Wolverine is no stranger to assassination as a tool to permanently silence threats to mutantkind, but Marvel appears to have singled out Logan for a completely different kind of wetworks mission. Namely, it looks like the writers of AvX are doing everything in their power to assassinate Wolverine’s character.
After a recent re-read of the first act of Avengers vs. X-Men, Marvel’s summer blockbuster event, I found myself particularly baffled by the writing team’s treatment of Logan’s motivations and actions. Logan is weaving a web of lies and betrayals that grows with every page, but I’m having a hard time figuring out what his plan is. If the first act of AvX was all I had to go on, I’d conclude that Wolverine is a childish and self-serving manipulator who doesn’t really know what he wants.
To catch up anyone who isn’t reading AvX, Logan basically decides early in the story that the only foolproof way to avert a major Phoenix-related disaster is to kill Hope before she can manifest the full power of the Phoenix Force. That very premise – and, in a larger way, the central premise of the entire story – leaves quite a lot of room for doubt. But, in the name of fairly analyzing his characterization here, let’s just accept that Logan’s plan to destroy Hope stands a serious chance of saving humanity from disaster. Even under such a premise, Logan’s actions seem to run contrary to his goals and motivations.
I actually quite like how things start out. Wolverine plans to make the tough decisions so those around him – whether they’re the squeaky-clean Avengers or the innocent students at the Jean Grey School – don’t have to get blood on their hands. Wolverine feels he’s beyond redemption, but if he continues to shoulder the burden of all the really dirty deeds that need done to protect mutants, he can keep others from having to go down the same path. This interpretation of the character is quite consistent with how he’s been portrayed the last few years, especially as the leader of the clandestine hit squad X-Force.
These dirty deeds usually mean killing those who present a threat to the world in general and mutants in particular. At the beginning of AvX, Wolverine seems to have taken this attitude a step further. Not only does he plan on killing an innocent child to protect the rest of the world, he’s willing to deceive and betray his teammates to do so. This is all a perfectly natural progression of the character’s current direction, and I think it opens up some fertile story ideas if the writers want to pursue them. Think of it this way: Wolverine, the character who seems to appear in every book and is a trusted member of every team in the Marvel universe, is suddenly cast out of paradise. He’s now an outsider and a lone wolf who’s burned all of his bridges with both the X-Men and the Avengers. I’d read that story in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately, Logan’s characterization takes a huge nosedive in issue 4 of AvX. I’m not sure if that particular issue’s writer, Jonathan Hickman, is to blame or if this was all plotted out by committee like much of the rest of the series. But, oh my stars and garters, the developments in that issue left me scratching my head.
Here’s how it plays out: Hope tracks down Logan after he was kicked out of the Avengers’ airplane in the Antarctic and proposes a truce. She argues that she deserves a chance to try to control the Phoenix force. If she fails, Logan has her blessing to try to stop her for good. Logan expresses some doubts but appears to buy into the plan. That’s good enough for Hope, who then decides to take a nap (No, I’m not making that up for comedic effect. It’s in the book). But Logan decides to double-cross her and alert Captain America and the Avengers to Hope’s location, giving them a chance to apprehend her before the Phoenix Force arrives.
In the immortal words of Kitty Pryde, “Yeahbuhwhat?”
From the word go, Logan has made it clear that he believes the only way to end the threat is to end Hope. Captain America literally had Wolverine booted out of a flying aircraft over freakin’ Antarctica because Wolverine showed no sign that he would compromise on his solution.
So Hope seeks out Logan, lets him onto an airplane with her and promptly excuses herself to the cargo hold to go get some shuteye. But rather than gut her in her sleep and thus ending this whole fiasco, Logan gets on the horn with Cap and tells him where he’s going to take Hope so the Avengers can apprehend her.
Logan’s conversation with Captain America takes place mostly off-panel, but a full transcript must have gone something like this:
Captain America: Hello?
Wolverine: Hey, Steve. It’s me.
Captain America: Logan? Shouldn’t you be freezing your hairy little berserkers off on some iceberg right now?
Wolverine: Haha. Yeah, it’s pretty cold down here. But listen, the reason I’m calling is because I’ve got Hope, and she’s sleeping right now so I thought I’d let you know where we’re going so you can take her into custody.
Captain America: [Pause] Are you screwing with me? Because if you’re just screwing with me…
Wolverine: No, I’m serious. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.
Captain America: Don’t you remember how you were totally sure that killing her was the only way to save the world in issue #2? And then you literally sliced my stomach open with your claws just last issue because you thought my plan wouldn’t work, so we had to throw you out of a moving airplane. Do you remember that? It was just, like, a few hours ago.
Wolverine: No, I don’t remember any of that.
Captain America: Ok, I guess I don’t either.
In AvX #4, Wolverine passed up an easy opportunity to carry out his single overriding motivation in the first three issues of the crossover. Has he abandoned his belief that killing Hope is the only certain way out? It seems that way, but we haven’t been given any indication of what changed his mind. If it was Hope’s speech in the antarctic, why did he then turn around and narc her out with the Avengers?
As a long-time and unabashed Wolverine fan, I’ve got to believe that Logan hasn’t played his full hand yet. There’s got to be something more to Wolverine’s motivation than meets the eye. Otherwise, the writers have really painted the old Canucklehead into a corner where he’s turned his back on a lot of his friends with precious little in the way of a coherent explanation.
Wolverine turned his back on Cyclops in Schism. He violated an order from Cap in issue #2 of AvX, physically attacked Cap in issue #3, and then he betrayed Hope in issue #4. He’s burning bridges left and right and looking more like a self-serving turncoat than the violent-but-honorable antihero I’ve come to love over the years. Worst of all, I’m not convinced there’s any good reason for him to burn all these bridges in the first place.
I have a sinking suspicion that the writers of AvX may be sacrificing Logan’s character to serve the plot.
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