The latest issue of Wolverine: Black, Red & Blood features the X-Men tasked with a job that draws back to a prior Avengers story.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Red Planet Blues” from Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #3 by Jed MacKay, Jesus Saiz, and VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Wolverine has gone down in comic history as one of the most beloved characters in the history of superheroes — and for good reason. Since his introduction, James “Logan” Howlett has been immortalized as a merciless killer with a heart of gold. The latest issue of Wolverine: Black, White & Blood follows up on a loose end from a fan-favorite Avengers run in “Red Planet Blues,” which follows Magik and Wolverine as they teleport to Mars for an important mission.
An area of the Red Planet is covered in a generous amount of lush green vegetation, and as Logan runs through the forest, he recalls the events that lead to the Martian terraforming. The planet was transformed by the incredibly powerful Ex Nihilo in 2012’s Avengers #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Jerome Opena.
Avengers #1 tackles the beginning of the universe and introduces the alien-gods Ex Nihilo and Abyss, who take it upon themselves to turn Mars into their vision of perfection. Later in the issue, The Avengers — comprised primarily of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark — travel to Mars to defeat the rising threat of Ex Nihilo after he sends an evolution-bomb to Earth to force an accelerated evolution upon the human race. The Avengers eventually decide to allow Ex Nihilo to reform Mars as long as he agrees to never interfere with the evolution of Earth.
Logan sneaks through the brush to find four scientists from M.A.I.M –Martian Advanced Ideas Mechanics — who have traveled to Mars with the hopes of continuing Ex Nihilo’s legacy. However, the situation becomes complicated when the humans use an assassin robot to sneak up on Logan and shoot a powerful laser beam into his eyes, rendering him completely blind. Unsurprisingly, Logan outsmarts the group of scientists, destroying the robot and then proceeding to eviscerate the four agents.
This story is a fascinating callback to another Marvel storyline made all the more interesting considering the fact that two X-Men were called to Mars in the first place. Before now, the developments on Mars had been a distinctly Avengers-centric storyline. But instead of having Iron Man and Captain America clean up their messWolverine is sent to clear Mars of the invading M.A.I.M. forces completely alone, with Magik only serving as his way on or off Red Planet.
There could be multiple reasons for this, but it’s possible that the Avengers are often held back by the altruistic need to treat all threats fair and just. But when Wolverine comes on the scene, there is very little time for conversation — and for this specific situation, results were needed above all else, which is why the X-Men were probably called on instead of the Avengers.
The Avengers have shown that they are great at what they do, but sometimes a situation becomes so dire that the only way to resolve it is with extreme prejudice. And when a group of scientists decide that they can take use alien-god technology to alter humanity and create their own “perfect” society, the only appropriate response is a set of adamantium claws ripping through metal and flesh — and only one man is capable of living up to such a response.
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