Return of Wolverine #1

Written by Charles Soule- Drawn by Steve McNiven- Inked by Jay Leisten

“Wolverine. A Great Hero. Selfless, Strong, Brave. An X-Man. An Avenger. A steadfast friend. An implacable enemy. He was Dead. Now……He’s Not.”

Chapter One – Hell

Wolverine finds himself in a lab not knowing how he got there, dead soldiers strewn across the floor. A man calls out for help. The man introduces himself as Bernard Delacroix and tells Wolverine it’s his lab.  He was hired by Soteira for his groundbreaking work in de-extinction and cloning knowhow. When he rejected the orders of Persephone, he was marked for death. Bernard wants Wolverine to tear Soteira to the ground, because Persephone wants to rob humanity of its innate greatness. Slowly dying, Bernard asks Wolverine for a mercy kill but before Wolverine can act, a grenade explodes hurting Wolverine and killing Bernard. A tiger that was being held in a pen is released by the explosion and attacks Wolverine.  Wolverine struggles against the animal and is saved by a wooly mammoth, who kills the tiger and escapes the lab. A voice inside Wolverine’s head motivates him to leave the lab and get revenge on Soteira.

Wolverine follows a jeep full of Soitera soldiers to a compound. Wolverine watches from afar as the compound is consumed by flames. A man running for his life tries to escape the compound but is shot and killed by a sniper. Wolverine rides toward the compound on a motorcycle. A soldier orders the sniper to kill Wolverine. The sniper misses Wolverine as Logan returns gunfire to the sniper, hitting him numerous times. The sniper is revealed as Omega Red. Omega Red takes back his rifle and hits the front tire of Wolverine’s motorcycle, causing Wolverine to fly off the bike, hitting his head, and knocking him out cold.

Wolverine is seen in a prison, walking around, looking at those imprisoned, who happen to be clones of Wolverine. Persephone appears and tells Wolverine nothing gets out unless you let it out and hands him a set of keys. Shown throughout the prison is Storm, Weapon X version of Wolverine, Sabretooth, The Wolverine (first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181), and Lady Deathstrike.  Persephone tells Wolverine he can open any door he wants. Wolverine points out a wall covered in three red dots. Persephone tells Wolverine “don’t look in there or else you’ll be very upset”. Persephone introduces herself and Wolverine tells her he’s supposed to stop her because she’s going to end up doing something terrible. She tells him he’s been misinformed because she’s the one that brought him back to life.

Wolverine comes to and meets a young woman named Ana. She needs Wolverine’s help because Soteira took her son and she wants Wolverine to go after him. Her son, Perren, was seen being injected with something from the lab. Wolverine believes that Soteira will most likely harvest something from him. After Ana fills in some of the missing blanks in Wolverine’s memory, a panel shows Wolverine unlocking the cell door of the yellow/blue costumed version of himself. Wolverine is shown putting on a new costume, ready to rescue Perren from the clutches of Persephone and Soteira.

Wolverine is back and he has amnesia!  I really liked the dream sequence I mentioned in paragraph 3 and the way his memories are represented under lock and key, protected, and how only he has the power to access them.  Regarding the wall with 3 red dots, could this be a memory or suggestion implanted by Persephone? The 3 dots are also the insignia on the Soteira soldier’s uniforms. Maybe the wall houses Wolverine’s berserker rage? We will certainly find out over the course of the next 4 issues.

Up Next – Return of Wolverine #2 (of 5)

Logan is alive again — let’s see if he can stay that way!

In Stores – Wednesday,  October 24^th, 2018