Posted in: Comics | Tagged: all-new wolverine, marvel, wolverine, x-23, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

X-ual Healing: The Face of Doom in All-New Wolverine #35

Published Sat, 19 May 2018 17:00:45 -0500

by Jude Terror

Comments

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, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

For more about the column, check out the reboot issue here.

ALL-NEW WOLVERINE #35
TOM TAYLOR (W) • RAMON ROSANAS (A)
Cover by DAVID LOPEZ
DEADPOOL VARIANT COVER BY ELIZABETH TORQUE
• The world has been saved. Its people, never happier. The Wolverine should be retired, enjoying her time ruling Madripoor and living life with her sister.
• But instead Laura is in the last bastion of cruelty: Latveria. She has one more mission: One person to save, one person to kill.
• It all comes down to this.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99

This is it. All-New Wolverine #35, The final issue of All-New Wolverine before it's rebooted as X-23 with a new creative team and a new number one issue. The issue opens in Latveria the nearly utopian future with Gabby (who is the All-New Wolverine in this future) cradling Laura (who is retired as Wolverine and is now the Queen of Madripoor) in her arms. Laura appears to be dead. We flash back an hour prior. Kate Bishop (Hawkeye) cradles Maria Hill in her arms. Maria died at the end of the last issue in a Doombot attack. In this future world, the heroes have won and everything is perfect except for one thing: the world's last remaining super-villain, Doctor Doom. Laura, Gabby, Maria, Kate, Carol Danvers, and Janet Pym have invaded Latveria to kill Doom and rescue Laura and Gabby's clone-sister, Bellona.

Laura stashes Maria's body, and the remaining group heads off in search of Doom and his prisoners. Laura orders Janet, Kate, and Gabby to rescue the prisoners while she and Carol create a distraction in Doom's throne room. Doom is expecting them, and he blasts Carol through the floor. Doom has known Laura since he hired her as a child assassin. X-pository dialogue reveals that Thor has tried to kill Doom. He failed, apparently. His hammer is in Doom's throne room. Laura tries to pick up the hammer… but it turns out she's not worthy.

Gabby, Kate, and Janet (who is tiny and controlling a Doombot from the inside) head to the dungeons to find the prisoners. They find Carol instead, at the bottom of the hole Doom blasted her through. Up above, Laura takes a shot at killing Doom, slicing off his head, but it turns out that was a Doombot too. Oldest trick in the Doom book! The real Doom shows up, no longer wearing a mask, and looking like he belongs in a post-apocalyptic future Marvel creative retreat.

Doom is dying, and he lured Laura here purposely to steal her body. With no time for formalities, he begins transplanting his consciousness immediately. Downstairs, the others find the prisoners. Captain America is there (America Chavez), as well as Rocket Raccoon, Daredevil, Miles Morales (Spider-Man), and Thor. They also find Bellona. Inside Laura's mindscape, Doom believes he has the upper hand, but he's wrong. Laura is dying already, which she knew, and her body is in constant agony. Laura can take it, but Doom can't. He retreats to his own body and Laura stabs him, killing him.

The others and the newly freed prisoner enter the throne room and mop up the Doombots. Bellona, Gabby, and Laura are reunited. Janet turns off the dome over Latveria, allowing its citizens to see the sun again. It's a happy ending… except Laura is dying. She's glad that at least she made a difference in killing the last supervillain before she kicked the bucket. Gabby isn't having it, though. She tells Laura she promised to never leave her behind, and that means no dying. Gabby says they'll visit all the scientists and magicians on the planet until they find a cure for Old Man Logan disease. The story, and this series, ends on a high note.

All-New Wolverine has been a great comic book, with a solid 35-issue, three-year run that never dipped in quality. Not only did the final story arc highlight the optimism that characterized the series, but the twist ending did as well. We'll miss All-New Wolverine, and we hope the X-23 series takes the characters forward.