Warning: contains a preview of Wolverine #23!
While Wolverine has played a key role in the X-Men’s recent reboot, preview pages released for the forthcoming Wolverine #23 hint that this new era won’t last forever. While Logan has often painted himself as a lone wolf, this is the first time he's explicitly stated that he doesn't expect the X-Men's new venture - in which they've offered all their mutant villains a blanket amnesty to establish a united mutant race - to last.
Ever since writer Jonathan Hickman took over the X-Men line in 2019, the team have seen a radical shift to their status quo. Beginning with the dual miniseries House of X and Powers of X, the X-Men founded a new nation on the living island of Krakoa, where they combined their powers to resurrect fallen mutants. The new mutant nation on Krakoa is ruled by a council of powerful mutants including Charles Xavier and Magneto, with the aim of providing a safe haven for mutantkind on Earth. Although Hickman left the X-Men books in 2021, the current X-Men creators have continued the Krakoan storyline in new and exciting ways.
In his most recent solo series, Wolverine has been splitting time between acting in the interests of the new mutant nation while also continuing to have his own adventures. In the current arc by Benjamin Percy and Adam Kubert, Wolverine has teamed up with Deadpool to track down Danger, the sentient android version of the X-Men’s Danger Room. Their hunt brought them back to what’s left of the old Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, where they're now facing one of Danger's robotic thralls. During the battle, Logan looks back on his time with the team, thinking, "Right now, Krakoa is home. But I know one day, it'll be just another memory in the rearview mirror." This is likely to surprise fans, given flash-forwards to potential futures show that Krakoa has the potential to become the major force in the solar system.
What’s most interesting about the above pages is Logan’s admission that this current Krakoa reboot phase of the X-Men is just that: the latest in a long line of reboots and revamps of a property that’s been around for over half a century, and will likely continue on for decades to come. It makes sense that Logan is the one to point this out, given that the character has lived through several lifetimes of his own, being over one hundred years old. This gives Wolverine a perspective that other characters lack, as he almost exists outside of time, able to see the impermanence of a world where the only constant is change.
However, Logan's lack of faith in the Krakoan project would likely concern his superiors, given his role in protecting the nation as the field leader of X-Force. With major mutant powers clashing over the fate of mutantkind - to the point that even the ability to reboot time is no guarantee of success - it's possible that Wolverine is right about Krakoa being temporary, but it's equally possible the mutant nation will be corrupted into something that he himself has to work to bring down. Whatever changes the future holds, one thing’s for certain: Wolverine and the X-Men will be there to see it.
Wolverine #23 is available from Marvel Comics July 13.