As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 7 #30
“The Beast Agenda: Beast Must Die”
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Juan José Ryp
Colourist: Frank D’Armata
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1: The Beast holding Wolverine’s adamantium skull (the one from the Wolverine he killed in issue #26).

PAGE 2. Wolverine washes in the sea.

I’m tempted to ask where all these seagulls came from, but Benjamin Percy’s stories have always been unique in showing Krakoa with actual wildlife.

“I haven’t trusted this island in a long time.” In Percy’s stories, Wolverine has been sceptical of Krakoa from the outset, at least in the sense of not buying into it as a utopia. On the other hand, he was actively accusing Krakoa of consuming Kid Omega in X-Force #30, and that was last August.

The flashback panels show Beast killing Wolverine at the Legacy House auction in issue #26.

Wolverine’s narration is pushing the idea that X-Force grew blind to what Beast was doing, or at least the full scale of it, because he was so familiar to them. The problem with that is that Beast’s arc already reached the point of him enslaving an entire nation at the first Hellfire Gala, which is objectively worse than anything here. (I do wonder whether that’s an artefact of the Krakoan era being extended, and Beast’s arc having to find a further year of escalation when there wasn’t anywhere left to go.)

PAGE 3. Sage advises Wolverine to take his time and build a case.

Of course, that’s absolutely not what he’s going to do. Theoretically this is Sage giving wise advice about playing by the rules to bring Beast down on his own terms. In practice, I’m not sure it works in the Krakoa context when the Quiet Council is full of telepaths.

PAGES 4-6. Maddie Bannister is bitten by a poison insect.

Maddie’s name has never been given before, to the point where I figured it must be being held back for some reason. But no, it’s just thrown out there. Obviously, the implication is that Beast has sent this insect to kill Maddie before she says something unhelpful about her father Jeff Bannister (who, as we’ll see later on, is currently working for Beast). It’s not spelled out, but they’re presumably in the No-Place to hide from him, since it’s not supposed to be somewhere that he can monitor.

“Black and tan.” Um. I think Black Tom is meant to be referring to the cocktail here – a dark beer layered with a paler beer – but in Ireland the name is primarily associated with the anti-independence paramilitaries of the 1920s.  It reads a bit oddly. If I’m being honest, I find all of the dialogue in this scene pretty grating.

“Not on Black Tom’s watch!” It’s hard to tell whether Tom is alarmed by the thought that he’s let Maddie down, or by the thought that he’s going to be held responsible – though in fairness, he does seem pretty sincere when playing with her.

PAGE 7. Recap and credits. According to the recap, what happened in issue #27 is that Beast interrupted Wolverine’s resurrection process and prevented him from regaining his full cognitive function. I suppose the idea is that Wolverine’s mind always takes some time to stabilise after resurrection and Beast got in there first, but I don’t think that’s consistent with how we’ve seen resurrection work in the past.

PAGE 8-9. Maddie is brought to the Healing Gardens.

The wasp could be some random Krakoan mutation but it’s obviously more likely to have been altered with Krakoan biotech by Beast.

Cecilia Reyes’s forcefield is likely to be a better protection.

PAGE 10. Wolverine and Sage visit Bannister’s home.

In the weeks that Wolverine spent under Beast’s control, Bannister has moved out and put his house up for sale.

Wolverine gave Jeff the gate in issue #3. Maddie came to Krakoa asking for help with the Beast last issue, which is also when Wolverine escaped the Pit.

Jeff Bannister was with Wolverine when he died in issue #26. Wolverine jumps to the conclusion that Jeff was working against him all along. At first glance it sounds plausible enough that he was already under Beast’s influence by the time of issue #26, when he steered Wolverine into the Legacy House meeting – it would explain how Beast knew to be there. Nonetheless, Bannister claims later on in this issue that he only came under Beast’s influence after Wolverine was killed in that issue, and the brief interaction between him and Beast shown in flashback in issue #27 is consistent with that.

PAGE 11. Data page. Sage identifies some possible new homes for Jeff Bannister by looking for recent house purchases in areas where burrito sales have gone up. Okay, that’s cute. (Let’s assume that he’s buying under a pseudonym.)

The US property market is awfully quick if you can do this in a few weeks, but hell, that’s comics for you.

PAGES 12-13. Wolverine and Sage find Jeff’s home.

Wolverine recognises it by Jeff’s lawn-keeping preferences, which seems fair. The garden is a repeated motif of Wolverine and Jeff’s relationship – they’re always shown relaxing outside.

PAGE 14. Data page – Sage delivers some narration.

PAGES 15-16. Wolverine interrogates a CIA agent.

This is Bannister’s former office in Baltimore. As Wolverine says, it focussed on code breaking.

PAGE 17. Delores Ramirez reprimands Jeff Bannister.

It’s fairly obvious why Delores would accept Jeff’s transfer request, since she knows he has some involvement with Wolverine.

PAGES 18-20. Wolverine and Sage capture Jeff Bannister.

Bannister immediately preserves his “sympathetic character” status by making clear that his motivation is to protect his daughter from the Beast.

PAGES 21-22. Beast tries to kill Bannister.

He fails, and Wolverine kills him. So much for building a case.

PAGE 23. Trailers.

PAGES 24-25. A new Beast clone emerges from a backup.

I like the device of adding a scene after the back matter – it’s done sparingly and it’s effective. Anyway, it’s not clear yet whether this is Beast somehow achieving resurrection without the Five, or whether this is just a regular garden variety clone.