Wolverine #7 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
WOLVERINE vol 8 #7
“Ancient History”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
WOLVERINE
Not much to say, really. He fights some people, listens to Romulus rant, and vouches for some of what Romulus says so that we know that there’s a core we should take seriously.
GUEST STAR
Wolverine (Laura Kinney). She’s there in the fight scene but doesn’t contribute much to the plot beyond that.
VILLAINS
Romulus. The story cuts through his garbled and confusing history by having Laura describe him as “the guy who claims to have founded Rome” and “to be the origin of our bloodline”, and immediately having Logan say that “Most of it’s lies and head games.” In other words, all that really matters for present purposes is that he makes these grandiose and self-mythologising claims about himself, which are probably (but not definitively) false. The story does seem to want us to accept that he’s been around since the classical era but it doesn’t greatly matter whether we believe his claim to be the mythological Romulus, co-founder and first king of Rome. Wolverine certainly believes that he’s been around since “before Jesus was born”.
Romulus claims to have been aware of the Adamantine from legends since his days ruling Rome, but says he never managed to find it before. Generally speaking, his agenda seems to be to bring back an “age of myth” and to clear away the pale imitations of mythological originals to that end. Essentially, he’s presenting himself as the mythological prototype of Wolverine in the same way that the Adamantine is the mythological template for adamantium. He also claims that he wants to become a “deity”, and implies that he needs to kill Wolverine (his imitation) in order to become a mythical figure himself.
In line with that theme, Romulus claims that he stayed in the Raft for so long, not because he couldn’t get out, but because he’s an “ancient emperor” who thought that the Raft was no worse than anywhere else “in this pathetic modern world”. He could, of course, be making excuses. If not, it’s a reversion to the Jeph Loeb concept of the character – with the details booted into touch – rather than Daniel Way’s backstage manipulator. (Romulus was created just as Way’s run was starting, and at times feels like he’s been plugged into a story role that would originally have gone to a more conventional shadowy black ops mastermind.) For what it’s worth, though, Romulus is exaggerating the history on any view. The original Romulus (if he existed) was never emperor of Rome – the city had been around for hundreds of years before they started using that title.
Romulus claims that the Adamantine has a different effect on him because he’s it’s “regent and its champion”. He certainly retains his own personality, but it’s not clear that he’s entirely uninfluenced by the Adamantine. He certainly goes into raptures about it while talking to Wolverine, and talks about being “summoned” by it.
The Adamantine. Presumably it’s the Adamantine, rather than Romulus, that opens the sinkhole during this story. Romulus gives us an account of the Adamantine’s origins, which is apparently what he experiences through his bond with it, and which he evidently expects Wolverine to feel as well. On this account, the Adamantine is “the spirit of metal itself”, which was created as the planet cooled. It simply existed until being given meaning by the god Hephaestus as he shaped it into mythical objects. The spirit was apparently happy to sleep after the age of mythology was over, but was woken over the course of years by the increasing use of false adamantine in the form of adamantium.
It can completely coat Romulus and serve as de facto battle armour.
The Constrictor, Cyber, Lady Deathstrike and Donald Pierce. Under the Adamantine’s control for most of the story, but according to Romulus it abandons them off panel towards the end of the issue. Romulus describes them as “sad little thralls”.
FOOTNOTES
Page 6: Romulus was packed off to the Raft after his defeat in Wolverine #313.
Page 7 panel 1: The Adamantine was woken by the fight between Cyber and Wolverine in issue #1; Romulus is deliberately downplaying Cyber’s role in it. It’s not entirely clear how Romulus knows this, but presumably the Adamantine could have figured it out after possessing Cyber.
Page 21: The first panel shows an adamantium factory; the second is Wolverine in the Weapon X project. The third panel has his adamantium armour from the “Sabretooth War” storyline in the foreground, with body parts of Laura, Lady Deathstrike and Ultron in the background. The final panel is Wolverine fighting Cyber in issue #1.
By Romulus’ stories standards and what I gather of the rules this storyline runs under, it is not too difficult to believe that Romulus might be the historical founder of Rome and at some point during the existence of the Rome Empire reacquired the throne under a new name.
I have a much harder time attempting to convince myself that there is any sense in this talk of Adamantine as a sentient spirit that is offended by the existence of Adamantium and aligns ideologically with Romulus on the grounds of shared love for very extreme cultural atavism.
Maybe it makes more sense by a Muslim perspective, given the claims of Islam about the Qur’an.
Some writer should reveal that Romulus is just another Weapon X escapee, and that all of his grandiose thinking is just garbled memory implants. Then he and Wolverine can drink a beer and commiserate.
THE END
idk if we’re really supposed to believe Romulus has been around since ancient times why not tie him into Apocalypse’s backstory? Seems sensible that two of the earliest mutants probably encountered each other at some point during the several millennia they were around on the same planet.
Claremont’s original plan was to reveal that Apocalypse was behind the Weapon X project too. There you go. Have Apocalypse and Romulus meet up to have a beer, and Apocalypse bets Romulus he can’t mess up some inconsequential, but long-lived, mutant’s life in the most incomprehensible and uninteresting ways possible. Along the way, Romulus asks if he can borrow this little project Apocalypse has been working on called “Weapon X”. Everything wrapped up neatly.
Ah, here is the Saladin Ahmed I remember from Exiles.
*slams the cover* This baby can hold so much text!
Why does that cover feature Wolverine soaked in pee?
Clearly the mythological villains of this arc were going to be Zeus and his Golden Shower until a last-minute change by editorial.
I was surprised that Adamantine, after being acknowledged as the actual mythical metal used to make various Olympian weapons, wasn’t pissed off at adamantium for being “stolen” from it or something. Instead of “eeeew, imposter metal” it should have been “mortals stole my secret power as I slept and now I’m awake and angry” like a parallel to Prometheus stealing fire and being punished for it.
It would have made a little more sense in context, anyway, -and- added in an interesting wrinkle to the otherwise handwaved invention of adamantium as a byproduct of trying to replicate Cap’s shield.
And if we accept that, we can then wave away the idea of “Secondary adamantium” as that made with artificially replicated adamantine essence. Like using imitation vanilla instead of the real thing in a cake.
Mind you, then we can run with the long-simmering idea of vibranium being an extraterrestrial element not naturally generated on Earth, and have it be the essence of an alien god (kinda like what’s being done in Ultimate Black Panther). Set up for a Adamantium-Vibranium War somewhere down the line…
I love the concept of adamantine being in play, it leaves things very interesting.
The last emperor of the Western Roman Empire was (on some interpretations) Romulus Augustulus. Of course, I’m pretty sure that Marvel has claimed that boy-emperor actually became Tyrannus. For my part, I hope someone does retcon Wolveromulus away as just another Weapon X / Apocalypse / Sinister experiment or something.
If they were brave, they’d permanently give Gabby, or even Laura adamantine. Maybe it’s lighter and not toxic, maybe it’s heavier and more toxic, but at the least shiny gold knives would be something different to the foghat grey we’re used to.
That’s a slippery slope that ends with #hotclaws.
Then again, I guess the hot claws remain in play, now that Hellverine is an ongoing.
Romulus should be retconned to be Judas Traveller. That is all.
@Joe I
*spurts coffee*
Insert jaw-drop emoji here.
Uhm… praise editorial indeed.
Given what gets through, I have wondered about what hasn’t. We only get glimpses.