Wolverine #11 annotations
WOLVERINE vol 8 #11
“Only a Mother”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
PAGES 1-2. Wolverine and Sabretooth start to fight.
So, okay, let’s stick with this format…
“He’s found us!” Elizabeth’s comment doesn’t make much sense logically – they’re in the room where she was kept chained up. If Sabretooth was her captor, what would he need to find? But the whole point of this story is that the sense memories cause Wolverine to gloss over the logical problems, as we’ll see.
PAGES 3-5. Wolverine and Sabretooth fight.
“Disappointed I ain’t dead?” Wolverine killed Sabretooth in Wolverine vol 7 #50, just last year.
“This ain’t the first time you proved too stupid to die, Victor.” Sabretooth has indeed come back from apparent death on plenty of previous occasions. He was beheaded in Wolverine #50; mind you, he was also beheaded in Wolverine vol 3 #55, and that turned out to be a clone. Oh, and he was beheaded for real in War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men #3, but that was just before Krakoa, when everyone was conveniently dropping dead. Since it was presumably resurrection that brought him back that time, he ought to be dead for real this time, but… come on, it’s Sabretooth.
That being said – while Sabretooth himself is bound to come back in the end, the cliffhanger of this story makes fairly clear that all of this is an illusion.
PAGES 6-7. Elizabeth helps against Sabretooth.
“I won’t leave you alone again!” Again, given that this is apparently an illusion, it’s obviously playing off Wolverine’s feelings of abandonment.
PAGES 8-11. Wolverine gathers his senses and tackles Sabretooth through a window.
The footnotes to Origin #3 are self-explanatory.
“He ain’t a telepath, but somehow he’s getting into my head.” This line becomes more significant in light of the reveal at the end of the issue: on some level, Logan seems to be recognising that this is an illusion, or at least vaguely Not Right. His response is to fall back on his usual techniques for dealing with psychic attack: essentially, mindfulness and focussing on what his senses are telling him. This ties in with previous issues. On receiving Elizabeth’s letter in isue #8, Logan’s narration talks about the scent of the letter convincing him that it’s genuine even though he knows that it’s rationally impossible. He also talks about Sabretooth’s scent getting stronger as he approaches the house in issue #9, and about the scent of his childhood still being recognisable in issue #10.
PAGES 12-13. Elizabeth tries to stop Logan from killing Sabretooth.
Within the logic of the illusion, Elizabeth is apparently horrified by the violence of both men – but she seems to be trying to steer Logan towards going somewhere.
PAGES 14-17. Wolverine kills Sabretooth (again).
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. There are various paintings of that name, but the art in the accompanying panel is clearly modelled on the one by Gustav Doré (1832-1883). The painting depicts an incident from Genesis 32:22-32, where Jacob spends the night alone on a riverbank and encounters a man who proceeds to wrestle him until dawn, for reasons that are not directly explained; some interpretations have him as an angel, others as a symbol of god or something else. It’s unlikely that Ahmed is particularly interested in the underlying biblical story, since the main moral which Genesis itself invites us to draw from the incident is that we shouldn’t eat the sciatic nerve.
“I’m still a monster, ma.” Logan thinks that his mother’s instinctive horror towards him in Origin #3 was basically correct (and accords with his own self-loathing).
“I can feel in my soul that any dark deeds you’ve done, you’ve done to help others.” This is, objectively, not true – it really doesn’t account adequately for Logan’s time in Team X, or as an agent of Romulus. However, the obvious theme of this illusion is to have Elizabeth forgive him. She claims again that she’s going to explain and answer his questions, but doesn’t.
PAGES 18-19. Elizabeth is revealed as Mastermind.
Mastermind. He’s an illusionist who was a member of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants back in the Silver Age. His other main claim to fame is a botched attempt to manipulate Phoenix into joining the Hellfire Club, which inadvertently led to the Dark Phoenix Saga. He didn’t do much of importance after that, until he died of the Legacy Virus in 1993’s Uncanny X-Men Annual #17. He showed up again on Krakoa, notably in Hellions and X-Corp, but this is the first time he’s been used as a major villain in many years.
(EDIT: As the comments point out, I should have remembered that Mastermind’s main history with Wolverine is Uncanny X-Men #172, where an overall scheme of revenge on the X-Men includes him manipulating Mariko Yashida into calling off her wedding to Wolverine at the last minute.)
The idea seems to be that, instead of being a conventional telepath, Mastermind’s powers work by tricking the senses – therefore, he’s peculiarly well placed to manipulate Wolverine by taking advantage of the very things that he normally uses to ground himself against such attacks, which cause him to overlook the logical glitches. This is, shall we say, not a million miles from the Sara Grey storyline in this week’s Phoenix, though that seems much more likely to be a case of poor co-ordination than a deliberate echo.
An obvious question raised by this story is how Mastermind actually knows anything about Logan’s back story in order to exploit it. After all, Logan pointed out in issue #9 that Sabretooth was one of the only people who would have this knowledge. Presumably we’re coming to that; Mastermind has rarely worked as a solo villain, so it’s entirely possible that there are allies out there somewhere.
It also begs the question: what was the deal with the random yokel in the previous issue? Did Mastermind actually force him to try and fight Wolverine? (His dialogue only referred to “he”, which Wolverine assumed to be Sabretooth.) Or was he an illusion too?
Let’s not forget the greatest inspiration taken from the Biblical story which is Superman wrestling the angel in Morrison’s JLA.
It’s not actually the moral of Jacob wrestling with the angel that one shouldn’t eat the sciatic nerve (which makes it sound like the moral is that eating the sciatic nerve is the cause of Jacob to hallucinate wrestling the angel), it’s that avoiding eating the sciatic nerve was done in commemoration of Jacob’s wrestling the angel.
Mastermind has had the entire knowledge of the universe forced through his mind by phoenix, he could have remembered small parts of that when he came out of his coma. Also it’s fitting that he is being used a solo antagonist now as “from the ashes” was his big solo story.
@Chris V – That scene with Superman wrestling the angel could’ve been so much better than it was. It would’ve been a lot more striking to me had Superman been, you know… Superman at the time.
Unfortunately, this was during that silly period where he had those electrical powers and wore a costume that looked like something Captain Cold might wear to a yoga class.
“His other main claim to fame is a botched attempt to manipulate Phoenix into joining the Hellfire Club, which inadvertently led to the Dark Phoenix Saga. He didn’t do much of importance after that, until he died of the Legacy Virus in 1993’s Uncanny X-Men Annual #17”
He does have one other major claim to fame- he mind-controlled Mariko into leaving Wolverine at the altar and making Silver Samurai her heir. After that, Mariko was so ashamed that she refused to marry Logan until she broke the links between her clan and organized crime. But she died as a result of the Hand’s treachery before she could marry Logan. Wolverine never got the opportunity to confront Mastermind for what he did to Mariko. It’s possible that this story will him the chance.
Well, Mastermind also indirectly led to Rogue joining the X-Men, although the full details of that are left missing within the comics. Mastermind gave Rogue the idea that she needed to run away from Mystique and Destiny, and caused Mystique to be in a dreaming state while Rogue left them. Claremont affirmed that Mastermind was responsible as he wanted revenge on Mystique due to an unpublished Ms. Marvel story.
I think later, in the X-Treme X-Men Annual, that Claremont ret-conned the story to revolve around the Shadow King. That he wanted Rogue to be his Shadow Queen, and he had been using Mastermind as his puppet. Rogue was supposed to be a sleeper agent for the Shadow King, taking a sample of each X-Man’s mutant power, so that Shadow King could take on all of their powers…or something.
I think that was what happened in the X-Treme X-Men Annual, as my memories of anything Claremont after his return to Marvel is fuzzy. Still, being the catalyst behind Rogue joining the X-Men is important.
@Chris V- I think you’re conflating two stories. There’s a two-part What If written by Claremont, where Mastermind is being used by the Shadow King as he tries to get revenge on Jean Grey. And there’s the X-Treme X-Men Annual where the Shadow King wants Rogue as his Shadow Queen.The X-treme X-Men Annual had the Shadow King claim that DESTINY was his puppet, not Mastermind.
Huh, I didn’t know that story about Jacob. Wikipedia says it has things of interest to me – namely puns and a possible pagan story dressed up to be Biblical. Nice. I also like the idea that the wrestler’s identity is mysterious, but Doré just went ahead and painted a blonde dude with wings.
I care very little about Ahmed’s Wolverine, but I’m glad I read the review.
IT WAS MASTERMIND ALL ALONG!!!
Hmmm, I’d say there’s a fair chance Mastermind breaking Logan and Mariko’s relationship will come up, seeing how he thought of her in this.
Old Man Logan really should have left a note about watching out for illusionists.
It was hardly Morrison’s fault that they were stuck with electric Superman. At least he got restored to the classic version in time for Morrison to write Superman hauling an entire planet.
By the way, Paul, I definitely prefer the page by page style.
“It was hardly Morrison’s fault that they were stuck with electric Superman.”
I’m aware of that. I wasn’t blaming Morrison. He had to accommodate whatever it was the Superman creative teams were doing with the character at any given time. The same goes for the rest of the characters he was using in JLA
It was just unfortunate timing, that’s all. I recall that he wasn’t aware they’d be doing that with Superman at the time he wrote that story.
I think the annotations should be as required. Something with a lot of continuity, definitely (if you want to). A comic which is mostly a fight scene wouldn’t deserve or be enhanced by it.
I think the annotations should be written in iambic pentameter so that they’re always rhythmic and peppy regardless of how exciting or dull the story being annotated might be.
“That scene with Superman wrestling the angel could’ve been so much better than it was”
It could also have been better had it looked like Superman was wrestling an actual angel, instead of some winged ox-man. God, Porter’s art was so atrocious during that run.
“Wolverine never got the opportunity to confront Mastermind for what he did to Mariko”
He kind of did. After Mastermind was defeated in Uncanny #175, Wolverine wanted to kill him, but Storm held him back.
@wwkdd- Yeah, but he didn’t realize at that point that Mastermind had mind-controlled Mariko. He was angry at Mastermind for what he did to Jean and for trying to make the X-Men kill Scott and Maddie but he didn’t realize it was Mastermind who messed with Mariko’s head.
@MaterMahan- Honestly, Old Man Logan really should have been more wary of illusionists himself. Sauron used illusions to almost trick Wolverine to killing Nightcrawler, Banshee and Cyclops and as mentioned Mastermind almost tricked Wolverine into killing Scott and Maddie. In fairness, Ahmed seems to be making the point that Logan keeps falling for illusions because he relies so much on his senses. But what’s Blade’s excuse? How many times has Blade been tricked into thinking an innocent woman has been turned into a vampire and almost staking her?
I’m really hoping this is building up to a retcon that Sabretooth is a perfectly nice chap who just ate a few too many sciatic nerves.
Possibly more relevant for a Marvel comics – “Jacob Wrestling with the Angel” was also a late illustration by Kirby (https://comics.ha.com/itm/memorabilia/comic-related/jack-kirby-jacob-and-the-angel-signed-limited-edition-print-333-2500-c-1990s-/a/322304-49310.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115)
So, I realise this is a cliffhanger, but WTH is Mastermind even playing at here? Is this pure sadism (which is boring), or is this some incredibly convoluted plan to get Wolverine to do something for him?
As I noted last month:
“ Third guess is Mastermind. I can’t remember if he’s capable of fooling Logan’s senses these days.
If it was Arcade or Mastermind, I’d still have to wonder who was really pulling the strings because neither has a -huge- reason to go up against Logan on this sort of scale. Some vestige of Weapon X?”
Glad to see I was mostly close.
Honestly, Mastermind being back is far more plausible and tolerable than both Sabretooth and Logan’s mom being resurrected.
Speaking of Mariko — I wasn’t following Krakoa closely after the first year or two, so correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the Krakoans become capable of resurrecting humans as well at some point? Wanda magically allowed them to access the memories of humans, even though Cerebro hadn’t recorded them? If I’m remembering that correctly (and I might very well not be), shouldn’t Mariko have been pretty close to the top of the list? Who’s been a more loyal X-Man than Wolverine over the years?
Maybe Logan was given the option to bring her back and turned it down, reasoning that she was at peace and wouldn’t want that disturbed,
@Drew- Mariko was resurrected by Gorgon and the Hand in the Old Man Logan series. Which makes it odd theyve hardly interacted since she returned.
Regarding Genesis 32: It doesn’t matter for Ahmed’s story, but the mysterious figure that Jacob wrestles with in the darkness is probably meant to be Esau, Jacob’s brother. This is strongly implied in the full story (which continues into Genesis 33) and informs the conclusion to the story of Jacob’s relationship with his sibling (which has been going on since Genesis 25), but since the identity of the shadowy wrestler isn’t explicitly stated (and literary analysis of the sort we usually do with stories isn’t a thing most religious laypeople and their leaders apply to their holy texts) the idea took hold instead that Jacob had a divine encounter.
That’s the Liberal Christianity interpretation, but it’s certainly not a consensus view. It’s true that at first the “stranger” is identified as “man”, but later Jacob names the location as “Peniel” and it is said that Jacob had “seen the face of God and survived” (Genesis 32: 29-31). Which is a weird conclusion to draw after spending the night wrestling with someone you obviously know as your brother.
One Jewish interpretation was that it was the guardian angel of Esau, rather than Esau, himself. Regardless, the point of the entire story is that the “stranger” at the end calls Jacob “Israel”, which translates as “struggles with God”, so there is certainly something going on beyond merely a wrestling match with his brother meant behind the story. Another interpretation, of course, is that the entirety is simply a symbolic story relating to the one who sired the Israelites, which also fits with all the word play going on in the story.
“but he didn’t realize at that point that Mastermind had mind-controlled Mariko. He was angry at Mastermind for what he did to Jean and for trying to make the X-Men kill Scott and Maddie but he didn’t realize it was Mastermind who messed with Mariko’s head.”
Hence me saying kind of. I’m assuming a similar scene played out between #175 and #176 off-panel (where the X-men learn about how Mastermind had manipulated Mariko into calling off the wedding) except this time it was probably Colossus holding Wolverine back…
@SanityOrMadness: Mastermind is probably working for Romulus. Everyone else usually is.
@Michael: Oh, thanks, I had no idea she’d returned already.
On the one hand I get it, because a happy, domesticated Wolverine isn’t heading off to Madripoor for two week benders with Deadpool or taking on suicide missions for Nick Fury. She kinda limits the ability of Marvel to put their second-most popular character in twenty books a month. But then why bring her back at all?
That’s a question that the Old Man Logan series absoltely did not answer.
I’m not even sure if she has interacted at all with Regular Sort-Of Middle-Aged Man Logan since his resurrection. Her wiki entry ends on her Old Man Logan / Dead Man Logan appearances.
Mariko made an appearance in Wolverine #6 during X of Swords, where she spent the night with him before he went to hell, An alternate version who was happily married to Wolverine appeared in Weapon X-Men.
What was really weird was that the Hand resurrected her as the Scarlet Samurai. She was strictly a Non Action Girl before she died, so making her another Asian Martial Artist was just bizarre. I know they tried to justify it by saying that the Hand planned to use her to take over Clan Yashida but there really was no reason to turn her into a samurai.