Wolverine: Snikt #2

Issue Date: 
August 2003
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Tsutomu Nihei (Story and art), Guru EFX (colourist), Cory Petit (Letters), Stephanie Moore (Assistant Editor), C.B. Cebulski (Editor), Joe Quesada (Editor in chief), Bill Jemas (President). Special Thanks to Mutsumi Masuda

Brief Description: 

As Wolverine prepares to fight the Mandate again, it is shot and killed by a robot. Fusa appears but Wolverine passes out due to his injures from the battle. He is taken back to their base, where he is watched over. When he wakes up, Fusa tells him he has been brought to the future. The Mandate came and wiped out most of the population. The only weapon they have against it is the gun belonging to the robot known as the Colonel. But he only has seventeen bullets left and they have no way of making more. In the meantime, one of the groups that rescued Wolverine goes to seek medical help because he isn’t feeling well. He suddenly mutates and kills another colonist. The alarm is raised and Fusa and her team go to fight him. They realize the man was infected with a parasitic Mandate and has mutated into one of them. The Colonel tries to shoot its orb-core but misses and it escapes. It is about to kill some colonists but Wolverine stabs it through the orb-core, killing it. After that, he demands that Fusa tells him what’s going on.

Full Summary: 

Wolverine is stood on a dam-like structure with huge ruins towers over him. The metal and flesh creature that attacked him earlier is reforming after Wolverine sliced it in two. A cloud of dust swirls around it as it repairs. Once it’s finished, it creates a huge set of talons on its hand and lunges towards Wolverine. He dives out of the way at it strikes down at him but it then shoots off a set of spears from his body. One of the spears impales Wolverine through the chest, injuring and slowing him down. The giant creature advances on him but, before it can reach him, it is suddenly struck in the chest by a green energy blast. In falls down face first on the ground.

Wolverine looks around to see what saved him and sees a figure standing on a ledge above him. The figure appears to be that of some kind of robot with a grayish, black body with glowing red eyes. Its left arm has a trail of smoke coming from it indicating it was used to shoot the creature. The robot tells Wolverine that he just fought a Mandate. He has to destroy the orb-core, otherwise they’ll keep reforming over and over again. He looks down to where the Mandate lay and sees it has now dissolved away leaving a green residue.

Fusa appears with some more allies and makes her way down to Wolverine. She asks if he’s alright and he pulls out the spear that was still sticking through his chest. With that, he collapses on the floor as Fusa rushes over to him.

As night descends, Wolverine is taken back to Fusa’s base in some of the old ruins that litter the landscape. Wolverine is being carried by the robot as the rest of the team escorts them. They make their way inside the base and into an elevator, which takes them deep down through the hive-like structure. Other people come out to see the new arrival and one of them asks if it’s Wolverine. Fusa confirms that he is and says he was wounded in a battle with the Mandate. His healing factor has repaired his wounds but he is still unconscious. She guesses it’s because of battle fatigue combined with the stresses of teleportation.

As the group stare at Wolverine, one of them, Takeo, walks away. Fusa asks where he’s going and he tells her that he’s going to see the medic as he doesn’t feel well after going above ground. He makes his way down the dark tunnels but comes to a stop and leans against one of the walls. Another man comes up from behind him, recognizes him and asks if he is okay. He puts his arm on his shoulder and spins him around but sees that his face is gone and replaced with a mass is tumor-like growths. Before he can do anything something shoots out of the top of Takeo’s head and stabs the man through his head, killing him. Takeo then drags the body into a dark alley.

Wolverine is lying on a stone slab. He wakes up and looks around him. Yaa and his sister who were watching over him call out to Fusa. She enters the room and seems pleased that he’s awake. Dressed in her black leather suit, she introduces herself as Fusa and says this is the second time she has introduced herself. She asks if he recalls their first meeting but he doesn’t. He looks at the group and asks who they are and where he is. Fusa tells him he’s still on Earth but he replies that it’s not the Earth he was living on. She says it’s the future and most of the Earth’s population is now dead. Everyone was wiped out when the Mandate attacked in 2047; that was 11 years ago. He asks what she’s talking about and how he got here.

Just then, the robot that saved his life walks in the room and stands behind Fusa. She tells Wolverine that she brought him here much to his surprise. She goes on and explains that the number of Mandate warriors continues to increase. Referring to the robot behind her she tells Wolverine that he’s the Colonel. The gun on his left arm is the only thing they have left that can destroy the Mandate’s orb-core. But they are running out of ammo for it. Wolverine looks down at the ammo counter on the Colonel’s arm and sees he only has seventeen shots left. They have lost almost all the technological data and knowledge over the years. Not to mention the labs and raw materials are gone. They can no longer make the special bullets anymore and, once the current stockpile is used up, they will be defenseless. Fusa apologizes at having dragged him into this but they need his help. He starts to ask why come back in time for his help, but before he can finish another man runs in the room and yells that there is an emergency. A Mandate has entered the facility.

The man explains that they think Takeo was infected with micro-nucleate Mandate parasites when he went above ground to rescue Wolverine. The group goes to where the fighting is and the Colonel instructs the soldiers to aim carefully as to expose its orb-core as it will help give him a better shot. They see the Mandate in one of the rooms. It has fused itself to the ceiling using organic tendrils and has made itself a body of metal and flesh. It has killed someone and is holding his body up with its claws and tentacles. The Colonel takes aim with his gun and locates the exposed red orb-core on the creature. He fires and hits the target, causing it to drop the body. However the Mandate doesn’t die; instead it disappears through a hole in the ceiling. Fusa shouts at the Colonel for missing and tells him it’s headed to the upper levels.

On the upper levels, colonists run scared. Two of them run past a huge set of doors with strange noises coming from the other side. The doors suddenly rip off their hinges, causing the man and women to fall to the ground. The Mandate crouches on all fours in the doorway and grins menacingly at the two colonists. Before it can do anything, its head is slammed into the ground. Wolverine has landed on its back and has stabbed its orb-core with his claws. As the dust settles, Fusa and the Colonel arrive to help the colonists. Wolverine gets off the body of the Mandate and demands some straight answers before he gets mad.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Fusa

Takeo

Yaa

The Colonel

Yaa’s sister

Numerous other colonists

Mandate

Story Notes: 

This issue takes place during the period where the X-Men primarily wore black leather costumes that reflected the costumes worn in the X-Men films that were popular at that time.

Issue Information: 

This Issue has been reprinted in:

Written By: