The curse of the Pale Girl comes into full bloom as Wolverine and Agent Bannister team up to investigate The Flower Cartel. In Wolverine #2, Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert, and Frank Martin put the canucklehead through the ringer as they examine the cost of what he leaves in his wake.
Tony Thornley: Hey Pierce! It feels like forever since we last talked! I feel like we’ve been hanging on the edge for so long!
Pierce Lightning: This whole month has felt like a year but it’s good to be back. Let talk about the ol’ Canucklehead
New Twist, Old Story
TT: So Percy wastes no time in this issue, jumping right back in with a flashback. We see about two minutes before the last issue picked up, with Logan fighting off three attackers- Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike and… did you recognize the third? I didn’t.
PL: My guess is that it is Abraham Cornelius from Barry Windsor-Smith’s seminal “Weapon X” storyline. The appearance of a mad scientist/doctor type made me think it has to be related to that storyline in some way.
TT: Oh that makes sense! The thing that sticks out to me about this sequence is how much it echoes the “modern classic” Old Man Logan. These three villains are just psychic illusions projected over other people. It’s clear that the Pale Girl, the mysterious villain we met last issue, is the source of the illusion. However, this is almost beat for beat the same as Old Man Logan. In that storyline, Logan was duped by Mysterio into thinking that his teammates were all the world’s greatest villains, resulting in him slaughtering all of them.
PL: Given the reveal in this weeks’ Giant Size X-Men, we know it’s probably not Mastermind/Lady Mastermind so the Pale Girl’s powers are dubious. However, it seems that the Pale Girl does more than project things onto Logan’s brain, she’s able to turn on a sort of berserker rage with him. And I know we skipped the opening salvo of this issue but it seems like she just straight up mind controls Iceman and Pyro, so what’s the deal?
TT: That’s a good point about the cold open of the issue. There’s a suite of specific psychic powers that she displays here, which I like. Too often we get blanket telepathic, but the Pale Girl is specifically an illusionist and manipulator. She’s like a mixture of Mastermind and the Puppet Master, creating a fairly unique antagonist.
PL: I’ve got to say though, I’m a big fan of Percy’s narration in this section. I know folks bristle at his prosiness but Adam Kubert balances it out with some really stellar art and that really sells it for me. In a lot of ways, it reminds me a lot of what Barry Windsor-Smith was doing with “Weapon X” – this heady story with captioning that feels obscure and non sequitur that still relates back to the visuals in a way.
TT: I can’t disagree with that! It’s kind of neo-noir in a way that fits Logan. Another thing I really like about Kubert’s work here is how grotesque he makes everything the Pale Girl does. In the opening scene, we get Bishop being attacked by an illusion of zombie Kate Pryde. Later in the issue, she murders two of Agent Bannister’s subordinates. Both moments are incredibly gruesome and brutal, but Kubert makes it look great. He has a knack for horror that I don’t think I realized.
Strange Bedfellows
TT: I don’t think I expected Bannister and Logan to team up quite so quickly, but here we are. There’s no cliched conversation between cop and prisoner, no angry back and forth. Though it’s clear neither like each other or the fact they’re working together, there’s an instant begrudging respect.
PL: I was a little taken by surprise there as well but I guess Bannister makes a pretty good case to Logan. Though I did think that Percy’s lawn metaphor was a little much. Logan’s a pretty no nonsense guy especially in a situation like this where someone has been messing with his head so I don’t think that he would have needed quite that much convincing. Plus two pages of Adam Kubert drawing two guys drinking a beer on a well manicured lawn is intrinsically less exciting than most of the pages around it. [Ed. note: some nameless editors did love it]
TT: The duo teaming up is also positioned in an interesting place- immediately after Logan tries to apologize to Cyclops for hurting Jean. Now Logan and Scott have always had a painful and strained relationship, but going back to Rosenberg’s Uncanny run we’ve been seeing them repair the hurt and grow closer again. That last year plus of stories really makes that scene hurt.
PL: Yeah, there’s definitely some trouble in paradise for our little polycule. I like seeing Wolverine on his heels a little bit in this scene. He knows he’s done something wrong and he knows he isn’t being let off the hook just because of the resurrection protocols on Krakoa. That double page spread is one of my favorites in the whole book because the art echoes the feelings on the page. There is a great divide between two pillars of the X-Men and that drives Logan’s need to make things right. We already knew that was what he wanted to do but there’s a desperation in his words to a steely, silent Scott Summers.
TT: That two page spread might be the best part of the issue too. It’s sparse narratively speaking, but it allows the pain to be felt in the silences. It’s a well constructed bit of storytelling by Kubert, and it’s made even better by the ethereal glow that Martin adds.
The Sting
TT: And then we get to the issue’s end- a sting operation by Logan and Bannister. The duo set out with a boat full of petals, Bannister, and his second in command Milly. I really like the dialogue between them as well. I feel like this is something few outside of Percy would have said- “I prefer tracking game to baiting traps.”
Logan has always been a hunter, even acting as a de facto PI or tracker often. But this is a touch that I haven’t thought of. There are many different types of hunting out there, but those two methods are definitely the most easily recognizable. When you dig into the differences between the two, you see a lot about Logan. He’s a proactive character, always in motion, always trying to track his prey down. Baiting a trap and waiting for his prey doesn’t seem like Logan one bit. It makes so much sense when you think about it, and it’s great to see made explicit.
But then Logan isn’t the only hunter here. The trap is sprung and we find out the Pale Girl (who is either impersonating Milly or actually has been the CIA agent the whole time) is ten steps ahead of the duo. She takes control of Logan as he stabs Bannister, and heads for wherever her destination is. This puts the Pale Girl in a direct opposition to Logan- she’s a patient cunning hunter, who waits to spring her trap until the moment is right.
So what did you think of the issue overall Pierce?
PL: In a lot of ways, this issue feels like it doubles down on the previous issue by expanding on the Pale Girl’s effects and her threat to Logan/Krakoa. But the Order of X stuff doesn’t even get referenced and given the ending of this issue, it feels like Percy has us in a bit of narrative limbo. He’s definitely fleshed out some of his intentions from the first issue but he doesn’t really move the chains much overall.
TT: Yeah, I think you’re exactly right. I feel like he’s setting up pieces for a big action setpiece conclusion to the story. Thankfully it looked so good, probably one of the best looking Wolverine stories in years.
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Why does Wolverine seem to have such a problem with women wearing white?
- There’s no way that this arc doesn’t end with Logan visiting the little girl in the hospital, right?
- Would kind of love to see how Jean feels about what’s going on with Logan.
- I had sort of assumed this book might be the bridge between the Marvel Universe and Krakoa considering the premise. I hope we do end up getting that
- Krakoan reads BAR FLY
Pierce Lightning is a longtime comics journalist and critic, singer for a band called Power Trash, and staving off the crushing heel of capitalism with every fiber of their comic book loving being.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
Pierce Lightning is a longtime comics journalist and critic, singer for a band called Power Trash, and staving off the crushing heel of capitalism with every fiber of their comic book loving being.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
