X-Force #9, by Geoffrey Thorne and Marcus To, is the next installment of “X-Manhunt”. “X-Manhunt” revolves around Charles Xavier escaping from Graymalkin Prison on a mission to save his daughter. This led him into battle with Rogue’s X-Men, Cyclops’s X-Men, and X-Factor, all in an attempt to get his hands on the last Krakoan resurrection egg. The last chapter of “X-Manhunt”, X-Factor #8, saw the rivalry between Cyclops and Havok heat back up before Xavier revealed to the brothers why he had come to San Francisco’s wrecked Utopia for the egg. However, he’s suddenly whisked away by a mysterious enemy at the end of the issue. While it looks like there may be a third party looking for Xavier other than the X-Men and the agents of the government, X-Force #9 reveals the truth.
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While Cyclops and Havok fought, Xavier was able to get in touch telepathically with Sage, asking her an extraction from Utopia. Sage goes through her list of teleporters and picks one that readers haven’t seen in ages: John Wraith, the Weapon X subject also known as Kestrel. Sage was able to outsmart the X-Men and X-Factor with the help of Wraith. Wraith’s return is a big deal, bringing back a forgotten chapter of Wolverine’s bloody history.
John Wraith Has Been A Spy for Decades
When most fans think of Weapon X, they think of healing factors and adamantium, with subjects like Sabretooth, Wolverine, and Deadpool jumping to the fore. However, Weapon X wasn’t just about doing the same enhancements on everyone; Weapon X was meant to just generally create mutant supersoldiers. The adamantium bonding process was tested multiple times, killing every test subject until Weapon X got their hands on Wolverine, so they diversified. Weapon X saw the utility of mutants, and recruited many different ones over the years. John Wraith was one of these mutants. Wraith was an explosives expert, working as a secret agent even before his time with Weapon X and Team X. Wraith’s years in the spy game made him extremely paranoid, to the extent that he made sure that no one even knew what his mutant powers were. He only used his powers when no one was watching, cementing his reputation as a ghost — hence the name Wraith. In fact, the members of Team X never even knew that he was a teleporter until the 1960s, on the first mission against Omega Red. However, even this time only Wolverine and Omega Red saw Wraith use his powers.
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Wraith went into the shadows after his time with Team X and wouldn’t show up again until after Wolverine accidentally activated the Weapon X failsafe robot Shiva. Wraith actually helped save Sabretooth from Shiva, all in order to bring Team X back together again. Wraith discovered that there was a problem with the anti-aging factors that Weapon X put into its subjects, leading Wolverine, Sabretooth, Maverick, and the long thought dead Silver Fox, eventually confronting the Psi-Borg, a mutant who had been messing with their minds for years. After that, Wraith hung around with Wolverine, but would find himself back in Weapon X when it was re-established. Unfortunately for Wraith, he was nearly killed by Maverick and Sabretooth, and was later captured by Contagion and Unkillables, who were looking for ways to destroy Wolverine.
Wraith’s Return Could Lead to Some Weapon X Shenanigans
John Wraith is a Wolverine deep cut. He first appeared in the early ’90s, in the wake of “Weapon X”, when Marvel was all about digging into the program’s past and using that to fill in a lot of the gaps in Wolverine’s history. Wraith’s return comes at a very interesting time, especially looking at the events of the current storyline playing out in Deadpool/Wolverine. That book has revealed that X-Force villain Stryfe was able to take over Deadpool — and possibly Wolverine, although Wolverine’s programming didn’t work for whatever reason — and transform him into an “X-Cutioner”.
The only time that Stryfe could have had access to both Wolverine and Deadpool is during Weapon X. This plot, combined with the return of Wraith in X-Force, could reveal that Marvel is about to get into Weapon X shenanigans. Wolverine #400 is being advertised as changing things about Wolverine’s past, so all of this could blend together at some point, leading to an all-new Weapon X epic.
X-Force #9 is on sale where ever comics are sold.
