X Lives Of Wolverine #5
It all comes down to a showdown on multiple levels in X Lives Of Wolverine #5, by writer Benjamin Percy, artist Joshua Cassara, colorist Frank Martin, and letterer Cory Petit. This issue closes out X Lives with a blood-soaked battle.
Jean and Xavier flit through Wolverine’s past, trying to find his mind and bring him back to the present. They find him in 1900, and he comes back to the present, driving Omega Red out but not before he finds the mutant. In Russia, Mikhail berates Omega Red for failing, and as Red tries to get Mikhail to try again, Rasputin teleports him away, and Wolverine via Gateway shows up. The two have a fierce battle; one Wolverine wins. He returns to Krakoa with the Cerebro sword but has to deal with a new threat- himself before he can rest.
Overall, this is a solid issue. It would have been nice if it played more with the Omega Red possessed Wolverine, which is the only real problem with the writing in this issue. It’s dealt with so quickly that it is kind of disappointing. It does play into the issue’s plot, as the possession allows Wolverine to find Omega Red, but it would have been nicer to get some more pages of it.
This issue closes out part of the Mikhail New Russia plot that Percy had been building for a while, but he leaves it open enough to play with it in the future. Beyond that, the main draw of the issue is the bloody battle between Wolverine and Omega Red, a fight which should definitely go down in history as one of their best fights. This fight used the pages wonderfully as cool as it would have been to get some more of Omega Red possessed Wolverine.
Cassara’s art is pretty good but not as good as some previous issues. The first page is a tremendous splash, the section in 1900 looks good, and the fight is a bloody epic. However, elsewhere in the issue, his detail flags a bit. It’s not a bad-looking comic by any means, but it’s not as good as previous issues.
X Lives Of Wolverine #5 is a good ending to an otherwise stellar series. Its action centerpiece is one of the best Wolverine fights in years, though, and while there are some disappointments with the comic, it’s still a good read. Percy, as usual, knows precisely how to write Wolverine. Cassara’s art is a little lesser than in previous issues but still pretty good throughout. This has been a great series, one of the highlights of the X-Men line for the last year.
