"Death of Wolverine" | |
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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".
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]
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]
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 on 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 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.
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.
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.
Title | Issue(s) | |
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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 | |
Core miniseries | |||
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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]
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 |
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]
Deadpool is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, the character first appeared in New Mutants #98. In his comic book appearances, Deadpool is initially depicted as a supervillain of the New Mutants and X-Force, though later stories would portray him as an antihero. Deadpool is the alter ego of Wade Wilson, a disfigured Canadian mercenary with superhuman regenerative healing abilities. He is known for his tendency to joke incessantly and break the fourth wall for humorous effect.
Wolverine is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, mostly in association with the X-Men. He is a mutant with animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, a powerful regenerative ability known as a healing factor, and three retractable claws in each hand. Wolverine has been depicted as a member of the X-Men, X-Force, Alpha Flight, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers.
Sabretooth is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men, in particular as an enemy of the mutant Wolverine. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, the character made his first appearance in Iron Fist #14. The original portrayal of Sabretooth was that of a non-powered serial killer, but was later written as a mutant possessing bestial superhuman abilities, most notably a rapid healing factor, razor-sharp fangs and claws, and superhuman senses. He is a vicious assassin, who was responsible for numerous deaths throughout history, both as a paid mercenary and for his personal pleasure. Accounts on how his enmity with Wolverine originated differs depending on different writers. One of the most common accounts is that Wolverine and Sabretooth were both participants of the Cold War supersoldier program Weapon X, and that Sabretooth saw Wolverine as competition and therefore antagonized him. While Wolverine is depicted as suppressing his more savage qualities, Sabretooth does the opposite and embraces them, until the events of the 2014 storyline "AXIS".
Lady Deathstrike, occasionally spelled Deathstryke, is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a foe of the X-Men, especially Wolverine.
Omega Red is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, most commonly in association with the X-Men. In 2009, Omega Red was ranked as IGN's 95th-greatest comic book villain of all time.
Weapon X is a fictional government genetic research facility project appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were conducted by Department K, which turned willing and unwilling beings into living weapons to carry out covert missions like assassination or eliminating potential threats to the government. It was similar to human enhancement experiments in the real world, but it captured mutants and did experiments on them to enhance their abilities such as superpowers, turning them into human weapons. They also mutated baseline humans. The Weapon X Project produced Wolverine, Leech, Deadpool, Sabretooth, and Weapon H.
X-23 is a fictional superheroine appearing in media published by Marvel Entertainment, commonly in association with the X-Men. The character was created by writer Craig Kyle for the X-Men: Evolution television series in 2003, before debuting in the NYX comic series in 2004. Since then she has headlined two six-issue miniseries written by Kyle and Christopher Yost, a one-shot and self-titled series written by Marjorie Liu, and All-New Wolverine by Tom Taylor.
Cyber is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an enemy of Wolverine of the X-Men. Created by writer Peter David and artist Sam Kieth, he first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #85, though his physical appearance was obscured by a trench coat and hat. He was first fully seen and named in Marvel Comics Presents #86.
Wolverine is a fictional character appearing in books published by Marvel Comics. He is an alternative version of Wolverine that appears in the Ultimate Marvel imprint, in stories separate from the original character. Created by writer Mark Millar and artist Adam Kubert, Ultimate Wolverine first appeared in Ultimate X-Men #1.
Malcolm Colcord, also known as The Director, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character plays an important role in Weapon X comics and has appeared as a villain in Wolverine.
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Abraham Cornelius is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He works as a scientist for Weapon X and was one of the people who played a part in the origin of Wolverine.
Daken is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Daken was created by writer Daniel Way and artist Steve Dillon and first appeared in Wolverine: Origins #5.
Wolverine: Origins is an American comic book series written by Daniel Way, published by Marvel Comics and starring Wolverine. Steve Dillon drew the series from the first issue through issue #25.
Old Man Logan is an alternative version of the fictional character Wolverine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. This character is an aged version of Wolverine set in an alternate future universe designated Earth-807128, where the supervillains overthrew the superheroes. Introduced as a self-contained story arc within the Wolverine ongoing series by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven, the character became popular with fans. After the death of Wolverine, Laura Kinney took the Wolverine mantle but an Old Man Logan from the similar Earth-21923 was brought in to serve as an X-Man and featured in his own ongoing series.
Wolverine: Weapon X is a 2009 comic book series published by Marvel Comics starring the superhero Wolverine. The series is written by Jason Aaron, writing his first ongoing series starring Wolverine after writing several one-shots and limited series featuring the Marvel mainstay character. The series lasted sixteen issues.
"Hunt for Wolverine" is a 2018 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, starring the character Wolverine. The storyline is the follow-up to the Death of Wolverine event, and is continued with Return of Wolverine.
Wade Wilson, also known as Deadpool, is a character portrayed by Ryan Reynolds in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series and later the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise produced by Marvel Studios. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, he was heavily adapted for his first appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), in which he is depicted as a mutant mercenary who is transformed by William Stryker into a genetically altered mutant killer known as Weapon XI.
James "Jimmy" Howlett, also known as Logan or by his codename, The Wolverine, is a fictional character originating as the primary protagonist of 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series, and appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise produced by Marvel Studios. He is portrayed by Hugh Jackman and based on the Marvel Comics character Wolverine, created by Roy Thomas, Len Wein and John Romita Sr.
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.