Writer Charles Soule
Penciler Peter Nguyen
Inker Sandu Florea
Colors John Kalisz & Brett Smith
Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna
The flashbacks are over and now we build towards, The Wolverines!
So cool that Ogun is respecting Sharpe by incorporating his name into his identity, so now they are Shogun. Which makes sense due to how Sharpe is still conscious and has his own thoughts. At least, as of Weapon X Program 4.
Writer Charles Soule
Penciler Peter Nguyen
Inker Sandu Florea
Colors John Kalisz & Brett Smith
Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Dated February 2015
I bought this with my Christmas money, as Hastings didn’t have a copy. Then I went to buy some current comics and there was a copy there. What a waste of certificate money!
I haven’t gotten an issue of this series since the second one but really, all you needed was the first issue and this one – the bookend issues. This leads into The Wolverines.
Croatia. A Few Minutes Back. Daken and Sabretooth are still fighting. Some creature outside is in need, of something.
Right Now. Shogun introduces himself to the group of characters that will become known as, The Wolverines. He knows their names. Elixir is there as well, haven’t seen that guy in a while.
Lady Deathstrike references the trigger words that can completely control this group. The issues in-between the two bookends show what the characters were up to before the first issue.
The four trigger words command – sleep, control, kill and a mysterious fourth option.
Shogun instructs Elixir to wake Mystique. Elixir tells Shogun (and reminds us) that when his skin is black, his touch kills. His skin hasn’t been gold, his healing touch is active. Sabretooth offers to wake her via stepping on her – so this is prior to AXIS. Mystique grabs his foot and throws him into the electrified wall.
Neuro comes out, he looks great under Nguyen’s pencil, maybe it is Kalisz/Smith’s coloring?
I am reminded that Skel was the guy who was leading these characters into the room slash cage. Neuro recaps the Weapon X Program miniseries. The escapees are living on borrowed time. The escapees are hoping that one of the villains’ healing factors will be able to help them.
The fourth command word is, Erase, all of Professor Cornelius’ programming will disappear.
Shogun is about to reveal what they want when that demon thing from the cover crashes through the roof. The demon is another escapee named, Siphon. Exilir decides to take charge and is killed. Siphon does just that, it sucks energy. Shogun opens the cell that the villains can get out. Sabreooth runs towards Shogun, he says “Ovipositor” and now Sabretooth has to do whatever Shogun wants for 30 minutes or so.
Siphon doesn’t want his fellow escapees, he wants to kill the villains. X23 is running away, she doesn’t care about avenging her fallen teammate. She must not have graduated from Avengers Academy.
Siphon is absorbing Daken. X23 wants to keep running but decides to head back. She slashes Siphon, he jumps out of a window and we learn that Daken doesn’t have his healing factor anymore. So that explains his concern from Wolverines 1. That’s good to know.
Once everybody is outside, Neuro mentions how the number of people who know the command words could be numerous, that’s why they have to stick together.
Issue ends with Shogun revealing what the task is, he wants to get Statue Wolverine. Which they won’t be able to do without some sinister problems.
Writer Peter Sanderson
Cover Dated December 1989
Ogun and Kitty on the cover? That can only mean the awesome Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries takes place during this!
Book Three : The Man Reborn
Also covered is the legendary Paul Smith era!
This issue has 42 pages of text with various artists work shown.
Issues covered are –
Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 1 – 4
Wolverine Miniseries 1- 4
Uncanny X-Men 145 – 147, 151, 159, 162 – 166, 172 – 176, 178, 181, 183
Uncanny X-Men Annuals 4 – 7
Writer Peter Sanderson
Cover Dated September 1989
With art from various comics.
Book One : Beginnings
The impressive feat that is accomplished over this four issue series (I own them all and going to review them all in short matter – ideally) is to chronicle, in order, Wolverine’s life. It is a massive accomplishment.
I own this one for the two pages Ogun appears on as I am collecting Kitty’s arch nemesis’ appearances. Ogun and Emma Frost. She has two but Emma loses points for being a hero but their friendship is fun to watch.
It is 42 pages of almost full text.
The last page creates the writers and artists that are seen and the works the text comes from.
The issues that are recapped are –
Alpha Flight 17 and 33
Classic X-Men 1 – 10
Giant Size X-Men 1
Incredible Hulk 181 and 182
Wolverine 9 and 10
Uncanny X-Men 94 to 101
Writer Chris Claremont
Artist Allen Milgrom
Letterer Tom Orzechowski
Colorist Glynis Wein
Cover Date4d December 1984
We’re celebrating Father’s Day with Kitty Pryde’s more infamous parent – Carmen Pryde!
Issue opens with Kitty surprising her father, in Japan! She just overheard that her father is in cahoots with the Yakuza. It isn’t great, for either Pryde.
Mr. Shigematsu, the main boss, wants to know how Kitty got all the way up to his penthouse. Shigematsu isn’t impress with the Prydes. Shigematsu sends his goons after Kitty but she throws a chair at them.
Kitty jumps over the goons and throws herself at the old man, as she flees.
Carmen wants to explain, but it is exactly what it looks like. He isn’t an informant for the United States government.
The old man wants Ogun to go after Kitty, Ogun is happy to do so, he has a whole plan.
Carmen hears Kitty’s name, in-between some Japanese. He doesn’t want a guy like Ogun anywhere near his daughter. He tries to stop Ogun but learns quickly how out of his league he is.
Poor Kitty, when we catch up to her, her entire world has spun upside down. She’s crying, and lost in a foreign city.
There is an ad for the Saturday morning line up on CBS. Richard Pryor is front and center, which caused me pause. He’s promoting Pryor’s Place, a cartoon I never heard of. Muppet Babies is the only cartoon I saw, of this batch. Supercade (with Quebert, Space Ace, Kangaroo and Donkey Kong). Dungeon & Dragons, Pole Position and the Get Along Gang.
Ogun catches up with Kitty and knocks her out with some mouth gas. We know Ogun is seriously messed up, as he clearly had that mask for a while.
We see Logan going through an airport metal detector. We learn he has a special medical card that explains that he has metal on his bones.
Kitty wakes up, in a standing position under a spotlight. The next several pages are pretty messed up as we see Ogun break Kitty down, both mentally and physically.
We’ve given Kitty’s inner-monolgue and it is terrifying! She’s so hopeless during all of this. Ogun cuts off her long hair and sheds her shirt.
Kitty puts on a brave face, and Ogun recognizes her strength. He starts rebuilding her, with training and a new philosophy. Kitty begins her ninja training, by her first ninja master.
NBC’s Saturday morning cartoons gets two pages – Snorks, Pink Panther and Sons, Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kidd Video, Mister T, Going Bananas, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends; and One to Grow On will appear five times, wherein celebrities give advice. I’m pretty sure I only saw Snorks, Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks.
This entire sequence is pretty quick, in reality but it feels like forever as we see Kitty go from infant to pre-teen to her current older teenager. She goes from a white outfit to a sweet black outfit and dons the Ogun mask to top the entire thing.
Tokyo. Shigematsu is in his office, as someone is attempting to break in. The goons open fire but Wolverine makes short work of them all. The old man doesn’t know where Kitty is, so he isn’t very helpful to Wolverine.
The Bullpen Bulletins mentions the passing of Sol Brodsky. The Hype Box promotes Iceman 1 and Beauty and the Beast 1. Some of the issues coming out are –
New Mutants 22
Secret Wars 6
Iceman 1
Beauty and the Beast 1
Power Pack 6
Alpha Flight 17
Captain America 300
ROM Annual 3
X-Men 188
ROM 61
Avengers 250
Thor 350
Kitty Pryde and Wolverine 2
X-Men Annual 6
Doctor Who 3
Marvel Age 21
Ogun is called, that Wolverine is on his way. He knows all about Logan, and knows the perfect way to hurt him.
Cut to Kitty, still wearing the mask, defeating a bunch of ninja goons. Issue ends with Ogun telling Kitty to kill Wolverine, and she’s all for doing that.
We probably won’t review the third issue until next year, but maybe not.
Such a great series, loads happening and it is only the second issue.
Kitty’s only true arch nemesis, an enemy so connected with her that she’s had three miniseries that have dealt with him.
She first met Ogun, who was one of Wolverine’s sensei back in the day – which was a Wednesday, in Kitty Pryde and Wolverine. Which I really do enjoy the fact that she got top billing in her first miniseries and over Wolverine, that’s pretty impressive!
Then SHIELD recruits her in Kitty Pryde : Agent of SHIELD, as Ogun’s spirit is haunting one of their hellicarriers.
Kitty Pryde : Shadow and Flame – has her dealing with his clan that is trying to keep his memory alive.
He has also shown up in various issues of Wolverine – which makes sense.
So of his 23 appearances, I am only missing three of them. Which means I own 87 percent of his appearance.
Ogun has a cult following in Shadow and Flame as well as an appearance in X-Men Legacy 2 & 3 where he also had a clan following.
I am missing the three issues of Wolverine Saga that he appearances in. Issue two is also on my wishlist. Wolverine Saga is essentially a retelling of Wolverine’s life concluding in 1989. Which sounds pretty ambitious.
Ogun is another character, clearly, that I am making a point of collecting. Usually, he just shows up whenever Logan thinks of all of his enemies he has fought.
The only other foe of Kitty’s I can think of is Alice Tremaine, the leader of the Purity division at the University of Chicago. I own every appearance she has made, which is only eight. I’m missing Uncanny X-Men 449.
Fair warning, this is a website that can suck all of your day away!
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Marvel-Microheroes_Wiki
The reason I looked them up was for how many different outfits Ultimate Shadowcat has had :
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowcat_%28Ultimate%29
Which I do like how this site keeps track of even the slightest change.
Here is Lockheed’s Page :
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Lockheed
Shadowcat’s Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Shadowcat_%28Katherine_%22Kitty%22_Anne_Pryde%29
Ariel’s Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Ariel_%28Kitty_Pryde%29
Sprite’s Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Sprite_%28Kitty_Pryde%29
Magik’s Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Magik_%28Illyana_Nikolievna_Rasputina%29
Doing a search reveals that they have separate pages for alternate universe ones, which is pretty cool but ooof, that must be time consuming!
Darkchild’s Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Darkchild_%28Illyana_Rasputina%29
Phoenix Five Page
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Phoenix_%28Illyana_Nikolievna/Phoenix_Force%29
They even have the evil Ogun!
http://marvel-microheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Ogun_Ryu
I really do like looking at Magik’s page – for instance – how if they wore any different variation or plain clothes outfit – they have a Micro-version of it! That is commitment!
Writer Charles Soule
Artist Juan Doe
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Final Issue!
New York City. The Law Offices of Paine & Luckberg, LLP. Two Days Ago. Mystique dropped off a box years ago to be delivered on a certain date. I like how Mystique wrote her real name and her codename in quotes.
The Flordia Everglades. Near Citrusville. Now. Mystique is surprised by the appearance of Man-Thing, which seems odd as it isn’t like he isn’t an unknown character. Man-Thing rocks! Even Portal knows who Man-Thing is.
Elsewhere in the Swamp. Shogun explains that Sinister made it so that Ogun is locked away somewhere inside Sharp’s head.
Siphon is also in the room and starts attacking those with a healing factor – Sabretooth, X23 and Deathstrike.
Man-Thing is burning Mystique, as she isn’t afraid of him, she’s afraid of losing this opportunity to bring Destiny back to life. She starts talking about her love for Destiny and he releases her.
Siphon starts draining X23’s healing factor but she cuts him deeply. He drops them both and goes after Lady Deathstrike. Shogun steps in and starts really letting into him – cutting even deeper. Daken shouts that now Siphon will come at Lady Deathstrike even harsher. Daken tries to imply that Lady Deathstrike is incapable of love.
Lady Deathstrike jumps into the fight so that Shogun isn’t on his own. Shogun is taken down, pretty easily.
Shogun drains Lady Deathstrike’s healing factor, he comes to his senses. Just then, Portal appears and takes Siphon with him. Portal is impress that Mystique fought off Man-Thing. He wants her to give him the Zhulong, a Chinese artifact. Portal shoots the magical harpoon at Siphon, to steal Siphon’s excess energy. Portal teleports Shiphon away.
Mystique wants Portal to teleport her to a spot in the multiverse.
Back with the Wolverines, X23 is without her healing factor for the first time. She wonders when the pain stops, and Daken tells her that it doesn’t. Sabretooth wants to go after Siphon, and he teleports right in front of them. They know that Siphon has been drained again and by that, they know that Mystique must be near by. Daken wants to use Siphon as a bloodhound to track Mystique.
Portal opens a . . . portal to where Mystique wants to go. Once she gets there, she can break a crystal to close it.
Mystique is about to step through the portal when the Wolverines arrive. She tells them that they don’t need them anymore and that they can leave. Lady Deathstrike rips off Siphon’s head. She says something completely dumb – even without their healing factors, they can still kill. Like, of course they can – why wouldn’t they be able to?
Mystique throws a smoke bomb and no one can sniff her out. Mystique as Daken stabs X23 to her gut.
X23 stabs Sabretooth. Sabretooth slashes Daken. Lady Deathstrike and Shogun face off.
Mystique walks through the portal, the delivery gal gives her the box and takes off. She opens the box and there is a letter from Destiny. She lied to Mystique. Mystique was never meant to bring back Destiny from the dead. Destiny knew that, once Wolverine died, everybody would die so she created this situation that should keep Mystique alive.
Destiny wants Mystique to bring Logan back to life. Mystique rather let the world burn and breaks the crystal, closing that door. Which is pretty bad arse. It does feel super cheap that this has been twenty issues of no payoff but we got some excellent Ogun moments but was it worth it? Time will tell but I imagine come a year from now, no one would be discussing this series.
Marvel, I have to give them credit, got nineteen issues of a weekly series out on time. This issue was delayed a week but people credit that to having been delayed for Secret War 2015 but I’m not sure why this issue didn’t come out prior to issue one of that series, that would have made more sense.
Decent series, I wouldn’t recommend buying any of the trades – or if you do, only the Sinister trades – so the first and last ones.
Whenever I see this statue, I think about the move from Arizona to Montana. This was my only request if I agreed to move to a completely different statue and take our chances, I really wanted to own this.
This is also the last statue slash high ticket item I’ve bought that is comic book related.
I like how much older Kitty looks with this statue, she looks like she is in her mid-twenties and really for battle. I also like the touch with the Ogun mask, an important part of her character growth, once the Kitty Pryde and Wolverine miniseries concluded, she was a completely different person. Gone was the innocent young girl and now she was a harden trained ninja.
Writer Charles Soule
Artist Ariela Kristantina
Colorist Sonia Oback
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
The Changling, One Hour Ago. Mystique is watching a new section (to us) of Destiny’s video. Destiny is explaining how crucial the final steps are, to bring her back. There will be a lot of improvising.
Poor Lady Deathstrike is holding onto Shogun.
Mister Sinister comes at Mystique, so hard. She starts talking and he grabs her by her lying dumb mouth.
X23 wakes up Daken, he wants nothing to do with Sinister and wants to just leave. X23 is under the impression if they all defeat him, Mystique will get them home. As they are currently in the middle of the ocean. X23 wants a progress report on Shogun from Lady Deathstrike, She informs the spawn of Wolverine that Shogun is dead.
Ogun, in awesome page turn reveal, tells her that he leaves. Which is so fantastic!
Lady Deathstrike thought Fang killed Ogun but he just pushed him way down. Sharp was finally at death’s door so Ogun was able to finally do what he has been wanting this entire time, and take control over the body. Ogun really enjoys Lady Deathstrike, which I like seeing a more romantic side of him. If, romantic, is the right word.
I really enjoy Lady Deathstrike’s disbelief of the situation. She has two dudes, well two minds, sharing one body, fighting over her to be her gentleman companion. Ogun’s stakes are pretty low, if he dies, he will get a new body and if Sinsiter dies, that’s one more impressive death to add to Ogun’s vita.
While talking to Mystique, Sinister gets a s-word through the chest and Mystique drops to the ground. She shouts that everyone should get to the ship. Which I guess wasn’t destroyed in the crash. There was a giant explosion but everything, once the dust settled, was pretty much the same. That’s some impressive construction!
Sinister recognizes that the person he is fighting, should be the soldier, Sharp. Ogun corrections him, Sinister is facing – The Father of Blades. Which I imagine sounds cool on the page but I’m feeling like I have to give a lot of emphasis on it, to give it the proper weight.
Ogun claims to be the demon that caused Sinister nightmares as a child. Sinister, in possibly the coolest line of the year, tells Ogun that he was never a child.
Ogun cuts off the fingers of Sinister’s left hand and Sinister is barely impressed.
Mystique gets the Wolverines back together and starts giving orders. Sabretooth can’t believe he killed Junk, he has no memory of it. Lady Deathstrike is to watch Sabretooth. Mystique keeps calling him, Shogun, and Lady Deathstrike hints that is no longer Shogun but Mystique doesn’t have time to ask follow-up questions. X23’s orders are to grab the contents of a red chest in Mystique’s room. Daken is to check on Siphon.
X23 opens the chest and sees that old costumes are in it but it looks like a wedding dress, to me.
There is a great Marvel tribute to Herb Trimpe’s passing. 1939 – 2015, in memory of a Giant among Legends. So true!
Mystique, as X23, tells Daken that they should fight Sinister. Mystique gives Portal the Zhulong, a dagger like item that will let him teleport anywhere. So he agrees to help her, also, he doesn’t want Sinister to kill him.
Elsewhere. Siphon bites Daken and he puts a collar on Siphon.
Ogun mistakenly tells Sinister how Ogun was so smart to take over Sharp’s body, once it was almost lifeless. Sinister injects Ogun with the same serum that released Endo, Neuro and Skel from their sooner-than-expected expiration dates.
Sabretooth still can’t believe he killed Junk, he suspects that Mystique had a hand in that. X23 interrupts Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike’s conversation to tell them that she is really done this time with Mystique.
Siphon obsorbs Sinister’s healing factor, which I didn’t see coming! I should have, as Sinister bragged earlier about how his healing factor rivals even Wolverine’s! And that guy survived an atomic bomb explosion!
I like how, once the serum kicks in, Sharp takes control of the body and the mask is back to being broken. When Ogun was in charge, the mask was for real.
Sinister doesn’t recognize Siphon.
It looks like Shogun (Sharp?) cuts off Sinister’s head. Siphon is back to being able to speak, and if he isn’t hurt – to badly – he shouldn’t have to feed for months. So, of course, he is shot multiple times.
Shogun and Daken are not happy with this turn of events but Mystique just has Portal teleport them elsewhere.
X23, Sabretooth (who is colored blue throughout this issue, but not everytime) and Lady Deathstrike arrive on the scene. X23 wants to know where the others were teleported too. Portal just teleports them to that location as well.
Issue ends with Portal teleporting the two of them to the Nexus of All Realities and he warns that the Nexus has a guardian. Which I already know who that guardian is, but the last page shows up Man-Thing! All who know fear, burn at Man-Thing’s touch!
So that ends the Sinister plot, and I imagine the final issue leads us into Secret Wars 2015?
I can’t believe I didn’t think about how the Nexus of All Realities, in Florida, would play some role in Secret Wars 2015, that just makes sense! I’m glad the series got back on track and it was so great to see Ogun back in charge, even for a little bit! I can only imagine Ogun/Sharp/Shogun appear in the final issue. Here is hoping!
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Shadow and Flame with Magik 