Review: Wolverine: Exit Wounds #1
Classic Wolverine creators come back for this one-shot comic!
Story: Larry Hama, Chris Claremont, Sam Kieth
Art: Scot Eaton, Salvador Larroca, Sam Kieth
Color: Matt Milla, Val Staples, Ronda Pattison
Letters: Joe Sabino
Ink: Sean Parsons
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Claremont’s contribution raises some points worthy of consideration. That is, he had previously led us to believe Logan’s initial time in Japan was when he trained under Ogun, but this story has him in the country much earlier. It includes Logan, Yukio and Kitty, at the conclusion of Kitty Pryde & Wolverine in 1985 visiting a woman, Hoshiko and her son Tatsuo who seems about 8-10 years old. Hoshiko would therefore seem to be around thirty years of age in the story so likely born mid- to late-1950s. Reference is made to Logan marrying Hoshiko’s great-great-great grandmother. This would suggest Hoshiko’s mother was born perhaps mid-1930s, her grandmother 1915 or so, her great grandmother 1890 (although odd as that particular photo has Logan in military garb and I don’t recall the Canadians involved in attaché until the Russo-Japanese War), her great-great grandmother 1870 and great-great-great grandmother around 1845. So was Chris then suggesting Logan’s training under Ogun occurred much earlier? Other thoughts?
I’m trying to find my Wolverine & Kitty Pryde limited series to see what might be in there.
This story certainly pushes the flashbacks in Wolverine #10 back to the early 19h century at least, since it’s obvious that Logan had yet to be trained by Ogun then. Chris intended Sabretooth to have named Wolverine after Mount Logan, which led most of us to believe that the northwestern frontier town placed the story as occurring during the Kluane Gold Rush which did not occur until 1903 and ended in 1904 (the Klondike gold rush beginning earlier in 1896).
The only frontier towns in the Northwest Territories inhabited prior to this were when the Hudson Bay Company had a monopoly in the area, so the late 1700s/ early 1800s.
In Uncanny X-Men #172, in conversation with Storm, Logan refers to himself as “…a roughneck Canadian mountain man”, a term commonly used to refer to Canadian fur traders, scouts and explorers associated with the North West Company. Does this suggest Tim Truman’s Wild Frontier story in Marvel Comics Presents was based on notes from Chris’s Wolverine bible? And was Sabretooth working for the Hudson Bay Company given they tended to employ pirates as privateers and this was how he ended up in Canada (what with him being introduced by Chris as a “modern-day pirate” in Iron Fist #14)?
The story also places Silver Fox’s death much earlier, so completely destroys Hama’s “flash over substance” approach on Wolverine having her revealed as alive.
It also doesn’t seem like Wolverine was a slave in Japan. That seems to point back to Canada or maybe Madripoor? But before he was trained by Ogun, since, I’d assume anyone battle trained wouldn’t be a slave very long with Wolverine’s abilities(claws or not). While in Japan with the X-Men (cf. Uncanny X-Men #118), Wolverine mused “I was a punk kid last time I was in Japan. I didn’t figure on ever comin’ back.” It’s interesting that in Classic X-Men #24, Chris changed this internal dialogue to, “I was a punk kid first time I came to Japan. An’ the last time I left, I didn’t figure on ever coming back.” Was he attempting to reconcile Wolverine’s statements about Japan before Logan’s background had been more fully considered? You’ll further note in Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 Chris has Logan note that his first trip to Japan was longer ago than he cared to remember which somewhat works with this latest revelation. As to why he didn’t care to remember the period, was it because, like Kitty, Ogun had imprinted his psyche onto Logan’s, creating a psychic clone of himself inside his skull, and broken his spirit? I therefore agree that if Logan trained under Ogun this early, it doesn’t seem like he would have been enslaved in Japan. In Marvel Comics Presents #1, Logan admits he has been to Madripoor “…long before Logan became Wolverine” and in Wolverine #126 he further states “I was a punk when Seraph found me. All instincts, all muscle, no mercy, less brains. An animal on two legs, a predator”. If Logan travels to Madripoor from Canada before Japan, does this however explain why he then travels to Japan? That is, given we know from Wolverine #127 that Seraph was dedicated to stopping the Hand, did she send Logan there undercover? This would suggest Logan had not been a slave in Madripoor. And given he seemed to make his way to Madripoor from Canada as a “punk” it seems further unlikely he had been a slave prior to this either.
So I’m not so sure now that it wasn’t Japan. That is, we know Logan comments in Uncanny X-Men #238, when in Genosha, “I’ve been a slave. Didn’t care much for it” and from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4, we further know from his words to Kitty that Ogun imprinted his psyche inside his skull and overwhelmed his spirit in an effort to turn him into a fully-fledged ninja, effectively a master assassin of the Hand. We don’t know how long Logan was deepcover in Ogun’s dojo for Seraph, but it could have been sufficient for his comment above.
This story certainly pushes the flashbacks in Wolverine #10 back to the early 19h century at least, since it’s obvious that Logan had yet to be trained by Ogun then. Chris intended Sabretooth to have named Wolverine after Mount Logan, which led most of us to believe that the northwestern frontier town placed the story as occurring during the Kluane Gold Rush which did not occur until 1903 and ended in 1904 (the Klondike gold rush beginning earlier in 1896).
The only frontier towns in the Northwest Territories inhabited prior to this were when the Hudson Bay Company had a monopoly in the area, so the late 1700s/ early 1800s.
In Uncanny X-Men #172, in conversation with Storm, Logan refers to himself as “…a roughneck Canadian mountain man”, a term commonly used to refer to Canadian fur traders, scouts and explorers associated with the North West Company. Does this suggest Tim Truman’s Wild Frontier story in Marvel Comics Presents was based on notes from Chris’s Wolverine bible? And was Sabretooth working for the Hudson Bay Company given they tended to employ pirates as privateers and this was how he ended up in Canada (what with him being introduced by Chris as a “modern-day pirate” in Iron Fist #14)?
The story also places Silver Fox’s death much earlier, so completely destroys Hama’s “flash over substance” approach on Wolverine having her revealed as alive.
It also doesn’t seem like Wolverine was a slave in Japan. That seems to point back to Canada or maybe Madripoor? But before he was trained by Ogun, since, I’d assume anyone battle trained wouldn’t be a slave very long with Wolverine’s abilities(claws or not). While in Japan with the X-Men (cf. Uncanny X-Men #118), Wolverine mused “I was a punk kid last time I was in Japan. I didn’t figure on ever comin’ back.” It’s interesting that in Classic X-Men #24, Chris changed this internal dialogue to, “I was a punk kid first time I came to Japan. An’ the last time I left, I didn’t figure on ever coming back.” Was he attempting to reconcile Wolverine’s statements about Japan before Logan’s background had been more fully considered? You’ll further note in Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #3 Chris has Logan note that his first trip to Japan was longer ago than he cared to remember which somewhat works with this latest revelation. As to why he didn’t care to remember the period, was it because, like Kitty, Ogun had imprinted his psyche onto Logan’s, creating a psychic clone of himself inside his skull, and broken his spirit? I therefore agree that if Logan trained under Ogun this early, it doesn’t seem like he would have been enslaved in Japan. In Marvel Comics Presents #1, Logan admits he has been to Madripoor “…long before Logan became Wolverine” and in Wolverine #126 he further states “I was a punk when Seraph found me. All instincts, all muscle, no mercy, less brains. An animal on two legs, a predator”. If Logan travels to Madripoor from Canada before Japan, does this however explain why he then travels to Japan? That is, given we know from Wolverine #127 that Seraph was dedicated to stopping the Hand, did she send Logan there undercover? This would suggest Logan had not been a slave in Madripoor. And given he seemed to make his way to Madripoor from Canada as a “punk” it seems further unlikely he had been a slave prior to this either.
So I’m not so sure now that it wasn’t Japan. That is, we know Logan comments in Uncanny X-Men #238, when in Genosha, “I’ve been a slave. Didn’t care much for it” and from Kitty Pryde and Wolverine #4, we further know from his words to Kitty that Ogun imprinted his psyche inside his skull and overwhelmed his spirit in an effort to turn him into a fully-fledged ninja, effectively a master assassin of the Hand. We don’t know how long Logan was deepcover in Ogun’s dojo for Seraph, but it could have been sufficient for his comment above.