WOL #4: "Honor"

(Never piss off a Wolverine.)

Comments

The opening to this issue is truly gorgeous, so much so that I once again lament my lack of access to a scanner (I really must get round to buying one at some point).  Wolverine is crouched in the bushes, the leaves of the surrounding plants scattering long, thin shadows across his body, each one resembling one of the innumerable scars Wolverine carries with him, whether one can see them or not.

Logan's watching a heroin exchange, which he unceremoniously disrupts, carving up briefcases filled with money or white powder, and ordering the astonished criminals to tell Lord Shingen that "Wolverine is coming for him."  Over the next several hours, Wolverine repeats this process, putting the squeeze on as many Shingen flunkies as possible.  The crimelord responds by sending his most lethal cadre of ninjas after the Canadian interloper.  Wolverine sends their hoods back in the post, alongside a note: "Tonight."

Both men are aware that honour demands they face each other, though neither intend to repeat a simple duel.  Wolverine straps on pretty much every piece of sharp-edged equipment he's "inherited" from the now comatose ninja avengers (including a crossbow fitted with a telescopic sight, which, really?).  Shingen, for his part, has called in another bevy of Hand assassins, which I guess means that whatever else you want to say about him, he doesn't lack for optimism.

Whilst the two men prepare for combat, others have their own battles to fight.  Mariko sits weeping in a darkened room, praying to her ancestors for an answer as to how one should act when honour dictates obeying a dishonorable man (always a good question, as Jaime Lannister will tell you).  Outside in the grounds, Yukio is sneaking her way inside, offering a quick jolt of poison to anyone unlucky enough to be in her way (those poor doggies!).  Alas, it is a trap, and once safely inside, she is snared.

Shingen is amused that Yukio is trying to kill him (an attempt to balance the scales after she slew Wolverine's friend) and, much as he did earlier with Logan himself, he allows Yukio to attack him whilst making his daughter watch.  Yukio lasts even less time than her former lover managed, but Shingen doesn't have time to kill her before word comes over the radio that Wolverine has arrived.  Not that anyone gets far enough into a sentence to make that clear, but Shingen's bright enough to know what a cut-off transmission means tonight.  All his guards (and it certainly looks like all) are dead.

Mariko's husband Hideki, in a display of enlightened self-preservation that he probably should have used back before he started beating his wife, decides that a quick exit is called for.  Even so, he's too late - Wolverine is already in the room.  Classless to the end, Hideki puts his gun to his wife's head in the hope of scaring Logan into letting them both leave, but the now-forgotten Yukio kills him.  She cuts a piece away from Mariko's clothes, and wraps it round Wolverine's shoulders - an acknowledgement of her willingness to let him go.  A single kiss, and she's gone again.  Wolverine could go after her, either to forgive her, or stain the blood-red grass outside with one more death.  He could stay and comfort Mariko.

But he doesn't.  He has an appointment with Lord Shingen.  As Logan notes, this is all just a kabuki play, and it has to play out to the end.

This time, the duel is with steel sword and adamantium claws. Shingen has more skill, Logan near-endless endurance.  It's a fairer fight than it might seem at first: an unbreakable skeleton versus an almost unbreakable defence. But all Wolverine has to do is break that defence once, and eventually Shingen makes a mistake, and pays with his life.

We're in the final scene of the play, now.  Honour dictates that Mariko attempt to slay her father's killer.  She knows she can't.  She knows Wolverine could finish her off in a heart-beat, wounded as he is.  She picks up Shingen's sword anyway, and Logan does nothing.

But Mariko has found her answer, at it's one that suprises Wolverine.  Shingen's criminal activities and contempt for human life dishonoured him to the point where he had no right to wield the honour sword of the Yashida family, and Logan's willingness to slay him despite believing it would cost him the love of his life is proof enough of his worthiness to inherit the blade.  And, along with it, Mariko's hand in marriage.

This whole miniseries has been a pleasure to read.  It feels like the first X-book that works as a package, with the characteristically interesting ideas and colourful characters finally being wed to writing and art that carry and reinforce a theme, rather than just describing events (it's comparative decompression also makes a nice change from endless narrative boxes describing what the artwork is already making clear).  I've enjoyed plenty of the comics I've covered so far on this blog, but this is the first time I can remember being this generally impressed.

Clues

This story takes place over a single day and night.  Presumably, though, Wolverine has spent a little longer than this tearing down Shingen's empire: no matter how dedicated to the job he is, there's only so much that can be done at once.  He says the job is done in "hours", though, so we'll assume he's spent the last two days destroying Shingen's assets, and that the duel that ends Logan's quest for vengeance takes place on the night of the third day.

There's a major problem to overcome, however, which is that the epilogue tells us that Wolverine recuperates in the mountains with Mariko until spring, before writing to the X-Men and inviting them to the wedding.  In our current timeline, spring came to an end during the events of UXM #151, and we can't do much to change around the dates due to the fairly stringent limitations imposed on us by Kitty's age.

Probably the most sensible response is to assume a long engagement for Mariko and Wolverine, and have the events of this miniseries take place between UXM #150 and Annual #3.  If we give Wolverine a fortnight to recover, then that at least allows Wolverine's first duel with Shingen to take place during the winter, and the wedding invitation to arrive a little way into spring, presumably followed almost immediately by Wolverine himself.

Date

Sunday 5^th May, 1983.

X-Date

X+5Y+35.

Contemporary Events

The 1000^th edition of Top of the Pops is broadcast.

Standout Line

"I can't forgive her for Asano -- and I can never repay her for Mariko -- so I let her go."  Wolverine says goodbye to Yukio.

WOL #3: "Loss"

(Some masks you discard, others are torn away.)

Comments

Ah, what a broken heart can do to a man.  It affects all of us differently, of course.  Wolverine's coping mechanism would appear to be getting drunk, screwing Yukio, and engaging in illegal sumo brawls in skeezy Tokyo bars.  Each, as they, to their own.  At least he keeps winning.  And apparently Yukio really is as skilled in "[the arts] of love" as she claimed - when Wolverine's old friend Asano (presumably of the koanchosa-cho) shows up to beg his help in protecting Japan from the newly-crowned king of the entire Japanese underworld, Wolverine threatens to maim him if he doesn't back off, so Logan and Yukio can go do the wild thing.  Hand ninjas watch the scene from above, but are waiting for something before they strike.

Perhaps they're just enjoying the spectacle - Wolverine's so drunk that the only reason Yukio fails to have him do her on the train tracks is that the actual train shows up and nearly flattens them both.  Wolverine is so angry about this he falls asleep, and dreams of finding Mariko once more, and her once more rejecting him (all whilst imagining he's a humble ronin in feudal Japan, and that the colour blue doesn't exist.  This series really is wonderfully illustrated).

The Hand, apparently aware that they won't get to see Logans adamantium boner after all, leap to the attack whilst Wolverine snores.  Lord Shingen is somewhat displeased that Yukio hasn't assassinated her diminutive pet psychopath yet.  She promises to do the deed immediately, though notes that his metal-clad skeleton will make finishing him off quite tricky.  The Hand hoods suggest cutting out his heart, which she agrees to, which means a) the alleged death-on-legs silent killing machines of the Hand don't know what a ribcage is, and b) Yukio is playing them for saps.  Indeed, moments later, she uses her blades to dispatch her former comrades.  Wolverine is woken by the scuffle, but calls his saviour "Mariko", which earns him a kick to the face that knocks him down again.  Yukio flees into the night, leaving five ninjas dead, and one unconscious and a mutant.

She returns to the hotel room, and laments her poor fortune.  It seems that Yukio has broken the number one rule of being evil - don't pretend to fall in love with someone for your own gain only to actually fall in love with them (see also Liasons, Dangerous).  Fortunately an intruder breaks her out of her reverie, and she crouches beside the door as it slowly opens to reveal someone entering gun-first.

I don't think it's particularly difficult to work out who the mysterious breaker/enterer is, but the comic doesn't keep us in suspense in any case: once Wolverine awakes he returns to the room, and finds Asano dead on the floor, one of Yukio's blades buried just below his clavicle.  For a moment I was confused as to why that would kill someone, but of course the blades are poisoned. Wolverine can smell it.  The same poison the shuriken that nailed him outside Shingen's place were coated in.  Logan immediately pieces together what's happened (though I'd have though Occam's Razor would simply suggest that two different people are using the same poison).  Yukio emerges from the darkness, but runs when Logan confronts her.

Wolverine gives chase, still working things through in his head.  Katsuyori must have been all that stood between Shingen and total control, he realises, and Yukio killed Asano to prevent him warning Wolverine that by helping remove Katsuyori from the chess board, he's helped his enemy become the leader of the Japanese criminal community.  "I gave her my heart" he concludes, throwing one of Yukio's own blades at her, burying it deep in her back, "And she killed my friend".

With Yukio injured, catching her is easy.  Killing her is trickier.  Love and hatred and betrayal and self-loathing make for a confusing cocktail, and Logan is still trying to convince himself to strike the killing blow when another team of Hand ninjas interrupt.  This fight doesn't go any better for Japan's premier 1HP mook service than the last few did, but it does give Yukio cover to escape (killing two ninjas into the bargain, prompting Wolverine to wonder whether they were a threat to her, or to himself).

With the fight over, Logan has time to take in his surroundings - a zen garden.  The violent fracas has reduced its calm and ordered configuration.  This is not a particularly subtle metaphor, of course, but metaphors of any kind are to be welcomed in early '80s comics.  Having Wolverine spell it out ("Order turned to chaos.  The story of my life.") probably goes too far, but it's a nice moment nonetheless, as he considers the two women he's failed - Mariko, for letting her see the beast inside, and Yukio, for not surrendering to that beast completely. He wants to be what Mariko needs him to be, but he can never make it stick, and nor can he shut down the parts of him that would, once gone, allow him to be happy in what he is.

But simply because one failed, it does not mean one should not have tried.  Some see madness in climbing over and over again, only to fall each time.  Others see a nobility in that, a realisation that sometimes we fight not because we know we'll win, or even have any reason to hope we'll ever win.  We fight because it is important to us that we know we didn't surrender.  Nothing of any worth, no man of any measure, came to be because there was no chance of failure.

What else is Wolverine to do then, except to begin to restore the garden?  And, whilst he does so, swear two things to himself. Firstly: he will not stop trying, simply because he has failed before.

Secondly: that vicious prick Shingen is going down.

Clues

This story picks up some time after the ending of WOL #2.  Clearly at least a little time must have passed - I can't believe Logan would immediately shack up with Yukio, no matter how badly Mariko's rejection must have messed him up.  He also mentions that he and Yukio have carved a trail of drunken destruction across Tokyo, which presumably takes some time despite the efficiency of the local train network.

Thirdly, the consolidation of underworld power mentioned by Asano presumably didn't happen the very instant Yukio's car-bomb finished off Katsuyori.  All told, I think we should probably leave a week between the issues.

Date

Sunday 2^nd May, 1983.

X-Date

X+5Y+32.

Contemporary Events

A 6.5 earthquake hits Coalinga, California, causing $10 000 000 in damage and almost 100 injuries.

Standout Line

"<You'd best kill me now, Yukio.  You won't get a second chance.>" - Wolverine

WOL #2: "Debts And Obligations"

(The land of masks and stages.)

Comments

My my.  A double splash. Another staple (often maddeningly so) of modern day comics has arrived.  At least it's gorgeous, though:

If only Miller had stuck to pencils, rather than jingoism and homophobia

That scan (shamelessly stolen from geektyrant.com) doesn't do it justice, really.  Like the rest of the comic (and the one that preceded it) it's pretty simple, but all the more effective for that.

As you can see above, Wolverine has woken from his poison-induced delirium to find himself and his rescuer Yukio surrounded by the ninjas of the Hand (who Logan apparently hasn't heard of, rather surprisingly, though at the time of writing this issue the Hand had only been introduced a year earlier, and hadn't accumulated the massive weight of back story it currently lays claim to).  Unsurprisingly, Wolverine begins the carving process, allowing him time to think conveniently recap-like thoughts, with a running commentary on how his abilities aid him in combat in addition.  Indeed, I'm trying to think if Claremont's written anything like this before, a first person narrative that specifically references the fact that Wolverine is telling a story ("Something I forgot to mention"), rather than simply providing a simple account of what's going on in a character's head (which in itself I don't remember him doing often).

Much like last time, this gives the comic a very distinctive voice and feel, and reinforces the impression from last time around that fighting is something Wolverine does exceptionally well, but doesn't really thrill him the way one might expect, considering his bellicosity.  The fight itself, in short, isn't really the point, though that doesn't mean he isn't utterly terrifying when his blood is up, as the art takes great pains to remind us.

Once Wolverine has polished off his RDA of ninja-killing, he brings Yukio back to his hotel before the cops can arrive. There she tells him the Hand are working for her enemy, a man who intends to upgrade from criminal lord to politician (well, I say "upgrade"...)  He promises to protect her, which rather pricks her pride, so she tries to stab him.  He deflects the blow, however, which impresses her, so she tries to sleep with him.  Are there really women who'd do that?  I mean, there are obviously men who would.  You could stick the minds of Hitler and Richard Littlejohn into the heads of the Faiers sisters and there's still literally not a Zoo reader alive who wouldn't try to fuck them in a hotel hot tub.

We switch our scene to the Meguro district, then (as now) one of the most exclusive areas of Tokyo.  Mariko and her husband are waiting to see her father, but he's not accepting visitors.  Moments later, though, they're gazumped by a woman hiding her face beneath a wide-brimmed hat and voluminous coat, who gains entry simply by terrifying the door man.

And gosh, wouldn't you know it - it turns out it's Yukio!  Who could see that coming?  She's rather annoyed that the Hand ninjas sent to persuade Wolverine that she was in deadly danger were playing their parts a little too well (though as Shingen notes, Logan's too smart to fall for half-measures).  Shingen is nonplussed - what's the point of hiring an expensive assassin if she can't survive a ninja attack? - and - lucky for us! - reminds her of the plan:

1. Take Wolverine and follow Mariko and her husband to a peace conference with Katsuyori, Shingen's rival;
2. Kill Katsuyori whilst simultaneously protecting Mariko from harm;
3. Finish off the now useless Wolverine.

Wolverine lives up to his reputation and sneaks himself and Yukio into the kabuki theatre being used for the meeting.  As far as he's concerned, Katsuyori is a threat to Yukio, but his intention is to lean on him rather than chop him up.  This plan changes considerably of course when Wolverine catches sight of Mariko, especially since seconds later a member of the kabuki troop draws a very real katana and lunges forward at her.

Wolverine intercepts the blow and disembowels the assailant for good measure.  Whilst he sets about massacring his cronies, Katsuyori and his wife flee the scene, only for their car to explode as they try to leave.  Yukio's work. 

After some unknowable measure of time, Wolverine stops killing, because there's no-one within reach left alive.  A bone-deep cut drove him into a beserker rage but, not to be too purple about it, a worse wound is to come.  Mariko watched it all, her eyes so sad and wide I'm not sure she was even able to blink.

Wordlessly, she turns, and wordlessly, Wolverine lets her go.  He spent all this time hiding what he was, what is he to do now the secret is finally out?

Yukio gloats in the shadows.  She knows what Wolverine is to do.  He will be coming for her.

Clues

Placing this story is slightly difficult, since it's impossible to know for how long Wolverine was unconscious.  It seems likely that this is still the same night, however, partially because of the speed of Logan's healing factor (the damage he takes from the ninjas is gone by the time he and Yukio arrive at his hotel room), and partially because it rather tarnishes the Hand ninja's reputation (which has yet to be ground into the dirt at this point) to believe it took them a full day to track their quarry.

We shall therefore assume he awakes on the same night, after midnight.  The attack on Katsuyori takes place the following evening.

Date

Sunday 25^th April, 1983.

X-Date

X+5Y+25.

Contemporary Events

Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine received a response to this letter, sent in November of the previous year:

Dear Mr. Andropov,

My name is Samantha Smith. I am ten years old. Congratulations on your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to live together in peace and not to fight.

Sincerely,

Samantha Smith

(It's the "Congratulations on the new job" that sells it, I think).  The reply, written personally by Andropov, invited Smith to visit the USSR, which she did, concluding that the Russians were "just like us", and suggesting that major world leaders host each others' grandchildren for a few weeks of every year, in order to dissuade governments from declaring war their grandchildren would be visiting.

Standout Line

"<If you think me skilled in the arts of war... Wait 'til you see me perform those of love.>"

Ugh.  I mean, I realise a lot of assassins won't spend much time honing their seduction technique, but even so.  And once you realise Yukio is working for Shingen, this gets even worse, because at some point either he or Yukio herself figured the best way to seduce Wolverine would be to try and stab him to death immediately beforehand.

Wolverine #1: "Wolverine"

(Trouble and strife.)

Comments

This is the first issue in a miniseries that may or may not have been intended as a trial balloon for an ongoing Wolverine title.  In the end such a thing didn't come into being for another four six years.  It's still kind of hard to imagine a time in which interest in Wolverine might only be thought enough to sustain four books, especially how much faith was being shown in Dazzler.

There's definitely a very different tone here than in Claremont's UXM.  These kinds of tonal switches were something of a speciality of Claremont's back in the day - that's what made Excalibur so difficult to read.  In this case, though, it's very atmospheric (and somewhat decompressed, which adds to the sense of lonely space the issue trades in).  Wolverine's taciturn, weary narration in the opening pages as he hunts down both an insane, man-killing grizzly and the hunter responsible for its state gets right to the heart of what makes Logan, when written well, so interesting: not his capacity for rapacious violence, but his melancholy resignation of the fact that that's all he's really able to be. 

Indeed, the question of exactly what Wolverine can be is pretty important here.  With the set-up over, Logan flies to Japan to discover why his true love Mariko has vanished from New York.  Wolverine is convinced Mariko is completely out of his league, and not just culturally, something the art beautifully rams home by the way it presents Wolverine's photo of his love in amongst the muted panels.

Gorgeous. The whole book is well put together, in fact - full credit to Frank Miller - all muted tones and long shadows, colours standing in for emotions and silhouettes representing those deeds done at night best not thought of in daylight.

Once Logan arrives in Tokyo, he learns Mariko's presumed-dead father has returned, and has married Mariko off in order to pay an outstanding debt.  Despite her obvious wish to be left alone in her misery, Wolverine is determined to see her one last time, and breaks into the mansion he last saw in UXM #119.

He finds her beneath a Buddha statue in the garden.  She is not pleased to see him, there is too much pride in her.  It's amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to avoid an offer of help.  Not that there's any help to be given, at least as far as Mariko is concerned.  She loves her family's honour more than she does Logan, and that's simply all there is to it, despite the fact that her new husband is clearly beating her.  They are interrupted by the man himself, and Wolverine, of course, is immediately ready to gut him.  Mariko persuades him otherwise, however, and he leaves, heartbroken.

He doesn't get far - poisoned shuriken fly out from the darkness, and his healing factor drops him into a coma whilst it expels the deadly concoction.  He awakes before Lord Shingen - Mariko's father - and his two sumo bodyguards.  Mariko sits to one side, grief-stricken.  Shingen berates Wolverine, pouring scorn upon the arrogance that could make him consider himself worthy of someone of Yashida blood (yes, clearly Logan is the one with a superiority complex), and challenges him to a duel in order to humiliate him further.

Logan accepts immediately, and the surprisingly spry Shingen springs into action.  Brilliantly, it's all an exceptionally devious trap.  By choosing wooden swords, Shingen lets Mariko believe the duel is merely for show, but he immediately attempts to kill Wolverine by breaking his neck.  Lacking the necessary skill with a katana (he's good, but Shingen is exceptional), Logan's forced to toss his wooden blade aside and pop his claws, therefore giving the impression that a playful (if sour-natured) duel is enough to unleash his killing instinct.  Even with his claws, Wolverine cannot beat Shingen (though the Japanese Lord does not escape without injury), but that no longer matters: he has seemingly proven himself to Mariko the animal her father accused him of being.

He passes out, either from the pain, or the poison, or the overwhelming shame.  When he regains consciousness, he's out in the street, being threatened by some rather unpleasant "keep Japan pure!" types.  He lacks the strength to see them off, but luck is with him when they're dispatched for him.

Or is it really lucky?  His saviour, a woman strong enough to lift him into the air, has a simple message for him.  "mine, Wolverine.  Now -- and forever.>"

To be continued...

Clues

Wolverine's Canadian adventure lasts two days. He flies out to Japan the following morning, and the duel with Shingen (and presumably his return to consciousness) happen the following day.

We'll assume for now that this issue takes place immediately after UXM #160, which was published in the previous month.  Whether this assumption remains plausible after reading UXM Annual #6, which is next on the list, we shall see.

Date

Wednesday 21st to Saturday 24th April, 1983.

X-Date

X+5Y+21 to X+5Y+24.

Contemporary Events

The nuclear reactor at Kursk is forced to shut down following failure in its fuel rods.

Buster Crabbe passes away, aged 75.  Crabbe was probably most famous (especially for geeks) for portraying Flash Gordon in the 1936 serial (and its two sequels) that so enraged Annie Wilkes in Misery.

Standout Line

"Wooden practice swords?  Why not the real thing?"
"To be frank... you are not worthy of a true sword."