Writer Rob Williams
Penciler Laurence Campbell
Inker Kris Justice
Colorist Paul Mounts
Letterer VC’s Randy Gentile
Cover Dated February 2007
Wolverine is in New York City due to Kitty Pryde sending him to Lacy’s (the Macy’s of Marvel, I suppose) so that he can do some holiday shopping for her.
One of those cologne gals sprays Sex Panther on him, so Rob Williams must have watched Anchorman sometime before this.
Logan bumps into Miss Toulouse Lexington, like an adult Paris Hilton, her lead body guard, Pinter, and a slew of lesser bodyguards. Pinter calls Logan, Warthog Boy. Not the worst insult for the canucklehead.
Miss Lexington seems to be in her 30s, like mid thirties and her daddy paid for this little trip to Lacy’s. She is there to get her picture taken with Santa at Santa’s Grotto. Why she is going through with this is beyond me. She isn’t in her teens or a child, I imagine she could have not had gone to this. There is no press, so it isn’t like she is there to promote her father’s company.
Cave, the main elf, has a plan to take the department store hostage and escape with a bunch of money and jewels. Cave puts an explosive vest on Toulouse. Pinter runs off for safety. Halfway down the stairs, he realizes that he can’t be running away and he can’t get out on the main floor as the elves will be waiting for him.
He opens a door and sees Wolverine (in costume) making a comment to himself that he likes to fight people smaller as him, it doesn’t happen for him at all.
Cave gets on the intercom and tells the entire store his motivations, he wants to punch consumerism and his group’s name is Black Christmess. Which really only works on the page, if you say it aloud, it just sounds like Black Christmas. But whatever, it is on the page so you use the medium you have.
Wolverine and Pinter come across two elves creating a bomb. Wolverine can tell that it doesn’t have enough power to do any real damage so he figures that they are just diversions.
Cave sets off all the bombs around the store, and turns out, they were made to be powerful enough to destroy. Cave’s escape plan is pretty grand. To let everyone out of the store at once, and of course, all of the scared costumers do what he plan and run out in a huge panic and Cave and the elves are dressed in the traditional Santa red and white coat and pants. Wolverine, unlike the cover, never does don one of these.
The police are asking people to stop but of course, they don’t as they want to get away from the store.Cave and his crew all meet up at, what appears to be the Rockefeller Plaza. Wolverine and Pinter are able to track them there due to the Sex Panther cologne. He starts laying into the elves. Cave triggers Miss Lexington’s coat bomb.
We get a pretty awesome ten second sequence broken up over two pages and over ten panels, great use of the page and the layout. Each panel is a second and each second counts.
Wolverine takes the coat bomb and jumps on it, blocking the explosion and taking the blunt of the blast.. Issue ends with him muttering, Merry Christmas.
Pretty nice story, some humor in there and Wolverine uses his healing power to great effect.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 