WOLVERINE ‘97 - November 1997

Heart of the Beast

Credits: John Ostrander & Joe Edkin (writers), Leonardo Manco (art), Comicraft (letters), Shannon Blanchard (colors)

Summary: In his past as a secret agent, Wolverine helped Russian scientist Dimitri Suhkarov and his daughter Viktoria escape the USSR. Although Wolverine escaped with Viktoria, Russian agent Volk intercepted the rescue mission and killed Dimitri. Today, Viktoria works for the Canadian Secret Service. She informs Wolverine that Volk has been sent to kill him, and that KGB experiments have given him the ability to morph into a wolf-creature. Soon, Volk has kidnapped Viktoria and goaded Wolverine into following him to Russia. During their fight, Volk is finally pushed into a true wolf form. Content as an animal, he abandons the fight and joins a wolf pack. Wolverine realizes that this is what Volk wanted all along, but Viktoria is still adamant about finding Volk and killing him.

Continuity Notes: Viktoria is listed as a member of Xavier’s Mutant Underground, although that doesn’t play a role in the story. Government agent Bowser, a character from this wondrous era of X-Factor, hires Volk to kill Wolverine in retaliation for his role in ending Operation: Zero Tolerance. However, Bowser’s Hound program and OZT were two separate entities (at least, that’s the impression I get when trying to decipher X-Factor)

Review: So, what do you do when you’re writing a one-off Wolverine story? Either you tell a story about his past as a secret agent, or you manipulate circumstances so that Wolverine is forced to fight his animal rage. If you’re doing a double-sized book, it’s possible to work them both in. There’s nothing new here, but the execution is competent, and Leonardo Manco, who’s perfectly suited for Wolverine, is drawing it. Volk’s clearly designed to be an evil doppelganger of Wolverine, and while I think he serves his role in the story, the creators have made the mistake of giving him blonde hair and facial features virtually identical to Sabretooth. On paper, Volk might be a wolf-man, but in the published comic, he just looks like Sabretooth in civilian clothes.

The twist at the end of the story reveals that Volk never really wanted to fight Wolverine; he just wanted an opponent good enough to push him over the edge so that he can finally become a wolf. Wolverine’s willing to let him go (even though he killed Dimitri Suhkarov, and a friend of Wolverine’s during another encounter) because he feels there’s no need to punish an animal. Viktoria refuses to forgive, though, and goes into the woods to (somehow) track down a wolf that used to be human. Viktoria’s obviously supposed to represent the darker side of human nature, as Wolverine muses that perhaps he’s misread his berserker rages all of these years. He says that an animal only kills for survival, while humans act out of anger and revenge. Yes, it’s his human nature he’s been fighting all along. I don’t necessarily buy the reasoning (animals only kill for survival, literally, every time?), but the closing monologue is well written, and the twist makes the story feel less generic.

ARCHANGEL #1 – February 1996

Phantom Wings

Credits: Peter Milligan (writer), Leonardo Manco (artist), Jonathan Babcock (letterer)

Summary

While having dinner with Archangel, Psylocke tries to convince him to talk about his injured wings. Archangel refuses to talk about it, which angers Psylocke. He flies away and is soon attacked by a woman with an energy lance and a hi-tech suit of armor. She chains him up, telling him that she has to protect herself from the birds. Archangel spends the next day chained up, resenting his metal wings as he grows closer to his captor. He sends out a psychic message to Psylocke, who works with Phoenix to pick up the clues “Tuesday”, “birds”, and “airplane”. Cross-referencing all three words in the X-Men’s database reveals that there was a woman named Tuesday, married to an abusive husband named Donald Bird who died in an airplane crash. Archangel convinces his captor, Tuesday, to let him help her fight the throng of approaching birds. After he chases them away, Tuesday reveals that during her plane crash, their plane was attacked by savage birds as it plummeted to the ground. Archangel deduces that she killed Donald while he was piloting the plane, hoping that she would also die, and that the birds represent her guilt. Somehow, she’s able to create manifestations of her shame. He convinces Tuesday to let go of her guilt and they fly off together. Archangel realizes that they were actually in the city all along, outside of her late husband’s office building. He looks over to Tuesday, but she’s gone. Later, Archangel tells Psylocke the story, explaining that Tuesday helped him to let go of his anger over losing his original wings. Psylocke walks away, hurt that a ghost touched him more than she could.

Production Note

This is a black and white special with no ads.

Continuity Note

Archangel’s wings were badly damaged by Sabretooth during the Sabretooth one-shot. Psylocke doesn’t have her Crimson Dawn facial tattoo yet, even though this story explicitly takes place after Uncanny X-Men #330. I wonder when it will actually show up.

Review

This is a strange one, a one-shot black and white special starring one of the less popular X-Men. Marvel very rarely published anything in black and white during this time (I think even the B&W Marvel magazines were dead by now), so I’m not quite sure what the inspiration for this one was. Perhaps someone just thought that black and white suited Leonardo Manco’s art better. The story has no bearing on any ongoing storylines, but it at least tries to say something about Archangel’s character, so I wouldn’t dismiss it as just filler.

Archangel’s angst over his transformation under Apocalypse had mostly been ignored during this era, so it’s a legitimate area for Milligan to explore. He writes a lot of poetic narrative captions, a style that was already disappearing at the time, but he’s able to use them to make Archangel more sympathetic and to effectively build up Tuesday’s mystery. The idea of Archangel being abducted by a girl with an irrational hatred of birds sounds needlessly quirky, but Milligan is able to pull the idea off, mainly because he provides a decent conclusion at the end. We’re never told if Tuesday is a mutant or some sort of supernatural figure, but we’re given enough information for the story to come across as more than just weird for weirdness’ sake. The character arc of letting go of your past and facing the future is an old cliché, but Milligan’s writing is sharp enough to make it work. Manco’s art is also notable, taking advantage of the black and white format to play around with the shadows in a cool way. This is more sophisticated than a lot of the other material coming out of Marvel at this time, and I’d say it’s still worth checking out (even if I’ve already spoiled the mystery).