Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Weapon X-Men #3! There are few Marvel Comics characters who have suffered more in their lives than Wolverine. Logan was neglected and abandoned as a child, he was abducted by Weapon X where he was brainwashed into being a killer before being brutally experimented on, and – in various timelines – Wolverine’s seen everyone he’s ever cared about die in front of his eyes. And now, that particularly heartbreaking trend continues, as one Wolverine is faced with the hardest choice he’s ever had to make in his 50-year-long story.
In Weapon X-Men #3 by Christos Gage and Yildiray Çinar, the multiversal team of Wolverines hand-picked by the Phoenix herself to take down Onslaught are actually working with the cosmically-powerful super-villain to save the world (well, a world, anyway). Onslaught was using a magical artifact known as the Lifeline Tablet to make every mutant on this particular Earth immortal. However, when the spell was disrupted, Onslaught accidentally robbed everyone on the planet of death, forcing them to live in eternal misery. So, Onslaught needed the Wolverines’ help to undo what they’d done, and they did so expertly.
After the mission was complete, Onslaught told the Wolverines that they were on good terms now. Onslaught wouldn’t try to corrupt the multiverse, and in exchange, the Wolverines and the Phoenix that brought them together would stop hunting them. However, while Onslaught was making this deal, they touched the mind of one of the Wolverines on the team: Old Man Logan. Telepathically, Onslaught tells Logan that they know the Phoenix will never stop hunting them, and they need Logan’s help to keep that from happening.
In Old Man Logan continuity, Logan was tricked by Mysterio into believing every member of the X-Men was a super-villain that had somehow invaded the X-Mansion. Wolverine reacted by massacring each one of them, which was especially necessary given the current climate of this storyline, as every villain was stepping up their game in order to actually take over the world (which they end up doing). By the time all the ‘villains’ are dead, Mysterio drops the illusion, allowing Wolverine to witness the carnage he brought upon his own found-family.
Wolverine didn’t pop his claws for 50 years after he killed the X-Men, and even after all the good he did for the world during the events of Old Man Logan – dismantling practically every villain’s territory in the Wasteland, killing Red Skull, massacring the Hulk Gang – Wolverine still never forgave himself. Weapon X-Men is the most recent comic in which fans have seen Old Man Logan, and he’s still beating himself up for what happened. But now, Onslaught is giving Wolverine the chance to undo the one moment in his life that’s haunted him the most.
While it may seem like a no-brainer for Wolverine to accept Onslaught’s deal and save the X-Men he murdered, the situation is a bit more nuanced than that. Sure, Onslaught may seem like they’ve dropped their plan for multiversal conquest, but the villain is almost certainly lying. If Wolverine did work with Onslaught, his world would probably be the first on the chopping block. Plus, what Onslaught is asking Old Man Logan to do is borderline paradoxical. To save one team, he must betray another, which would only serve to shift the guilt and despair, not erase it entirely.
However, if Old Man Logan doesn’t take Onslaught up on their offer, then he’ll know that he could have brought back the X-Men he killed, and didn’t, thereby adding to his guilt immensely. Truly, no matter which decision Old Man Logan makes, he loses, which is why this is the hardest choice Wolverine has ever faced.
Weapon X-Men #3 by Marvel Comics is available now.