Wolverine #17 annotations
WOLVERINE vol 8 #17
“Cold and Alone”
Writer: Saladin Ahmed
Artist: Martín Cóccolo
Colour artist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Wolverine and Silver Sable in the woods.
WOLVERINE:
He’s still dutifully training the New Morlocks when he isn’t sleeping with Silver Sable. His narration calls this a “comfortable” relationship which he believes neither of them sees as a particularly deep one; he sees Sable as a fellow warrior who understands him.
SUPPORTING CAST:
Silver Sable. Still hanging around with the New Morlocks and sleeping with Wolverine.
Other mercenaries are aware on the rumour mill of what she’s up to.
The New Morlocks. The group have moved on from their last camp after the encounter with Department H and have found some abandoned houses. We see an awful lot more of them this time, most of whom look like fairly ordinary people. The vast majority of them look human. At least some are actual humans who just happen to have a mutant in their family. Logan claims that they’re there because “there’s nowhere left for mutants to run to”, which doesn’t really make sense in terms of the rest of the line; Exceptional X-Men and NYX both seemed to have mutants living fairly openly in major cities. Maybe he means specifically in Canada, this being the Marvel Universe and all.
Wolverine clearly still doesn’t much rate their skills. When asked to organise a manhunt for the missing Tushar, he basically assigns everyone else busy work and then goes off to find the kid himself.
Deepfake. She’s a teenager (which is apparently meant to be obvious from her appearance). She claims that her parents died in a car crash a year ago and her powers emerged when she learned the news; she ran away instead of going to “some creepy foster home for mutant teens”, whatever that means.
Her eyes are apparently sockets full of energy, and she has to be able to see her energy duplicates in order to keep them in existence; shoving a bag over her head is enough to disrupt them.
Like Chowdown in issue #15 she’s torn between appreciating Wolverine’s training and finding it all a bit much.
Ape. As in issue #15, he tells Deepfake that something bad happened to the original Morlocks but avoids going into any detail – it’s not entirely clear whether he’s trying to shield her from the details or just doesn’t want to talk about it.
Chowdown. He’s there among the New Morlocks.
Tushar. A very young mutant from Vancouver who apparently has the power to fix things just by touching them. He gets abducted by Coldbug and rescued.
VILLAINS:
Coldbug. First appearance. Wolverine initially calls him a mutant, but he then turns out to be an insect parasite inside a human-looking body – so it’s not clear whether the mutant is the insect, the host, or both. Coldbug himself is an insectoid who apparently possesses hosts and eventually consumes their bodies. He fires a venom that slows his victims down and saps their will. The toxin is apparently linked to him psychically, because its effect immediately wears off when Wolverine kills him.
He speaks in basic broken English. When Wolverine finds him, he claims to be “feeding” and “hungry”, though it’s not entirely clear what the feeding involves – is he going to take him as a new host?
On the face of it, Coldbug is simply a random passing monster – there doesn’t seem to be any wider reason for his attack here.
The Adamantine. Still fighting people who have been suggested as opponents by Romulus. In previous issues, Romulus sent it after retired boxers and UFC fighters. This time, he sends them after some eastern European mercenaries, who don’t do much better. All of this seems like Romulus is wasting the Adamantine’s time for some reason. That doesn’t seem to occur to the Adamantine (probably because it has no context to realise how low-rent Romulus’ targets are), but it does lose patience with him anyway, apparently concluding that he’s just useless at giving recommendations. They “decree Romulus’ time on this Earth at an end”, whatever that means, and claims that something called “the godling” will replace him.
When pressed to identify “the best of your kind”, one of the mercenaries suggests Silver Sable, so these subplots will evidently join up with the main story next time.
CONTINUITY REFERENCES:
- Ape says that the Morlocks left the tunnels because “Bad people came”, referencing the “Mutant Massacre” crossover from 1986.
- Department H “wrecked the last camp” in issues #15-16 (presumably in the sense of making it unsafe to stay around, rather than literally destroying the buildings).
“Wolverine initially calls him a mutant, but he then turns out to be an insect parasite inside a human-looking body – so it’s not clear whether the mutant is the insect, the host, or both. ”
I didn’t think that Goldbug was an insect parasite inside a human-looking body- I just assumed that he was a mutant whose mutation gave him a second, insect face. (For what it’s worth, Wolverine says the venom came from the X-gene.) The entire thing with Coldbug was weird- it was not explained and had no point. If Ahmed was contractually obligated to use a villain with “oldbug” in their name this issue, why not use Goldbug, who’s an established villain?
“claims that something called “the godling” will replace him.”
The “godling” is almost certainly Hercules- his mace is Adamantine.
No way those claws can retract.
Poor Hercules. Why would anyone want to replace Romulus? Where are the “mutant death watch beetles” to give Romulus the inglorious end he truly deserves?
Given the number of Hercules knock-offs over the centuries, he’s the perfect guy to replace Romulus — he invented his schtick!
These figures on the covers of this volume of Wolverine always look stiff and cardboardy with weird anatomy.
Silver Sable looks like she’s fourteen on that cover.
It looks like someone tried to do a bad Sam Kieth impression. Really amateur cover for a book that is supposed to be a top title for Marvel.
This one is a little bit wonky, but I often think that the covers are the best thing about this volume.
Moving on to the inside – I like it, up to a point. Wolverine protecting a Morlock-ish community is a solid set-up that could work long-term, which makes me wonder why we didn’t start here. I’m also less then thrilled that the Adamantine is set to make a comeback.
(And since we’ve started with the Incredible Wendi-kid, my second question is where’s Leonard now? He’s only got a few years left before he’s supposed to take over the mantle…)
Moving on, we still don’t know how the Morlocks can afford Silver Sable. I don’t mind waiting for the answer, but we should get it – especially now that it’s been underscored that she’s world’s topmost mercenary.
Small detail, but I love how goofy Wolverine looks in the presence of Sable in the opening pages. I always like when Logan isn’t taken 100% seriously 100% of the time.
I guess I’m slowly warming up to Ahmed’s Wolverine. Hopefully he hits the ground running with the Bishop mini, though.
It felt odd that Logan specifies he can overcome Coldbug because he sees a mutant kid in danger. Would Tushar have been bug chow if he hadn’t had cabin-fixing powers?
I will say that the mutant community having actual humans in it is a nice touch.
“A very young mutant from Vancouver who apparently has the power to fix things just by touching them”
So, not only can his mutation tell the difference between a broken television and a working television that’s simply turned off, but it can also diagnose the problem and then somehow fix it? That isn’t mutation. That’s sorcerery.
Many mutations in the MU are indeed beyond reasonable boundaries, but it is not yet clear that Tushar’s power is capable of making decisions. What (very) little we have seen of it makes it appear to be some form of tactile telekinesis (yes, I know we heard plenty of that from DC’s 1990s Superboy) and/or perhaps rearrangement of solid materials.
Plenty impressive (and we have to guess what its boundaries are), but not apparently sentient or even sensitive.
@Luis Dantas – I wasn’t trying to suggest that his mutation was sentient and capable of independent thought. I just meant that his body can apparaently detect whether or not something is broken and miraculously fix it. Unless it’s the guy himself making that determination and using telekinesis to repair things (in which case, he’s a handyman with telekinesis).
Fine, if a repair doesn’t call for anything more than just moving things back into place, but if it gets into something like an engine being completely shot and he’s still able to fix it by touching it, then we’re in magic territory.
I can see some mutant powers that would combine to explain it, though not very satisfactorily. For instance, perhaps she has a combination of very low-level variations of Forge’s or Cypher’s “intuitive mental leap” abilities coupled with an equally low-end version of Proteus’s or James Jaspers’s reality warping. She intuits the correct functioning of something and her power then warps reality to get there.
I don’t know that it’s any more magical than Storm’s very broadly-defined ability to control “the weather,” which would involve manipulating a whole lot of discrete materials and physical forces on a macro level without any randomness creeping in.
@Moo Maybe it’s a highly specific form of probability manipulation where touching the device “just happens” to move the part into the right spot to get it to work again. On the other hand, if the parts are physically broken/burnt out, perhaps it’s reality manipulation.
Though your comment reminds me of the Washington Post review of the X-men movie. The reviewer had a line like “controlling the weather isn’t a mutation, it’s miraculous.”
@Omar – Wait. Tushar is a she? Paul wrote “he”. Not sure who’s mistaken, but a female character with a name beginning with “tush” is, um… hmm.
[…] #17. (Annotations here.) More of the New Morlocks, and this feels a little bit as if we’re marking time until the […]
@Sam – Funny, that was similar to Stan Lee’s reaction to Storm after she was created. He felt her powers were too far-fetched for a mutation.
I don’t think I’m being too much of a stickler here, though. For example, I’m letting the idea of someone from Vancouver being able to fix anything completely slide.
Someone having a physiology attuned to the weather and able to manipulate it, I can suspend my disbelief for. Somebody being able to fix my smartphone that isn’t working just by touching it, I struggle with believing (assuming Tushar’s extend that far). Also, my smartphone wasn’t working because I dropped it in the toilet, and he just touched it.
Tushar is definitely referred to as “he”.
Yet, Stan Lee created Bobby Drake and Scott Summers. Beast, Jean, and Angel have plausible ideas for a mutation. Very plausible considering that each featured ideas well used in science fiction by the point Lee and Kirby created the X-Men. How Cyclops’ powers didn’t kill him the first time he used them, or how a human being can manage to coat themselves in a layer of snow/ice are simply not believable as mutations either. Best not to throw stones in a glass house if one is creating mutant superhero powers.
Stan also created the Scarlet Witch, whose powers were supposedly probability manipulation, but in practice Did Whatever the Writer Wants. Arguably, that’s the real problem with certain mutants- not “implausible” powers but powers with ill-defined limits.
Storm’s powers are usually well-defined. But then there’s Nature Girl/ Armageddon Girl, who can control everything from animals to microwaves. it seems like her power can control anything the writer wants, as long as the writer claims it’s part of “nature”.
Another problematic character created by Stan Lee, an Inhuman instead of a mutant, is Crystal. Supposedly the Terrigen Mists gave her the ability to control the four elements of classical mythology- fire, water, earth and air. (Are the Terrigen Mists big fans of classical mythology?) But in practice, her powers can do whatever the writer wants, as long as they claim she’s controlling the “elements”.
@Moo: Calling Tushar a “she” was a careless mistake on my part.
@Michael and Chris V.: An awful lot of superpowers work largely along the lines of thematic association.
So, for example, Magneto can sometimes do things like control people’s minds because writers and readers have heard that blood has iron in it, even though hemoglobin isn’t typically ferromagnetic (and is sometimes even diamagnetic).
Similarly, the Human Torch can burn as hot as a nova and melt steel, but he can also be put out by water because water puts out fire and his powers are themed around fire.
And then there’s Spider-Man’s spider-sense, which is kinda sorta based on the notion that little bugs and spiders can get out of the way of being swatted, which apparently translates to being able to pick up “bad vibes” from passers-by or know when someone might see Spidey without his mask.
It has been presented that Magneto can control the flow of blood in another person’s body with his powers, yes. I’ve heard a theory about Magneto being able to control a person’s mind is because Lee and Kirby (probably mostly Kirby) actually were presenting all human mutants as having ESP, which includes telepathy. The other powers presented by the different mutant characters were using their ESP in different ways to perform their mutant powers. So, Magneto could control another person’s mind, similar to Xavier, because he had telepathy as an innate mutant power and had learned to harness it, just not at the innate level of Xavier. Then, Magneto used his ESP powers in order to control magnetic fields. So, as another example, Angel was born with wings, but he would be considered to be using his telekinetic powers to grant himself the ability to fly. Xavier only had the power of telepathy, but he was also considered to have the “most powerful mind on the planet”. Proponents of the theory point to the fact that Xavier seemed to be helping to train all the X-Men to use telepathy in their earliest appearances, and Magneto was shown to be able to enter the astral plane to battle Xavier. After Kirby left the title, the idea seemed to be dropped.
Spiders have sensory hairs on their bodies which can sense the tiniest vibrations, from which is where the idea that spiders have a “sixth sense” which allows them to avoid incoming danger originates. As far as I know, no one has ever mentioned Peter Parker growing weird hairs on his body for his “spider sense”, although maybe they are disguised within his typical mammalian body hair, but then again, his “spider sense” works in often magical ways even if there was a scientific explanation for his “spider sense”
As for Johnny, the usual explanation is that his flames exhausts itself quicker at higher temperatures, so he often keeps his flame at lower temperatures while flying and while his flame is at lower temperatures it can be put out by water. That works as long as you don’t think about it too hard.
Well, the other issue with Johnny is that flying isn’t at all associated with fire. He’s got two power sets in one.
Through psychometry/”post-cognition” combined with telekinesis, Tushar restores objects to their intended or original (ordered) configuration. His one weakness is he cannot fix a defectively built object. Shoddy workmanship is his nemesis!
Longshot used to be able to read an object’s history just by touching it, to the point that the X-Men were able to return all the stolen items in he Reavers’ vault one X-Mas eve.
If a necklace contains the psychic memory of its owner with enough detail that she can be located on another continent, I don’t see why an object can’t have a psychic memory of its original condition.
It’s all magic, no matter how much scientistic woo woo the author writes down.
Well, guess I’m done with Wolverine for now. I legitimately convinced myself there was at least a chance that the “using Canada as a metaphor for America even though one of the fucked up things America is doing right now is threatening Canada” storyline was going to become semi-palatable at some point by throwing in some sort of twist. Surely the fact we were only ever seeing two inhabitants, that a shanty town of run aways could afford Silver Sable on an indefinite contract, these were hints of another shoe to drop at some point, I thought. Nope! Not only are those undeniably odd details apparently signifying nothing, we’ve actually already moved on from the ‘compromised Dept. H’ part of the story while still throwing in a bunch of references to mutant kids being harassed at school by the mean bad Canadians, because something about a big bug came to Saladin in a dream I guess