Death of Wolverine
"Death of Wolverine" | |
---|---|
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
Publication date | September – October 2014 |
Genre |
|
Main character(s) | Wolverine |
Creative team | |
Writer(s) | Charles Soule |
Penciller(s) | Steve McNiven |
Inker(s) | Jay Leisten |
Colorist(s) | Justin Ponsor |
"Death of Wolverine" is a 2014 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics. The story has grown from both volume 5 (Marvel Now!) and volume 6 (All-New Marvel Now!) of the Wolverine main series, and also continued with "Hunt for Wolverine" and "Return of Wolverine".
Premise
The start of the storyline (Wolverine vol. 5 #1–6) details how a virus from the microverse caused Wolverine's mutant healing factor to burn out and stop working, allowing enemies from his past to attempt to finally kill him.
The main series is followed by a number of aftermath mini-series that chronicle Wolverine's friends and family as they come to terms with the death of Logan. This series forms a lead-in to the weekly Wolverines title beginning in January 2015.[1]
Plot
In September and October 2014, the "Death of Wolverine" storyline began after a virus from the microverse turned off Wolverine's healing factor, allowing his enemies to kill him. Heroes such as
When he learns that there is a bounty on his head, Logan resolves to find who wants him dead. His search initially leads him to
Dr. Cornelius is shown to be fatally injured with a piece of glass as a result of Wolverine throwing the Experiment through the glass window previously. As Dr. Cornelius dies, he demands to know what Wolverine, who he sees as nothing more than a failed experiment, accomplished in his life. Wolverine reflects on this and thinks he has done enough with his life, before he dies from suffocation from the hardening adamantium, kneeling in the sunset outside of Dr. Cornelius' base. This leaves Storm in charge of the X-Men and the team is heartbroken over what happened to Wolverine.[2]
Aftermath
Death of Wolverine: Deadpool and Captain America
An elderly Steve Rogers and Deadpool are shown collecting anything which has Wolverine's DNA on it and destroying it, so no one would be able to clone the Wolverine. They infiltrate an A.I.M base, where they steal a blade with Wolverine's blood on it. As they leave, Steve goes inside, leaving the blade with Deadpool and saying that Deadpool knows what to do with it. Deadpool then takes the blade to Butler's incubator, which could regrow an entire being. Deadpool scrapes the blood from the knife into a petri dish but hesitates before putting it in the machine, wondering whether he should resurrect Wolverine or let him rest and decides that he needs to think it over.
Cyclops is shown entering a bar and beating a couple of men who were insulting one man's son for being a mutant. After beating them, he raises a glass of beer as a toast to Wolverine.
Nightcrawler
Nightcrawler and Colossus travel to Mariko's grave, where they take out Wolverine's sword and slam it into the grave as a sign of them being together. The men guarding the grave take it as an insult and attack them. Nightcrawler says, "First we honor his love, then we honor what he did best," and fight the guards.
Spider-Man and the X-Men
As one of his last requests, Wolverine arranged for Spider-Man to become a member of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning's staff, wanting Spider-Man to investigate a suspected double agent. Despite the initial hostility he faced from the rest of the team, Spider-Man soon exposed a plan by Mister Sinister to acquire genetic samples from the X-Men and create a new clone army. Storm even noted after Sinister's defeat that Spider-Man's unconventional attitude made him more like Wolverine than she had acknowledged. This is shown in Spider-Man and the X-Men.
X-23
A team formed by test subjects at Paradise awakes after Wolverine's life force has depleted and escapes from Paradise. They find that Cornelius experimented on them, giving them super powers. But since they were test subjects, they were designed to die quickly. In an attempt to stay alive, they go after X-23, Daken, Sabretooth, Mystique, Lady Deathstrike and Elixir to obtain or copy their healing factors. The story is largely shown in the fourth volume of X-23.
Titles involved
Title | Issue(s) | |
---|---|---|
Lead up/Preludes | ||
Wolverine Volume Five | #1–13 | |
Wolverine Volume Six | #1–12 | |
Wolverine Volume Six Annual | #1 | |
Core miniseries | ||
Death of Wolverine | #1–4 | |
Aftermath Tie-ins | ||
Death of Wolverine: Deadpool & Captain America | #1 | |
Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan | #1 | |
Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy | #1–7 | |
Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program | #1–5 | |
Nightcrawler | #7 | |
Spider-Man and the X-Men | #1-6 | |
Storm | #4-5 | |
Wolverine and the X-Men | #10–11 | |
Wolverines | #1-20 |
Reception
Core miniseries | |||
---|---|---|---|
IGN | |||
Issue | Rating | ||
1 | 8.6/10[4] | ||
2 | 8.3/10[5] | ||
3 | 8.2/10[6] | ||
4 | 7.1/10[7] |
Death of Wolverine received positive reviews. IGN gave the story and the overall graphic novel a positive review giving it a 6.0 rating out of 10 with a verdict, "Death of Wolverine is not a perfect story. The spartan approach to storytelling hurts as well as helps the book at times. But between Soule's clever take on writing Wolverine and the amazing work produced by the art team, this is a story every Wolverine fan should experience. The hardcover version only enhances the presentation quality".
Collected editions
Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|
Death of Wolverine Prelude: Three Months to Die | Wolverine (vol. 6) #1-12, Wolverine Annual #1 | July 2020 | 978-1302922832 |
Death of Wolverine | Death of Wolverine #1-4 | January 2015 | 978-0785193517 |
Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program | Death Of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program #1-5, Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan #1 | March 2015 | 978-0785192602 |
Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy | Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1-7 | March 2015 | 978-0785192596 |
Death of Wolverine: The Complete Collection | Death Of Wolverine #1-4, Death Of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program #1-5, Death Of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1-7, Death Of Wolverine: Deadpool & Captain America #1, Death Of Wolverine: Life After Logan #1 | May 2018 | 978-1302912420 |
Wolverine & the X-Men Vol. 2: Death of Wolverine | Wolverine & the X-Men (vol. 2) #7-12 | February 2015 | 978-0785189930 |
Death of Wolverine Companion | Nightcrawler #7, Wolverine & the X-Men (vol. 2) #10-11, Wolverines #1-20 | March 2019 | 978-1302916107 |
In other media
The Death of Wolverine served as one of the two "Wolverine" storylines alongside Old Man Logan as the main sources of inspiration for the 2017 film Logan. While featuring an original premise, the death of the titular character was taken from The Death of Wolverine.[11]
References
- ^ "Marvel News, Blog, Articles & Press Releases | Marvel".
- ^ Death of Wolverine #1–4
- ^ "Secret Empire #4 Review - when off the Wall is a Good Thing".
- ^ "Death of Wolverine #1 Review - IGN". September 2014.
- ^ "The Death of Wolverine #2 Review - IGN". 11 September 2014.
- ^ "Death of Wolverine #3 Review - IGN". 2 October 2014.
- ^ "Death of Wolverine #4 Review - IGN". 16 October 2014.
- ^ "Graphic Novel Review: Death of Wolverine HC - IGN". 6 January 2015.
- ^ "Review: Marvel's DEATH OF WOLVERINE Collected Edition | Nerdist". Archived from the original on 2017-09-02. Retrieved 2017-06-29.
- ^ "The Escapist Reviews Marvel Death of Wolverine | Comics and Cosplay | The Escapist". www.escapistmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2014-10-23.
- ^ Charles Soule "About the Author" section:
CHARLES SOULE is a New York Times bestselling, Brooklyn-based comic book writer, musician, and attorney. He is best known for writing Daredevil, She-Hulk, Death of Wolverine (inspiration for the film Logan), and various Star Wars comics from Marvel Comics, as well as his creator-owned series Curse Words from Image Comics and the award-winning political sci-fi epic Letter 44 from Oni Press. His debut novel, The Oracle Year, will be published in 2018 by HarperCollins.
External links
- Death of Wolverine at Marvel Wiki