X Lives of Wolverine #4 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X LIVES OF WOLVERINE #4
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artists: Joshua Cassara and Federico Vicentini
Colourist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1: Team X Wolverine, possessed by Omega Red.
PAGES 2-4. Omega Red possesses Dr Cornelius during Weapon X.
The Weapon X Facility, as you surely know, is the place which gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton against his will as part of a scheme to turn him into a soldier. This sequence takes place between the flashback and the main story in part 2 of Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” story, from Marvel Comics Presents vol 1 #73. The images of Wolverine covered in cables are clearly meant to evoke “Weapon X”, which had a lot of that sort of thing.
Abraham Cornelius was one of the three main scientists seen in that story; generally speaking he tends to be presented as having at least some pangs of conscience about what he’s doing, and it’s the Professor who tends to be presented as outright evil, but this is right at the start of the arc from his point of view.
The Incomplete Wolverine – 1998
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
We left off with Wolverine between regular writers. Warren Ellis’s “Not Dead Yet” filler arc had already taken us through to March 1998, and so we pick up this instalment with…
UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #353-354
“Blackbirds” / “Prehistory”
by Steve Seagle, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend & Steve Buccellato
March & April 1998
Rogue has a recurring nightmare in which she first absorbs Wolverine’s powers and memory without his consent, then begs him to kill her for her lack of control. Rogue and Storm won’t tell him why she’s so jumpy, and he’s also generally annoyed about losing his temper with Marrow in X-Men #72, so Logan is generally annoyed.
At this point, Board of Education inspector Margaret Stone shows up, demanding to carry out a surprise inspection, since apparently Professor X hasn’t filed the necessary paperwork for over two years. She’s predictably horrified and quickly leaves, announcing that a full inspection will follow. In a depressing sign of things to come, this plotline simply vanishes into the ether without any resolution, after getting one further passing mention in issue #355. At any rate, Logan is having a very bad day, which only gets worse when he gets knocked out from behind by Sauron. He spends most of issue #354 unconscious, and finally wakes up in time to defeat Sauron. (Sauron is just hunting down mutant energy in this arc, and has no particular plan.)
Inferno
INFERNO vol 2 #1-4
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Valerio Schiti & Stefano Caselli
Colourist: David Curiel
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Editor: Jordan White
Inferno is a strange book with a strange role. With Jonathan Hickman departing the X-books, it completes his run, but without resolving what he set up. The X-office has decided to stick with the Krakoan set-up for a little while yet, instead of moving on to the next phase of the originally planned storyline. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen at some point, of course – the nature of comics is that everything tends to revert to its traditional status quo in the end. But for now, we’re sticking with Krakoa.
So, if that’s direction, how do you go for finality? Well, by paying off a few prominent storylines and moving those characters on to their next phases, which seems fair enough. Quite why any of this is called Inferno, mind you, is less than obvious. Yes, it’s a trademark, but they already did a series under that name in 2015. This has nothing to do with any previous Inferno story, and nothing to do with Madelyne Pryor, who was being set up for something over in Hellions. (Her story continues in New Mutants, to be fair.) It’s hard to avoid the suspicion that it’s called Inferno mainly because they’d already started foreshadowing something called Inferno.
X-Men #9 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #9
“The Rule of Three”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: C F Villa
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Orchis members sitting behind a bloodstained desk, after a bunch of shootings. That’s Killian Devo and Alia Gregor setting at the desk, with Dr Stasis, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel behind them, alongside a bunch of Orchis footsoldiers. The desk has obvious parallels to the Quiet Council desks, and this whole issue picks up the theme from Jonathan Hickman’s stories about clear parallels between the Krakoans and Orchis. I’m not sure who the guy lying on the floor is – it might be Feilong, but that doesn’t really make sense, and if it’s him his costume is miscoloured. On the other hand, Alia doesn’t actually appear in the story. Also lying on the floor in the foregrounds are a mixture of bullets and Orchis’s signature petals.
X-Men #1-5
X-MEN vol 6 #1-5
“Fearless”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artists: Pepe Larraz (#1-3), Javier Pina (#4-5)
Colourists: Marte Gracia (#1-3), Erick Arciniega (#4-5)
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Jordan White
That’s kind of a guess, actually. The solicitations for the first trade paperback have it covering issues #1-6. But issue #6 isn’t labelled part of “Fearless” and seems to be the start of a new arc. So, I’m going to figure that the first TPB is actually meant to be issues #1-5, whatever the solicitations say. Because that would make some kind of sense.
Ish.
When I think about the first few issues of Gerry Duggan’s X-Men, two main things spring to mind. One is the art. I love the art. I enjoyed Pepe Larraz’s work on House of X, and he’s great here too. That low-angle establishing shot of the Treehouse in issue #1 is fabulous, but so is the body language in the exchange between Cyclops and Ben Urich that follows. It really gets the sense of both characters dancing around the topic. His action scenes are dynamic, but the parade of aliens in Gameworld is full of invention. Dr Stasis’s weird suburban home is suitably creepy (the pallid colouring helps there too). Issue #3 is mainly a big pointless fight, but at least he brings the crazy animal soldiers.
X Deaths of Wolverine #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE #3
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist Federico Vicentini
Colourist: Dijjo Lima
Letterer: Cory Petit
COVER / PAGE 1: Daken, Scout and Wolverine (Laura) pose for action in front of Omega Wolverine.
PAGES 2-4. Professor X asks Wolverine (Laura) to go after Omega Wolverine.
Wolverine and Scout. Laura, the other Wolverine, is a regular character in X-Men. She’s effectively Logan’s genetic daughter. Scout is basically a younger clone of Laura, who Laura treats as a kid sister.
“[T]his whole Children of the Vault thing.” This is an X-Men storyline from both the Hickman and Duggan runs. Laura was locked in the time-distorted vault belonging to the Children of the Vault, centuries passed from her perspective, but she died immediately after escaping and before she could be backed up, so she doesn’t remember any of it.
“[S]houldn’t you be … hanging out at the Wild Hunt?” The training area for younger mutants from New Mutants, where Scout is a regular character.
X-Men #8 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN vol 6 #8
“The Buffet is Undefeated”
Writer: Gerry Duggan
Artist: Javier Pina
Colourist: Marte Gracia
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
COVER / PAGE 1: M.O.D.O.K. holding Jean Grey’s mask.
PAGE 2. Data page. A quote from Nick Fury, telling us that we should take M.O.D.O.K. seriously despite his appearance.
M.O.D.O.K. – the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing – debuted in the Captain America story in Tales of Suspense #94, back in 1967. Basically, George Tarleton is an A.I.M. technician who was turned into a human supercomputer to help with their investigations into the Cosmic Cube, only for him to overthrow them and seize control of A.I.M. The original M.O.D.O.K. was turned back to human form in Incredible Hulk #610 – the M.O.D.O.K. in this issue (and most stories in the last decade or so) is a clone who debuted in Hulk vol 2 #29.
Originally presented as a grotesque but basically serious villain, over the years he’s become mostly a comedy figure. Even though he isn’t played entirely straight in this issue, it’s actually a pretty credible outing for him by modern standards.
X Lives of Wolverine #3 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X LIVES OF WOLVERINE #3
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Joshua Cassara
Colourist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER / PAGE 1. In the foreground, western hero Wolverine stands over the defeated bone coils of an Omega Red that he’s evidently defeated. In the background, Department H-era Wolverine (recognisable by his mask) faces off against the real Omega Red.
PAGE 2. Professor X and Marvel Girl continue to monitor Wolverine.
Wolverine’s opening narration continues the theme of time. He casts his long lifespan as more of a curse. Bear in mind that one of the signature achievements of Krakoa is supposedly to enable all mutants to live forever; Wolverine apparently sees that as a bad thing that makes life less meaningful.
PAGE 3. Wolverine experiences flashbacks to various parts of his life.
Apparently, just like us, present-day Wolverine is in some sense experiencing all these events together. From left to right, the four recognisable flashbacks show:
- Top left, Logan in World War I, probably as a member of the Devil’s Brigade, fighting a German soldier possessed by Omega Red. We haven’t seen this segment in the main story yet.
- In the main panel (X shaped to mirror the Cerebro helmet), old west Logan fights an Omega Red gunslinger. We haven’t seen this in the main story yet either, and with only two issues to go, you have to wonder if we’re actually going to.
- At the top, Logan as a member of Team X, in a plot thread we’ve already been following.
- Department H Wolverine fighting what seems to be some sort of north African merchant possessed by Omega Red (bearing no resemblance to the fight seen on the cover).
X-Men: The Trial of Magneto
X-MEN: THE TRIAL OF MAGNETO #1-5
Writer: Leah Williams
Artist: Lucas Werneck with David Messina (#3-4)
Colourist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Design: Tom Muller
Editor: Jake Thomas (#1-3) & Jordan White (#2-5)
I know, I know. The backlog is building up. This series finished ages ago. We’ll get through them.
So: Trial of Magneto came out at an odd time for the X-books, not quite in the post-Hickman era, but certainly transitioning there. In one sense, it’s an extra arc for X-Factor… but that book ended with a rushed cancellation, and in the end, X-Factor’s role in Trial of Magneto is mostly procedural. Perhaps that’s inherent in the concept. This isn’t really an X-Factor story. Maybe as originally conceived it had more to do with them – there’s a germ in the published version of a focus on Polaris as the Other Daughter. But at its core, it’s the Scarlet Witch’s story.
But then… why is it called Trial of Magneto? In fact, why is it called X-Men: Trial of Magneto, since it’s not really an X-Men story either? You can ask that too. But mainly: Magneto?
One obvious answer is that they didn’t want to spoil the plot – and the end of “Hellfire Gala” – by promoting it as a Scarlet Witch story. That’s doubtless part of it. The first issue was solicited with a modified version of the cover, to avoid showing her as the body. Still, though – the trial of Magneto? Is there a trial? He’s a suspect, sure, but she comes back from the dead halfway through the plot, so there’s never a trial. The final issue casts around to try to justify the title, but the whole thing reeks a bit of changed plans.
New Mutants #24 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
NEW MUTANTS vol 4 #24
“What is Deserved”
by Vita Ayala, Danilo Beyruth & Dan Brown
Hold on, is this book still going? It is! This issue was originally solicited for 1 December 2021 and now ships over two months late.
COVER / PAGE 1. The New Mutants in a sort of stylised snakes and ladders in a Krakoan tree. It doesn’t have much to do with anything in the issue. (However, the actual content of this issue does match the original solicitation.)
PAGE 2. Magik and Rictor in the Green Lagoon.
Rictor developed an interest in magic while studying under Apocalypse over in Excalibur, and is now a rookie magician. He was briefly a member of the New Mutants in the latter days of the original run, though that was after Magik’s time; they don’t really know each other all that well.
“I’m a self-taught infernal sorcerer.” Well, partly. As covered in the original Magik miniseries, Illyana learned magic from Belasco and from an alternate version of Storm.
Generally speaking, this conversation is pushing (not very subtly) the theme of connection. Ayala’s run on this book has always focussed on the idea of groups of mutants being able to use their powers in such a way that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, though, and keeps coming back to stories about people trying to connect with one another with variable degrees of success.
