Marvel Introduces a Wolverine Variant Who Is Basically MODOK

If you want to know how weird it’s getting in Marvel’s X-Men Universe, look no further than the pages of X-Force #40. The latest issue about the X-Men’s black-ops splinter group sees them entering a new story arc called “The Ghost Calendars” where one team member they thought was dead (Quentin Quire/Kid Omega) returned from an alternate future significantly aged, with a dire warning that X-Force had a mission to save all mutantkind. 

(SPOILERS FOLLOW)

In The Ghost Calendars Part 1: “The God of All Mutants” we learn that in the timeline Kid Omega was living in was one where X-Force’s former leader Beast (currently on the run as a traitor to the mutant nation of Krakoa) saw is cloning and gene/splicing machinations advance all the way into creating a world of Beast clone Cronenberg monsters (Beast Priests) with Beast himself transformed into something like a Xenomorph Queen from Alien. 

In this horrific dystopia, the X-Men and their rebel allies have been slaughtered down to just a few remaining people – and in the case of Wolverine, “person” is a word that can only loosely be applied. 

MODOK Wolverine

As you can above, the Wolverine that survived in this Dark Beast timeline was reduced to being a Steampunk-style cybernetic head floating in the liquid inside a giant jar, with a spine connected to a set of wheels and two pairs of claws popping out of ducts on either side. This Wolverine-Head is no longer able to say anything except for a single pair of words “SNIKT! SNIKT!” in imitation of the sound of his claws popping out. 

Now, all cards on the table, seeing crazy variants (or clones) of Wolverine isn’t anything new for the Marvel Universe. That said, this MODOK-style Wolverine is definitely one of the more wild and distinctive variants we’ve seen. This MODOK Wolverine isn’t all for show, either: when X-Force leads the rebels in a final battle against “The God of All Mutants” Wolverine proves his Berserker Rage hasn’t deteriorated along with his body. Wolverine is last seen getting his claws deep into the horde of Beast Priest monsters that are defending their overlord. 

The end of X-Force #40 teases that we will be seeing more crazy X-Men variants in the subsequent chapters of this story, as Kid Omega reveals to X-Force that Beast’s God of All Mutants was just one clone variant he created and planted, to create alternate timelines. 

X-Force is on sale at Marvel Comics.