Wolverine messes with the timeline in Marvel’s new series
By Mark Lynch
Logan is still jumping through time to protect Charles Xavier from Omega Red in the past and we learn why Omega Red wants him dead in X Lives of Wolverine.
Marvel‘s X Lives of Wolverine and X Deaths of Wolverine are two intertwined X-Men stories that follow two different people.
In the X Lives of, we follow Logan as he traveled back in time to stop a mind hopping Arkady Gregorivich Rossovich, a.k.a. Omega Red, from killing Charles Xavier at birth. X Deaths of follows Moira MacTaggert as she’s being chased by Mystique and a mutant branch of the C.I.A. X Deaths of is still following Logan, but things have gotten bad for Wolverine during his mission and we find out why Omega Red was so determined to kill Xavier.
Omega Red was tricked
"“I’m here to make certain my body–and the world–aren’t yours to claim, Xavier” – Omega Red"
In X-Force 15 Beast came up with a plan to use Omega Red. He had Arkday killed so he could put a surveillance device inside the carbonadium synthesizer when he was resurrected. While on a mission with Wolverine and Domino, Mikhail Rasputin told Arkady all about what happened. That’s why Arkady was adamant about seeing the resurrection files. He was unaware that he was dead and that he was being spied on. That’s why Omega Red went back to Mikhail in Russia. And, if we’re being honest, who can blame him?
Wolverine’s moral dilemmas
"“But if history is good at anything, it’s punishing me.” – Wolverine"
In this book, Logan is running through three different times of his life. One sees him as a teenager fighting a bear. In order to get to Xavier, he has to leave the fight and use a dog sled in below zero degree weather. That’s the easy one. The next two cause him to make moral decisions.
In another one, he’s with Maverick and Sabretooth. He’s supposed to let a village be destroyed, kill the people in it, and leave them in a mass grave to prove a point. Now that Logan isn’t mind controlled, he won’t let that happen. Jean tells him to stick to the mission but he tells her that he can’t and stops his teammates. This ends with Victor Creed (Sabretooth) saying that he is going to kill Wolverine.
The final timeline mentioned has Logan in Japan with his wife Itsu. While he’s laying with her, Jean wakes him and says it’s time to move. Logan knows he has to go, but asks for one more minute. Within that time, Itsu is possessed by Arkady and tries to kill Wolverine. Logan knows he can’t kill Arkady because it would cause ripple effects in the timeline that could alter Daken’s future. Unfortunately, Logan is forced to kill her in order to get to Xavier.
"“Not requesting nothing. I’m telling you I’m gonna kill Wolverine.” – Sabretooth"
X of Questions
- How will Wolverine’s expedition affect the timeline? He blatantly stopped something that was supposed to happen.
- Will Sabretooth catch up to Logan? He told his handler that he was going to kill Logan and he doesn’t make threats he can’t follow through on.
- Logan had to kill his wife when she was Omega Red. Will this affect Daken since it was originally the Winter Soldier (read Wolverine and Wolverine Origins by Daniel Way for more on that)?
- What did Mikhail promise Arkady? Omega Red isn’t going to work for Mikhail for the love of Russia.
- Will Beast’s actions come back to haunt him? He’s been getting away with a lot and this could be the final straw.
- What if Arkady is working with Wolverine and this is all a ruse? That’s a definite possibility.
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What do you think? Do you have thoughts on what’s going on in X Lives of Wolverine? Let us know in the comments below.