X Deaths Of Wolverine #4
The Wolverine family learns about the future as Moira makes her move in X Deaths Of Wolverine #4, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Federico Vicentini, colorist Dijjo Lima, and letterer Cory Petit. Percy and company keep rolling towards the story's inevitable end.
Phalanx Wolverine tells his children and Arnab Chakladar about the future of Krakoa and how he got there. He threatens the inventor until he finds out where Moira has went- Krakoa- and uses a claw to lobotomize him before having his children destroy the lab. Moira, having skinned Banshee so she can go through the gates, makes her way to Forge's lab for the gun that took away her powers as Destiny talks to the gestating Mystique husk about what's happening with her visions of the future. Moira hopes the gun will give her powers back so she can kill herself and start again, but it can't. She attacks Forge, and a psychic projection of Xavier shows up, telling her there's no way for her to get her powers back, as she was never backed up by Cerebro, and offers her Krakoan medicine. Still, she turns it down, grabbing some of Forge's armor and grabbing Destiny, who just came into the armory. Before she can leave, Phalanx Wolverine shows up and takes her down but takes a lot of damage, which causes his healing factor to concentrate on his injuries and stop holding back the Phalanx.
Percy gives readers one of the best Wolverine pages of all time in this book. He describes how each of his children dies, each one sadder than the last, making sure to identify Laura as Wolverine. There's so much pain in this page but also that feeling trademark Wolverine stubbornness, not just from him but his entire family. Their reactions, wonderfully rendered by Vicentini, are horrified, but then when he's done, in the last panel, he calls them his family and tells Chakladar to see them; it's there on their faces. They know how they could die, but they're going to keep fighting until that last moment. It's a beautiful synthesis of writing and art, and it really cements why this X Lives/X Deaths event is so great.
Being an X-Men fan, especially in this era that kicked off the way it did, means seeing terrible alternate futures and Percy delivers. He shows what is ultimately the end of Krakoa, as the Sentinels attack, and he's given his way of going back, and this timeline's version of the Phalanx showing up, much like in Moira's Life Six. The difference is that instead of the Librarian, Moira is the one who calls down the Phalanx. It really outlines the stakes of this story- stop Moira or all life on Earth dies in her twisted quest for immortality. Moira as a villain is straight-up fantastic. Seeing her step out of Banshee's skin, realizing she used their past relationship to kill him in such a horrid way, cements her as what could be the next big X-Men villain. It'll be interesting to see how this story ends with what Percy sets up here.
Vicentini, as outlined above, does a phenomenal job in this issue. His rendering of the maniacal Moira is terrific, and his rendering of the alternate future captures its chilling nature. His style works so well for this type of story, as it's nicely stylized and stands out from a lot of the other X-Men book artists. This issue looks great on every page, especially when Vicentini gets to really cut loose with the action or the emotion.
X Deaths Of Wolverine #4 does a remarkable job of laying out the stakes of Moira surviving. Percy picks up Hickman's baton from Inferno and runs with it. He and Vicentini make a great team, and this issue is yet another triumph for this event with an incredible cliffhanger.