Review by Ian Keogh

Benjamin Percy begins this deep examination of Wolverine’s past lives with a neat observation about digital clocks presenting a moment that’s already departed. We see plenty of those, now all with added Wolverine. The first chapter supplies him saving Professor X at birth from what seems to be a body-hopping version of Omega Red, with anyone he possesses in the past also instantly acquiring his power. Percy keeps the mysteries coming. Moira McTaggart, crucial to the world of the new X-Men as seen in House of X/Powers of X, is believed dead, but she’s not, and as soon as she emerges on-grid again she becomes a target.

Over the first few chapters Percy creates a mystery as to the bigger picture. Wolverine is being sent back to crucial moments, his obvious purpose to ensure a certain pattern of events plays out. Who, then, is the anomalous Wolverine seen at other times? How has Moira been physically corrupted, and is she right about who’s responsible?

Artistically, the culprit is Joshua Cassara, whose smooth storytelling and facility for action ensures the opening half is the intended thrill ride whether or not you can figure out what’s going on. Federico Vicentini takes over just after a big revelation halfway through. His art is more angular, and his sense of space isn’t as well defined. He’d prefer to picture events in close-up, and scatter small panels through the pages, and these techniques clutter his art. As seen on the sample page of battling Wolverines, the drawing is technically good, but the layouts lack punch.

Via the text pages it’s revealed that Wolverine’s battling an existential threat to Krakoa’s mutant community. It will seemingly not exist without Professor X, so the menace is attempting to ensure Professor X doesn’t exist, and if that can’t be stopped, then to ensure he’s killed before Krakoa comes to pass. That’s not a great spoiler as there’s considerably more to it than that.

Constantly switching between time periods and venues ensures nothing ever drags on too long, and what to some might occur as a logical gap is noted and accounted for by Percy. Once the purpose is out in the air the situation becomes ever more desperate, and Wolverine becomes ever more savage. This is an unpredictable thrill ride from beginning to end, and Percy’s final pages show he’s not finished yet.