Wolverine #15 annotations
WOLVERINE vol 8 #15
“Alpha Flight”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Mike Henderson
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Wolverine, surrounded by headshots of the members of Alpha Flight. Given the signature (“Panosian with respect to Byrne”), I assume it’s a homage, but I can’t place it. (As pointed out in the comments, it’s Alpha Flight vol 1 #12.)
WOLVERINE:
He’s continuing to train the Morlocks and bond/flirt with Silver Sable. The main difference between the two seems to be that she has a “life’s too short” worldview; his extended lifespan doesn’t fit that approach, but she may not be picking up on that. Sable claims to be impressed by his training techniques, saying that he’s done much better with the Morlocks than she ever did – of course, he has much more experience in training complete rookies who’d rather be noncombatants.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Silver Sable. She’s also stuck around to train the Morlocks (which is what she’s being paid for, after all), and seems keen to liven things by sparring and flirting with Wolverine.
Vindicator raises the obvious question of how anyone involved with the New Morlocks can afford to hire Silver Sable for this job, but doesn’t pursue the point beyond flagging it for the readers’ attention.
The New Morlocks. Wolverine and Silver Sable have been training them to defend themselves – the training is obviously directed at Department H, although Wolverine refers to “what the mutant hunters and bigots and super villains’ll do if they find this little squatter camp”, which wouldn’t apply to Department H because they already know where it is. Silver Sable implied in the previous issue that there were a couple of original Morlocks in here, and two of them do indeed show up. Two issues in, we’ve still only seen four of them, but presumably by this point Wolverine has seen a community that matches what was described to him, or else he’d be saying something about it.
Chowdown. He doesn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about Wolverine’s survival training, and would clearly rather be a non-combatant.
The art still doesn’t convey very clearly how his powers work – he’s able to “eat” Ape, but we saw last issue that this seemed to involve sucking the target into a hole in his stomach. Presumably he just lets Ape go harmlessly, since nobody seems especially panicked by this.
He “doesn’t see so well” and takes “medicinal herbs” for it.
Deepfake. Wolverine does refer to her as “she” this issue. Her power, which was only hinted at last issue, is to make “energy clones” of other mutants which copy their powers. As suggested last issue, this is exhausting and she can’t keep it up for long before fainting. Wolverine thinks she just needs practice.
Ape and Erg. Two actual original Morlocks, both of whom debuted in Power Pack #12 (1985). Ape is a shapechanger, and Erg fires electric blasts from his eye. Both of them were survivors of the original Mutant Massacre. Erg was last seen on Krakoa during Way of X. Ape hasn’t been seen in a present-day story since Weapon X vol 2 #5, when he died in the Neverland concentration camp. Presumably he was resurrected off panel on Krakoa.
They emphasise that their experience proves the need for training to be ready in the event of an attack, but don’t go into details about what they’re talking about – either the Mutant Massacre is too painful to talk about, or they think it’s just going to panic the newbies.
VILLAINS:
Department H. The usual bunch of anonymous soldiers in masks, plus the following…
Agent Mehta. Whether she’s technically a villain or not, she certainly serves as the lead antagonist here. As in the previous issue, she regards Wolverine as having crossed a line by teaming up with Silver Sable to fight her men. She insists that the camp is illegal (which is probably true, and the likes of Ape and Erg may well also be illegal immigrants), and claims that Department H are bringing these families into the fold in order to prove them with social services and the like. Wolverine believes that she’s sincere but naive.
Alpha Flight. As in X-Men #11-12, most of the team are prisoners on work release after the events of the last Alpha Flight miniseries during “Fall of X”. So the angle we’re doing here, let’s be clear, is that the fascist takeover of North America during “Fall of X” has persisted the most in… Canada. I’m not honestly prepared to stomach that from Americans right now, but that’s where we are.
The new Vindicator, Agent Arsenault, is still their field leader. X-Men presented her as basically competent if obnoxious, but here Mehta describes her as “a bit overzealous”, and she’s willing to use live fire against the Morlocks, describing them as “criminals”, which is probably true, “a public safety threat”, which is only true in the sense that they might have god-knows-what powers, and “terrorists”, which is ludicrous. Marrina, Puck and Snowbird show up for this mission, and are trying to handle things in a more conventional way. Wolverine is evidently aware of their status quo and doesn’t take their involvement personally; Vindicator believes (with some justification) that they’re holding back against him.
We’re told that Guardian and Shaman has refused this mission and are “in solitary confinement”. This doesn’t fit with the way the team were portrayed in X-Men, where we were told that they had been persuaded to sign up for the scheme. Guardian did participate in the last mission, but Shaman was said to have refused to join the scheme at all, and they were trying to find leverage to win him over.
The Adamantine. It shows up in a subplot to kill an apparently famous retired boxer called Joe. It seems to be hunting for a great warrior, and to be baffled by the idea that this is just an ordinary man well past his prime. It concludes that it needs to kill more people.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES:
- Ape and Erg allude to terrible things that could befall the Morlocks if they aren’t prepared, obviously referencing the Mutant Massacre crossover from 1987.
- Wolverine and Silver Sable’s first encounter with the Department H troops was in the previous issue.
- Heather Hudson is mentioned as being in a coma; that’s been the case since the last Alpha Flight miniseries.
- The Adamantine refers to its “champion-guide Romulus” – the two were bonded in issues #7 and #8.
I’n FAIRLY certain the cover is a nod to Alpha Flight Vol 1 #12?
*I’m, good lord
Definitely Alpha Flight #12. “And One Shall Surely Die!”
I assume Saladin Ahmed is writing about a government treating undocumented immigrants with severe violence as a way of commenting on current events, particularly with Logan calling out taking kids from their families.
But really, the problem isn’t with Canada, we all know the problem isn’t with Canada, and I can’t imagine Ahmed is under contractual obligation to only set Wolverine stories in Canada. It’s worth dropping Agent Mehti to set this story in America and call out where the real injustice is. And I’m saying this as an American.
—
Theory: Silver Sable is working pro bono specifically to make contact with Wolverine, as part of her long-term plan of getting Logan and Kurt into a throuple.
That Byrne cover gets a lot of tribute. It was homaged later in the original series in Alpha Flight 129, and again in Alpha Flight volume 2 issue 12, and again in Alpha Flight volume 3 issue 12.
It’s even been homaged by other publishers. The 12th issue of GI Joe: Cobra (by IDW in 2009) and some book called “V-Card” (never heard of it). There’s probably more.
It never fails to amuse me that the Marvel U Canada has a long and ongoing history of human experimentation and clandestine kill squads, thanks to decades of Weapon X/Plus/Chi and Alpha/Beta/Gamma Flight storylines. I like to think the X-Men consider the place mutate-era Genosha with a better PR department.
It does get a little crazy up here sometimes. Just this morning, I went out for coffee and witnessed another drive-by cursing.
Marvel is owned by Disney, and there probably isn’t an explicit rule “Don’t criticize America or call attention to it’s descent into overt fascism”, but I bet stuff like that gets noted to death by editors to the point where it’s better to just set it in Canada. “Can you soften this?” or “Don’t call out the history of medical experimentation on minorities in America, okay?”
It also breaks too much of the world to acknowledge the actual history of the US – you can have pops of it like Dark Reign, Secret Empire or Orchis – but it always has to return to a kind of liberal, post-war facade of “bad stuff happens here, but it’s because we try to do good in the world”. If it didn’t and Spider-Man and Captain America were actually good people with powers, they would have to acknowledge the violent white supremacy at the core of everything and do something about that. While *I* want to see those stories, I don’t know how keen the higher-ups would be for Captain America to kick the crap out of ICE.
Saladin Ahmed’s grandparents were immigrants from Lebanon and Egypt to America. I don’t think we need to cast aspersions upon Ahmed for not setting the story in the US. I’m sure he had a purpose to doing so and is still trying to make a point.
Having not read the issue, is it possible the famous boxer is “A Guy Named Joe” from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #38? He’s the only boxing Joe I can think of.
Canada is evil in the Marvel Universe. It’s also a terrible place in Twin Peaks.
Weird things pop culture taught me.
I assumed that Ape and Erg weren’t staying with the New Morlocks but that Wolverine asked them to help train the New Morlocks. Erg refers to Wolverine as a “friend of the family”.
I think that the major reason why Ahmed set the story in Canada was that he wanted to do an Alpha Flight story. And MacKay’s last story established that Alpha Flight was stuck working for shady Department H bureaucrats. so arguably MacKay deserves the lion’s share of the blame.
In addition, the problem with placing the story in the United States is that the anti-mutant forces in the United States are going through a period of transition. Monet said that Warden Ellis’s operation is falling apart but it’s not clear how bad things have gotten. Meanwhile, ONE has a new leader but we don’t know who they are yet.
@Andy- Ewing had no problem using white supremacists working for Roxxon as the villains in his Mortal Thor series. OTOH, Blake insisted that no one call him Donald any more. But that might not have anything to do with our current President. It’s possible that Blake will redeem himself and reclaim the name Donald.
@Dave White- “A Guy Named Joe” was a white guy. The Joe in this issue is African-American.
On earth-Prime, all the medical experimentations in Canada are either done on hockey players or Tim Hortons flavors.
The cover may be referencing Alpha Flight #12, but the layout is more like Liefeld’s New Mutants #87. Which I am entirely convinced is inspired by the album cover for Culture Club’s Colour By Numbers.
“..the layout is more like Liefeld’s New Mutants #87.”
By necessity, probably. They wanted Wolverine on this cover and New Mutants had a big main character to introduce. Alpha Flight 12’s cover was all scoping shots.
To be honest, this cover doesn’t really work with Wolverine at the center of it. Cable had a big ass gun. The cover of Amazing Spider-Man 129 (1st Punisher) was the same idea. Both Cable and Punisher are gun-toting characters, so a cover image that implies they have their sights on these characters makes sense.
Wolverine uses claws, not guns. He doesn’t have sights or scopes, so this cover doesn’t make any sense.
Even if Wolverine did use guns, he has superhuman senses, he still wouldn’t need a scope.
But mostly I want to draw attention to New Mutants #87 and Colour By Numbers.
Canada as the third-most evil country in the Marvel Universe — after only Latveria and Bagalia — is a longstanding trope of Marvel Comics, and especially Alpha Flight comics.
Canada did the registration act before America, was home to the Weapon X project and Neverland Concentration Camp, and kept Alpha as a brainwashed goon squad through the 1990s.
But in general, Marvel has a habit since at least the mid-2000s of establishing that the US government is only good guys when Republicans are in office, and are evil when Democrats are in office. The Obama era in the Marvel Universe was even called “Dark Reign.”
We’re long past the days when GWB was lampooned in Ultimate X-Men and Reagan was presented as a sign of the Apocalypse in Fall of the Mutants.
“But mostly I want to draw attention to New Mutants #87 and Colour By Numbers.”
Not a chance. It’s impossible for me to imagine a 22-year-old Rob Liefeld who is about to draw what will be the first image of Cable that readers lay their eyes on turn to a Culture Club album cover for inspiration. There’s just no way.
I just found Liefeld’s inspiration for the cover of New Mutants 87. His cover was an homage to the cover of Avengers 145 by Gil Kane (check the trivia section in the link below)
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Avengers_Vol_1_145
Someone PLEASE free Alpha Flight and Canada from the Evil Government storylines!!!
” It’s impossible for me to imagine a 22-year-old Rob Liefeld who is about to draw what will be the first image of Cable that readers lay their eyes on turn to a Culture Club album cover for inspiration.”
But bear with me, right, compare Rictor’s face to Boy George’s.
I can’t remember if it was Liefeld who put Boomboom in early Madonna clothes or if that was earlier. Simonson probably. But whatever, if it proves my incredibly tenuous case, then I’ll use it.
“But bear with me,,,”
Nah. I’m not going to bear with you. There will be no bearing on my part. I was going to bear with you at first just for the sake of being polite because I’m Canadian, but then I remembered, “Oh, right! I’m Canadian! We’re all a bunch of evil, scheming, human-experimenting bastards up here!” So, no. I will not bear.
Also, we will destroy you all. Once we get our submarines out of West Edmonton Mall, we’ll be unstoppable.
@Rob- IIRC, Dark Reign was planned before they knew who would win the Presidential election and it was too late to course correct when Obama won.
I’d speculate setting “Mutant X” in an alternate world where America and Canada are locked in a bitter cold war was brilliant, self-aware satire on Howard Mackie’s part, but all know that’s not true.
The part where the brewing war between America and the ultra-militaristic Canada somehow leads to the destruction of the Moon does very strongly preclude any sort of recognizable deliberate satire.
“The part where the brewing war…”
It was a brewing war? As in beer?
Oh, we’d definitely win if it was a brewing war.
That was the plot of strange brew, starring Bob and Doug Mackenzie, right?
#Elsinorbeer
#RIPCatherineOHara
“Marvel is owned by Disney, and there probably isn’t an explicit rule “Don’t criticize America or call attention to it’s descent into overt fascism”, but… “ -Andy
An orange monster who campaigned on hatred and bigotry becomes president, publicly lies about everything, pushes war against many of the U.S.’s closest allies because of greed. It is revealed that he has enslaved and experimented on innocent people, hiding this under the cloak of intelligence and classification as national security secrets. As an out of control rage monster, he demolishes part of the White House, desecrates the National Mall, and brutalizes actual patriots. But wait! He is inexplicably the hero of the story! Then Kevin Feige blames Anthony Mackie for the bomb.
And the real villain was the seemingly autistic tech bro who was manipulating everything behind the scenes while also getting himself incredibly high.
If you need a working villain for an Alpha Flight story — aside from the Canadian government — there are quite a few you could pick up and dust off from the original Byrne run.
He tended to introduce and quickly discard villains in that book — maybe because he didn’t really care so much about writing it? — but that makes them perfect for reintroduction and reinterpretation.
— Master of the World
— Great Beasts
— Gamma Flight
— Gilded Lily (a personal favorite)
Also, the team’s unstable personal dynamics were always threatening to pull them apart. I’m sure a writer could find some way to make that work again.
I know I’m an old fogey who sees through nostalgia-tinted glasses, but returning to the basics (or remixing the basics) is not a bad idea for resurrecting a defunct IP. And it could pull AF out of their constant battle with Canadian officials, which is not only silly (and/or offensive) at this point but also pretty boring.
@Rob: You must be kidding. In addition to Obama ordering the military to attack H.A.M.M.E.R. and ending the Superhuman Registration Act, Marvel released a one-shot celebrating his inauguration by teaming him up with Spider-Man. https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Barack_Obama_(Earth-616)
@neutrino
What does that have to do with Disney?
@Woodswalked- neutrino was replying to Rob’s comment on February 6th at 6:53 AM.
@michael
Yes, and Rob was replying to me, who was replying to Andy.
The subject that we were discussing is Disney’s oversight/editorial direction on Marvel.
Again, what is Neutrino refering to, because it SEEMS off topic.
@michael
6:53 did you write?
Thank you for clueing me in, I appologize for missing that