The X-Men’ “From the Ashes” status quo has some problems, but one of the biggest yet was revealed in the newest issue of Wolverine. The newest run of Wolverine’s solo book has been interesting, but calling it great is definitely a road too far. There are some good ideas behind it — the Adamantine is one of the most unique Wolverine villains of all time — but for the most part it’s often felt like a rehash of Larry Hama’s run on Wolverine from the ’90s. That’s not exactly a bad thing — Hama’s Wolverine is the best solo title about the ol’Canucklehead — but for long-time readers, it feels way too familiar. Wolverine #400 represented a major shake-up in the life of Wolverine, as it brought back his long thought dead mother Elizabeth Howlett.
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Wolverine #9 — issue #400 was legacy numbering for Wolverine #8 and the book went back to its previous numbering in the next issue — teased a new confrontation between Wolverine and Sabretooth, who had Wolverine’s mother as a prisoner. Issue #9 ended with Wolverine being lured to the Howlett Estate to find his mother, and #10 continues that. Here’s the problem though — the Howlett Estate no longer exists and hasn’t since 2013’s Wolverine (Vol. 5) #10, part of the “Killable” arc. This is a major continuity error, but there’s more to this than that, as the current story has a lot of the same factors of the previous one.
The Howlett Estate Was Transformed into a Shopping Mall
So, to understand the enormity of this mistake, let’s take a look at “Killable”. “Killable” took place after Wolverine lost his healing factor. The first chapter pit Wolverine against Black Panther, since he was dating Panther’s ex-wife Storm. After he came home, he found out that someone stole one of his special katanas from the Yashida family. It was revealed to be Mystique, who was working with Sabretooth at the time. Sabretooth had heard that Wolverine had lost his healing factor and decided to test that theory. He lured Wolverine and Kitty Pryde to the grounds of the Howlett Estate, and that’s where Wolverine and Pryde learn something shocking — the Howlett Estate was sold years ago, and made into a shopping mall. Sabretooth, then a crime lord in command of Madripoor with an army of ninjas at his disposal, took the mall hostage, and Wolverine and Kitty had to sneak in. This led to a very one-sided fight, where Sabretooth just destroys Wolverine, mocking him for his weakness the whole time. It’s a pretty good story, and ends with Wolverine at his lowest ebb, realizing just how bad things had gotten for him without his healing factor.
Now, on to the current story. Wolverine learned his mother was still alive, taken prisoner by Sabretooth, and goes to the Howlett Estate to go get her. Sabretooth is seemingly working with the Marauders again, with Wolverine tackling Harpoon and Vertigo before getting to his ancestral home. The latest issue ends with Sabretooth confronting Wolverine. So, beyond even the huge mistake of the Howlett Estate not being a shopping mall, this story is taking a lot from “Killable.” In fact, the basic gist of both stories is exactly the same — Sabretooth takes something of value from Wolverine and lures him to the Howlett Estate. So, not only did the editors not know that one of the main set pieces of the story was changed years ago, but the two stories are extremely similar in every way. Now, obviously, it’s not easy to keep continuity, but this is especially egregious. It’s too much to expect every writer to have read every issue of a book that they’ve come on, but things like this, at the very least, should be checked. If the writer doesn’t know it, one of the editors should have looked into it.
A New Low for the X-Men Books
“From the Ashes,” while a sales success, doesn’t have the same kind of love that the previous X-Men status quo had at its beginning. While there are some fantastic books — Uncanny X-Men and Storm are spectacular — most of it is fair to middling. Wolverine has been one of the middling books, a perfectly fine comic that found a way to feel a bit stale despite creating an entirely new Wolverine villain. I’ve read various Wolverine series of the last thirty-some odd years, and it’s usually one of my favorite books — Wolverine is my favorite Marvel hero. This latest run hasn’t even been close to a favorite, and this newest mistake really says it all about the problems that the X-Men books have been having since “From the Ashes” started.
Despite one of Marvel’s longest tenured editors in the driver’s seat of the X-Men, there have been so many problems with these books. The job of an editor is to help make stories work, smoothing out any problems, and none of the editors on Wolverine did that job. This isn’t some small error that can be written off, but a major continuity kerfuffle. There are many X-Men fans out there who weren’t happy that Tom Brevoort was made the head of the X-Men books, as there have been indications that Brevoort hasn’t been interested in the X-Men in decades. This latest mistake is especially bad, since it shows a lack of respect of what came before.
What do you think about this continuity error? Sound off in the comments below.
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