Warning: SPOILERS for Marvel Comics Presents #7
The X-Men family just got a little bit bigger, now that the origin story of Rien, Wolverine's secret daughter has been made official. And make no mistake: with the powers of both her parents, she is WAY more dangerous than her deadbeat daddy.
The Marvel Comic historians and devoted Wolverine fans will be quick to suggest that a surprise child of Logan is nothing new. And yes, there is Logan's son Daken, and the recent revelation that Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23 is more Wolverine's child than a clone. But the new confirmed offspring isn't any test, experiment, or cloning breakthrough. She's the daughter of Logan, conceived of and born the old fashioned way. But even if she came to possess her father's claws and her mother's magic honestly, Rien was still made for a specific purpose: protecting the world from a threat nobody but Logan even knows is coming. And together, Wolverine and his daughter are finally going to save the planet--for good.
Meet Rien, Daughter of The Wolverine
The story may sound like the kind of bombshell seen in a massive X-Men comic event, but fans won't find it in either of Marvel's current flagship titles. Instead the story is being told in Marvel Comics Presents, a collection of untold stories starring some of Marvel's fan-favorite heroes. The credit goes to Charles Soule, Paulo Siqueira, and the rest of their team for Wolverine's ongoing tale, which has revealed Marvel's once-per-decade doomsday that Logan continuously stops. It's an unexpected blend of horror and mysticism we would recommend to every Marvel fan, but the key points are summarized in Marvel Comics Presents #7 concisely:
In the last days of WWII, German forces compelled a French sorceress to conjure a demon known as the Truth to be weaponized against the Allies. When Canadian soldiers attacked, she lost control of the demon and was mortally wounded. Logan was among the Canadian troops and intervened, giving the sorceress enough time to banish the demon from the world for only ten years at a time. Every decade since, Logan and the sorceress' daughter, Sylvie, would work together to banish it again--until she was killed during their encounter in the '70s.
The brief affair between Sylvie and Logan in the 1960s (by which we mean a single sexual encounter) was implied to be deeply important at the time, framed as a duty Sylvie took upon herself for her family. When the Truth attacked thirty years later and was cut down by a full-grown, unkillable, magical-clawed warrior, the truth was obvious: Wolverine concluded along with the reader, "I think she's my daughter." But only in the latest issue does Logan finally track her down to get the truth.
Logan's Daughter, The Perfect Weapon
The woman is confirmed to be named Rien (French for "nothing"), which tells readers all they need to know about her upbringing. With her mother killed fighting the Truth, any chance the girl had of being nurtured or cared for by the D'Arqueness family died with her. As she explains to Wolverine--whom she refuses to accept as her father, believing herself to be a weapon, not a person--she was made by her mother, using Logan, to serve her family. More precisely, to make up for the problem their own descendant created when allowing the Truth his once-a-decade doorway. And impersonal parenting aside, their plan makes perfect sense.
Combining the magic seen from Sylvie with the immortality and ferocity of Logan's own mutated DNA, readers have already seen Rien dispatch the Truth twice. Where such victories were hard earned in the past, Rien has proven herself to be more than a match for the demon. Still, no human being or mutant, magical or otherwise, can be made into 'a thing' and expect Wolverine to go along with it. Whether or not Rien approves of being Logan's daughter, she is more his child than most who have claimed the title. And so, this chapter concludes with Wolverine achieving the reunion he has pursued for years... and telling Rien it's time to finish the fight once and for all.
Wolverine & Rien Are Teaming Up
Considering the life she has been raised to lead--that is, no life at all aside from murdering the Truth--it's no surprise Rien is hostile from the outset. It's only when Logan emerges from the shadows to tell her he's not looking for a fight that she lets down her guard. Longtime X-Men fans will be able to connect the dots and see how Rien's life being bred as a weapon reflects Logan's own 'Weapon X' torture (like father, like daughter). But where Wolverine seemed resigned to fighting the Truth every ten years for eternity, he's much less willing to leave his own flesh and blood to such an existence alone. After all, he knows a thing or two about loneliness.
The final page reveals that Wolverine is determined to grant his daughter freedom from her mother and father's curse, and end the cycle of the Truth's resurrection and incursion for good. Rien can drive the Truth back, but together they just might be able to take the fight to the demon--and kill it in the Hell it calls home. Until now that wasn't even an option to be considered, so it should still be Rien who gets the credit for making it possible. As Wolverine crosses his adamantium blades with Rien's glowing bone claw, the plan is set: save the world as father and daughter, or die trying... along with the rest of humanity. Fingers crossed!
Fans can read below for the full roster of storytellers behind Wolverine's tale of Marvel Comics Presents, in stores now.
- MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS (WOLVERINE) #7
- Written by: Charles Soule
- Pencils by: Paulo Siqueira
- Inks by: Oren Junior
- Colors by: Frank D'Armata
- Letters by: VC's Joe Caramagna
- Cover by Arthur Adams
- Welcome to the 21st century! A new age dawns for Logan in his mission to stop the demon Truth!
Marvel Comics Presents #7 is available now from your local comic book shop, or direct from Marvel Comics.