Wolverine aka Logan aka James Howlett is a dead man walking. Marvel plans on killing the fan-favorite X-Man in Death of Wolverine. After a long life as a tortured hero the nearly immortal mutant lost his healing factor in Wolverine by Paul Cornell. After Cornell’s 3 Months To Die storyline, Logan’s final adventure will appear in Death of Wolverine by Charles Soule and Steve McNiven.
This geek has been thinking: Logan may soon be gone but will another clawed hero take his place among the X-Men and Marvel Universe?
Back in the 1990’s it became a popular trend for a iconic hero to be killed off or taken out of action and replaced with a new character with a familiar code-name. War Machine for Iron Man, U.S. Agent for Captain America, Thunderstike for Thor are some Marvel examples. During that time at DC Comics, Azrael became the new Batman after Bruce Wayne’s back was broken. Clark Kent’s death was followed by the Reign of the Supermen that gave us Steel, Superboy and many more. Kyle Rayner became Green Lantern after Hal Jordan’s descent into madness.
Just because Logan is gone does it mean there will not be a Wolverine in the Marvel Universe? Let’s look at the first of some unusual suspects:
Sabretooth.
Vicious killer Victor Creed has become more of a cool manipulator under Cornell’s run by pitting villains against Logan to break him down. Logan is playing the villain in a plot within a plot to get to Sabretooth, now a major crime boss.
Back in the 90’s when Logan left the X-Men after losing his adamantium, Sabretooth was an “unofficial” X-Man. Victor was actually a patient of Professor Xavier and joined Banshee and Emma Frost on an adventure that would lead to the formation of Generation X.
I’ll never forget Boom Boom’s face when she saw Victor gut Psylocke after almost thinking he could be redeemed.
Victor would later work for X-Factor when it was a government run team and formed a reluctant alliance with Rogue’s X-Men against the Children of the Vault. In the Evolution storyline Logan killed Creed by beheading him but the villain turned up again working for the new Hellfire Club and Mystique.
Looking at Creed’s history – he’s never been redeemable but has worked for the good guys when it was in his best interest.
After Doc Ock became the Superior Spider-Man, could Marvel be plotting the ultimate “in your face” move by having Logan’s most ruthless enemy become the new clawed anti-hero of Marvel?
Stay tuned for more theories and news on the Death of Wolverine and the world with him.
By Editor