*Warning Spoilers Ahead For X Deaths of Wolverine and X Lives of Wolverine Stories Thus Far*
To catch yourself up on last week’s issue, check out our review for X Deaths of Wolverine #2. Immediately, the cover caught my eye. Moira looks frightened to see illuminated Wolverine claws while Mystique stalks in silhouette behind her. We open to a petrol station in Oklahoma, Moira, still in disguise, robs the station at gunpoint and then calls Jane Foster in a panic. Dr. Jane Foster unveils that Moira’s cancer has “fluorogenic matter woven into it”.
With revenge in her eyes, Moira throws the phone out the window and speeds off. There is a brief blurb on the next page that outlines some background here that I may or may not have skipped in the last issue. It details that Mystique cut off Moira’s arm and stripped her of the mutant resurrection power (for the reason Moira had kept Mystique and Destiny apart). To be honest, this makes things a lot clearer. A mental note was taken.
We then turn up in the Gulf of Mexico where some fishermen are pulling in a large haul. The first sighting, it’s a shark but then out pops Wolverine in his black and gold-coated uniform. He throws them overboard with a severe warning. These few pages are really well-drawn. I liked the fast movement along with the blood spatter. There’s a brief moment where one man attacks Wolverine and the resulting golden sparks from the black suit pop out of the screen. Wolverine steals the trawler and off he goes.
We’re back in New Mexico now where Moira is drinking and reminiscing about Charles Xavier. She realizes Mystique will find her again, looks down at her arm, and realize how she’s going to do it. A suspicious guy rocks up at the same motel as Moira and asks the owner for a room. The owner refuses but the man, who I’m assuming is Mystique, pressures him into telling. A few pages later, we see the owner with a blade or pen or knife in his arm and bleeding on the floor. Mystique shifts into the ponytailed, bespectacled man.
Meanwhile, Moira is doing what she alluded to previously: readying herself to amputate. Despite knowing what she is about to do, it’s a brutally vivid scene to watch/read/you know what I mean. She douses her insides with liquor, douses her body with iodine, and heats up a kitchen blade. With a swift shik her arm drops to the floor. Blood spatters across the panels and Moira thrusts a hot iron to the wound to cauterize. Badass.
Moments later, Mystique barges into the room under the guise of the owner. She blasts her way across the small room only to find the amputated golden arm on the bed. A bomb bleeps its final warning and the explosion blows debris and fire across the entire motel. In a blink and you miss it page, we see Destiny back in Krakoa. She mentions a figure coming to her mind. A man in black. Death himself. And Wolverine’s figure flashes across the sky.
The last few pages fly by with Forge and Jean Grey trying to decipher the thousands of years old pod that attacked Black Tom’s last issue. Then we’re back at the motel where Wolverine storms past police to investigate the hotel room. To his dismay, nothing is there so Wolverine staunches out, attacks a policeman, and steals his vehicle. Moira is watching and she reveals that she has seen the future and knows the villains will get their wish.
This was better than the first issue. We get a little more background and some answers. There was less flipping around settings and the times we did, added more to the plot. I am quite interested in the time aspect of this series. We see that Black Tom’s attacker doesn’t fit with the timeline that it is in and the ‘death’ label that has been attributed to Wolverine is quite intriguing as well.
How this will all tie into X Lives of Wolverine is another component that continues to play on my mind as I read. I am liking X Lives a bit better but perhaps it is because it is working more with Logan’s past, which is always a hot commodity. I haven’t had much to do with Moira MacTaggert in comics so, despite my initial reservations, it will be nice to know more about her. Especially since she is so closely tied with Xavier and mutants as a whole.
Federico Vicentini did an excellent job at translating the different visual effects from the page, i.e. blood, explosions, and black/golden armor. Benjamin Percy is again diving into the mind of Moira and I think as the story goes on, we’ll appreciate how well he has done with it. As always, a very interesting and different take on a storytelling technique.
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