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Reviews
X Lives of Wolverine/X Deaths of Wolverine by Benjamin Percy, Federico Vicentini, Josh Cassara
ultreaux's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
amck's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
imakandiway's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
scam_likely's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
flexmentallo's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
The time travel hook didn’t particularly work - Wolverine is rarely an interesting character and this series didn’t do much to change my mind on that. There is some really fun stuff in here happening around him, though, and the Krakoa half more than makes up for the conceptual weaknesses of the time travel half.
daileyxplanet's review against another edition
3.0
I have to say that while I utterly ravaged these two books, I feel like I ate two buckets of popcorn versus a multi-course meal.
X Lives felt like the movie Days of Future Past meets Edge of Tomorrow. You don't spend enough time with any of the time hopping settings. Percy forced a comraderie between Papa Xavier and Logan, but we don't really get to see it just the end result. The Phalanx Wolverine was a nice touch with his design at least.
X Deaths should have been titled Moira X featuring Wolverine. This felt more like a Bourne Identity flick and the plot twist that Moira is turning her back on Mutantdom makes sense. Her cybernetic status at the end is the most fascinating, but I feel like she will be hiding until a new event.
NOTE: Read on Marvel Unlimited.
X Lives felt like the movie Days of Future Past meets Edge of Tomorrow. You don't spend enough time with any of the time hopping settings. Percy forced a comraderie between Papa Xavier and Logan, but we don't really get to see it just the end result. The Phalanx Wolverine was a nice touch with his design at least.
X Deaths should have been titled Moira X featuring Wolverine. This felt more like a Bourne Identity flick and the plot twist that Moira is turning her back on Mutantdom makes sense. Her cybernetic status at the end is the most fascinating, but I feel like she will be hiding until a new event.
NOTE: Read on Marvel Unlimited.
lanternatomika's review against another edition
2.0
As someone who's defended Benjamin Percy's writing in the past...there's some serious ball droppage in the pages of this book.
X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine is structured like HoX/PoX, with two series that tell separate but linked storylines. The problem here though is that one of them rises to the level of being interesting...and the other doesn't even get that far.
X Lives feels like it was supposed to cap the storylines that Percy was writing in his Wolverine book. Omega Red, who was living that Krakoa life, is whisked off to Russia to learn the truth of what Beast did to him. Using the Cerebro Sword, a MacGuffin that missed its stop at X of Swords, Mikhail Rasputin sends Omega Red through time by allowing him to possess the minds of people in the past. The goal? Make sure Xavier is never born. In the blue corner, Jean Grey and Xavier give Wolverine the ability to possess himself across the past...somehow. The goal? Stop Omega Red.
The fact that I'm not an expert on the X-Men's past has allowed me to overlook certain issues in Percy's writing, so I could've found a way to enjoy this storyline. It's a good idea for a sort of two part finale to this run on Wolverine. But five issues of this is just too exhausting. I suppose it reads quickly enough, but only because so many pages are devoted to Wolverine fighting Omega Red in different settings. I suppose long time readers of his solo book might appreciate some details - but then, those are the same people who'd hate the concept the most.
I think that, for a lot of people, the best part about this mini will be that it does work as a good jumping off point for Wolverine. The ending seems to be setting up Beast's clone storyline, and that's the main reason people hate him, so this might be the right stop to get off.
X Deaths, on the other hand, is barely a Wolverine book. This series transitions Moira from Krakoan schemer to overarching villain of the X line. I think we had ourselves a good idea on paper here: after spending some time on the run from Mystique, Moira figures that the real best outcome would be for the world to be turned into a massive Phalanx (this is what Hickman's data pages about Phalanxes, Dominions and Worldminds were leading up to, I guess). She finds this out because a Wolverine, barely fighting off the Phalanx virus with his healing factor, arrives in the past to stop this future from ever happening in the first place.
But look, as much as I enjoyed the X-treme writing of X-Force and Wolverine, I don't think Percy should've applied it to stuff that, y'know, actually matters to the Krakoan story. Did we really need to see gruesome scenes of Moria slicing her own arm off, or skinning Banshee off screen and wearing his skin to enter a gate? It's just too gratuitous and out of place, and it makes Moira come off as a psycho. Oh, and this stuff doesn't even matter in the end, though I guess Moira did some 'damage' to Forge through this bizarre stunt.
One problem that affected both series was the idea of the resurrection protocols. I freely spoiled what happened to Banshee because he can just come back, and the thing that happened to Forge can also be solved the next time he dies - in the Crucible or elsewhere. And Wolverine having one on one duels are always gonna feel low stakes - even if you could kill him, he'd certainly come back an issue or two later.
So, I can imagine that this is sounding like a big 'ol skip. X Lives of Wolverine definitely is - I don't think your experience of the Wolverine solo book is gonna be enhanced much by it. X Deaths has a big impact on the franchise, though, and it's marginally better, so maybe give those 5 issues a read.
X Lives/Deaths of Wolverine is structured like HoX/PoX, with two series that tell separate but linked storylines. The problem here though is that one of them rises to the level of being interesting...and the other doesn't even get that far.
X Lives feels like it was supposed to cap the storylines that Percy was writing in his Wolverine book. Omega Red, who was living that Krakoa life, is whisked off to Russia to learn the truth of what Beast did to him. Using the Cerebro Sword, a MacGuffin that missed its stop at X of Swords, Mikhail Rasputin sends Omega Red through time by allowing him to possess the minds of people in the past. The goal? Make sure Xavier is never born. In the blue corner, Jean Grey and Xavier give Wolverine the ability to possess himself across the past...somehow. The goal? Stop Omega Red.
The fact that I'm not an expert on the X-Men's past has allowed me to overlook certain issues in Percy's writing, so I could've found a way to enjoy this storyline. It's a good idea for a sort of two part finale to this run on Wolverine. But five issues of this is just too exhausting. I suppose it reads quickly enough, but only because so many pages are devoted to Wolverine fighting Omega Red in different settings. I suppose long time readers of his solo book might appreciate some details - but then, those are the same people who'd hate the concept the most.
I think that, for a lot of people, the best part about this mini will be that it does work as a good jumping off point for Wolverine. The ending seems to be setting up Beast's clone storyline, and that's the main reason people hate him, so this might be the right stop to get off.
X Deaths, on the other hand, is barely a Wolverine book. This series transitions Moira from Krakoan schemer to overarching villain of the X line. I think we had ourselves a good idea on paper here: after spending some time on the run from Mystique, Moira figures that the real best outcome would be for the world to be turned into a massive Phalanx (this is what Hickman's data pages about Phalanxes, Dominions and Worldminds were leading up to, I guess). She finds this out because a Wolverine, barely fighting off the Phalanx virus with his healing factor, arrives in the past to stop this future from ever happening in the first place.
But look, as much as I enjoyed the X-treme writing of X-Force and Wolverine, I don't think Percy should've applied it to stuff that, y'know, actually matters to the Krakoan story. Did we really need to see gruesome scenes of Moria slicing her own arm off, or skinning Banshee off screen and wearing his skin to enter a gate? It's just too gratuitous and out of place, and it makes Moira come off as a psycho. Oh, and this stuff doesn't even matter in the end, though I guess Moira did some 'damage' to Forge through this bizarre stunt.
One problem that affected both series was the idea of the resurrection protocols. I freely spoiled what happened to Banshee because he can just come back, and the thing that happened to Forge can also be solved the next time he dies - in the Crucible or elsewhere. And Wolverine having one on one duels are always gonna feel low stakes - even if you could kill him, he'd certainly come back an issue or two later.
So, I can imagine that this is sounding like a big 'ol skip. X Lives of Wolverine definitely is - I don't think your experience of the Wolverine solo book is gonna be enhanced much by it. X Deaths has a big impact on the franchise, though, and it's marginally better, so maybe give those 5 issues a read.
cassie_grace's review against another edition
4.0
X Lives is fine. I read the first issue, kinda figured it wasn’t important, and put it off for a year. X Deaths is pretty great though. That’s the sequel to Inferno that sets up the Destiny of X era.
ezrabinirib's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Such a disappointing follow-up to the story Hickman told throughout his time with the X-Men, and especially disappointing as an immediate next step after Inferno. Most of the intriguing ideas are washed away here in favor of... vengeance, for no reason. Surprising in many ways as I've enjoyed what I've read of Percy's Wolverine and X-Force. This doesn't even feel related to those runs, even though they directly are. No stakes raised or lowered, no continuation of plots brought forward in X-Force. Just characters here for their own sake, and ideas brought forward that don't seem to be here for any reason other than 'wouldn't this be cool?' - Phalanx Wolverine more than any of them, a good idea used to essentially look cool, by far my least favorite part about Superhero Comics.
Some of the art here is genuinely incredible and if it was paired with better writing would be something I referred back to for inspiration. Real bummer all around here
Some of the art here is genuinely incredible and if it was paired with better writing would be something I referred back to for inspiration. Real bummer all around here