Comics

Published on June 2nd, 2024 | by Matt Fischer

Wolverine #50 (2024) Review

Background – He’s FINALLY dead! For now!

Writing – Guess what this is: a milestone issue! You know what that means? CHAPTERS! Let’s break this down:

Chapter 1: – “Coup De Grace” – It’s finally here. The final fight between Sabretooth and Wolverine. Wolverine has donned special adamantium armor and has just started to battle Graydon Creed when Sabretooth arrives seemingly out of nowhere and kills his own son, which shocks even Logan. Sabretooth runs away and manages to trick Logan into entering the former Quiet Councils chamber, where he commands the island’s vines to pull Logan down into itself and remove the armor. Don’t fret though because Logan and Forge anticipated this!  The armor wasn’t just armor, it also reactivated his mutant healing factor! What proceeds is a quick but bloody mess as Logan uses a spare Muramasa blade to hack Sabretooth to bits.

After the fight, Phoebe Cuckoo deactivates Quentin Quire’s head, finally killing him. The team of X-Factor, Logan, and the remaining Exiles all leave Krakoa for what could be the final time.

I have never liked Sabretooth. He’s Logan’s Joker (who I’m not a fan of either.) That means he’s a one note villain. All he does is kill everything. He’s boring. That being said, this is by far the most engaging and across the board consistent Sabretooth I’ve ever read. He’s gone from a man who had the chance of having his own team, his own family, but because he was not capable of caring about anyone but himself, he winds up dismembered on a beach. While I’m sure he’s unhappy about that outcome, the previous issue did state that he likes himself just the way he is, so maybe he doesn’t even care in the long run. He lives to torture Logan, so this is probably just another impediment in his mind.

As for Wolverine, he’s won. Every year on his birthday Sabretooth decides to make his life hell, and this has been no different. There is a certain finality given to this encounter however (and not just because it’s the last issue of the book). Logan has seemingly come to terms with the fact that Sabretooth will never stop, that this will be an endless war of blood, but for the time being this family is safe (for the most part) and that’s all he could ask for.

As for the other characters, Mindy Cuckoo lets Quentin Quire’s head die and while that is supposed to be sad, it’s really just more bittersweet considering we know he’s going to be returning in the new “X-Men” title in the coming months. While I hope this doesn’t mean that ALL his development is going to go out of the window, I have a sneaking suspicion it will. So for now we should mourn the loss of a character that grew TREMENDOUSLY in the Krakoan era.

            The Exiles have left the island, the book, and probably Marvel continuity for now. They have turned into just another team that somebody can use and I hope they do, but with Toad and Melter both dead and Oya joining another X-team soon, I have a feeling that Madison Jefferies will simply vanish and the next time we see Nekra she’s going to be a villain again.

Oh, and on the topic of the armor restoring his powers… yeah that’s a cop out. Is Forge Batman now? Is he a master planner all of a sudden who can anticipate moves 5 steps ahead of everyone else? It’s a silly ending to that plot point, but a necessary one. After all, we can’t start a new era with a powerless Logan!

Onto the new Wolverine title starting in September!

Chapter 2 – “Mutants on The Edge Of Town”: This is set long before Krakoa. Jubilee and Logan go out to the edges of Salem Center and stop by the drugstore. A moron named Duane mentions that he’s got something really cool in his Uncle’s barn and when the two of them investigate it turns out to be a sentinel. Chaos ensues and the barn gets trashed, but the three of them manage to escape.

It’s a quick and fun adventure that highlights the fact that Jubilee was Logan’s first real charge. While Shadowcat was technically Logan’s first student, it was Jubilee that really stood out, partly due to her inclusion in the 1992 animated series, but also because she really looks at Logan as a father figure. When they are on the same page, they really make a hell of a team.

Chapter 3 – “Endless”: This can be pretty much summed up in one word: recap. The chapter covers Logan’s “birth” as a savage animal living in the wild, to the current ending we just encountered. Logan’s friends turn into enemies, and some enemies turn into friends. There’s not much to say about this story. It’s not really even a story or a recap. It’s more like a coda. As the story says “Time ain’t a straight line. It’s a bloody circle. A constant rotation of violence”. This has merely been a stop on the crazy Logan line. All aboard for the next leg of our journey!

Artwork – Chapter 1: The adamantium armor looks tremendous as it did the previous issue. The main two standouts in terms of art this chapter have to be:

1. Sabretooth’s appearance out of the ocean as he kills Graydon. It’s powerful and he kind of reminds the reader of a shark that just consumes his prey out of nowhere. I don’t find Sabretooth that scary but this is a GREAT horror image for him.
2. The shot of the remaining mutants on the island as they all stand ready to fight Sabretooth. It’s our big team shot for this issue and these characters have never looked better. I still love the fact that they managed to turn Omega Red of all people into a hero ready to help Logan during this and X-Force’s Krakoa run.

Chapter 2 – Not really much to complain or mention from this. It is nice to see an old sentinel design though. The art is reminiscent of the Wolverine Madripoor series currently going on. I guess it could be said that it looks almost like a memory, which I guess is apt considering when the story is set.

Chapter 3 – We see costumes galore in this story. From the cat mask to now, the only one we really miss out on is the 90’s yellow. I will say that while the 90’s outfit will always be a favorite of mine, this design for Wolverine has slowly subsumed it. I REALLY loved his light brown and yellow outfit and am going to miss it when the title returns later this year.

The rendering of some of these memories is great. The standout though has to be the one last look at evil Beast as he holds Logan’s severed head. It’s intimidating and really just overshadows the rest of the art in the chapter.

Final Thoughts – While this did feel incredibly rushed for part 10 of a story, it was stills satisfying to read. The Creed army is dead, Sabretooth for the time being is dead (come on, we all know he’ll be back), and Logan’s happy. What more could one ask for?

Look, I’ll be blunt: The Krakoa Age is the first time I’ve read a main title Wolverine series all the way through from start to finish. I’ve never been really high on Wolverine as a comic. I understood why Wolverine was as popular as he is, but I’ve never understood it. (If that made sense, great!) To me, Logan’s a very easy character to write: he’s Dirty Harry with claws. I was so gung ho on everything X-men once the Krakoa age started I figured I should read ALL of IT… and I have. From start to finish, I have read EVERY single book that has come out when it has come out. After 50 + issues of Wolverine, Benjamin Percy has managed to make a solid Wolverine fan out of me. Logan went from a man who desperately seeking something to belong to (Krakoa), to a man broken by what he had found (the council’s deceit, Beasts betrayal), and ended up a man with something to fight for (his odd group of friends turned family). It says something that the first issue of this run began with him having killed his entire family and this ends with him flying off into the sunset with his reborn family as they leave Krakoa behind. This chapter in his life has closed, but the memories of Krakoa shall remain.

Comic Details

Final score: 4 out of 5

Publisher:  Marvel

Writers:  Benjamin Percy & Victor LaValle, Larry Hama

Pencilers: Geoff Shaw & Corey Smith, Daniel Piciotto, Javi Fernandez

Inkers: Geoff Shaw & Oren Junior, Daniel Piciotto, Javi Fernandez

Color Artists: Alex Sinclair, Yen Nitro, Matt Hollingsworth

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Genre:  Superhero

Format: Monthly

Release Date: 05/29/2024

About the Author

Matt Fischer Lover of all things nerdy. Reader of Comics for over 25 years. DC encyclopedia. X-Men historian. Spider-Man and Marvel lover. Indie side guy.

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