We are just past the big 50th issue showdown with Shiva, the killer robot, which is presumably trying to track down and kill Sabretooth. In the meantime, the X-Men are trying to get a handle on what the revelation that many of Logan's memories were faked on a bunch of movie sets had on him.
Results are either troubling, or totally rad, depending on your perspective. Wolverine hacks through the highest settings the Danger Room's got with barely any change in his vitals. Logan knows it, too, so Xavier offers him a new challenge, 'virtual reality visualizer and sensors.' Because putting Logan in a big metal helmet with a red eyescreen never ends badly.
Logan's confronted with, as he puts it, 'refugees from a Dire Straits video' forms of Ogun and Shigen, and the helmet supplies dialogue based on his own mind. The longer it goes, the more Kubert shifts from a cubic, 80s computer graphics look to his normal style, as Xavier and Forge add Sabretooth and Lady Deathstrike to the mix.
Not that it matters, Logan takes the quartet out in 4.839 seconds. Forge notes his emotional pattern has regressed to that of a berserker, while retaining more sophisticated combat skills, using the comparison of doing a gold medal gymnast routine while beating four chess computers.
It's only after the "fight" is over and Logan's just howling that Storm and Cyclops decide this is something they don't want to be a part of and leave the control room. As though that would stop Charles Xavier when he's got a bad idea! But really, Xavier thinks this gruff, more hostile Logan, may be the real Logan, reasserting itself with the memory blocks removed.
Or maybe Logan's just an asshole. He gives Jubilee the brush-off to go to a nearby dive bar, where he meets a blonde woman in a tight mini-skirt. He correctly notes she's not there to shoot pool with, 'no hoi-polloi'. After some quick discussion of the selection on the jukebox (and the tendency of musicians to die in plane crashes), and some dancing, they retire to her motel.
Jubilee, meanwhile, can't sleep and goes rollerblading into town, finding Logan's motorcycle parked outside the Cloud 9 motel. Against her judgment, she investigates, and who emerges from a motel room but Jean Grey! Hey, timeline-wise, we're about 25 issues from Logan getting his Admantium torn out, which means we aren't too far ahead of that whole thing where Psylocke (for some reason) tried to seduce Cyclops. Jean's just getting pre-emptive revenge, for that or the messing around with Emma Frost thing.
Logan's motorcycle mysteriously falls over seconds later (and Logan refers to it as his, 'scoot', which is the same term Jubilee used when he brushed her off, but looks damn weird coming from Wolverine's voice bubble), by which time we know the blonde/Jean Grey is actually Mystique! Jubilee figures something's up about the time she reaches the Mansion and finds Jean Grey heading out on a morning jog.
As for Mystique, she's acting a little odd. Logan claims to have known it was her in the bar, due to her scent, and Mystique mocks the notion he accepted her offer strictly for business. It also turns out she impersonated Silver Fox at some point during their fucking, which is mostly confusing to me in terms of how Mystique knows about Logan's old girlfriend. Did he go to the trouble of describing her? "No, the hair needs to be silkier. The headband is darker red. Damn, Raven, are you even trying?"
Anyway, Logan claims he played along because he could smell fear and wanted to know what's happening. Mystique keeps speaking in vague terms about someone having gone off the deep end, and she can't use the person's name, because they'll know and track her down. Logan finds it unlikely the person in question could pick out their name among all the everyday uses. It's not that common a word, is it? Spiral?
Oh. Well. Never mind then.There's also a subplot about the Wolverine robot Albert and Elsie-Dee repairing their stealth ship and going to do. . .something, with a big white werewolf in tow. No clue what that was about.
[12th longbox, 160th comic. Wolverine (vol. 1) #51, by Larry Hama (writer), Andy Kubert (penciler), Dan Green (inker), Steve Buccellato (colorist), Pat Brosseau (letterer)]
2 comments:
I quite like the virtual reality look in those first panels. Reminds me a bit of John Romita JR in those early days after he'd stopped drawing like his dad, but hadn't quite developed his current style. Circa Daredevil.
I can see that, a bit. I like the panels in the issue where's the a mixture, like Logan's is growing more immersed in the simulation, but not entirely. His enemies' heads might still be blocky like a Minecraft character, but there arms are starting to look more "real".
Though what I really noticed was, in the rest of the issue, how much Andy's work resembles his dad's. The soft lines around the face in that panel of Logan on the hotel bed, for example. I usually picture their work looking more similar to Jim Lee's.
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