Did Marvel Just Reveal Wolverine’s Future?

X-Manhunt Omega #1 is the first of what will certainly be many predictable events under Tom Brevoort’s “From the Ashes” era. There’s nothing structurally wrong with the story, but anyone who didn’t guess the ending weeks ago wasn’t actually paying attention. However, sharp-eyed fans noticed something very interesting in X-Manhunt Omega #1. After Xavier escaped the X-Men, Cyclops began to have a panic attack. His optic blasts started blasting out of control and Wolverine volunteered to go and stop it. He braved the optic blasts and eventually got next to Cyclops and stabbed him in the gut, stopping his powers. Much of his skin was ripped away, so we could see his bone. Not adamantium, but bone. He was missing his right foot and his claws even looked like bone.

This is huge. Now, could it be an art mistake? Maybe. However, for fans who have been following the saga of the Adamantine in Wolverine, this may be a huge hint of what is going to happen in the pages of ol’ Canucklehead’s book. Fans have already speculated about the return of feral Wolverine, and unless this is an art mistake — which again it could be — this is a huge story element that Marvel let out of the bag. However, just because it’s a big deal doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea.

The Bone Claw Era Was Good, but Going Back to it Right Now Is a Mistake

So, I want to be clear here — the bone claw era of Wolverine is actually way better than it gets credit for. Wolverine writer Larry Hama used it to make the book into one of the most interesting ’90s X-books, digging into who Wolverine was. Sure, the feral mutation was botched — Marvel seemed to have cold feet on pulling the trigger on a different looking Wolverine and soon he basically just became regular bone claw Wolverine with a different font. However, let’s go into a little history for people that don’t know X-Men lore like back of their hand — Wolverine’s adamantium was pulled out by Magneto in X-Men (Vol. 2) #25. In Wolverine (Vol. 2) #75, readers learned that Wolverine had bone claws. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #91 revealed that Wolverine’s adamantium stopped him from devolving into a savage beast. Wolverine (Vol. 2) #100 saw him fully devolve, and Elektra was brought into the book — then disappeared not long after — and eventually Wolverine started wearing an image inducer and looked normal. It would all end in 1999’s Wolverine (Vol. 2) #145, six years of bone claws.

RELATED: Marvel Teases a Shocking Change to Logan’s Past in Wolverine #400

The bone claw era really only worked because Hama — and later Warren Ellis, Chris Claremont, and Erik Larsen — was able to find ways to mine interesting stories from it. Wolverine had always questioned who he was a man, but the bone claw era brought that to the fore. He was weaker than ever, and when he learned about his mutation, it felt like he had become a ticking time bomb. Great Wolverine stories were told. However, it has already happened once and when it did happen, four of the best writers Marvel was employing in the ’90s made sure that it worked. Larry Hama is a stone cold legend and his Wolverine run is poetic. Saladin Ahmed, the current writer of Wolverine, is a fine writer but he’s just writing diet Hama. He doesn’t have the chops to pull off a new bone claw era, and I don’t trust Tom Brevoort’s editorial regime to do anything interesting with this, other than hit the nostalgia button.

Going Back to the Bone Claws Is a Bad Idea

The bone claw era of Wolverine came when Wolverine was at the height of his popularity. It’s honestly surprising that Wolverine sold so well back then — it was a consistent top ten book, moving issues in the six figure range, which is insane to think about today — because this was a very different Wolverine and there was a lot of actual bleedthrough from casual X-Men: The Animated Series fans that there just isn’t today. They picked up a book that had a very different Wolverine and stayed with it throughout a very, very long story. The bone claw era — Wolverine (Vol. 2) #75-145, if you’re interested in getting it and I do think you should — was lightning in a bottle. However, Brevoort thinks he can harness it again.

“From the Ashes” is already failing the X-Men. Brevoort didn’t bring any new ideas to the X-Men books. There are already three books on the chopping block and there’s definitely more to come. Brevoort is basically mining nostalgia, all in order to put the X-Men back in the Mansion in time for their MCU debut, so MCU fans can ignore the comics like they always do. Wolverine lost his adamantium in X-Men ’97? Well, better do it in the comics. This isn’t an idea that you can do me than once, at least not for any long period of time, and you don’t do it with a writer like Ahmed, whose Wolverine is fine but nothing special.