| "Death of Wolverine" | |
|---|---|
 Cover to Death of Wolverine #1 (Nov 2014). Art by Steve McNiven and Justin Ponsor. | |
| 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 Mister Fantastic offered to work on finding a means of reactivating his healing factor but Wolverine accepts who he is and decides not to try and fix it.
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 Viper, who then points him in the direction of a "Lord Ogun"; Ogun is eventually identified as Doctor Abraham Cornelius, the founder of the Weapon X program. Wolverine travels to Paradise, where he finds Cornelius trying to replicate what he did to Wolverine, but is unable to finish his work as he cannot replicate the healing factor. Wolverine reveals to him that he no longer has a healing factor for the doctor to copy; on hearing this, Cornelius is enraged and sets his latest experiment on Wolverine. Wolverine defeats Dr. Cornelius' latest experiment and Cornelius, in desperation, tries to escape by activating the adamantium bonding process on the three other subjects. Wolverine slashes the adamantium container before the bonding process can begin, but gets covered in molten adamantium when the container shatters.
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 where beats 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. "Here's to you, Bub"
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 they then fight.
Hisako Ichiki (Armor) is shown in the danger room fighting villains when Hellion interrupts and tries to console her, saying that Wolverine would become a part of her armor and he would always be with her.
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".[8] Eric Diaz of the Nerdist gave it a positive review rating it 3 out of 5 burritos (burritos being the equivalent to stars).[9] However, Stew Shearer of The Escapist gave it 2 out of 5 stars stating that "Death of Wolverine is a lousy send-off for a character who is easily one of Marvel's most iconic. Setting aside the fact that this is most certainly all temporary, the book does little to draw the reader in or keep them interested."[10]
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
