X Lives Of Wolverine #4
Wolverine's struggles against Omega Red play into the realities of his life in X Lives Of Wolverine #4, by writer Benjamin Percy, artists Joshua Cassara and Federico Vicentini, colorist Frank Martin, and letterer Cory Petit. Percy and company drop another issue of action packed time-traveling fun that ends even more surprisingly than the last issue.
During the Weapon X days, Professor Cornelius sees something odd in Wolverine's blood and begins to test it when Omega Red possesses him. The strange pathogen is a symbiote Wolverine picked up in Vietnam. Red leaves, and Wolverine can't stop himself from going after the doctor. In the '60s, Sabretooth attacks the Omega Red-possessed Wolverine. Red asks him for help killing Xavier, but Sabretooth doesn't listen and beats the possessed mutant to death. In WWII, a kamikaze plane piloted by Kenji Oyama at a battleship carrying Xavier's father, who is possessed by Red, is stopped by Wolverine but Kenji survives. Wolverine realizes who all of these events played into his life- this whole thing was meant to happen, each of these changes contributing to who he is today. He's broken, so the world won't be. In the present, Jean loses hold of his consciousness. She and Xavier can't find him… and someone new takes control.
Percy is one of the better writers in the Krakoa era. He not only understands his character better than just about any of the writers- barring Ayala on New Mutants and Hickman when he was writing Cyclops in X-Men- but he also knows how to structure a story. Going nonlinear with X Lives Of Wolverine was the right choice to make, even if there have been fans who don't like it. The story's point is a multi-pronged attack along Wolverine's timeline, and telling it in a linear fashion would be a waste. Doing it the way he's done it makes the revelations of this issue even better.
Percy always nails Wolverine's monologue, but this issue, he does a better job than ever. Wolverine slowly realizes that they were supposed to happen...all of these events throughout the chapter. Sabretooth beating him to death led to him being dragged back to Weapon Plus. Kenji Oyama's failure to die led to the chip on his shoulder that would transfer down to his daughter, Lady Deathstrike. Using his symbiote to try to attack Doctor Cornelius led to the doctor experimenting on it, realizing he couldn't weaponize it, and destroying it, which led to the Wolverine getting his adamantium. Percy answers the question of if any of this will change the present- it doesn't change anything because it built the present. It's such a smart way of doing it and sidesteps any of the problems this story could have posed. Also, the ending? Gold.
Cassara and Vicentini, the artist on X Deaths, share penciling duties on this issue. Cassara draws the Weapon X part and Cold War sections, and they both look amazing. He does a great job of capturing the creepy science feel of Weapon X, made all the better by the way Martin colors the scene. The fight between Omega Red Wolverine and Sabretooth is wonderfully rendered, yet another action scene gem from Cassara. Vicentini draws the WWII section and does a great job, his panels capturing the tense feel of Wolverine trying to shoot down the plane before it gets to the ship perfectly.
X Lives Of Wolverine #4 is a wonderful penultimate issue. Percy is such a great writer of Wolverine, and it bleeds through on every page. He's able to take the problems of a time travel storyline and sidestep them expertly by making it all play into the present and then wraps the whole issue up with a great cliffhanger ending. Cassara, Vicentini, and Martin do an amazing job on the art, making sure this is one of the best looking X-Men books on the market, even rivaling issues of X-Men by Larraz and Gracia. Every issue of X Lives is better than the last, which sets things up for a great ending.
