{"id":9274,"date":"2023-07-26T22:10:09","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T21:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9274"},"modified":"2023-07-27T16:31:36","modified_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:31:36","slug":"wolverine-35-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=9274","title":{"rendered":"Wolverine #35 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>WOLVERINE vol 7 #35<\/strong>
\n“Weapons of X, part 5”<\/strong>
\nWriter: Benjamin Percy<\/strong>
\nArtist: Juan Jos\u00e9 Ryp<\/strong>
\nColour artist: Frank D’Armata<\/strong>
\nLetterer: Cory Petit<\/strong>
\nDesign: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen<\/strong>
\nEditor: Mark Basso<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Wolverine prepares to pop his middle claws and kill a defeated Beast.<\/p>\n

Yes, yes, I know – the main release this week is the Hellfire Gala\u00a0<\/em>one-shot. But that’s the size of multiple regular issues and besides, this issue comes first – as you might have guessed, it’s running a week late.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-4.\u00a0<\/strong>The Beast lectures his clones.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are evidently the replacement clones that Beast said he would “begin processing” after he wiped out the previous bunch for disloyalty in issue #33. As before, he’s given them different hairstyles and a need for glasses, which makes them all look a bit dopier compared to him. We don’t see anything in this issue to directly suggest that the new clones have started figuring out the need to get rid of Beast Prime, but they do seem befuddled by his old joke and appear to be indulging him.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jeff Bannister was captured by Beast last issue; Beast made Wolverine an offer to exchange him for the two Wolverine clones that Wolverine and Maverick captured, apparently because they’re very expensive to make. (Presumably the issue is the adamantium skeletons.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

PAGE 6.\u00a0<\/strong>X-Force arrive to help.<\/em><\/p>\n

X-Force appear here after the “Ghost Calendars” arc from\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #40-42, where they visited assorted alternate timelines ruled by future versions of the Beast. Kid Omega, who returned from the future with them, doesn’t accompany them here. Omega Red died during the time travel arc, but he’s been resurrected off panel (presumably with no memory of anything that happened during that arc).<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Data page. The Quiet Council meeting deciding to turn a blind eye to the Beast took place in\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #39. Evidently Sage’s experience of Beast-dominated future timelines has persuaded her that this is intolerable.<\/p>\n

PAGES 8-9.\u00a0<\/strong>Wolverine and Maverick await the prisoner exchange.<\/em><\/p>\n

“I know I been MIA from X-Force lately.”<\/strong> In\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #39, Wolverine (Laura) asked Sage whether Logan had quit the team, and Sage replied that “He’s going his own way right now” – i.e., in this arc. However, because he was a prisoner of the Beast before that, Wolverine hasn’t appeared alongside the rest of X-Force since\u00a0X-Force<\/em> #33.<\/p>\n

As explained last issue, the Wolverine clones are getting (relatively speaking) more intelligent because the impairments that Beast tried to build into them are being overcome by their healing factors.<\/p>\n

As Wolverine says, Beast is trying to present this exchange as some sort of formal event. I like the fact that “Beast Prime” – or the one posing as Beast Prime, as we’ll see – is the only one who gets an umbrella, and he doesn’t even hold it himself. Wolverine, on the other hand, hasn’t even bothered changing into an untorn costume.<\/p>\n

PAGE 10. <\/strong>X-Force enter Beast’s mobile base.<\/em><\/p>\n

Weird that Beast never gave this thing a name.<\/p>\n

PAGE 11. <\/strong>Beast makes his offer.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is basically the same offer that he put to Wolverine last issue. Strictly, the promise not to hurt other mutants (if they leave him alone) is also new, but Beast was doing that anyway.<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13. <\/strong>X-Force kill a bunch of Beast clones.<\/em><\/p>\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong>\u00a0Wolverine sets the Beast’s Wolverine clones free.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jeff Bannister gets to point out the fact that the real Beast Prime doesn’t need reading glasses, because this specific to his post-Krakoa body, so Wolverine probably isn’t aware of it.<\/p>\n

Wolverine’s perfectly reasonable plan, as Domino confirms in the next scene, is to free all of the Wolverine clones from Beast’s control and assume that by this point, they’ll have built up enough intelligence, and enough hatred of the Beast, to make them turn on him of their own accord. He’s absolutely right.<\/p>\n

PAGE 16. <\/strong>X-Force make their way through the base.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Deadpool points out, they’re meant to be going\u00a0up<\/em> but there’s no way of lettering the page to make that work, and so we get a meta gag which I suspect may be covering for a storytelling glitch.<\/p>\n

PAGE 17-19. <\/strong>X-Force enter the Beast’s chambers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once again, we’re simply told without explanation that the Cerebro Sword\u00a0<\/strong>is “the weapon that’s making this whole operation possible”. I’ve said this many many times over the course of this series, but we’ve never had a remotely clear explanation of\u00a0why<\/em> this thing – originally made by Magneto as a commemorative ornament from the remnants of a shattered Cerebro helmet after the assassination attempt on Professor X in X-Force<\/em> #1 – is useful for anything. I’m not talking about the details, I’m talking about the broad strokes – even at the vaguest level, why is it useful? In what sense is it a weapon? How does the mangled remnants of a Cerebro helmet enable Beast to do anything he’s doing here? The characters all seem to think it’s obvious, but it really isn’t. All we\u00a0know<\/em> about it suggests it ought to be a decorative paperweight with maybe some valuable data still stored inside.<\/p>\n

(I’m going to hazard a vague guess that the existence of a mystery object that can be used to achieve some form of resurrection independently of the Five might be significant down the line in the light of Hellfire Gala<\/em>, though.)<\/p>\n

PAGE 20.\u00a0<\/strong>Wolverine kills the “Beast Prime” impostor.<\/em><\/p>\n

This gives him some sort of closure, I guess, since the actual Beast escapes at the end. Wolverine’s dialogue in panel 4 – “You’re convinced you’re fighting monsters. What you don’t seem to realise is you’ve become the monster yourself” – seems to be the one-line moral of the Beast arc. In fairness, the contrast with the rest of the group, and especially Sage, makes that not\u00a0quite<\/em> as one-note as it might first appear; even the likes of Omega Red and Deadpool see the moral context more clearly than Beast, who has convinced himself of his own overwhelming righteousness. Wolverine spells that out for us in the epilogue, with Sage positioned as the character who has the right attitude to this sort of work.<\/p>\n

PAGES 21-22.\u00a0<\/strong>Beast escapes with the Cerebro Sword.<\/em><\/p>\n

So do three Wolverine clones, but by the look of it they’re doggedly swimming after him in the hope of killing him. (They kind of get lost on the page here, which is a pity.) Since they’re no longer under his control and should be continuing to grow in intelligence, perhaps they’ll be a little more chatty the next time we see them.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.\u00a0<\/strong>Epilogue: Wolverine tells Sage he is leaving Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Presumably, he doesn’t think he’s had a good enough answer to his complaints about the Quiet Council giving Beast carte blanche. And indeed, when we see him again in the Hellfire Gala<\/em> one-shot, Wolverine is off on his own – location unspecified.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.\u00a0<\/strong>Data page: Wolverine confirms that he’ll be hunting down the three stray clones.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. Instead of\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> #36, we’re pointed to\u00a0Ghost Rider \/ Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Alpha<\/em>, which is the start of a four-part crossover that continues in\u00a0Ghost Rider<\/em> #17,\u00a0Wolverine<\/em> #36 and\u00a0Ghost Rider \/ Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. WOLVERINE vol 7 #35 “Weapons of X, part 5” Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Juan Jos\u00e9 Ryp Colour artist: Frank D’Armata Letterer: Cory Petit Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen Editor: Mark Basso COVER \/ PAGE 1. Wolverine prepares to pop his […]<\/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":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9274","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=9274"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9277,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9274\/revisions\/9277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}