Previously On X-Men: Chris Claremont Returns To Wolverine Again And It Looks Great

A solid patch of X-books this week, with only one big stinker (and even then, it’s more “blah” than “bad”) and one legit surprise! Let’s get to it!

Hellverine #9 by Benjamin Percy & Raffaele Ienco

Aurora returns with Project Hellfire on the verge of shutting down.

• This is the penultimate issue of the series, with the book cancelled as of issue #10.
• Aurora debuted as part of Alpha Fight in X-Men #121-122, and was an integral part of that group alongside her twin brother Northstar for much of the first volume of Alpha Flight. More recently, she began a romantic relationship with Daken during the Krakoa Era in X-Factor and Marauders. Last she knew, Daken died at the hands of Sabretooth in “Sabretooth War“.

• It’s nice to see Percy bringing the character back and establishing she knows Daken is alive, but I don’t love Aurora coming back just to be used as a hostage/motivator for Daken in his fight with Mephisto; that particular plot turn feels like a victim of the book’s cancellation.
• I know Ienco’s work mostly from Darth Vader, which was a better fit for his style, but there is something appealing in the tension between his detail-orientated, relatively button-up art and the kind of over-the-top Grand Guignol supernatural elements of the plot.

This isn’t a series I would have been reading on its own if not for this column, but I’ll give it credit: doing so hasn’t been a chore; something about the relatively straight-forward approach (both in terms of the art and how Percy presents the material) despite the gonzo concept is more appealing than I would have expected.

Storm #11 by Murewa Ayodele & Mario Santoro with CF Villa

Storm’s battle with Hadad escalates as the other storm gods make their move.

• Sadly, nothing that happens in this issue quite matches the appeal of the cover; there is no hippo riding inside.
• Notable storm gods in the opening sequence include Beta Ray Bill, who is representing the Asgardians in Thor’s absence following the end of Immortal Thor, Ukko, the Finnish storm god who appeared in “Chaos War” and Seth, the Egyptian storm god who has been a recurring Thor antagonist at times (and, of course, Zeus).
• Storm says she’s a descendant of the sorceress Ahsake; this was first established in New Mutants #32.
• Ahsake’s connection to Agamotto, the primeval Sorcerer Supreme, was established in issue #2.
• Oshtur is maybe Agamotto’s mother.
• Storm claiming she chose to walk to Kenya rather than remain a pickpocket is another bit of Ayodele seeming mission to interrogate Storm’s past as a thief, which isn’t something that’s ever really bothered Storm before.
• Delivering the bodies of Maggott and Manifold (who seems to be alive) to the Night and Daye hospital, Gateway speaks. While he is generally a silent character, he does possess the ability to speak and has done so before (notably when he delivered Penance to Xavier’s School in Generation X #1).
• The One Above All is a recurring semi-character in the Marvel Universe, basically its stand-in for a monotheistic God who, true to the name, rules over all the various pantheons.
• Amongst a series of montages, we see Phoenix defending New Krakoa from the Black Winters in the White Hot Room; originally, Ayodele had pitched this story as a crossover with Phoenix.

• The Land of Couldn’t-Be-Shouldn’t-Be was introduced in the 2014 Slott/Allred Silver Surfer, which also introduced the Never Queen seen here with Scarlet Witch.
• Quasar appears to be the original Wendell Vaughn Quasar, who returned in Al Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

The lack of Lucas Werneck — on the penultimate issue of the story, no less — is definitely felt.

Uncanny X-Men #19 by Gail Simone & David Marquez

Deadpool and Outlaw stop by Haven House to warn/fight/quip with the X-Men about a threat connected to Jubilee.

• Gratuitous Deadpool guest appearance aside (and Simone did write his solo series in some of her earliest work for Marvel, which is also where Outlaw first appeared, making this less egregious than some Deadpool guest shots), the bulk of this issue is a follow-up to the Free Comic Book Day X-Men story from 2024 (Simone’s first X-Men work), in which, after observing the building of Graymalkin Prison, Jubilee scared off a bunch of rich punks harassing a young mutant named Uva. Both Uva and the rich kid ringleader return here.
• The opening scene with Warden Ellis and Ezra stopping at Uva’s diner is weird. Both are in “work clothes” and it’s framed, despite Ellis saying she just wants a muffin before going home, as something sinister (like a raid on the diner to capture Uva), but then they leave once it becomes clear something else is going on, but don’t bother to do anything about it (despite Ezra suggesting he intervene). I guess the idea is that Ellis doesn’t care if something bad happens to a mutant, but then, why even go to that diner in the first place?
• Mayor Mikki’s pitch to turn a patch of New Orleans into, essentially, “X-Men Disneyland” is interesting in as much as its a (understandable) outgrowth of Makenzie Deneer’s original “let’s help mutants for moral reasons” pitch into a more “mutually beneficial” arrangement that helps mutants AND the city. While there’s nothing inherently wrong (or sinister) about that, it’ll be curious to see if the Mayor remains as altruistic as she seems as this plotline progresses. (Ed. Note: It also reminds me a bit of the X-Men’s relationship with San Francisco’s mayor during the Utopia era. Which ended poorly.)
• Cats being drawn to Deathdream because they have a similarly-close relationship with the concept of death tracks (for the record, I’m a big cat guy).
• Waffles readout pertaining to Ember as it scans the area shows, “Horse(?)”, adding to the mystery of what, exactly, Ember is.
• Deadpool not being able to keep track of all the new “From the Ashes” mutants, asking if he’s fighting Bronze (from Exceptional X-Men) is legitimately funny.
• I also enjoyed him giving Outlaw permission to perform “medium punching” on the kids.

• The New Mutant who “looked like a scribble” is presumably Warlock.
• Deadpool getting a Calico arrow through the head (after Calico calls Jitter her girlfriend) was a fun sequence as well.
• Deadpool and Outlaw came to the X-Men after being paid by Todd (the rich kid from the diner) to distract them while he does “his attack on the diner” thing. Instead, they decide to just take his money and warn them, but they still have a misunderstanding fight, because comics. And Outlaw correctly points out it would have been faster/more effective to just text them like normal people, so Simone is at least lampshading the tropes at play here.
• Jubilee notes that Rogue has the powers of Wonder Man (from her time with the Avengers Unity Squad), which makes her being so threatened by the burning building last issue even odder (as Simone is clearly aware of her current power set).
• The sequence of Jubilee taking down Todd and his hired guns at the diner is pretty straightforward, though it gives Jubilee a much needed moment in the spotlight while delivering a great message about the importance of fighting back against the hate whoever you are and whenever you can.

The plot mechanics here are odd across the board — the sequence with Ellis at the beginning, Todd paying Deadpool and Outlaw to keep the X-Men busy when they’re several states away, Deadpool and Outlaw triggering a Misunderstanding Fight on the flimsiest of pretexts for one, even Todd’s plan of getting revenge on Jubilee by attacking this diner she stopped at one time and then explicitly paying people to keep her away from it — but this is a good example of how it’s much easier to look past that kind of stuff when the end result is still largely entertaining.

Wolverines and Deadpools #2 by Cody Ziglar & Rogê Antônio

The Shadow King sets his sights on a new host: Deadpool’s daughter!

• The titular Wolverines and Deadpools done the old black/grey/red Uncanny X-Force uniforms in this issue. Laura brought them along; she also donned an earlier X-Force uniform in the last issue of her solo series.

• The Shadow King — without a host to allow it to interact directly in the physical world — has set its sights on Ellie, essentially because she’s smart and a fast healer.
• At some point, Ellie stole Taskmaster’s shield, and carries it with her in one of her pouches, shrunk down via Pym Particles. She uses it against Agent X, who has a past with Taskmaster along with Deadpool.

I did not realize this was just a three issue series. That’s probably for the best, as while this does the necessary work to set up the climax, there’s really not a lot else happening here that is all that different from the previous issue. Also, Ellie is a fun character and all, but I have to assume the Shadow King’s attraction to her as a host is because she’s the best candidate in close proximity to the events of the story.

Wolverine by Chris Claremont #1 by Chris Claremont & Tom Reilly – Book of the Week

The X-Men battle Sabretooth.

• This is a reprint of a story which original appeared in the Chris Claremont Paragon Collection, a limited run, super-prestige hardcover reprinting some of Claremont’s most notable X-Men stories alongside a bunch of extras and two new stories: a “Days of Future Past” prelude, and this.
• Set on the grounds of the Yashida estate, it opens with Sabretooth viciously attacking Wolverine and then fighting his X-Men teammates more or less to standstill. Ironically, given the title, Wolverine hardly appears in the story.
• Though Claremont continues to have a strong handle on Wolverine’s voice and writes a particularly nasty and powerful Sabretooth, the real draw here is some absolutely wonderful art from Tom Reilly (late of G.I. Joe, though this was done before his work there).
• Check out the great De Luca Effect on Sabretooth in this full page splash of Mariko dropping arrows on Sabretooth. I want to hang this on my wall.

• Continuity-wise, this must be set sometime after Uncanny X-Men #173 (when Storm unveils her new punk look at Wolverine and Mariko’s aborted wedding) and before #185 (when Storm loses her powers). More specifically, it’s probably after #176 (when Wolverine confronts Mariko about calling off the wedding due to Mastermind), though Wolverine and Mariko don’t interact directly in the story so it’s hard to clock the state of their relationship (and the idea of Wolverine showing up to protect her from Sabretooth is consistent regardless of it).
• Claremont does a good job of selling the idea that Sabretooth (who is, ultimately, just a fast healer with sharp claws) can hold his own against the entire X-Men, thanks to that healing ability, a decent bit of strategic thinking, and outright savagery.
• Speaking of, at one point Lockheed incinerates all the clothes and hair off Sabretooth, which is pretty intense (and awesome).
• Claremont floats the idea here of Kitty containing an innate darkness, like Sabretooth and Wolverine, something Sabretooth is able to sense in her. This ties in a bit to his later (continuity-wise)/earlier (publication-wise) Kitty Pryde and Wolverine limited series in which she gets possessed by Ogun, but Kitty is hardly someone high on the list “constantly fighting their dark sides” characters, even in later stories written by Claremont.
• The issue also includes some commentary from Claremont (taken, again, from the Paragon Collection) in which he reflects on past issues. It’s relatively innocuous — certainly nothing revelatory for this moderately well-versed Claremont scholar.
• There’s also a double-page pinup by Joe Quesada.
• Given the title of this one-shot, it would have been hilarious if it wasn’t written by Chris Claremont.

I’m more of a latter-day Claremont apologist than most, but the real draw here is Reilly’s art. It’s fun and kinetic and effective, and an utter treat to see him drawing the Paul Smith/early John Romita Jr. era X-Men.