Wolverine #42 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 7 #42
“Sabretooth War, part 2”
Writers: Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle
Penciller: Cory Smith
Inker: Oren Junior
Colourist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. Sabretooth, with Wolverine’s head on a platter. Don’t worry, kids, it’s symbolic.
This one won’t take long.
PAGES 2-5. The Sabretooths capture Wolverine, and Sabretooth Prime has him strung up.
This continues directly from the end of the previous issue.
“I made a promise. Before you all tossed me in that Pit.” In House of X #6, Sabretooth’s last line before being dragged into the Pit was: “You think I’m just going to take this? I’m making a list and now you’re on it, along with your kids. And then their kids. I will make your line extinct.” He makes fairly generic threats to the Council throughout the scene, but nothing in this scene relates specifically to what he said in House of X #6.
Omega Red‘s tentacles are normally carbonadium, not adamantium. For most practical purposes, nothing turns on this.
As in the previous issue, the “Pretty Boy” Sabretooth seems comparatively rational. He can see a mile off that dragging it out in order to torment Wolverine is just going to give him the chance to escape, and obviously he’s right. Nobody else seems minded to make this sensible point, but whether that’s because they’re all as mad as Sabretooth-Prime, or whether they’re intimidated by him, is impossible to say.
PAGE 6. Recap and credits.
PAGES 7-9. Laura and Domino fight the shapechanger Sabretooth.
We saw Laura trying to give her birthday present to Wolverine last issue (on page 21). Laura and Domino were also discussing the Stark Sentinel specs last issue, in the context of making plans to deal with them in some hypothetical future assault on Orchis.
PAGE 10. Black Tom and Sage fail to respond.
They were zapped from a distance by Sabretooth last issue, using a lantern that was strongly implied to contain the severed head of Quentin Quire.
PAGE 11. The “Captain America” Sabretooth attacks Colossus.
What exactly is he expecting to do to Colossus in his steel form? His only offensive power is sharp fingernails.
PAGE 12. Wolverine feels guilty.
This is, of course, the response Sabretooth is hoping for. There are echoes here of Wolverine being crucified by the Reavers in Uncanny X-Men #250, when he was also pinned in an X position.
PAGES 13-15. Aurora and Northstar rescue the refugees.
For the most part, the kids are just random background characters who were presumably among the refugees brought to the Greenhouse by Alpha Flight in X-Force #47. The exception is the girl with the tentacles being carried away by Aurora – she’s Cephalopod, and Wolverine rescued her from a waterfall in issue #28. She debuted back in New X-Men #117, and has made very occasional background appearances since then.
“It’s negative 40 outside, Northstar.” Well, yes, it should be, but it didn’t seem to bother any of the Sabretooths last issue. Maybe they’ve got some sort of technology from an alternate timeline.
PAGES 16-17. Wolverine breaks free.
The generic flashbacks on page 16 are of some interest in presenting Kid Omega on a par with Wolverine’s actual son Akihiro, and his genetic daughter Laura. Admittedly, they’ve all got reasons to be at the forefront of his mind right now anyway.
The basic idea that Wolverine’s adamantium doesn’t prevent his body being torn at the joints makes sense – if there was adamantium between the bones, he wouldn’t be able to move. The idea that he’s somehow able to run without feet is… unbelievably stupid.
PAGES 18-19. “Pretty Boy” Sabretooth is killed by Laura.
Still correctly blaming Creed for things going wrong.
PAGES 20-21. X-Force repel the rest of the Sabretooths.
The “Captain America” Sabretooth is among the casualties – or at least, Sabretooth leaves him for dead.
PAGES 22-23. Wolverine finds Laura.
The obvious implication is that Laura has been killed, but since we’re not actually shown that, you suspect she’ll turn out to be okay next issue.
PAGE 24. Trailers. The Krakoan reads THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
Percy Percying up Lavalle’s final Sabretooth story may just be the worst downgrade in the entire Krakoa era.
Also, point of order: why would Logan think resurrection is completely off the table? Even if he doesn’t know the Five are in the White Hot Room, wouldn’t Quentin and Daken still have Cerebro backups? (X-Force literally just used one to bring Original Recipe Hank back)
I… suppose it’s possible to run without feet, as real world disabilities and/or amputations of the nature do exist.
But seeing Logan running along on his blood-spurting ankles while popping claws through his wrists because he no longer has hands is such a bizarre, implausible moment that I can’t wrap my mind around it.
This is such an awfully ugly story, what with the… everything happening to everyone in such gruesome, explicit detail.
If Northstar and Aurora can’t go outside because it’s negative 40 degrees outside, then how did they get to the Greenhouse in the first place? For that matter, how did most of these mutants make it to the Greenhouse? Not every mutant has superhuman resistance to injury or a healing factor. The other sanctuaries for mutants (the Limbo Embassy, Warpath’s reservation, etc.) have entrances in climates a normal person can survive.
@Diana- I think the idea is that Orchis seized or destroyed the Cerebro backups. Presumably, Tessa took Beast’s backup before the Gala since she was planning on making a clone of Beast while the original was still alive, which is forbidden.
After 2 issues, I am not convinced LaValle did more than consult on the plot. There’s nothing here to latch onto, just violence. No wit, no social commentary, no greater point (at least not yet), and I really hope it turns around.
@Michael: Weren’t Xavier and Sinister preventing Orchis troops from setting foot on Krakoa? How could they have reached the backups?
@Mike: Same, this is absolutely the work of the same writer who gave us Moira skinning Banshee.
Getting real “Enemy of the State” vibes here, and not in a good way.
@Diana- but Xavier and Sinister left Krakoa, first to go to Muir Island and then to go “outside of space and time”.
If Wolverine can just have his body parts detatched, yhen the adamantium is essentially useless. It would be great for someone who fell down the stairs or got hit by a falling spanner. But Wolverine regularly gets exploded, and fights people with blades and/or the strength to pluck off limbs. The tactical advantage wouldn’t outweigh the problems like poisoning and loss of speed.
It’s like the problems with Thor’s hammer. Sure they exist, but don’t go drawing attention to them in the story.
Well, that was a comic.
I’m so bummed the La Valle story ends with this.
Wait, so this in place of a third Sabretooth and Exiles story?! Nooooo
Y’know, they took death off the table for good reason. When you “kill” this many named characters, it’s a foregone conclusion that everything will be undone in pretty short order. Which makes this whole story just an exercise in torture-porn.
This makes me think unfavorably of Rosenberg’s X-Men run leading up to Hox/Pox which lead to all manner of horrible, gruesome, depressing deaths.
And back then, we didn’t even know for certain that they’d be undone through Krakoan resurrection.
This really is torture porn of the worst case: Quentin savagely torn apart, Fang dismembered and turned into arts and crafts, Logan literally running around on stumps, random bystander mutants getting their heads popped off and stuff. It’s not even good horror, it’s just disgusting and excessive and some editor should have gone “dude, no, tone it down or don’t be so graphic, show some subtlety.”
And yeah, it was always a fair guess that we’d get some sort of reset button at the end of Fall of X, if just to bring back everyone who’s died since then, but we still needed to feel there were -some- stakes.
Well. Dead X-Men #1 shows that resurrection isn’t even off the table right now. I’m actually not sure how it worked in that book, but work it did. Supposedly.
Stumped Wolverine is atrocious for many reasons:
– if Logan can dismember himself using just his strength, he should be in pieces after every other fight he’s ever been in.
– feet are an important part of the whole walking and running process
– like, really, really important
– he’d at least need some crutches but then he’d have to hold them with his non-opposable claws
– also, yikes
– and barf
– it’s a Deadpool bit
The last one is major. You could do that scene with Deadpool. You could even do that as a serious scene with Deadpool, Deadpool can be used at that point between gross-out humour and pathos. It doesn’t work with Wolverine, not in the grim and serious tone Percy has been using throughout the whole run. (Except for the surfing saboteurs, I guess).
Also, Percy literally did a variation of that scene with Deadpool, somewhere in the middle of his X-Force run. Can’t remember the details, but it was a dismembered Deadpool doing something that should be impossible in the state he was depicted in.
And on another note, another level of ‘yikes’, when did Sabretooth start eating people? He was always a repugnant serial killer and implied rapist, but… cannibalism?
Finally, is the ending supposed to be that Logan finds Laura, or that he doesn’t find her because she’s been taken by She-Sabretooth and Feathercreed? There’s this wide shot that doesn’t show the whole room, but it includes the unconscious Domino and the decapitated Pretty Boy and in the previous scene Laura’s fight was taking place right on top of them. So to me it read that she’s been kidnapped.
@Diana: “Percy Percying up Lavalle’s final Sabretooth story may just be the worst downgrade in the entire Krakoa era.”
Tried tuning into this for Lavalle and man. That’s exactly this. Genuinely a depressing way to finish what one of the best writers of the Krakoa era have started.
There’s just nothing of the kind of thing that drew people towards the Sabretooth minis. Nothing. And shit like Creed tearing off the heads of mutant kids definitely borders on poor taste.
Also, you know, why exactly is Percy so praised as a Wolverine writer? Admittedly I’m not much of a person for Wolverine solos, but whenever I tried to tune in this book it felt mostly like another Wolverine book playing the greatest hits. Except when it connected to other X-Force stuff or Solem I guess?
@Krzysiek Ceran: “So to me it read that she’s been kidnapped.”
Is it really a Krakoa era Percy book without poor treatment of female characters?
@Krysziek- In Immortal X-Men 16, Mother Righteous showed the Five how to resurrect the dead in the White Hot Room by contacting the Waiting Room. In Resurrection of Magneto 1, however, we saw the Waiting Room no longer exists. My guess is that Sabretooth War and Dark X-Men 3 take place before Resurrection of Magneto 1, the Dead X-Men were resurrected by the Five, Warren, Quentin and Fang will be resurrected by the Five and then something will happen that will make resurrection impossible.
Also, Sabretooth’s been a cannibal for decades now. For example, in Bishop: the Last X-Man 16, he tells Rahne “I love killing’, but mutant flesh? Well, it’s just a nit more special… it just tastes better. Not that I ain’t gonna enjoy picking’ the bones off your adopted momma any less.”
Huh. The more you know…
…the more you regret asking.
Well…
This was exactly what I expected from Percy, and not at all what I expected from LaValle.
Ridiculous, pointlessly over the top violence with no soul.
Just awful.
Paul, will you be covering this week’s A-Force Infinity Comic? It features the X-Men and Dazzler… still trying to figure out where it can go in continuity.
The A-Force comic has a lot in common with the X-Men infinity comic. Every issue just keeps adding multiple new characters, and new locations, with little to no plot joining it all together.
[…] #42. (Annotations here.) Oh dear. A storyline co-written by Victor LaValle and Benjamin Percy sounded like a horrible style […]
Northstar’s and Aurora’s powers are supposed to protect them from cold, especially when flying.
If Wolverine loses his hands or feet, they grow back, I get that, but won’t they grow back without the adamantium lacing on the bones?
@thekelvingreen: I think I understand this. If you look at the top row of panels on pg 17 you can see that Logan rips off his own left hand, and then immediately SNIKTs out claws from that stump. So I guess the attachment point of the claws is located deeper into his forearm – they didn’t get ripped off with the hand, and so they don’t need to be regenerated.
We’ve been pretending for decades that skeletons will remain joined together without connective tissue, at least where Logan’s concerned. Seems late in the game to bring reality into it…
Indeed. That line has been crossed decades ago. Logan is about as immortal as Deadpool and has been for a very long time. It just happens that he has far more flattering plot armor.
Sure, his bones are coated with indestructible Adamantium. Yes, it has been repeatedly shown that his regeneration is extreme to the point that he might as well not have vital organs as such.
Even with those rather extreme provisions, his articulations and joints can’t be both functional and invulnerable. It is all sustained by plot convenience, and Percy apparently has been carried away by his affinity to body horror scenes.
If that is what people want to read about, more power to him. But it really makes Logan approach Deadpool levels of scene absurdity.
Not sure if it’s been pointed out yet, but I’m pretty sure the cover is an homage to the “Happy Birthday” short in the first CREEPSHOW film. Not just the candles, but the tilt of Logan’s head make me think this was deliberate…though I can’t imagine why.
Of course after I type that I look closer and see the cover explicitly says “Happy birthday, Logan”.
Blerg.