X Deaths Of Wolverine #3
As the children of Wolverine go after the Omega Wolverine, Moira starts her new plan in X Deaths Of Wolverine #3, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Federico Vicenti, colorist Dijjo Lima, and letterer Cory Petit. This issue is pregnant with story build-up and a bombshell of an ending.
As Wolverine and Scout have a conversation about the Vault, Professor X shows up a psychic projection to send her on a mission to find the Phalanx Wolverine. Scout decides to go with them. At the launch of tech entrepreneur Arnab Chakladar's newest product, Delores Ramirez of the CIA X-Desk warns him of a threat and that they want to take him away, but he rebuffs them. Phalanx Wolverine shows up and fights his way through the security, but Wolverine, Scout, and Akihiro show up. At Chakladar's home, Moira meets him and shows him information as the Wolverine family fights it out. Akihiro realizes that this is the real Wolverine, not some kind of copy and that he's rather badly injured. Chakladar and Moira begin working on bringing back her immortality by a new means. The Phalanx Wolverine reveals his secrets to his family members, and it changes everything.
Issue three seems to be the place where Percy is throwing out the big stuff in the X Lives/X Deaths combo. This issue drops two major bombshells about the future of Krakoa, neither of which will be spoiled here, but they definitely change the way things are going to be perceived by readers going forward in the Krakoa era. The reset button that Moira represented is gone; there's no undoing any of this at this point, so the future readers see at the end of the issue is set in stone. This reviewer was wrong about where the Phalanx Wolverine came from but finding out what he's about makes the character and his mystery that much better. While it's not an as high concept as him being from Moira's sixth life and all of her lives being connected by the power of the Phalanx and their black hole-based computers, it's definitely an interesting development.
This issue also clues readers about Moira's importance- she likes to be immortal. She's had ten lifetimes now, with over a thousand years of life. She likes to live and will do anything to make that happen. She's an angry woman at this point; she hates the mutants for taking her immortality away from her. A quote from an info page reveals that she wanted the mutants to live forever with her, but now everything has changed. Readers get to see how far she's willing to go for revenge, and the events of this issue's future flash-forward and the ones readers learned about in Inferno cast the future of Krakoa in a very dark light. Anyone's guess is how all of this plays out, but Percy is doing a great job dropping bombs on readers.
Vicenti once again proves that he's a rising star with this issue. His style plays well with the X-Men event artists, and there are some wonderful visuals in this issue, from Scout jumping out of a tree to join Wolverine's mission to the battle of the Wolverines to Moira and Arnab to the final scenes. This is a great-looking comic, and it fits the rather momentous affairs within.
X Deaths Of Wolverine #3 changes the context of everything about the Krakoa era. Moira's depowering was only the beginning, and hopefully, with the developments of this issue, she'll remain a major player in this era of the X-Men. Percy and company are doing great work in this comic.