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 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.
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!
Writer Charles Soule
Enhanced Pencils Ario Anindito
Enhanced Colors Sonia Oback
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
The road to the finale begins here!
The Changeling. Six Miles Above the Atlantic Ocean. Two Hundred Miles West of the Azores. Issue opens with Shogun spitting blood into a sink.
Shogun is spitting blood, as the Paradise folks’ expiration date is coming upon them. Junk reveals that he is a little further along the path, as he now has tar like veins on his arms, and they are spreading. Neither Junk or Shogun are thrilled that their time seems to be shorter than they had expected.
Junk is now learning more about his powers, he just learn he has chameleon abilities. Junk really was hoping to join the side of the heroes and maybe one day, being an Avenger. Shogun calling Junk, brother, seems odd to me. Maybe the real Sharp is coming out now that Ogun may be completely out of his system. Shogun is curious about Mystique’s plan but they can’t wait for her time table.
Junk can’t believe how far off course the Paradise team has come. They keep getting distracted by the Wolverines nonsense. Though he makes a point of liking Fang’s adventures, which I can only imagine is a meta message, as fans have to be like me, right? In that Fang was the detour from the book proper?
Junk calls the Wolverines, all of them, monsters, as X23 walks into the room. Which is bad timing as she is the best one there.
Rome, Italy. The Arcadians, the ones the Paradise folks were being experimented on for so that the Arcadians can get the good material. They are attacking Endo (who is not dead, apparently), Skel and Neuro – which a handy editorial note that we first met this group in Weapon X Project 5. Neuro and his crew seem to be beating back the Arcadians, rather easily. Some more Arcadians show up and Neuro surrenders.
Epsilon, the field leader, goes on television and announces who The Arcadians are. On the Changeling, they are watching the news coverage. Junk really doesn’t want to leave his former allies behind in the hands of the clear enemies.
The Changeling Deck E — Detention. Mystique is checking in on Portal, who looks a tad by Wolverine – out of costume. Portal and Mystique don’t have any history together. She doesn’t want him as an enemy but she wants to save a friend, which I’m sure we haven’t had Destiny hinted or mention since issue two or three. Siphon is sleeping in the next cell.
Junk wants to go save his friends. Shogun has to explain who the Arcadians are, to Sabretooth, even though Sabretooth was in the room when the news was being aired. Daken brings up the good point that Neuro wouldn’t go save Junk and Shogun, so maybe they shouldn’t go after them. Shogun has to agree with Daken but Junk doesn’t care – Neuro may be horrible but he liked Endo and Skel.
X23 offers to help Junk save Endo and Skel, as they did seem like nice people. With X23 on board, Shogun is happy to go through with the mission. Which makes sense, he doesn’t want to be the sole fighter so that he has to do all of the fighting and still watch out for Junk.
Mystique comes in and does the one thing one shouldn’t do with this group. Mystique tells Junk and Shogun that they can go, but she still needs X23 for her primary mission. So X23 is definitely going now and Sabretooth and Daken are now a go for the mission to, as screw Mystique! Which I really like that turn of events.
Daken is definitely growing his hair out, so he is now going to look like a tall (Dark) Wolverine with a missing arm and eye.
The Gulf of Mexico. Arcadia. Later. Lady Deathstrike has also joined the team, Shogun tries to talk to Lady Deathstrike but she has no interest in him now that Ogun is no longer around. The team makes very short work of the Arcadians. It helps that the Arcadians are fake, as they are weak shells of people, filled with foam (or something).
The team opens the door and sees the real Arcadians but they are all dead. Mystique warns them to get out of there but they continue on. That Mystique, she doesn’t take any hints.
Neuro shows up and reveals that Mister Sinister is behind all of this. He wanted to get the team out into the open. Some light blue bald Mister Sinsiter cronies show up and pop two claws each, per hand – so Sinister really used Daken’s arm to beneficial results. The issue ends with Sinister on deck.
Writer Charles Soule
Artist Ariela Kristantina
Colorist Sonia Oback
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Knowhere. Years Ago. Fang is telling X23 a story of when Wolverine got drunk, for once. There is a moment when Wolverine, who is so drunk, that he snikted himself, but I’m not sure how that is even possible. The claws come out of the base of his hands, which is how Daken’s one claw comes out. They should always pop out of his back of his hands. But whatever, it is a fun scene.
Knowhere. Now. X23 doesn’t believe that story, and neither do I. Fang tires to go back and forth on referring to her as Laura or X23. I had that problem (I still do) with addressing my in-laws as either Leslie and Dennis or Mr. and Mrs. Brannman. Now, I just try to make clear eye contact or get their attention first. He decides on, Laura. Apparently, Wolverine always referred to her as, Laura, so he will honor that. That must have been Logan’s rule, when not in her presence.
Fang isn’t here to torture Laura (I guess I will call her that, as well) like he did to Daken and Sabretooth. Wolverine always liked her.
Fang recites a part of Uncanny X-Men 107 & 108, which I don’t own as they predate Uncanny X-Men 129. Wolverine stole Fang’s costume, as his was pretty torn and tattered. Laura doesn’t mention how she wore the costume, for some time, starting with Uncanny X-Men 451. Which I don’t own but I do own 460, and she is still wearing that costume. Where she gets a lady version of Fang’s costume, I don’t believe has ever been explained. After that, House of M happens, and then the titles bounce around for a while until Ed Brubaker takes the title to Shi’ar space and it is unreadable for a year.
Fang explains how he wasn’t killed by the Brood. He was, but the Lupak race are constantly born again as clones but with the memories of the previous model. This hits close to Laura, as she is a clone.
The Changling. Mystique explains the situation. They can’t hide from Fang, so they have to kill him, before he can kill them. Mystique hates this delay, as she has things to do. This is issue eleven of a now, fifteen issue series, so there isn’t any time to waste. Except for the all Deadpool issue that is coming.
Junk feels over his head, he isn’t Neuro, so all of this data that he has now on Fang, confuses him. Mystique looks over the data, and dismisses Junk.
Crew Deck. Shogun’s Chamber. Lady Deathstrike is ready to kill Shogun but Ogun wants her to wait. Ogun has control over Shogun’s mouth, when he is sleeping. He needs Lady Deathstrike to bring Shogun to the brink of death, so that he can take over the weak body.
Fang and Wolverine didn’t always get together once a year, they both had busy lives. Wolverine had his adamantium ripped out by Magneto while Fang was busy having a family. Wolverine joined Avengers, and Fang was busy with the Imperial Guard.
Laura has seen Wolverine’s statue corpse and Fang has also seen it, in the care of the X-Men, and he has paid his respects. Fang is quasi-trying to figure out Wolverine’s final days.
Fang has tricked Laura, as he has been drinking something with a intensified trigger scent, which I forgot she had that as part of her story. So Fang just really wants a fight.
Lady Deathstrike slaps Shogun awake. He doesn’t want to wake up to a fight but she is bored.
Colorado Rockies. Fantomelle and Culpepper have stolen a pair of Wolverine’s dog tags. Dogtagger, that’s who she stole it from – and he had thousands of them, but I believe that is the only one that was Wolverine’s – he wants it back and promises to not rest until he does.
Barcelona, Spain. Later. We see their home base, and she has three costumes – a classic yellow and blue, an X-Force (like from the cover) and another yellow and blue, maybe it is his Cassaday Astonishing X-Men costume? There is a pair of claw gloves and a pair of towels?
Okay, I misread the scene with Fang and Laura. He just had the glass of the trigger scent. Laura is upset as that is the only thing that makes her into an animal. Fang’s original goal was to have her drink it and set loose on Mystique’s team.
Now Laura and Fang are fighting in the bar. What changed his mind was that Laura had dyed some of her hair with yellow and blue. He mostly just wants to know why she is on a team full of monsters that Wolverine hates.
She mentions that Shogun and Junk have code words. Fang dismisses the idea of code words, but they are real threats, Shogun could kill her with a single word. Fang throws some pills at her, which I’m not sure what they contain. Laura tells Fang that Shogun was one of the last people to see Wolverine alive. Fang wasn’t even looking to speak with Shogun.
Mystique is finishing telling the team, what is the plan. Junk is hoping to stay out of it, as he isn’t on Fang’s radar. Daken tells Mystique that once you go on an adventure with Fang, that’s all he wants. Mystique isn’t so sure about that. Mystique wants to destroy Fang, which of course, is when he returns with Laura and his interest has been piqued. This, naturally, ends the issue.
Writer Charles Soule
Penciler Peter Nguyen
Inker Derek Fridolfs
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Colorist John Kalisz
Jotuunheim. Domain of the Frost Giants. Fang has chosen Daken to be the first person to have an adventure with him. Daken does not want to fight Frost Giants, as he is missing an arm, an eye and his healing factor. Fang expresses how much Wolverine appreciated guys like – Beast, Iron Fist and Daredevil – as they were regular dudes, with high athletic abilities but no healing factor. Daken points out that they all had at least two arms.
Fang tells a Frost Giant, Bunduk, that Daken is his long lost father, who abandoned Bunduk’s mother, years ago. Bunduk starts trying to kill Daken, and Daken keeps trying to get away him. I’m not sure why Dunduk suspects a tiny fella is his father, but that is the joke of the issue. Dunduk’s mother had to work in the mines, under the volcano, and risked melting – every single day.
The Changeling. Shogun and Lady Deathstrike have had sex and Shogun’s mind has been blown. Ogun has been on this ride before but he also had a good time. Shogun is impressed that Lady Deathstrike’s fingers didn’t get in the way, everything worked as it should. I thought she could retract her claws but chooses not to.
Lady Deathstrike recognizes some of Shogun’s sweet moves, as a former lover. He wears the mask of Ogun, so she is probably just trying to get an official answer. Though, one would think she would ask prior to the sweet love making. I didn’t even know that Lady Deathstrike and Ogun had a history together, it was vaguely hinted at during Death of Wolverine.
Shogun calls her, Lady Deathstrike, and would like to know her real name, as now that they are intimates. I wouldn’t even have been able to guess that her name is, Yuriko Oyama. That does remind me of the confusing names of Yuriko and Yukio, Wolverine’s friend from Japan, who is also Storm’s 80s inspiration.
I like how smitten Shogun (should I be calling him Sharp, while also discussing Ogun?) is with Yuriko. Shogun explains how Ogun is in his head, ever since Death of Wolverine 4.
In the middle panel, is that the first we’ve officially seen Sharp’s face? At the end of Weapon X Program 1, it was implied he looked like a blonde Wolverine.
Prior to Ogun, Sharp was good at firearms but all of his hand-to-hand has been Ogun influenced.
Jotunheim. Fang is still trying to encourage Bunduk to kill Daken. If he had a father in his life, he may have been able to continue relationships with lady frost giants, Frost Giantesses.
Fang refers to Wolverine as “your dad” to Daken, and he pops his claws in rage. He starts attacking poor Bunduk.
Madripoor. Fantomelle and her fox, Culpepper, are trying to steal one of Patch’s . . . patches. Fantomelle tries to perfect her flirting skills, but she’s only been alive for three weeks, so she needs a lot more practice. Culpepper steals the patch and they take off, being chased by nearly everybody.
Meanwhile. Daken is close to killing Bunduk, Fang puts a stop to the fight. Fang offers to go have a beer with Daken. Poor Daken, he can’t open a can of beer with only the one hand. Somehow, Fang is able to give him his left arm and eye back but they are made of flame or something like that.
For anyone who is buying all of Kitty’s appearances, including mentions, this is the issue you should have bought!
Fang calls him, your dad, one too many times and Daken feels the need to explain that Logan was never ‘his dad.’
Fang mentions how much Logan liked to mentor the young ladies – Kitty Pryde, Jubilee and Armor. Daken understands why he didn’t have that relationship, he was born in 1946, so he wasn’t a boy when he finally met Logan.
Fang comes out and says that Logan always felt that Daken was, a monster. An ugly thing. Logan felt relief when he drowned Daken, back in Uncanny X-Force 34. Which I won’t review as my Uncanny X-Force run stops at 31.
Fang takes back Daken’s temporary arm and eye. Fang continues putting dirt on an open wound and tells Daken that Logan hates all of the Paradise folks, except for X23. Fang wants to make all of the villains’ lives miserable.
South Africa. The Tautona Gold Mine. Two Miles Deep. Mystique has hidden the ship, to try to get away from Fang’s plan. Fang teleports right in, so that was silly. X23 wants Fan to leave Daken alone. Fang wants to take Sabretooth next, on an adventure.
Issue ends with Shogun and Yuriko chatting. She likes the idea of reuniting with Ogun. Shogun tries to explain that Ogun is only a voice in his head, it isn’t like he and Ogun are a team, making this relationship a complicated threesome. I suppose someone had to fully state it, good job, Soule.
Shogun goes to sleep and once he does, Ogun is able to speak for himself – which is a pretty cool twist. I imagine he has an accent when Ogun speaks, and Lady Deathstrike is all for killing Sharp.
Writer Charles Soule
Art Kris Anka
Colorist Matthew Wilson
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Art Alex Garner, which looks amazing!
I didn’t realize that I was going to upload nearly the entire issue. If there are problems with that, are there?, I will take down the non-Ogun speaking pages. Let me know. I’m not sure, the few websites I use to get the images from, I notice they try to limit it to eight or ten pages, which I guess is nearly half the issue – which seems like a fair limit.
The Oort Cloud. 465 Billion Miles from Earth, a comet is coming.
The Changeling. Five Miles Above Finland. Mystique is still in a huge blue Hulk like form, she is blocking everyone’s attempt to jump off the plane. Lady Deathstrike points out that they all know that because she is in a larger form, it isn’t like she is that much stronger.
Mystique was only doing that for dramatic effect. X23 refers to Wolverine’s body as a statue, so now I feel like – if Soule is happy with that term, I am too. I only worried that it was implying (for anyone that wasn’t reading along) that someone made a Wolverine statue as oppose to Wolverine being an adamantium statue.
X23 stating that they lost the statue to the X-Men is odd, as she is one of the X-Men. She isn’t sure why they are going to stick around with the Weapon X Program rejects much less these fellow villains.
Shogun reminds her that the rejects still know the codewords. They no longer have Wolverine but Shogun still wants to use the Wolverines’ healing factor to cure the Paradise folks’ death clock.
Sabretooth isn’t going to tolerate much more of Shogun’s nonsense. Of the Paradise folks, only Shogun and Junk are still around. Shogun can hold his own but Junk is way out of his league.
Mystique claims the leadership role of the team, she defeated the Wrecking Crew – which must have happened in the second issue, which I don’t own. For some reason, Mystique shifts her head into the head of Cobra Commander. Lady Deathstrike states that is the head of her father, but I’m not sure how she pieced that together.
Mystique shifts into Angel, to taunt X23. Mystique knows that those two had sex, but I get the impression that relationship was more of a one night stand type of situation. Mystique takes it as far as to put the thought in X23’s head that the next time she had sex with Angel, it may be Mystique. Proving that she can always go farther, she tells X23 that she may take her form and have sex with Warren, doing all of the things he is too afraid to ask her to do. Further salt on the wound, she hints that she knows X23’s sexual past. Marvel really isn’t going to let X23’s prostitution disappear.
Mystique promises everyone’s heart’s desire, if they stick with her.
Junk is trying to get along with Shogun. Junk is still on the plane as he never left it, which I don’t even think I noticed. He was taking care of Daken.
Shogun brings up the excellent point, Mystique should kill these two, while they sleep, and have two less worries in the world.
Daken interrupts the conversation to tell Shogun that Mystique wants to talk to him.
If I had my arm and eye rip off, I will be pretty depressed.
Shogun tells Junk about how much Neuro messed up, and that Lady Deathstrike wants to kill all of these Paradise fools.
Passing Neptune. 2.8 Billin Miles From Earth. This comet better be awesome.
Mystique needs Shogun’s skills.
The first page where we get Ogun’s voice!
Skel and Neuro are working for Sinister, if he is smart, he has those two dead already. Shogun is surprised about Mystique’s gentleness. Betrayal is common in this line of work.
Mystique tells Shogun that Lady Deathstrike may be attracted to him. She wants him dead but wants to have her fun too. Ogun warns Sharp that Mystique is manipulating him, he claims he knows but we all know he is going to be manipulated so much.
Mystique wants him to steal the Zhulong (Sun Dragon) from the National Museum in Taipei.
Taipei. Ogun is fully supporting Sharp in this en devour as he wants to fight all night long.
How confident is Sharp’s “Hey!” that is a baller move!
An old military man is looking at the sword and he is killed by a younger man.
Shogun gets so caught up in the fight, he starts to slice dudes in half.
Mystique shouts at Shogun and he comes a running.
As they are waiting for the plane, Mystique wants to discuss her Erase word. Betrayal is quite common in this business.
After negotiating, Shogun states Mystique’s Erase word – melanistic.
250 Thousand Miles From Earth. The comet keeps on coming.
Uotsuri Island. 50 Miles Northwest of Taiwan. Mystique is looking over her check list.
The last one is not checked yet. She starts a holo-simulation, that looks like it is on a cassette tape.
In a private moment, Ogun tries to get Sharp to join Sinister, as he may be able to cure their mutual decaying issue.
Lady Deathstrike enters the room and Ogun would like to take advantage of her attraction while Sharp seems to be a tad scared of her.
One of the cool things about the character of Destiny, is that she is a writer’s character. She knows the future, so a great writer can use her to set up what is to come and pull everything off in a very compelling way. Here is hoping that Soule can do that.
Destiny, apparently, made a slew of tapes as well as her diaries – which I may be one of the last hundred or so who still remembers those. Wolverine’s death kick started a sequence of events. Now that Mystique has the Dragon, things will move quickly. Destiny wants to be restored to life and she loves Mystique.
Ogun takes control over Sharp’s body and counters Lady Deathstrike’s move.
They kiss and Shogun’s silly mask is so sharp, that it cuts into Lady Deathstrike’s face. No one ever worries about kiss-ability when developing a mask.
That is nice that Destiny always loved Mystique and that she can now say that in a modern comic instead of having it be hinted years after her death.
Mystique cries and Lady Deathstrike is amused as something hits the plane. Most likely, the comet.
It isn’t a comet but some dude in a Wolverine mask, if it was made for a baby. I guess we will find out in a week, as Marvel Database doesn’t take a guess at who this is. Who does Wolverine know, in space, that would call him his best friend. Well, Wolverine is his best friend, I doubt Wolverine would consider him his.
Writer Charles Soule
Artist & Cover Salvador Larroca
Colors Frank D’Armata
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Dated January 2015
Hastings had this issue so that is one less on my Wishlist! Now that we know the black caption boxes with red letters is the voice of Ogun, I had to seek this issue out. I bought this for one dollar, which is pretty awesome.
The voice, let’s just refer to it as Ogun’s voice as there is no point of going along with the mystery now that we know who it is. Sharp wakes up as Ogun’s voice beckons. So this is how Sharp looks.
Paradise. Ogun tells Sharp to ignore the pain and start escaping. Maybe that isn’t Sharp’s face on the previous page as here, he has blonde hair and I don’t think blondes have dark eyebrow lashes. Plus, Larroca is making a point of keeping his face hidden. Oh, I bet that first face is Skel, but why put Ogun’s boxes on that page? I don’t know.
Sharp starts checking on the bodies on the ground but Ogun tells him to keep moving.
A guard who is walking Neuro . . . somewhere, is taken out by Sharp.
Sharp isn’t a test subject like Neuro, he was a volunteer. Neuro’s real name is Harold Stanch.
After donning a bulky gas mask, Sharp introduces himself. We get a quick flashback to Ogun during a war. How does anyone see out of googles? Ogun must be so annoyed as his depth perception is all off. Not depth perception, range of scope.
Nuero doesn’t remember much, he only recalling being slapped by the now dead guard and being placed in handcuffs. These two run into Junk and Skel, which I’m pretty proud that I know these codenames now, they finally left an impression on me. Also fun is that when this first goes their separate ways, these are the duos that stick together.
Junk doesn’t notice the smoke that Sharp does, which is probably do to his heighten senses. More soldiers come in and start firing away. Junk apparently has acid spit, so that’s gross. Sharp volunteers, it is what he does, to take on all of the soldiers as the others escape. Skel joins the fight and starts feeling better, the first hint of that.
Neuro stands too close to inspect Junk and he pushes him away, it is a very rude thing to do. Shape wants to head outside but down but Neuro corrects him, the best way out is up. He has analyzed that the smoke is below them, so down is where the fire is. Does Neuro get dust on his brain or does he have a glass plate over his noggin?
Sharp notices a lady, Endo, and gets her to join the group. She resists at first, and Ogun tells Sharp to slap her but Sharp convinces her that they are the best way to survive.
Endo stakes out the remaining guards around the helicopter and Sharp heads out to fight them. We get a flashback panel to Saigon, 1975, with Ogun getting onto a helicopter. I really like Ogun’s response to Wolverine’s metal coated skeleton corpose, hhh – who is he, Batman?
Sharp kills the soldiers. On the helicopter is a blonde lady, who we still don’t know the name of. Paradise crumbles as they fly away. Endo thanks Sharp for saving them all.
Sharp takes off his mask and sees Logan’s face in a reflection, which we know is an illusion as we’ve seen his blonde hair throughout the issue. It is a decent fakeout that it isn’t Ogun but Logan’s voice but I like this reveal as let’s keep Logan dead as long as possible. With Secret Wars 2015, we are going to be seeing a load of Wolverines, so it will be like he is with us again, soon enough.
Writer Charles Soule
Art Jonathan Marks
Colorist Lee Loughridge
Letterer VC’s Cory Petit
Finland. Paradise Wolverines (which is how they cast list has them, but not as a combined word) are falling towards Mister Sinister’s fortress. Lady Deathstrike wants to know what the plan is, which I would think they should have talked about before they were in mid-air and falling to the floor. Neuro states that they need to keep the element of surprise, which Shogun agrees with.
Shogun is surprised as they have stopped mid-air. We learn that the person Mister Sinister was ordering at the end of last issue is Starky Gripes. Gripes reveals the fortress’ true form, which annoys Mystique as they clearly know where it is as they were falling towards it.
Gripes has a lake of lava appear below them and he states that Mister Sinister knows Lady Deathstrike, very well. Fantomelle’s fox doesn’t like that they are part of this mission. Gripes doesn’t speak like how I thought a Sinister lackey would, he sounds like a regular guy.
Gripes sets everyone on the ground, if they don’t want to go inside, they don’t have to. Endo really doesn’t want to go inside and runs off. Gripes presses a button on his watch and dark matter opens around Endo.
Shogun takes his sword to Gripes’ neck. He reveals that no one leaves so Shogun slices off his head, Highlander style. Ogun compliments Sharp.
Sinister being who he is, has cloned several Gripes. They have individual names, with a theme – Parky, Barky, Harky, Zarky and Glarky. Shogun agrees that they should just enter the fortress, there is no other options. X23 isn’t thrilled about the decision. Sabretooth assures her that he will protect her, which doesn’t assure her.
Mister Sinister has a giant recording image of himself. He wants them to stay entertaining and give his experiments a workout. Or, at the very least, die in engaging ways. Mystique isn’t happy with Shogun’s goal of coming here.
Sinister separates the group into two. Shogun and Nuero are one group and the other is X23, Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike; for sure but I’m not sure where everybody else lands. Fantomelle is above them, on some wires. Her fox reveals that she is only six months old, as she is also a Paradise experiment but one of the good ones.
Shogun, Skel and Neuro land in a new room. Shogun reminds the two of them that they only have a year to live. A gate opens and it looks like a giant creature is about to come out.
In another room – Sabretooth, Mystique, Lady Deathstrike and X23, land. I wish the two teams were more combined, as it is now, it is the Paradise team and the other is the Wolverines. Lady Deathstrike regrets to simply killing the Paradise crew when they first arrived. Sabretooth re-explains that since AXIS, he has a new outlook on life – mainly that he is done killing. Mystique shifts into Mister Sinister, only to quote him, that seems unnecessarily. X23 notices a fifth person.
Paradise Crew. The big creature isn’t just a big creature, it is living legend . . . Fin Fang Foom! I like how quick Sharp asks if Ogun knows what they are facing and Ogun doesn’t know. Neuro is there to give the name. Fin Fang Foom admits that he isn’t the genuine article. Just then, Thor hits Foom.
Wolverines. The person X23 saw was . . . Ben Reilly, in the most beloved Scarlet Spider outfit! Man, I do enjoy that red suit with that silly blue sweater. Ever since Web of Spider-Man 118, which came out in November 1994. Which I can’t believe was 21 years ago!
Mystique sort of recognizes Scarlet Spider. He says that he has friends up ahead, and it turns out that there are even more Scarlet Spider clones. Hopefully one of these guys can escape and get a proper series.
Parky Gripes appears in the room and states how proud Mister Sinister is of his Scarlet Spider experiment. Then he admits that he isn’t Parky, he is Marky – what a twist! Lady Deathstrike kills poor Marky. This upsets the Scarlet Spiders.
Paradise. Shogun takes on the Thor Clone, Clhor! He ends up killing both Thor and Fin Fang Foom.
Neuro hopes that, if Mister Sinister can create all of these different types of clones, that he may be able to cure them. Neuro offers control over the Wolverines in exchange for the cure, which Sinister finds to be interesting.
Mister Sinister isn’t that concern that Fantomelle and her fox are unaccounted for – though he keeps calling the fox, a dog. Fantomelle sees Wolverine, the only problem is that Sinister stands right next to it, the entire time. Sinister has Daken’s blood and hopes to use it to relive Wolverine. Sinister hopes there will be no more interrupts, so of course, Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus appear. I still want the scene where X23 calls the X-Men about Wolverine’s death. How did they know the location of the fortress? Maybe we will find out next issue?
. . .
The Top 12 Comics of 2015!
| Number One Lockheed… on Star Lord and Kitty Pryde… | |
 | Luke Petersen on Bounce Patrol |
 | John Klein III on Astonishing X-Men 15 |
 | MoxieMk5 on Astonishing X-Men 15 |
| Moxiemk5 on SDCC : New Mutants @ Home |
Shadow and Flame with Magik 