Spoiler Warning for Wolverine: Black, White & Blood!
What makes Canada's most well-known superhero has made a name for himself with his strong fighting skills and feral instincts. While those instincts might make him a tough opponent, they also make him difficult to control. This eventually led to the downfall of the shadowy organization who experimented on Wolverine, Weapon X. But the newly released Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #1 reveals that Weapon X did have a way of restraining Logan, and it is much more Looney Tunes than X-Men.
Wolverine: Black, White & Blood is an anthology, with three new stories about some of Wolverine's most violent adventures. The first story, The Beast Within Them by Gerry Duggan and Adam Kubert, sees Wolverine back when he was first under Weapon X's control. Wanting to test their new weapon, the organization pits the newly adamantium enhanced Wolverine against everything from wolves, to bears, and eventually, other test subjects. In a brutal scene, readers see the carnage Wolverine has unleashed in the past as he's being carted off to fight his next opponent. Wolverine is released into the Canadian wilderness to fight none other than Wolverine's first comic opponent, the Wendigo.
Wolverine and Wendigo brawl as the monster's natural claws clash with Wolverine's adamantium. With its superior size, Wendigo overpowers Wolverine and lands a few blows. Wolverine quickly recovers though, pinning Wendigo and coming close to ending the monster permanently, but then it speaks. In French, Wendigo asks Wolverine one simple question, "Why are you doing this to me?" This question briefly breaks Weapon X's control over Wolverine. He begins slashing at the equipment attached to him, desperately trying to break free of his captors. It doesn't take long for Weapon X to subdue the rampaging hero though with a simple piece of technology, as Wolverine is taken down... with a giant magnet.
While this Wile E. Coyote strategy for controlling Wolverine might seem goofy, it undoubtedly has its precedence in X-Men comics. One of the greatest ironies of the team is that their most well-known hero has a metal skeleton and their most well-known villain can control metal. Magneto has used his mastery of magnetism to do all sorts of bizarre things to Wolverine, so Weapon X using a magnet just to restrain him isn't that weird for the character.
Despite the magnet's silliness though, the story works incredibly well. Wolverine might be something of an anti-hero, but this story shows that even at his most mindless, Wolverine is still a person. The artwork by Kubert goes a long way in making The Beasts Within Them compelling. The final of Wolverine looking down at his reflection in a pool of blood and seeing himself as human is touching. Dugan also does a fantastic job contrasting Wolverine's apparent "monstrousness" with the very real monstrosity of the scientists who view Logan as nothing more than a weapon.
The stories in Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #1 are perfect examples of how superheroes can embrace the outlandish while still telling a compelling story.
