{"id":6393,"date":"2021-03-14T14:16:16","date_gmt":"2021-03-14T14:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6393"},"modified":"2021-07-25T14:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T13:43:54","slug":"the-incomplete-wolverine-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6393","title":{"rendered":"The Incomplete Wolverine – 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Part 1: Origin to Origin II<\/a> | <\/a>Part 2: 1907 to 1914<\/a>
<\/a>Part 3: 1914 to 1939<\/a> | <\/a>Part 4: World War II<\/a>
<\/a>Part 5: The postwar era<\/a> | <\/a>Part 6: Team X<\/a>
<\/a>Part 7: Post Team X<\/a> | <\/a>Part 8: Weapon X<\/a>
<\/a>Part 9: Department H<\/a> | <\/a>Part 10: The Silver Age<\/a>
<\/em>1974-1975<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/em>|\u00a0<\/a>1976<\/a> | <\/a>1977<\/a> | <\/a>1978<\/a> | <\/a>1979<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>
1980<\/a> | <\/a>1981<\/a> | <\/a>1982<\/a><\/em>\u00a0| 1983<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Welcome to the era of event comics.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #178<\/a>
“Hell Hath No Fury…”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Bob Wiacek, Brett Breeding & Glynis Wein
February 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Wolverine doesn’t appear in the January issue, in which Lilandra and Binary leave with the Starjammers, and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attack Kitty and Colossus.<\/p>\r\n

In this issue, the X-Men come to the rescue. It turns out to be a diversion to draw the X-Men away from the Mansion, so that Mystique can kill Professor X as revenge for taking Rogue away from her. Rogue talks Mystique down, and Mystique spares Professor X in exchange for safe passage for the Brotherhood.<\/p>\r\n

So not a Wolverine story, then. He does note that Storm is taking on some of Yukio’s traits, and suggests that he doesn’t think this is a great idea – understandably, since Yukio’s role in\u00a0the\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> miniseries was to offer the temptation of succumbing to his instincts.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #179<\/a>
“What Happened to Kitty?”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green & Glynis Wein
March 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

A group of\u00a0Morlocks<\/strong> led by\u00a0Callisto<\/strong> kidnaps Kitty Pryde to force her to keep her word and marry\u00a0Caliban<\/strong>. (Wolverine missed the Morlocks’ debut, which happened while he was in Japan.) A dead teenager, altered by\u00a0Masque<\/strong>, is left behind as Kitty’s supposed body, but of course it doesn’t fool Wolverine’s sense of smell. By the time the X-Men arrive, Kitty has decided to go through the wedding, partly out of guilt towards Caliban, and partly so that the Morlock\u00a0Healer<\/strong> will cure Colossus (which he does). Of course, Caliban realises that she’s miserable and releases her from her vow. Oh, and this is also Wolverine’s first meeting with\u00a0Leech<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n

Not much for Wolverine here either, aside from using his senses. Kitty upbraids him for attacking the Morlocks without waiting to find out if she wants to be rescued, and accuses him of looking for an excuse to fight. To be fair, she doesn’t know about the violated corpse.<\/p>\r\n

At around this point,\u00a0Magma<\/strong> (Amara Aquilla) joins the New Mutants and moves into the X-Men Mansion. Wolverine must be introduced to her, but we don’t see it.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>X-MEN & THE MICRONAUTS #1-4
by Bill Mantlo, Chris Claremont, Jackson Guice and various others
4-issue miniseries
January to April 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Baron Karza<\/strong>, arch-enemy of\u00a0the Micronauts<\/strong> –\u00a0Arcturus Rann, Marionette, Acroyear, Bug, Huntarr<\/strong> and\u00a0Fireflyte<\/strong> – shows up at the Mansion with the Micronauts’ living\u00a0Bioship<\/strong> in tow. The two have just escaped a devastating battle in the Microverse against the mysterious, all-powerful\u00a0Entity<\/strong>, and Karza has traced the Entity’s power to Professor X. The X-Men go into the Microverse, get mind-controlled by the Entity, and wind up attacking several planets for him alongside the similarly-enslaved Micronauts. After Kitty frees both teams, they join forces to defeat the Entity, who turns out to be a projection of Professor X’s dark side. Completely inconsequential for Wolverine, unless you count the fact that he meets the Micronauts.<\/p>\r\n

No placement for this story is ideal, but this official position is as good as any.\u00a0There’s no mention of Colossus’ injuries, which are still troubling him in\u00a0Uncanny<\/em> #180… but maybe he has a relapse.<\/p>\r\n

NEW MUTANTS vol 1 #14 <\/a>
“Do You Believe in — Magik?!”
by Chris Claremont, Sal Buscema, Tom Mandrake & Glynis Wein
April 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The X-Men cameo as guests at a birthday party for Illyana Rasputin, who’ll join the New Mutants next issue as\u00a0Magik<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #180<\/a>
“Whose Life is it, Anyway?”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green, Bob Wiacek & Glynis Wein
April 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Logan talks to Peter, who is brooding about his relationship with Kitty. Peter worries that he has lost her, either to the Morlocks (since she agreed to marry Caliban), or to\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> supporting character\u00a0Doug Ramsey<\/strong> (who is closer to her own age). Logan’s advice is that if Peter feels that way about Kitty, then he should wait until she’s older, and that if he truly thinks he isn’t good enough for her then he’s already lost more than he realises.<\/p>\r\n

This hasn’t aged brilliantly – the age gap between Peter and Kitty reads rather less comfortably now than it did nearly 40 years ago. Remember, we only just had Kitty turning 14 in\u00a0Special Edition X-Men<\/em>. In this issue, Peter actually says that if they were in Russia, they could be married already.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Later, the X-Men (minus Kitty, who’s off in a\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> storyline) investigate an enormous construct which has appeared in Central Park. Like a lot of other heroes, they blunder into the thing and get zapped off to…<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>MARVEL SUPER HEROES SECRET WARS #1-12<\/a>
by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck, John Beatty & Christie Scheele
12-issue miniseries
May 1984 to April 1985<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The mysterious, cosmic\u00a0Beyonder<\/strong> abducts various heroes and villains to his patchwork Battleworld, made up of bits stolen from other worlds (including a suburb of Denver). He tells each side that if they kill their opponents then they can have whatever they want. Meanwhile, Magneto gets assigned to the hero team, but only the X-Men are prepared to try and work with him – which leads to Magneto walking out, and the X-Men following him to become a third force. In practice they wind up siding with the heroes, obviously, but the X-Men’s outsider status and Magneto’s face turn is duly worked into the plot. Eventually everyone teams up to stop Galactus from eating the planet, and Doctor Doom from stealing the Beyonder’s power. And then everyone goes home.<\/p>\r\n

This is the very first line-wide event crossover – Wolverine appears in all but issue #8 (which does feature the rest of the X-Men). Like other heroes, the X-Men departed for\u00a0Secret Wars<\/em> just as the series began, but then returned home in the very next issue. Secret Wars\u00a0<\/em>itself lasted a year, and the gimmick was that the changes would all be explained over time. There aren’t any radical changes for the X-Men, unless you count Colossus\u00a0becoming obsessed with a girl he meets on Battleworld, which leads to his break-up with Kitty. Professor X and Rogue get new costumes, to give the impression of a bit more change. And Lockheed meets an unnamed girl dragon<\/strong> at the last minute, in order to set up\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #181.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>Naturally, Wolverine meets a bunch of new people here. On the hero side, he’s met everyone but\u00a0the new\u00a0Iron Man<\/strong> (Jim Rhodes), who at this point is pretending to be Tony Stark anyway. On the villain side, the ridiculously random line-up includes\u00a0Galactus, Kang<\/strong> the Conqueror, Doctor Octopus<\/strong> (Otto Octavius),\u00a0Ultron, the Molecule Man<\/strong> (Owen Reece),\u00a0the Lizard<\/strong> (Curt Connors),\u00a0the Absorbing Man<\/strong> (Crusher Creel) and\u00a0the Wrecking Crew<\/strong>, comprising\u00a0the\u00a0<\/strong>Wrecker<\/strong>\u00a0(Dirk Garthwaite),\u00a0Thunderball\u00a0<\/strong>(Eliot Franklin),\u00a0Bulldozer\u00a0<\/strong>(Henry Camp)\u00a0and\u00a0Piledriver<\/strong> (Brian Calusky). Wolverine also meets the debuting\u00a0Titania<\/strong> (Mary McPherran) and\u00a0Volcana<\/strong> (Marsha Rosenberg); the living alien Spider-Man costume later known as\u00a0the Venom symbiote<\/strong>; Colossus’ healer\u00a0Zsaji<\/strong>; and Galactus’ herald\u00a0Nova<\/strong> (Frankie Raye). The new\u00a0Spider-Woman<\/strong> (Julia Carpenter) also debuts in this series; Wolverine doesn’t seem to actually meet her on panel, but they probably say hi before everyone goes home.<\/p>\r\n

Despite his rising popularity, Wolverine isn’t particularly central to the story. Shooter writes a throwback Wolverine, who objects to Captain America as leader because he’s weak, and then bickers with him, like in the old days with Cyclops. Later, Wolverine gets to give Nightcrawler his familiar speech about not taking prisoners in a time of war. He does indeed try to kill the Molecule Man when he gets the chance, and he cuts off the Absorbing Man’s arm while he’s in stone form, even though nobody really knows if he can be put back together. (He can.)<\/p>\r\n

Issue #10 gives Wolverine a more significant scene where he berates Captain America for doing nothing to help mutants. He argues that Magneto’s reaction to humanity is perfectly understandable, and that the other heroes’ reluctance to accept him even after he’s reformed proves that Magneto was right in the first place. We’re not meant to agree with any of this – Captain America duly reminds us that Silver Age Magneto was a terrorist and murderer, and Wolverine acknowledges later on that Cap does indeed care about everyone, including mutants. It’s still interesting that Wolverine gets to be the spokesman for a comparatively radical position, though it’s probably because Shooter saw him as the X-Man most suited to being angry and wrong.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #181<\/a>
“Tokyo Story”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green & Glynis Wein
May 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Meanwhile, back in the regular titles… Lockheed’s new lady friend stows away as the X-Men leave. For some reason, this makes most of the X-Men reappear in Japan, and the girl dragon turn into a giant. She wreaks havoc in Tokyo, and the X-Men try to help. During this, Wolverine finds a dying mother and her daughter Amiko<\/strong>. Wolverine swears to keep Amiko safe and see that she is raised as if she were his own daughter. (A single panel flashback in\u00a0Wolverine\u00a0<\/em>vol 2 #150<\/strong> expands slightly on this scene.) Eventually the girl dragon vanishes, apparently after realising that Lockheed doesn’t love her.<\/p>\r\n

Ah, Amiko. Wolverine adopts her in the heat of the moment, out of nowhere. And then… pretty much dumps her on Mariko and forgets about her. She winds up as a character who shows up every few years so that people can chide Wolverine about being a terrible father to her – hardly a direction that accords with the growing maturity Wolverine was meant to be showing in Claremont’s stories. Presumably she was meant to help keep Wolverine and Mariko’s relationship ticking over and give them reasons to continue to meeting up, but she’s ultimately an underdeveloped misfire.<\/p>\r\n

I suppose, to be fair to Wolverine, he technically keeps to the letter of his promise: “I’ll see she’s raised as if she were my own.” Not quite the same as “I’ll raise her”. In fact, when you look at the children who have been retconned into Wolverine’s back story since there, “rais[ing] [her] as if she were my own” is a pretty low bar.<\/p>\r\n

After this story, the X-Men return home. Wolverine doesn’t appear in\u00a0Uncanny<\/em> #182 (which is a Rogue solo issue). A flashback in\u00a0X-Men: Liberators<\/em> #3<\/strong> takes place around here, showing Wolverine, Colossus and Nightcrawler playing tag in the grounds as a training exercise.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>Flashbacks in DAMAGE CONTROL vol 1 #4<\/a>
“eXcessive Farce”
by Dwayne McDuffie, Ernie Colon, Bob Wiacek & John Wellington
August 1989<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The Mansion needs repairing again, so Professor X calls in\u00a0Damage Control<\/strong> to deal with the public parts. The X-Men meet\u00a0Robin Chapel, Lenny Ballinger, Gene Strausser\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Albert Cleary<\/strong>. Gene inadvertently releases a bunch of slapstick comedy into the Danger Room, and the X-Men have to sort it out. Professor X wipes Damage Control’s memories; they get them back in the framing sequence (which takes place shortly after “Inferno”). Damage Control\u00a0<\/em>is a fondly remembered series, but this really isn’t its finest hour.<\/p>\r\n

The flashbacks really doesn’t fit\u00a0anywhere<\/em>. Storm still has powers, and Kitty Pryde is there, neither of which can really be ignored. So it has to be before\u00a0Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #183 – any later, and either Kitty is off in\u00a0Kitty Pryde & Wolverine<\/em>, or Storm has lost her powers. But Doug Ramsey is also wandering around as\u00a0Cypher<\/strong>, and it’s far too early for that. Best just to shrug and stick it here, in the last available space before Kitty departs.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>UNCANNY X-MEN vol 1 #183<\/a>
“He’ll Never Make Me Cry”
by Chris Claremont, John Romita Jr, Dan Green & Glynis Oliver
July 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Peter breaks up with Kitty. Logan drags Peter to a bar to yell at him about it, and Kurt tags along to make sure things don’t get out of hand. By sheer coincidence, the Juggernaut shows up, and Peter gets into a fight with him. Logan decides Peter has it coming, and lets him get beaten up.<\/p>\r\n

Logan is clearly very protective of Kitty, and gives at least one good reason for being angry at Peter: she was willing to marry Caliban in issue #179 in order to get the Healer to save Peter’s life. According to Logan, Peter never even thanked her for that, which does sound pretty reprehensible. But Logan also accuses Peter of being scared of commitment now that Kitty is old enough for their relationship to become more serious (“Kitty’s not a kid any more – you two were going beyond playing games.”) He seems to believe that he’s also helping Peter by challenging him over his fear of commitment, and defends his own separation from Mariko, insisting that it’s a matter of honour and duty.<\/p>\r\n

Once again, the age gap on this storyline really hasn’t aged well. This issue is quite clear that Peter is 19 and Kitty is 14, and it seems highly dubious, to put it mildly, for Logan to be pushing Peter to pursue that relationship, especially on the grounds that she’s “not a kid any more”.<\/p>\r\n

As for Kitty, she takes a leave of absence to meet her father. We’ll see her again in the\u00a0Kitty Pryde & Wolverine<\/em> miniseries, and neither she nor Wolverine will appear again in Uncanny X-Men\u00a0<\/em>until next year. But before Wolverine joins her, he has a batch of Kitty-free guest appearances.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>FIRESTAR vol 1 #2<\/a>
“The Players & The Pawn!”
by Tom DeFalco, Mary Wilshire, Bob Wiacek & Daina Graziunas
March 1986<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The New Mutants are invited to a dance at Emma Frost’s Massachusetts Academy. And they decide to go, on the grounds that since plenty of regular students are going to be there, it must be safe. Wolverine disagrees, because he’s not a moron, but the plot says they have to go, so he’s outvoted.<\/p>\r\n

Yes, I know the cover shows Firestar fighting Wolverine. She doesn’t, though she does fight an illusory Wolverine for three panels in a training session.<\/p>\r\n

(Firestar<\/em>\u00a0was a continuity implant filling in the back story leading up to the character’s debut in\u00a0Uncanny\u00a0<\/em>#193, which is why this goes so far out of publication order.)<\/p>\r\n

MARVEL GRAPHIC NOVEL #12
“Dazzler: The Movie”
by Jim Shooter, Frank Springer, Vince Colletta & Christie Scheele
October 1984<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

The X-Men (randomly including Cyclops, who’s meant to be in Alaska) make a brief cameo when Storm phones Dazzler to check in on her. This story can’t go any later, because it’s referenced in\u00a0Uncanny <\/em>#192.<\/p>\r\n

\"\"<\/a>1985 #6<\/a>
“Nuff Said!”
by Mark Millar & Tommy Lee Edwards
October 2008<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Marvel heroes and villains from roughly 1985 in Marvel continuity\u00a0start appearing in the “real world” thanks to reality warper\u00a0Clyde Wyncham<\/strong>; young\u00a0Toby Goodman<\/strong> finds a portal to the Marvel Universe and alerts the heroes. Wolverine is among a whole bunch of characters who cameo here, none of whom actually seem to have been selected with any particular eye on their status quo in 1985. Still, this is where the official timelines put it. Wolverine ticks another bunch of names off his list here:\u00a0Giant-Man<\/strong> (Hank Pym),\u00a0the Red Skull<\/strong> (Johann Schmidt),\u00a0Electro<\/strong> (Max Dillon),\u00a0the Shocker<\/strong> (Herman Schultz),\u00a0the Vulture<\/strong> (Adrian Toomes),\u00a0the Abomination<\/strong> (Ivan Blonsky),\u00a0the Hobgoblin<\/strong> (Roderick Kingsley) and some line-up of\u00a0the Frightful Four<\/strong>. In the end, Wyncham surrenders, sends everyone home, and returns to the Marvel Universe with the heroes to be incarcerated.<\/p>\r\n

Next time, the\u00a0Kitty Pryde & Wolverine<\/em> miniseries<\/a> (which starts in November 1984, but runs through to spring 1985).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part 1: Origin to Origin II | Part 2: 1907 to 1914 Part 3: 1914 to 1939 | Part 4: World War II Part 5: The postwar era | Part 6: Team XPart 7: Post Team X | Part 8: Weapon X Part 9: Department H | Part 10: The Silver Age1974-1975\u00a0|\u00a01976 | 1977 | […]<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wolverine","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393","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=6393"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6947,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6393\/revisions\/6947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}