{"id":5933,"date":"2021-01-03T11:51:46","date_gmt":"2021-01-03T11:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5933"},"modified":"2021-01-17T12:09:44","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T12:09:44","slug":"the-incomplete-wolverine-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5933","title":{"rendered":"The Incomplete Wolverine: 1979"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part 1: Origin to Origin II<\/a><\/em> | Part 2: 1907 to 1914<\/a><\/em>
Part 3: 1914 to 1939<\/a><\/em> | Part 4: World War II<\/a><\/em>
Part 5: The postwar era<\/a> | Part 6: Team X<\/a><\/em>
Part 7: Post Team X<\/a><\/em> | Part 8: Weapon X<\/a><\/em>
Part 9: Department H<\/a><\/em> | Part 10: The Silver Age<\/a><\/em>
1974-1975<\/a><\/em> | 1976<\/a><\/em> | 1977<\/a><\/em> | 1978<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we left the X-Men, they’d just finished an adventure in the Savage Land, and were trying to sail back to civilisation in a makeshift raft. As you do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a big year for Wolverine, introducing some of the major aspects of his personal mythology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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X-MEN vol 1 #117 <\/a><\/strong>
“Psi-War”<\/strong>
by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin<\/strong> & Glynis Oliver<\/strong>
January 1979<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a Professor X story. The other X-Men only appear in the opening pages, in which a passing Japanese ship rescues them from a deadly gale. The vessel has some sort of secret government business to attend to before returning home (we never find out what) and so the X-Men are going to be stuck on it for a while yet. The reprint in Classic X-Men<\/em> #23 <\/strong>adds an epilogue page, where the X-Men fill the time by training, and Wolverine broods over Jean, whom he still thinks died in issue #113. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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X-MEN vol 1 #118-119<\/a><\/strong>
“The Submergence of Japan!” \/ “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas”<\/strong>
#118 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Ric Villamonte<\/strong> & Glynis Oliver<\/strong>
#119 by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin & Glynis Wein<\/strong>
February and March 1979<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now this one’s important. The X-Men finally arrive in Japan, and team up with Sunfire and the Daughters of the Dragon <\/strong>(Misty Knight<\/strong> and Colleen<\/strong> Wing<\/strong>) against Moses Magnum<\/strong>, who is threatening to destroy Japan with earthquakes unless the country surrenders to him. The X-Men fight Magnum and his Mandroids<\/strong> and save the day, though Banshee overstretches his powers and loses his voice. (His powers don’t come back for years, but he’ll hang around for another ten issues before quitting the team.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the A-plot, and none of it is especially important to Wolverine. But there’s plenty of other material that is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, this is Wolverine’s earliest published trip to Japan, and it reveals that he speaks Japanese. From the mid 80s onwards, Japan becomes embedded in Wolverine’s personal mythology as one of the main settings for his solo stories; that all starts here. At this stage, it’s part of the trend of revealing that there’s more to the thuggish Logan than meets the eye. Wolverine claims (in thought balloons) that he “was a punk kid last time I was in Japan”, which has obviously been retconned to oblivion many times by now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Second, Wolverine meets Sunfire’s cousin Mariko Yashida<\/strong>, who will be his main love interest through to the 1990s. He’s instantly smitten, and that’s basically the end of the Scott\/Jean\/Logan love triangle – from this point on, his attitude to Jean becomes healthier. Wolverine introduces himself to Mariko by saving her from Magnum’s earthquakes. They don’t immediately become a couple, but they do keep in touch from this point on. In her early appearances, Mariko is little more than a cipher who wears traditional dress and is presented as a paragon of demure Japanese ladyhood. (“I am only a girl… I haven’t the courage of my samurai cousin, Shiro.”) If you’re feeling generous, we’re viewing her in these early appearances through Wolverine’s rose-tinted glasses – at first, he sees her as a precious, fragile thing that he doesn’t deserve because he’s so violent and unrefined. In other words, she’s defined entirely by how he feels about her. That’ll change by the mid 80s, but at this stage, she’s one-dimensional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, having studiously avoided using his real name with the other X-Men, Wolverine immediately tries to introduce himself to Mariko as “Logan” (though he gets interrupted by the earthquake). Wolverine was addressed <\/em>as Logan by the leprechauns of Cassidy Keep in 1976, but this is the first time we see him use the name himself, or go by anything other than “Wolverine”. For obvious reasons, Logan is far less combative and obnoxious with Mariko than he is when dealing with his teammates. With this and the Savage Land story, the book’s attitude to Wolverine has noticeably shifted – now we’re meant to like him, and recognise the hidden depths that Mariko will help to draw out of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The expansion pack:<\/p>\n\n\n\n