Posted in: Comics | Tagged: marvel, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

Clawing for a Reason to Charge an Extra Dollar in Wolverine #8 [XH]

Published Mon, 04 Jan 2021 14:30:10 -0600

Marvel published two X-Books last week, the final week of 2020: X-Men #16 and Wolverine #8. But before we get into that…

Comics drama was pretty wild last week, wasn't it? Well, I talked about it a little… in the recap of X-Men #16. So click the link down below if you want to read that.

Welcome to 2021, people! Comics are still here (barely). We're still here. And it's time to recap last week's X-books! Some things never change.

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities. Still, thanks to a corporate merger, a line-wide relaunch, and Jonathan Hickman's giant ego, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics for lovers of soap opera drama.

[MULTINAV]

WOLVERINE #8
OCT200563
(W) Ben Percy (A) Viktor Bogdanovic (A/CA) Adam Kubert
CELEBRATING 350 ISSUES OF THE SOLO ADVENTURES OF WOLVERINE!
Someone's making moves against WOLVERINE'S old crew TEAM X, and it's leaving bodies dropped and artifacts stolen. A mystery unfurls as Logan picks up the scent of his old compatriot, the mutant known as MAVERICK! Don't miss this special over-sized issue celebrating Logan's history while kicking off the next arc and serving as a jumping on point for new readers!
Parental Advisory
In Shops: Dec 30, 2020
SRP: $4.99

Wolverine #8 Recap

In a prologue called War Stories (gotta justify the five dollar price tag somehow), Wolverine hangs out in the backyard of CIA agent Jeff Bannister and they share stories. Bannister's is about being used in a military operation to kill Americans without his knowledge in order to perpetuate the goals of the military-industrial complex. Wolverine talks about being used in the same way as part of Team X. Anyway, Bannister called Wolverine here to tell him about the CIA's X-Desk. But the X-Desk is watching now they're targeting Bannister too.

In the main story, The Past Ain't Dead, The Mercs (a group of mercenaries who attacked Xavier's businesses and who Beast is surveilling) invade a government black ops facility and steal Wolverine's Team X dog tags.

On Krakoa, Scout and Daken team up with Wolverine to beat the crap out of Omega Red. Maybe a coloring error, but Gabby appears to have metal claws instead of bone claws here. Did I miss something? Wolverine wants Omega Red to explain everything he's been up to lately, trying to screw over Wolverine and work with Dracula. Omega Red claims he hasn't done any of that and Wolverine is getting worked. Sage calls Wolverine to a meeting.

Beast and Sage show Wolverine The Shadow Room, a room with capabilities like the Danger Room but designed for recreating crime scenes. They bring up the government site that was raided earlier. The U.S. Department of Defense wants to know why the site was targeted. It turns out it was a mutant that led the mercs. Sage and Beast think it's Maverick.

In L.A., the Mercs try to break into Dazzler's house, but they're met by a light-based security system and an angry Wolverine. Wolverine makes short work of them and grabs one, Trevor Crosby, to interrogate, demanding to know where Maverick is. Crosby reveals that the mercs have been doing jobs for something called Legacy House that trades in superhero and supervillain collector's items, and mutant objects are currently hot on the black market. He reveals the latest item they stole was a Hydra memory repression machine and then he gets shot in the head by a sniper, and he hasn't seen Maverick since shortly after that.

Beast and Sage dress Wolverine up as Patch and send him to infiltrate a Legacy House auction in Madripoor. They suggest Maverick may be mind-controlled. Wolverine heads to the location of the auction and the issue ends.

In general, I enjoy this new Wolverine book, and this issue was a fine start to a new storyline that looks promising, with some callbacks to 90s stories and with a visit to Madripoor, which is always welcome. But I struggle to see what was special about this issue that it needed to have its price jacked up an extra dollar. I understand Marvel didn't want to miss an opportunity to charge an extra dollar for a legacy issue, but a backup story where Wolverine drinks beer in a backyard is really not a great excuse to make an "oversized" issue and charge people an extra dollar for it, especially when you just finished a massive crossover.

That's all for the final X-Books of 2020. Hellions, Juggernaut, and X-Factor have new issues out this week and I'll be back to recap them next Monday. Probably.