Amazing X-Men #8 is the beginning of a new arc by a new creative team that will take some fans into the past.
This week Craig Kyle and Chris Yost kicked off World War Wendigo. When the leader of Alpha Flight goes missing, Logan goes to Canada to help Heather Hudson find James. The suspenseful issue ends with not one but an outbreak of the man-eating monsters. Can X-Men and Alpha Flight stop the beasts?
Amazing X-Men #8 is the first of a five part arc by Kyle, Yost and Ed McGuinness that feels new but nostalgic and reminds me of one the first times a comic book actually scared me!
This week’s issue took me way back to childhood and the first time I experience the fear inducing fury of the Wendigo.
Uncanny X-Men #139, 140 are by the legendary team of Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin.
This is when I first learned Wolverine was in a team before the X-Men and wore a brown costume. After an earlier clash between the mutants and Alpha Flight, Logan decided it was time to go back to Canada to set things right. (Logan was supposed to have been the leader of Canadian government backed Alpha Flight but joined the X-Men instead.)
Nightcrawler joined Wolverine on the mission. Kurt and readers were surprised to hear Heather call Wolverine by the name Logan. The first time Wolverine was referred to as Logan, the brown costume – yes, this is a historic arc of “firsts.”
Logan and Nightcrawler soon met the rest of Alpha Flight but not before Shaman’s mystical alarms go off. The Wendigo is on the loose. A mother and child are being talked by the monster. Wolverine battles the beast but it’s Snowbird who finally takes down the Wendigo then Logan must tame the wild animal Snowbird (a mystical shapeshifter) became in order to stop the Wendigo.
During the chilling story we learn the legend of how when man eats man, he can become possessed and transform into the savage beast. You can imagine a little X-Fan reading with chills as the Wendigo nearly makes a meal out of Nightcrawler then a mom and her baby.
This was not Wolverine’s first encounter with the Wendigo. Logan’s first comic book appearance was in Incredible Hulk #181 as the Green Goliath battled the white beast of the north. Logan and Alpha Flight would face the Wendigo again and again but this time – they face massive wild pack as World War Wendigo rages on.
Here’s a link to that Claremont/Byrne era including that story.
By Editor