Writer Paul Cornell
Pencils & Inks Pete Woods
Colors David Curiel
Letters VC’s Cory Petit
Last Wolverine Story Conclusion
So this is Cornell’s final issue of Wolverine, his second twelfth issue in two years. This leads into Death of Wolverine, which I’m still only committed to issue three of as it has Kitty and recently been confirmed she is actually in the issue as well. I suspect that she is on the last page of issue two but I’m hoping Hastings has plenty of copies of each issue of the series as I only got the middle one.
Not sure if I committed on this before but I will make it official. How odd is it that Cornell, who is the writer who initially took away Wolverine’s healing factor back in Volume Five, and has spent two years leading up to killing Wolverine, to just have that opportunity taken from him? For Death of Wolverine, Marvel has selected Charles Soule. Was Cornell’s run not that well received? I liked the few issues I’ve read but for a moment there, it was practically a Kitty Pryde and Wolverine series. Which I would totally buy, heck, just leave Wolverine out of it and I will keep buying it. Just seems completely bizarre to me.
Previously, the gang Wolverine was leading has figured out he has been playing them the entire time. That hurt his girlfriend, Pinch’s feelings. She has a daughter who Sabretooth currently has captive. Also, Sabretooth is in a mall, which is where he utterly defeated Wolverine at the end of the last volume.
Also, at some point between issue five and twelve, Sabretooth’s plan has gone pretty well and now has an orb that has godlike powers. That’ll be important later.
Sabretooth’s Underground Base, Bushwick, Brooklyn. Pitch and Lost Boy are trying to make their way to the surface.
Above ground, SHIELD is trying to get through the force field that surrounds the mall. Wolverine is in there all by himself. Well, there are civilians in there, plus Sabretooth and his thugs.
A lady SHIELD officer tells Nick Fury Jr. that there are alternate reality duplicates all around. That’s who makes up the bulk of Sabretooth’s army. We don’t see any recognizable alternate reality duplicates, so what’s the point of that line?
Wolverine shouts at people that he is both an Avenger and an X-Man, so they should listen to him. I wonder why he adds, X-Man, once you say, Avenger, people should just listen.
Wolverine’s armor is more yellow and tan now, instead of yellow and black/blue-ish. So it looks even more like Shocker’s costume.
I like how Sabretooth is standing around in a suit. It makes a nice visual with Wolverine in his armor and later just a pair of black boxers.
Sabretooth is talking to Pinch’s daughter and he is getting tired of talking to a twelve year old. He turns his attention to the orb that has all of this power but Sabretooth seems to be wasting it on small stuff.
Annie, is the name of Pinch’s daughter. She wants a magical pony who sings. That at least seems like a worthy request of such an orb.
Sabretooth has decided to just kill her when Wolverine shows up. He’s using his armor’s claws to get pass everyone.
Underground, Lost Boy is fighting his good duplicates (as he’s a bad guy), each one has a different expression tattooed on their chest. Simple way of showing off that there are multiple version of him.
Wolverine and Sabretooth get to have one of their heart to hearts. Just talking to him, convinces Sabretooth to put the orb down and fight each other like how they always do. Wolverine breaks down who Sabretooth’s character really is. Just a selfish guy who wants to fight. Wolverine takes off his armor and pops his actual claws.
Meanwhile, outside. Thor is fighting Nazi Thor. I wonder if he’s from the same universe that Nazi Excalibur is from?
Pinch and Lost Boy make it to the surface.
Nazi Thor is the only duplicate that matters.
There is a page dedicated to the Wolverine / Sabretooth fight. I feel like I’ve seen the give and take of this so many times and especially in the past few years (which may always be a true statement). Wolverine starts having a mental monologue. His strategy is to just rope a dope and it works. Seems like he breaks Sabretooth’s neck. He is about to dunk his head in the water and finish this nonsense but Annie is watching the fight.
The orb gets to speak to Wolverine and it seems very emotional. Too emotional. Wolverine picks it up and undoes the duplicates and the dome. Death, but not wearing a purple cloak, appears (to us, I believe) stating she wished Wolverine gave her Sabretooth but she will have Wolverine soon. This whole thing has to burn Cornell’s butt!
Wolverine wakes up and Doctor Lady Frankenstein has brought him back to life. Nick Fury Jr. tells him that Sabretooth is in a SHIELD prison cell. Which shouldn’t comfort Wolverine at all as Mystique just broke Sabretooth out of a SHIELD prison the last time he was locked in there.
Later, Pinch shows up and is taking herself and her daughter away and out of the evil business. Lost Boy is going legit as well.
A Week Later. The reason why I bought the issue.
Thanks to marvelfriendships over at Tumblr for these images! (Since I’m just using one person’s its easier to cite!) Except that I did the first image, which is pretty obvious.
Kitty Pryde is at the Jean Grey School. She’s following up on Logan. I like that he’s walking around with a cane. Wolverine wants to apologize to Kitty for drooling all over her like a rabid dog the last time he saw her. She plays it off as he was just trying to establish his cover identity. Which is weird as I’m sure Kitty just told Cyclops how rabid Wolverine was, it wasn’t like Cyclops would then tell a third person and eventually that would work itself to Offer. But Kitty is a nice gal and just leaves it at that.
For some reason, peeps on Tumblr like to break panels out instead of just having a proper page. What is that about?
Wolverine likes being mortal, he’s never really thought about having to make every day matter before. Logan wants to just heal, he will get to other things eventually. Kitty asked him about taking responsibility. Oh, if only Proper Kitty knew Peter Parker.
Kitty asks about Storm and his relationship, Logan tells her that they will be okay. They just like to bone and are not an official couple. I read recently about a fun game called, Canadian Bacon. Pretty much like six degrees of Kevin Bacon, but with Wolverine and you have to figure out how to get from the first character to Wolverine but only through Wolverine’s romantic or sexual conquests (and each character’s relationships until you get to Wolverine). The hint is to try to see how Character A is connected to Mystique as she has kissed a lot of fellas out there.
Kitty informs Logan that he has a lot of friends who wouldn’t mind seeing him on a nice basis. Shame we can’t get this Kitty in Nightcrawler’s ongoing. Maybe for his final issue?
Kitty reveals that Logan only ever pretends to want to be alone, he naturally just finds someone else to hang out with.
This story ends with Logan asking Kitty to call him, James. Which I use to refer to him as only James Howlett (or just James) on the Joe Quesada Message Boards back in they but that use to annoy people. So I stopped.
. . .
There was also a second story (there is actually three but Kitty isn’t in the third one) that Kitty appears in for one panel of the short story. Now that Utau the Watcher is dead, this is how we do What If Stories, I suppose.
That Which Didn’t Happened
Writer Paul Cornell
Pencils and Inks Salvador Larroca
Colors Rachelle Rosenberg
Larroca got to draw Kitty’s butt, which seems to be a popular thing to do these days as seen in Cyclops’ first issue.
So the guy who is narrating it is a Vampire, for some reason, and the one page that was dedicated to what if Wolverine accepted the healing factor via aliens back in issue 12 of volume five, gets five total pages here. It just needs the one I scanned above, in my opinion.
The third story is about the bar from the fifth volume that is friendly to superheroes. The only remarkable thing about the third story, coupled with the second, that it goes to my theory about how Salvador Larroca’s art really depends on who is coloring it. A moody colorist can just ruin his art and a bright colorist can make it pop off the page.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 