UNCANNY X-MEN #140: RAGE!

Woah-oh here he comes, watch out boys he'll chew you up! Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Alpha Flight take on a real Maneater!

Originally Published December 1980

To begin with, Peter is stumping.

By which I mean, he's clearing old tree stumps off the Xavier property, which he finds rewarding and relaxing. He rhapsodizes about the simple life and the beauty of nature to Angel, who, as a trust-fund millionaire, probably finds it hard to relate to this humble Soviet-born farmer, but he seems receptive all the same.

Angel has been hanging around for a while. He's willing to give the new team his seal of approval, which I'm sure means a lot coming from the certifiable Worst X-Man. The whole new team, that is - except Wolverine, about whom he has some reservations, given that he is unpredictable, violent, and a bit of a hardcase when it comes to authority figures.

Professor X counters that Wolverine is a total mysterious badass has a lot of potential, and that his dream of human-mutant coexistence would, at the very least, have to include giving some kind of redemption to someone like him.

Meanwhile, up in Canada, Nightcrawler has been cornered by the Wendigo - convenient, as Wolverine and Alpha Flight were just about to go looking for the beast.

Wendigo is fast enough to counter the acrobatic mutant, and strong enough to squeeze the life out of him if caught. Not knowing the terrain, 'Crawler is hesitant to use his teleporting ability to escape, but Wendigo is kindly enough to punch Kurt so hard he tumbles right through the door of the cabin where Wolverine and Alpha Flight are discussing this very woodland monster, who intends to crush them all with a truck.

Vindicator is able to vaporize the vehicle, but the ensuing explosion of fuel causes a fire, which Shaman uses "magic powder" to smother while the others chase Wendigo deeper into the forest. While they hunt the merciless creature, Snowbird pays Wolverine a backhanded compliment by basically saying he's a jerk, but a good leader, so why did he leave Department H (the parent group of Alpha Flight)? Wolverine - currently engaged in a life-and-death chase with a magical mythical man-eating beast - treats us to a brief flashback that raises as many questions as it answers:

Wolverine finds where Wendigo has stashed Mrs. Parnall and her baby (as a meal for later) and unleashes his Berzerker Rage...

But it's not quite enough...

With Wolverine out cold it appears there is no way for the heroes to overcome the Wendigo's strength - until Snowbird decides to shapeshift into a literal actual version of Wolverine's namesake.

Now, according to my research (a five-second stint on Wikipedia) the wolverine is known as a ferocious hunter with a tenacity greatly outsized in proportion to its small, stocky body. Although it survives largely as a scavenger of carrion and a predator of small rodents, it has been known to devour much larger prey such as deer, moose and elk.

That said, whether a wolverine - even a semi-magical one - is a match for something like the Wendigo, which was recently seen shotputting a truck, I am skeptical. Nevertheless, she persisted. And Snowbird!Wolverine saves the day, overwhelming the monster and immobilizing it so that Shaman can cast his counterspell.

The problem here is that sometimes, Snowbird gets a little too into character, like the Jared Leto of the magical shapeshifter world. And just like Jared Leto, that's not something anybody wants. So it falls to Wolverine to try to coax the human side back out of Snowbird with talking, in what is openly referred to as essentially "Exactly what Cyclops did for Phoenix a few months ago."

Unlike Scott's efforts, it actually works flawlessly, although the book cuts corners by not actually showing us what Wolverine is saying that's so effective at re-humanizing Snowbird.

Shaman cures Wendigo into being plain-old Georges Baptiste, who is them promptly arrested - since he willingly became Wendigo all those years ago, he is official culpable for his actions since. That checks out.

With Baptiste safely in custody, Wolverine's conflict with the Canadian Government is officially forgiven and he is free to be part of an unsanctioned militia of superpowered international mutant agents operating on both American and foreign soil.

Nightcrawler can't resist pondering though - Wendigo and Wolverine are both killers, but one is being punished and the other not. Are they really so different?

Yes and no, Wolverine says, delivering his official statement on the use of lethal force. It turns out Logan is perfectly willing to use non-lethal, perhaps even non-violent options, when the situation cans for it. But if someone threatens his life, or the life of someone he cares about, there can be no mercy, no sympathy for what is about to happen.

This all sounds well and good at the dawn of the ruthless, morally ambiguous killer antihero. Here in the present-day real world, I feel like we've seen too many people who consider themselves the hero of their own stories, taking that same logic to situations that absolutely weren't life or death. Our hope is that, whether fictional heroes like Wolverine, or real-world individuals, they are wise enough to know the difference and not wantonly use violence and threaten life. Too often, this is not the case.

Of course in this case, one is a literal monster, and one is just a guy who's a little rough in certain situations. Not really an apt comparison.

The issue ends with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (recently returned to office after the brief administration of Joe Clark) informing Hudson that Department H is canceled due to lack of funding, ostentatious costumed superheroing being a luxury that the nation couldn't afford. This, despite a woodland positively crawling with enchanted beasts and spirits of all manner!

But the actual for-real end of the issue sees The Blob - restored to full adulthood and imprisoned (the how and why not discussed in the pages of this series) being spring from his concrete cell and called to join mysterious new version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Stay tuned!

Further Thoughts:

This story happens to feature a higher than usual quantity of representation for our Indigenous peoples, and it's all very problematic and largely exploitative. Snowbird is meant to be a literal Inuit goddess but she resembles Christie Brinkley. Shaman, aka Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen, as the narrative reminds us, "turned his back" on the traditional ways of his tribe to study "the white man's medicine" as if Indigenous peoples do not also need flu shots and hip replacement surgeries. He also uses ill-defined Native Magicks, that may or may not have anything to do with what actual Native Shamans do or believe.

The Wendigo himself, as mentioned, is a creature of Algonquian lore, meant to abstractly represent greed, selfishness, and the corruption of humankind. In one description I found, it is said to resemble a towering, emaciated, rotting skeleton that feeds and feeds but grows and grows so it always hungers and can never be satiated. This is a much more harrowing interpretation than "big furry monster that can punch the Hulk" but not as friendly for a comic to be read by kiddies.

Now, I say all this not as any kind of expert in Indigenous culture, just a dumb white guy who has tried hard to listen to the very reasonable objections certain pundits have to the way they have been represented over the years. It's important, I think, to be aware (and not defensive) when something that seems ok to your group, is tagged as not-ok by another.

The issue is pretty much constructed entirely to glorify Wolverine - note that then-Canadian John Byrne gets the plot credit. Characters extol his virtues as a leader and a fighter. He gives us just a taste of his awesome, mysterious past. He gets to go toe-to-toe with the monster and while he does not deal the deciding blow, he does have the crucial part of bringing Snowbird back from her animalistic side.

Whether it's in-character or not for Wolverine to be able to rattle off a monologue so stirring it restores Snowbird's humanity, its execution is a bit of a cop-out. Much like not depicting what happens between Xavier and Jean in the psychic plane, we are left to imagine Wolverine saying something deep and moving to cure Snowbird - the narration box even essentially says "Basically, Wolverine gave a really great speech, whatever he says, just imagine it for yourself." On Wolverine as a true warrior-poet with Deep Feels to Spare, I could buy in, if the creators were willing to do the work. Still, it's an interesting way of giving him the win without him being the one who takes down Wendigo, thus showing us Wolverine's fighting prowess is not unlimited (yet) which helps maintain stakes for later battles, and helps build up the members of Alpha Flight.

The issue also features more with Kitty and Storm, and Storm's jealousy of Kitty's budding relationship with dance teacher Stevie Hunter (Storm is feeling very protective of this young girl she's known for like 3 weeks.) Storm also gets hit on by a walking 70's Blaxploitation stereotype.

Lastly, this particular issue is notable for being the straw that broke the camel's back. A few years into a famously fractious (but obviously fruitful) working relationship with Chris Claremont, John Byrne saw something in the final version of this issue that made him realize that the world was not wide enough for both men on X-Men, causing him to quit the job. What led to this momentous realization?

Colossus struggling to pull out a stump. Seriously.

To hear Byrne tell it, he plotted, and drew, the scene as though Colossus was pulling out the stump with ease, but when Claremont added dialogue and narration, it seemed as though it was a bit of a struggle for the steel-skinned X-Man. And how dare he.

Now, look. I don't have a dog in the fight. Both creators contributed to making this comic great. And the "Marvel Method" of plotting, then drawing an issue, then sticking the dialogue in later, is inherently unfair and only seems semi-reasonable when the scripter is an Editor who is overseeing the entire line of 16 books and is maybe a little too busy to write every panel. So I get Byrne being dissatisfied that his contributions could be overwritten so capriciously.

But to me, it seriously fucking looks like Colossus is having a hell of a time with that stump - his tense forearms suggest he is braced, and the second-panel procession suggests a result after a lengthy pull. And I like it better if he is, too. If it's easy, then panel one is placing the chain and panel two is a swift yanking that sees the stump removed. To show Colossus squared off in a big splash page indicates a lot of time and effort on his part. That's how sequential art works. You don't have to be Scott McCloud (although it helps if you are.)

There were any number of other things to be frustrated about, justifiably. But this, apparently, was where the line in the sand must be drawn. Here, and no further.

Byrne's contributions extend through three further issues that had already been pencilled by the time Byrne saw what became of his all-important Colossus-stump scene. He would depart the book he was gradually making into a serious franchise and a huge chapter of history seals up behind him.