{"id":7545,"date":"2022-01-28T22:30:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T22:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2022-01-28T22:30:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T22:30:23","slug":"x-deaths-of-wolverine-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=7545","title":{"rendered":"X Deaths of Wolverine #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE #1<\/strong>
\nby Benjamin Percy, Federico Vicentini, Dijjo Lima & Frank Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

X DEATHS OF WOLVERINE.<\/strong> This is the companion miniseries to X Lives of Wolverine<\/em>, which started last week. The structure is obviously intended to echo\u00a0House of X<\/em> and\u00a0Powers of X,\u00a0<\/em>the two parallel miniseries that launched the Krakoan era. As with that series, the first book is the relatively straightforward one, while this one seems to have a wider agenda. It also makes it rather clearer why these books were promoted as major stories for the line, something which wasn’t exactly apparent from\u00a0Lives<\/em> #1.<\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> A techno-organic version of Wolverine. We’ll see him later in the issue.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Moira MacTaggert flees to Scotland.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a direct continuation from page 41 of\u00a0Inferno<\/em> #4, where Cypher and (very reluctantly) Mystique and Destiny depowered Moira, gave her the techno-organic arm we see here, and allowed her to flee Krakoa through the gate. Moira’s opening narration is just recapping the premise of her role in Hickman’s stories: she lived multiple past lives, she told Xavier and Magneto what she’d learned, and they were keeping her hidden beneath Krakoa until she was discovered and driven into exile.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Moira promptly steals a truck and uses it to destroy the gate she came through, so that Mystique can’t follow her\u00a0quite<\/em> that easily.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Recap and credits. The description of Moira as “pursui[ng] a better world for mutantkind” is a bit dubious, given that\u00a0Inferno<\/em> #4 suggests she was working towards a mutant cure (and potentially using Krakoan drugs as a vehicle to secretly administer it). Still, this book seems to want Moira to be a sympathetic character, so we’re tacking back in the other direction.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Deaths<\/em> credits page is black (compared to\u00a0Lives<\/em>‘s white), and has just one set of linked hexagons – this one shows Moira, Mystique, Black Tom and one redacted figure, all with “X” after their names. In\u00a0Lives<\/em>, the “X” seemed to indicate the present day versions of characters.<\/p>\n

The Krakoan reads “X DEATHS”, with “X LIVES” greyed out next to it.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9.<\/strong>\u00a0Moira arrives at the Kinross Estate, and discovers that she’s got cancer.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the family home, which has apparently gone into ruin in her absence. It’s not clear exactly\u00a0why<\/em> that should be the case, since (per Hickman retcon) Moira faked her own death – you’d have thought that she would have had a will or something. But if she didn’t, then yes, it’s\u00a0conceivable<\/em> that the estate could be left in limbo for years if there were no obvious heirs, and that the building could be left to fall into disrepair like this.<\/p>\n

It seems a bit coincidental that Moira suddenly develops an illness now – that might suggest it’s either something that her powers were shielding her from, or a side effect of the device that removed her powers, or something to do with the techno-organic arm. On the other hand, we’re told later on that the cancer has already spread to Stage IV, which it surely couldn’t do in a matter of days… so maybe it is just a coincidence.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10.<\/strong> Destiny tells us a little fable, the basic point being that Moira can’t run from her fate, because her attempts to do so are already factored in to the predictions.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11.<\/strong>\u00a0Black Tom in the Green Lagoon bar.<\/em><\/p>\n

Black Tom has a sudden strange feeling and stumbles out to investigate. The minor characters in this scene:<\/p>\n