him, and Elektra enlists Wolverine’s help to deal with it. In fact, Kingpin was lying; the body that the Arbiters resurrected was actually his wife Vanessa Fisk. Kingpin destroys her and is acknowledged as Hand leader. It’s a mess, to be honest.

This story was published in 2013, but an editor’s note on part 1 informs us that it “takes place awhile back. Like, at least, before last October.”

YOUNG AVENGERS vol 2 #2
“DYS”
by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie & Matthew Wilson
February 2013

A background cameo at Avengers Mansion.

NEW MUTANTS vol 3 #50
“House Party!”
by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Felix Ruiz, Klebs & Val Staples
October 2012

The final issue of the series. Logan is among the guests at the New Mutants’ house party – he meets their neighbour Mrs Livitz, and three of the Dísir (Göndul, Brün & Kára). He tells Dani that by dealing with real problems in the real world, the New Mutants are doing a great job of pursuing Xavier’s dream of integration. Later, Wolverine and the other guests help the New Mutants to defeat Tyro.

WOLVERINE #314-317
“Covenant”
by Cullen Bunn, Paul Pelletier, David Meikis & Rain Beredo
October to December 2012

Back in the 1930s, a group called the Covenant hired Logan to kill the mysterious Dreaming Maiden; in fact, he left her on Isla de la Sombra and merely told the Covenant that she was dead. But the Maiden has started reaching out to the Covenant members in their dreams, and they’re all separately hunting for her. Well, except for Ulysses Bloodstone, because he’s dead – but his daughter Elsa Bloodstone shows up in his place. Other henchmen include a bunch called the Twelve Horrors.

Apparently, the Maiden’s dreams are dangerous because they call out to something awful, and draw it to Earth. The Maiden, who is imprisoned in the form of a statue, complains to Wolverine (through dream communication) that decades without dreaming made her feel “dead”. She has turned the Covenant against one another on purpose, and when Wolverine wakes from his dream he finds that her statue has been shattered – though it’s later reassembled and placed on the school grounds.

It’s a strange and dense story which is difficult to summarise since it hints at a wider mythology that is never fully explained – and honestly, Wolverine doesn’t actually do that much in it beyond explain the back story. Even so, it works surprisingly well, and Pelletier’s art is lovely. The story ends with a teaser for more of the Covenant, but they never appeared again. (Their only previous appearance was in another Cullen Bunn story, Captain America & Namor #635.1.)

This is the end of the current run; the next volume doesn’t start until March 2013. However, there are a few more 2012 dated stories to cover before we wrap up.

In a flashback in Avengers vol 5 #2, which is part of a recruitment montage, Wolverine agrees to remain part of the revamped Avengers.

A+X #1 (Hulk & Wolverine story)
by Jeph Loeb, Dale Keown, Danny Miki & Frank D’Armata
October 2012

In Avengers Tower, Hulk and Wolverine are briefly attacked by Earth-28245 Maestro and Earth-28245 Logan, who disappear again. The epilogue reveals that they were sent to kill the Red Hulk in order to alter history, but there’s no story following up on any of this.

X-MEN LEGACY vol 2 #2-6
“Prodigal”
#2-3 by Simon Spurrier, Tan Eng Huat, Craig Yeung & José Villarrubia
#4-6 by Simon Spurrier, Jorge Molina & Rachelle Rosenberg
November 2012 to February 2013

Legion seems to be out of control again. The east coast X-Men catch up to him just as he’s rescuing youngsters Karasu-Tengo and Sojobo-Tengo from the Yamaguchi-Kai Clan, a cult of Ogun worshippers. Legion dismisses the School as a “paramilitary spandex school” and claims that the X-Men have done nothing to achieve Xavier’s dream, but Sojobo and Karasu agree to go there anyway. Sojobo is actually possessed by Luca Aldine, Blindfold’s evil brother. Luca tries to frame Legion for attacking Karasu, but Blindfold exonerates him. Wolverine decides to let Legion go for now.

Wolverine doesn’t appear in the second story in A+X #2, but he does pass on a message from Pepper Potts to Kitty Pryde.

ASTONISHING X-MEN vol 3 #57-58
by Marjorie Liu, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Felix Ruiz & Cris Peter
December 2012 to January 2013

This is a Warbird story, involving the last survivor of the alien Fianden, who were wiped out by the Shi’ar because of the existential threat posed by their mind-altering art. Wolverine and the other X-Men help out, and fend off S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Agent Benzan, but don’t do much else.

In a flashback in Hawkeye vol 4 #6, Wolverine, Hawkeye and Spider-Man fight A.I.M.

AVENGERS ARENA #13
by Christos Gage, Karl Moline, Mark Pennington & Jean-Francois Beaulieu
August 2013

Hank Pym finally gets around to investigating the disappearance of the various teen heroes who have been kidnapped by Arcade, and calls Wolverine to ask about X-23.

In a flashback in the Captain America & Kid Omega story in A+X #4, Logan tells Steve Rogers that in order to earn the trust of today’s kids, he will need to show them the man beneath the symbols.

AVENGERS vol 5 #1-5
“Avengers World” / “The Death and Resurrection of Major Titans” / “Superguardian”
#1-3 by Jonathan Hickman, Jerome Opeña & Dean White
#4-5 by Jonathan Hickman, Adam Kubert, Frank D’Armata & Frank Martin Jr
December 2012 to January 2013

A lot of characters hang around in Hickman’s Avengers, mainly to show that the vast roster encompasses the whole Marvel Universe, rather than because they have very much to do. Wolverine is very much in that camp. In these issues, Wolverine is among the heroes called in by Captain America to battle the Garden – Ex Nihilo, Abyss and Aleph. Others include Manifold (Eden Fesi), the new Smasher (Isabel Kane), the new Captain Universe (Tamara Devoux) and Earth-13034 Hyperion (Marcus Milton). Captain Universe defeats Aleph, and the Avengers return home with Ex Nihilo’s new creation Adam, who will shortly become the new Nightmask. Wolverine also has a cameo at Avengers Tower in issue #4, and helps fight a mysterious alien armada in issue #5.

AVENGERS ARENA #18
“Boss Level, part 5 of 5”
by Dennis Hopeless, Kev Walker, Jason Gorder & Jean-Francois Beaulieu
November 2013

A non-speaking cameo among the heroes cleaning up in the aftermath of Arcade’s latest Murderworld.

WINTER SOLDIER vol 1 #10 and #12-14
“Black Widow Hunt”
by Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice, Brian Thies & Bettie Breitweiser
September 2012 to January 2013

Wolverine teams with Winter Soldier, Captain America, Hawkeye and Maria Hill to save Black Widow from Leo Novokov, who has brainwashed her to believe that she was always a deep cover Soviet agent. Wolverine isn’t necessary to the plot, but he does narrate issue #12 in order to share his feelings on the subject of brainwashing.

PUNISHER WAR ZONE vol 3 #1-2 and #4-5
5-issue miniseries
by Greg Rucka, Carmine di Giandomenico & Matt Hollingsworth
October 2012 to February 2013

Spider-Man asks the Avengers to help bring in the Punisher. Iron Man thinks the Punisher is below their level, but Cap agrees that they’ve tolerated him for too long. Wolverine has no time for any of this, and surreptitiously helps the Punisher and his ally Rachel Cole-Alves to escape. It’s a nice little subplot about the inconsistent way in which Punisher and Wolverine are treated within the Marvel Universe, with Wolverine himself is under no real illusions about their similarity.

Next time, Paul Cornell and Alan Davis take over.