X Lives/deaths of Wolverine

INTERLINKED Slice and dice twice with this pair of adventures, filled with energetic, blood-soaked action

With a brace of new X-men comic launches approaching, it’d be easy to assume that Marvel’s latest event comic would just be a fun placeholder. And yet, while these two five-issue miniseries are strangely structured and bewilderingly titled, they’re also an intriguing and surprisingly significant chapter in the saga.

Published across ten weeks (with each series appearing on an alternate week), this linked pair of adventures for everyone’s favourite spandex-clad berserker mirrors the structure used in Jonathan Hickman’s House Of X/ Powers Of X event from 2019, although the connections between the two stories aren’t quite as strong here.

Indeed, three issues in, X Lives Of Wolverine could easily be taken for a mostly self-contained tale, with Wolverine embarking on a dangerous voyage of mental time travel back through his own life. The resulting violent adventure references plenty of previous iconic Wolverine adventures, and is crammed full of blood-soaked set-pieces, abrupt twists, and plenty of “Snikt!” sound effects. But it’s in X Deaths Of Wolverine that things get a lot more daring and creative.

X Deaths relies heavily on Terminator references in its first three issues, while linking back to the dark and apocalyptic future hinted at in Hickman’s Powers Of X, and the story is told at such an energetic pace that it’s hard not to be swept along by it.

While the two-series structure is awkward at times, this weirdly satisfying superhero thriller is far more interesting than a Wolverine-related event comic has any right to be.

RATING ★★★★★

Writer Benjamin Percy handles both series with style, throwing in plenty of creative action sequences.

Wolverine travels in time to save the life of Professor Xavier, reliving important moments from his past in the process.