{"id":5703,"date":"2020-10-07T22:55:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T21:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5703"},"modified":"2020-10-07T22:55:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T21:55:05","slug":"wolverine-6-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5703","title":{"rendered":"Wolverine #6 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

WOLVERINE vol 7 #6<\/strong>
“X of Swords, part 3”<\/strong>
by Benjamin Percy, Viktor Bogdanovic & Matthew Wilson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Speaks for itself, really.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the other tie-in books so far, Wolverine<\/em> gets to keep its logo. If you do an image search, you’ll find some versions of the covers for other chapters that include the regular logo – I think what’s happened here the covers had to be redesigned in order to make room for the Chadwick Boseman tribute banners, and they chose to push the crossover. But in Wolverine<\/em>‘s case, the logo is incorporated into the artwork and couldn’t easily be removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Wolverine starts to emerge from the fires of Hell.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I know from firsthand experience, this place is the best there is at punishment.”<\/strong> Wolverine went to hell in, er, “Wolverine Goes To Hell”, a Jason Aaron storyline from 2010-11’s Wolverine<\/em> vol 4 #1-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 3-4.<\/strong> Wolverine speaks to Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You wanted the External Gate open.”<\/strong> The External Gate was Apocalypse’s portal from Krakoa to Otherworld. In X of Swords: Creation<\/em>, Krakoa made it very clear that it wanted the gate to remain open. It seems clear that Krakoa knew that the gate could provide a route by which it could be reunited with its lost other half, Arakko. Wolverine infers that Krakoa also <\/em>anticipated that the Arakkans would invade and start a war, but his evidence for that is more shaky. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverine still seems much less trusting of Krakoa than almost anyone else on the island; everyone else seems almost suspiciously willing to embrace the place as a utopia. But that’s probably a story thread for another day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So I’m gonna find the Muramasa blade.”<\/strong> Previously in “X of Swords”: Saturnyne has given both Krakoa and Arakko each a list of ten swords, and cryptic hints about them. Each island is meant to have its ten champions retrieve their swords and then gather for the big fight in Otherworld. “Muramasa” was the only sword to appear on both island’s lists. More about Wolverine’s connection with it later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 5-6.<\/strong> Credits and recap. As with the other satellite books, the small print has changed to X-Men<\/em>‘s “mutants of the world unite.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Wolverine reminisces about the Muramasa blade.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Polaris started spitting her riddles…”<\/strong> Polaris delivered Saturnyne’s list of ten riddles in X-Factor<\/em> #4 (the previous chapter of “X of Swords”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I lost my wife, Itsu. I thought I lost my son Daken.”<\/strong> This is a very brief summary of a Daniel Way storyline which was shown in flashbacks in Wolverine<\/em> vol 3 #38 and #40 and Wolverine: Origins<\/em> #27 and #35. For a fuller discussion, see part 5 of my Wolverine readthrough.<\/a> Suffice to say that there’s nothing new here. Logan married a woman called Itsu, who was killed while pregnant with his child. (The killer is the Winter Soldier, acting on Romulus’s instructions, but that doesn’t matter for our purposes.) Logan then went off and met Muramasa, who took part of Logan’s soul and used it to make a magical sword. That sword then became a macguffin throughout the Wolverine: Origins<\/em> series. As Wolverine says later, it was eventually destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muramasa.<\/strong> Muramasa is not a Marvel creation – he’s a 15th century swordsmith<\/a> and there’s a long standing tradition that his blades are supposed to be cursed with bloodlust due to his mental instability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-10.<\/strong> Wolverine talks to the Silver Samurai.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Quarry.<\/strong> This is the sparring arena previous seen in Cable<\/em> #1, where the Silver Samurai officiates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Silver Samurai.<\/strong> This is the original Silver Samurai, Keniuchio Harada. He’s a longtime Wolverine villain who’s been resurrected on Krakoa (and he’s at the relatively mild end of villainy, so one of the less contentious inclusions in Krakoan society). His irritation at being passed over for a historically prestigious role is entirely in character. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s likely that Wolverine is approaching the Samurai simply because he’s the sort of character who knows about old Japanese swords. Conceivably it could be a reference to Wolverine<\/em> vol 2 #1-3, which involved Wolverine and the Silver Samurai chasing after a different<\/em> Muramasa sword, the “Black Blade”. That storyline ended with the Samurai getting the sword and apparently being unaffected by its bloodlust curse, from which he concluded that he must be its fated owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 11-16.<\/strong> Solem is recruited to fight for Arekko.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tower of Broken Will<\/strong> is new and, as we’ll see, it’s singularly failed to live up to its billing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solem<\/strong> is new, as is all the back story we get here. Most of it is expanded upon in the following data page. The name “Solem” is probably just a pun on “solemn”, though it’s also a Norwegian surname. Solem seems to agree to join the fight simply for his own amusement; the following data page suggests that he wants to get to Krakoa simply for the novelty of it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 17.<\/strong> Data page on Solem’s back story. All new and largely self-explanatory. War’s late husband Bracken is named for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a redacted word or two in the second-last paragraph. Whichever group it is that Solem wronged, it evidently includes War. Surely “the Horsemen” is far too obvious to bother redacting, though?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 18.<\/strong> Montage of Wolverine’s investigation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all expanded on in a later data page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 19-20.<\/strong> Wolverine climbs to a mountain temple.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judging from the data page, this is Mount Haku (which is a real mountain in Japan). The ninja shadowing Wolverine are members of the Hand, as we establish later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Data page: snippets of what Wolverine’s informants told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kiyoshi Sato<\/strong> is new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Beast<\/strong> is the demon that the Hand worship, as introduced in Elektra: Assassin<\/em>. Depending on how a given writer is feeling, the Hand can be either a fairly straightforward bunch of mercenary assassins, or out-and-out mystical cultists; there are enough schisms in the group to make either interpretation valid, but the cult approach has tended to predominate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Piss Alley<\/strong> is the nickname of a street in Tokyo which is officially called Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane). Really, it is.<\/a> From the look of it, these days it’s more of a gastronomic tourist destination and preserved old-town block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemono<\/strong> means “beast” (though more as in “animal”).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kakemono.<\/strong> A hanging scroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emperor Jimmu<\/strong> is the legendary first Emperor of Japan, who supposedly ruled from 660BC onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mariko Yashida<\/strong> is a long-time Wolverine supporting character and love interest. She became the Scarlet Samurai in Old Man Logan<\/em> vol 2 #31-35, which isn’t really something this story wants to get into, but it’s duly acknowledged in passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sencha<\/strong> is a kind of green tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The left hand isn’t talking to the right hand.” <\/strong>Compare the next chapter, where two Hands are indeed apparently being drawn together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 22-24.<\/strong> Wolverine meets Muramasa in Hell, intercut with a flashback to him meeting Muramasa in the temple.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s assume that impossible things can just happen in magical dimensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> And apropos of nothing, a data page on…. the Crooked Market, the realm of Mad Jim Jaspers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mad Jim Jaspers<\/strong> is a reality-warping villain from 1980s Captain Britain<\/em> stories, and part of the established Otherworld cosmology. His realm is basically a dodgy black market where you should expect to get scammed. What’s of more interest is the explanation that the Crooked Market started as “a small operation” and grew into<\/em> one of the ten realms of Otherworld, which means that the whole nature of Otherworld remains in a state of flux. So if you’ve seen other stories where Otherworld appeared differently – and boy, you probably have – apparently it’s just that the ten worlds come and go and get replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 26.<\/strong> The trailer page. The Krakoan just reads NEXT: CHAPTER FOUR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. WOLVERINE vol 7 #6“X of Swords, part 3”by Benjamin Percy, Viktor Bogdanovic & Matthew Wilson COVER \/ PAGE 1: Speaks for itself, really. Unlike the other tie-in books so far, Wolverine gets to keep its logo. If you do an image […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5703"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5712,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5703\/revisions\/5712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}