X Lives of Wolverine has been a masterclass in fast-paced action drawn beautifully by Joshua Cassara, and it returns this week after a slight bump off schedule. Focused primarily on Omega Red trying to kill Charles Xavier’s family in the past, Wolverine must stop at nothing to save him or else Krakoa as we know it will be no more. In the last issue, Wolverine lost control of himself, and now it is a fight that’s been taken up a notch.
Don’t expect spoilers in this review, but the preview certainly excites us as we’re jumping back to the Weapon X days in Wolverine’s life. So far we’ve seen Wolverine zip back in time through the aid of Xavier and Jean Grey to specific eras like in Japan where he conceived Daken, his time as a covert-ops with Maverick, and back when he was a young pup in Canada at the start of the 20th century. Getting to see another era, and an important one at that is an exciting start to the fourth chapter in the series.
And that excitement continues throughout this issue as it touches base in eras we’ve seen and new eras that are important to Logan’s history. Curious how important past eras in Logan’s life specifically have cropped up, but just wait until writer Benjamin Percy takes you on a ride showing how these moments are impactful and important. There are multiple surprises in store for readers with this issue alone.
Speaking of time travel, this issue does some heavy lifting to explain how Logan’s actions could change everything, but also how there are safeguards in place too. It’s nice to see Percy think about time travel in this way since so many time travel stories ignore the butterfly effect or the ramifications of messing around with it.
Parasite, you say?
Credit: Marvel
Joshua Cassara’s work is great, with some impressive layout design ideas like in past issues of the series. Cassara brings a splashy quality that gives the book an epic event-level feel with a level of detail you just don’t see on this scale. Jim Lee comes to mind with how good his pages look. He’s joined by Federico Vicentini on art–who is also drawing X Deaths of Wolverine–and he’s drawing one specific timeline here. That helps make things less jarring when the artists switch, but he’s also bringing a heavy dose of detail to every panel and page. There’s some great use of blur and other effects in Vicentini’s pages that enhance the action as well.
Colors by Frank Martin are also out of this world good. The opening scene, for instance, adds so much color to the Weapon X facility with lights, dials, and monitors lit up. The hazy blue that hangs at the feet of Dr. Cornelius. The book has a rich, multi-layered visual style thanks to the colors.
If it’s not apparent by now, this five-issue series is slowly progressing the Omega Red plot. There’s tons of action, yes, but the newest development kicks off at the start of this issue. This series is a great action sequence across different timelines, but a larger story is unfolding quite slowly. It makes each issue awesome to read, especially from an art perspective, but there’s a faint wanting for more via character development.
The biggest takeaway from X Lives of Wolverine many will find is how this issue has something important to say. It adds new info around time travel, but also new context about what is going on in the series too. In the case of Wolverine’s time travel exploits, what goes around comes around in an exciting week seven.
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