Wolverine: Xisle #3

Issue Date: 
June 2003
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Bruce Jones (writer), Jorge Lucas (artist), Studio F’s Oscar Carreno (colors), David Sharpe (letters), Nova Ren Suma (assistant editor), Mike Raicht (associate editor), Mike Marts (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Bill Jemas (president)

Brief Description: 

Logan wakes up on a beach and figures that the previous night’s adventure must have been a dream. However, the boy from the previous day hits him on the back of the head again with another stone. After a short conversation, the boy runs off once he sees it’s getting dark. Logan chases him and once again loses him and gets lost. He hears branches brake in the forest around him and he starts slashing at the undergrowth. The boy appears and points him towards the inn. The boy vanishes again and so Logan goes to the inn. He walks up to the barman and starts quizzing him about the previous night, but the barman just thinks he’s drunk and walks off. A waitress comes over to Logan and serves him some drinks. Logan tries to get information on what’s going on but she doesn’t tell him anything useful. He realizes he’s still bleeding from the shoulder, so the waitress patches it up. After she has finished dressing the wound, she turns to leave but Logan grabs her arm. For a split second, he sees her as Amiko, which confuses him. A scream rings out, which everyone else ignores. Logan goes to leave but the waitress tries to stop him. He runs out into the jungle to find whoever is in danger. Strange goblin-like creatures follow him until he comes across the hairy monster attacking the boy from earlier. He tries to fight the monster but it swipes him away. He tries again and, once again, he is thrown into a tree. He dives at the monster again and the monster impales him on its claws. As Logan lies on the floor bleeding to death, he thinks it must be a dream. However, the waitress comes up to him and tells him it’s all too real.

Full Summary: 

Logan lies on the wooden floor of the bar, bleeding to death. He wakes up lying on a beach with waves lapping around him. As he comes to, he assumes the previous day had all been a dream and that he had never left the beach. He stands up and sees that he is right back where he started. A stone smacks him on the side of the head and he turns to see the boy from the previous day laughing at him. The boy asks what he’s doing and Logan replies that he’s dreaming. The boy asks what about and Logan replies it was about a tavern, weird people and him. The boy throws another stone at Logan but Logan catches it. He mutters to himself that it all felt real though. He chucks the stone back to the kid and says that maybe this whole island is a dream including him. He asks the boy what he thinks but the boy points out that it would be a dream too.

Logan looks down to his shoulder to see claws marks slashed across it. He begins to wonder where they came from when the boy starts to run off. Logan yells after him but he says that it’s getting dark. Logan chases after him, trying to get him to stop. Once again, he ends up in the jungle and with the boy gone. He thinks the boy purposefully led him into the woods to get lost, just as the sun sets. He tries to walk back the way he came, claiming his animal sense never let him down. Just as he gets lost again, he hears branches snapping behind him. He sniffs the air and unsheathes his claws. Recognizing the foul, feral smell, he slashes at the undergrowth, trying to find the monster that attacked him the night before. He yells to the monster to stop acting like an amateur and to pick a direction. The boy suddenly appears in the distance and tells him to go a certain way. Logan turns to see where he is pointing and he spots the inn from the previous night. He says he’s been there before but, when he turns to the boy, he’s gone again.

Logan walks up to the inn and hears the familiar carnival music coming from it. He walks in and straight to the bar. He asks the barman if he is going to say it again. Confused, the barman asks what he means. Logan says the last time they spoke, the barman told him to hurry. Then something was thrown over his shoulder and broke against the bottles behind the bar. The barman stares at him and says he thinks Logan has had enough already. Logan sits down and orders a neat scotch. The barman just walks off as Logan yells after him.

A young waitress has been watching the scene and comes over to Logan. She pours Logan his drink and he thanks her. He says that she looks familiar and asks if he has seen her before. She tells him it’s a small island. Logan downs the drink and asks for another. She asks if he’s driving and he tells her she’s funny. He says a mutant like him can’t get drunk. He asks her what the gag is, which causes her to look confused. He downs the second drink and says it’s a small island with no homes and one bar with lousy music. He asks her who the leader of the elaborate game is. She simply stares at him and notes he’s bleeding.

He looks down to his shoulder and asks her if he is being given some kind of drug. Do they want information or is he being brainwashed? The woman comes from behind the bar with a rag. She ties it onto Logan’s arm to stop the bleeding. He winces with pain and she apologizes. She asks if it hurts and he says it does, oddly enough. She asks what he means and he tells her he should have healed up by now. She finishes wrapping his arm and he asks what he owes her. She calls him by his name and tells him it’s on the house. He thanks her and then prompts her to say her name. She doesn’t give it and Logan suddenly twigs he never told her his name. She smiles and they stare at each other for a few second. The tension is disturbed by a loud howl coming from outside.

Logan asks what the sound was but she tells him she didn’t hear anything. She turns to go but he grabs her arm. He says it sounded like the howling of the damned and she didn’t hear anything. When she asks if there was something else he wanted from the bar. He tells her to cut the crap and she says he’s hurting her arm. Suddenly, everything around him changes and he sees himself holding onto Amiko’s arm and her telling him he’s hurting her. He lets go and staggers back, and just as quick everything goes back to normal again.

The waitress asks if he’s alright as he holds his head. He says it must be the booze. He thought he saw his foster daughter for a second. The waitress says she thought he couldn’t get drunk. He sits down on a barstool and tells her he feels cold. He reaches for a bottle of alcohol and asks if that’s the answer. The waitress goes to grab it and they end up touching hands. He says her hand is so warm. He gets up and turns to her and asks who she is. They start to get closer as she is just about to tell him.

A loud scream rings out, which gets Logan’s attention. No one else responds and he asks what the matter is. A child is being murdered out there. He goes to leave but the waitress blocks the door and tells him the sun has set. Logan pushes past her and goes out into the night. As he rushes through the jungle, strange, goblin-like creatures emerge from the undergrowth. Soon there are dozens of them following Logan. They make a noise that almost sounds like laughter.

Logan hears another scream and he finally comes across the small boy being attacked by the giant hairy monster. He tells the monster to get away from the kid but the monster grins sinisterly instead. Logan says he will ask one more time and says to get away from the kid. With that, he unsheathes his claws and lunges at the monster. The monster stops his with his own long claws and then swipes at Logan. Logan is sent flying backwards into a tree. As he lays there with slash marks across his chest, the goblin creatures make their laughing noises at him.

Logan gets up and looks down at the wound on his chest. The monster smiles back as blood drips off its claws. Logan lunges at it again and once again it blocks him and throws him away. With another injury, Logan looks down to see he isn’t healing. The monster pins the boy on the floor and raises its arm to slash him. Logan dives at it a third time and the monster impales him through the abdomen in mid-air. As Logan lies on the floor, bleeding from his stomach, he wearily says to himself that it must be a dream. The waitress comes up to him and tells him it’s not… it’s all too real.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Amiko

Young Boy

Monster

Barman

Waitress

Drinkers at inn

Story Notes: 
Issue Information: 

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