UNCANNY X-MEN #212: The Last Run

Fight!

Originally Published December 1986

We begin in the Morlock Tunnels, where Wolverine surveys the damage, and it's bad. The underground mutants' home has become a veritable graveyard in the wake of the attack by the Marauders.

 

He is contacted by Betsy Braddock, aka Psylocke, the X-Men's latest telepathic associate, who reminds him that Storm wants a prisoner to interrogate, and Wolverine pledges to bring one, and only one, if you know what he means.

Betsy begins to speculate about Storm's emotional status, but Wolverine shuts the conversation down, since she's still something of an outsider with no real basis to speak. He also laughs (in a dark, not-so-funny way) at the idea that the aristocratic Betsy knows anything about the kind of violence they're up against. But I don't know -- I hear Fashion Week can be a real free-for-all.

Back at the mansion, in case there was any doubt this is a real war, the infirmary is packed with triage patients. More and more Morlocks are succumbing to their injuries as Dr. MacTaggart and Nurse Sharon - a recent associate of the New Mutants - are unable to provide life-saving care at the X-Men's facility. Callisto bitterly notes the fallacy to the notion that the her people were ever truly safe. Storm ponders the similarity between their groups, the Morlocks and the X-Men united by the hatred humankind feels for them, as she watches guilt-ridden over a comatose Nightcrawler.

Seeing what has been done to Kitty - left in a state of permanent phase as a "living ghost," and Piotr, moved to a desire for violent revenge, Storm wonders what she, and this war, has done to the "gentlest of souls." She runs to escape it all.

As Piotr seeks out Psylocke for help in following Ororo, he collapses, his exhaustion and grief seeming to catch up with him.

While Magneto and Rogue go to his assistance, Psylocke sends Callisto after Storm, who has fled to the lake in her panic.

Back in the tunnels, Wolverine continues his search for Marauders. He marks the scents of Cyclops, Angel, Beast and Iceman, who were indeed in the Morlock Tunnels during the massacre and had their own run-in with the Marauders. He wonders to himself what they're doing tangled up with that X-Factor group, but just as he begins to follow that train of thought, his senses tip him off to one other presence in the mix, a female scent he "knows as well as his own" (which will never stop being gross to me, but it is what it is.)

It can't be... can it?

Unfortunately there's not much time to find out as Wolverine is attacked from behind by a mysterious foe.

Back at the mansion Magneto deploys his powers in impressive fashion to try to re-align the organic steel biomatrices within Colossus for healing effect. It's a pretty cool idea depicted in an interesting way...

But it's only half-successful. Colossus awakens, but is still immobilized. For the time being, one more X-Man is off the board.

Underground, Wolverine comes face to face with his attacker -- the killer known as Sabretooth!

'Tooth hints at an ongoing relationship between the two when he says that he was always disappointed by Wolverine. Logan keepa his head, not tipping his opponent off that his hostage is the Morlock Healer (Dave Stevenson) whose importance Sabretooth seemingly does not know, else he would likely have killed him already.

Sabretooth indicates that he and the Marauders are working for someone named "Mr. Sinister," whose objective was to eliminate "wild cards" like the Morlocks and the X-Men. What the means is anybody's guess.

Topside (and away back at the Mansion) Callisto finds Storm, who bemoans the fact that her only use might be as a grave-digger. She gives Ororo the tough talk, saying there's no way she'll be permitted to abandon her people in their time of need. They clash, as lightning crashes all around.

In the Tunnels, Wolverine and Sabretooth tussle -- they're evenly-matched, both ruthless and highly trained fighters, but 'Tooth outlines the fundamental difference between them when he says that Wolverine kills, but Sabretooth is a killer.

Wolverine, however, isn't in it for bloodsport. The mission has changed: bringing the healer back to the mansion could be a game-changer for the X-Men, given how many mutants are near-death. Wolverine drops a tunnel on Sabretooth to separate the two and make his getaway with the Healer in tow, reiterating the lessons he learned way back in the Wolverine mini-series, that he is a man -- who sometimes kills, no doubt, but a man -- with honor.

Back up top, Callisto is able to get through to Ororo, reminding her that if she leaves, all the sacrifices made in the name of her mission - by Colossus, Shadowcat and others -- will be for nothing, and she owes them the respect to keep fighting. Callisto hands back the Vest of Leadership, saying once again that while she may still want to re-take leadership of the Morlocks, that she respects Ororo and wants to see her worthy of that respect.

Wolverine arrives back with the Healer, but has some upsetting news -- all through his journey home, he picked up scents of the New Mutants in the tunnels, but his escort mission didn't allow him to follow up on them. But before they can do anything to wrangle the younger team, who are likely no match for the Marauders, a massive energy wave fills the tunnel. 

Rogue and Wolverine manage to evade the blast but Wolverine surmises that if it got this far, then anyone that was in the tunnel at the time - including the New Mutants - is dead.

Further Thoughts:

Here in the year 2021, Sabretooth is an iconic character who will forever be linked with Wolverine, no matter how long it is between their battles. He was actually first introduced as an antagonist to the Claremont-written (and Byrne-drawn!!) Iron Fist, with the long-term idea, just now coming to fruition nearly a decade later, of bringing him into conflict with Wolverine, and perhaps even revealing him to be Logan's father, an idea that never materialized.

Back in 1986, I'm not sure that the idea of bringing these two previously-unrelated characters against each other is one that would have occurred to the readers, to where marketing a comic as "Wolverine vs. Sabretooth Round One" would have engendered excitement and hot anticipation. It's only in hindsight that this seems like a milestone that people may have been waiting for. In fact, the fight itself barely lasts a few pages with hardly any blows landed, as Wolverine quickly ends the skirmish and decides he's better off rescuing the healer and returning to base, with no Marauder prisoner in tow. That's probably the right call for Wolverine, who has been grappling with his animalistic side lately, but less exciting for us, the reader.

But you know, always leave them wanting more.

Absent an all-out-brawl-out between Wolverine and Sabretooth, I actually quite liked the structure of this issue, with Wolverine skulking around the tunnels on his own while the other heroes tend to their wounded and wonder if they have any fight left in them, particularly as Storm faces a crisis of faith in herself. Seeing the effect of the fight on the battered and broken X-Men, who have to reckon not only with what has been done to them, but also what it has brought out in themselves, is defijitely a strength of the book, showing exactly how rich these characters are. 

In fact, I'm maybe less put out by any disappointment in Wolverine vs. Sabretooth Round One than I am in the fact that they continue to tease Storm vs. Callisto Round Two without truly delivering. It just never seems to be the time or place. Still, even that only really enhances the strength and narrative tension at work here as we wonder what, exactly, it's going to take for our heroes to overcome this massive threat.

There's no big colorful button on this issue, but it is in fact part of a crossover called "Mutant Massacre" - the conflict with the Marauders spills over to the New Mutants, X-Factor, and even the Power Pack and Thor (being that the latter three titles are handled by Louise and/or Walt Simonson) but it's not important to read every one of those issues to get a full story here. As noted both in this issue and the previous, X-Factor has been in the Morlock Tunnels and even done battle with the Marauders, including Sabretooth, but this is the very first time Wolverine has become aware that, more than likely, Jean Grey is back from the dead. (I suppose they haven't seen news footage of X-Factor featuring a familiar jawline in ruby quartz aviators  and his statuesque redheaded companion. They really need to get on that internet over at Xavier's.)

Lastly, during her brief conversation with Wolverine, Psylocke introduces herself as someone he hasn't yet had a chance to meet, being that she's only recently arrived at the Xavier School from the New Mutants' adventure in Mojoworld. 

Except we already saw them adventuring together in X-Men Annual #10, so this comic clearly takes place before that. Except Kitty and Nightcrawler are not in any way infirmed in that issue, so this comic clearly takes place after that one. And then there's Longshot, who joined the X-Men during that issue, isn't anywhere to be found in this whole massacre story. Except maybe he's somewhere else, who knows?

Well. The truth is, it's all fiction, arranged and released in an imperfect medium. It's not going to interlock perfectly 100% of the time even when it's made by the same people. You just need to decide how to adjust your head to reconcile the most relevant facts, and leave aside what ultimately doesn't matter (such as how Psylocke specifically addresses Wolverine here.) This is actually something we've come to understand, accept, and even expect in recent times, but have not yet come up against much up through the 70's and 80's. Here, it's just going to have to be part of life's rich pageant, and if that bothers you, well... sorry 'bout it.