This isn't the most Christmas-y of strips, but nothing to be done for that! I don't know if anyone else has done this, but I had this idea: what if Wolverine was haunted? Either the metal in his bones, the claws, or the whole package. I don't know if he's the psycho-killer Claremont once claimed--a lot of his kills seem to be either completely justified or because someone pushed their luck--but his body count was substantial: what if instead of haunting where they died, these ghosts stayed with him? Literally, instead of metaphorically. I may have somehow conflated DC's nth metal of
Hawkman with adamantium, and wondered if they had similar properties against ghosts. Or maybe opposite properties, like adamantium holds them with it...Also, this is a two-fer for Darick Robertson references! Kurt ran into ghosts in his
2005 solo series, and Logan should be haunted by these guys: he killed a
bunch of mobster little people (trying not to use the m-word, it may be considered a slur now) in
Punisher #17, "Aim Low" with Garth Ennis! Logan gets swamped when he's got like three of them impaled on the claws on each hand...
In the same vein as nth metal though, I lose track of
Daimon Hellstrom, which might be because he's not always consistently portrayed in the comics. Which might even be addressed, in a run of
Venom, of all places: Daimon apparently magically made copies or variants of himself, to investigate the upcoming demonic "Descent." The copies may not even be sure if they're the original or not; but it does give writers leeway to do whatever they want: this frees Daimon up for use as a
contact for exorcisms as we saw in
Avengers #23/LEG #723, although he had previously been seen as part of Baron Zemo's inner circle in
Avengers Undercover #1. He was also briefly part of the Hellfire Club; although I think that plot was copied from Magneto's brief stint as part of the Club: join up as the White King, to maybe try to mitigate some of the Club's worst impulses. Oh, and of course "Fronkenstein" is from
Young Frankenstein: since like Frederick there, Daimon sometimes tries to distance himself from his heritage. Sometimes.
I would agree most of the people we see Logan kill probably "deserve" it. Certainly in Logan's mind. Though I remember in the story where he and Nightcrawler help Alpha Flight with the Wendigo, Logan justifies himself to Kurt by saying he'd meet a guy who attacked him with a gun or knife with lethal force, but fists he would meet with fists. Yes Logan, your fists, made of bone covered with unbreakable metal. Totally an even fight.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, Logan is famously an even-tempered guy who never flips and goes into a berserker fury. Plus, we know Logan did assassinations and merc stuff back in the day, no way his hands are clean. How haunted he is by any of it, I couldn't guess. He usually seems bothered by things done to him, not the things he's done.
(There's also the whole double standard Marvel seems to have, where most characters that kill are often viewed with distaste by the other heroes - except Wolverine, who gets to team up with everybody and nobody bats an eye now about putting him on the Avengers or having him around kids.)
I would say by now, Logan’s basically like that one gruff but lovable uncle of the family who’s had a rough life & seen & done some things, but is still a good person overall
DeleteHonestly, the way 2025’s been going, a Damien Hellstrom-themed storyline during the Christmas holiday season pretty much tracks all right.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ghosts, remember during Acts of Vengeance storyline in Uncanny X-Men where Wolverine, Jubilee & Psylocke fight the Mandarin and Shinobi Shaw? Well Logan briefly saw “ghosts” of Carol Danvers & Nick Fury due to the aftermath of Psylocke undoing another attempt by the Hand to brainwash Logan. Good times.
Also on a very related note, the current Moon Knight series just wrapped up a storyline where Marc had to help The Wrecker because he was being attacked by the ghosts of people he’d killed. Good stuff, highly recommend reading it.
The whole creating clones thing to explain away the various interpretations and personalities of Damien sounds like a blatant cop out to me honestly. That’s exactly what Jim Starlin did with Thanos to discredit every other writer’s interpretation of Thanos.
I think there's an example Claremont gave, which, surprisingly, I don't think I've even seen fan art of: Logan is at the table, eating breakfast. Kitty comes in, maybe too loudly or too cheerfully. Logan disembowels her, goes back to his bowl of cereal...
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, or thinking of Cole, Macon, and Reese: the three Hellfire Club guys he didn't kill; that have been recurring dickheads ever since. (I think he spared them in that one with Katie Power; but may have actively tried to murder them other times.)