Amazing X-Men #8 Review

Writers: Craig Kyle & Chris Yost
Penciler: Ed McGuinness
Appearances: Mac Hudson (Guardian), Heather Hudson (Vindicator), Puck, Talisman, Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Wendigo

Amazing X-Men #8: World War Wendigo Part 1 of 5.

The issue begins with an argument between two butchers at a meat factory named Rick and Eddie, in regards to some infidelity with a woman named Shiela. Rick eventually gets upset enough to punch Eddie, who falls back and hits his head against a table – breaking his neck and killing him. In a panic, Rick puts Eddie’s body into a meat grinder.

This, when I was reading it, seemed out of place. I couldn’t figure out how this was going to tie to anything in this comic. I would eventually be very, pleasantly, surprised when I reached the end of the issue. But let’s not get there yet. First, now that I have explained the set up – let me go back and say, the art is quite clean and crisp. Easy to tell who is who, good emotion conveyed on the character’s faces.

So we next go to Ottawa, Canada where Logan shows up at Heather’s cabin and knocks on her door. After some quick dialogue, Heather explains to Logan that she and Mac had a huge fight – and that she’s not heard from him in two days, and even so – she wasn’t sure if he would ever come back, because of how bad the fight was. Wolverine shows off his costume from his bag, and basically explains he’s ready to look into this.

The scene shifts to the Jean Grey School, where we see Colossus embracing Nightcrawler, thankful that he’s alive. The one page panel of this, is a great shot – reminds me of classic X-Men, in the way it’s drawn. There’s some witty banter about how each of them has died – and it seems to be the X-Men’s nitch to die and come back. Storm pops in to ask if they have seen Logan – and it pans through many of the students, who all explain, for various reasons, why they avoid Logan in the morning and that none of them have seen them – until it gets to Iceman, who explains, after Storm scorns him, that Logan was headed to Canada.

The scene shifts back to Canada, where we see Logan now in his Wolverine costume, and Heather in her costume from Alpha Flight (Volume 2 – the green/white maple leaf costume). In Forrest Canada, they discover that all the people appear to be missing – and Wolverine explains, this is how Mac must have found the town as well. As Wolverine continues to track Mac, he suddenly picks up a scent and barks at Heather to fly out of there as fast as she can and to get Alpha Flight and the X-Men immediately.

We see Heather flying, as she tries to call Puck. The scene shifts to Puck looking at his phone, seeing that it’s Heather calling – and another voice says, “Don’t you dare pick that up.” And the next panel shows Elizabeth Twoyoungmen, better known as Talisman, daughter of Shaman, in bed, with the covers pulled over her bare body.

Now we will stop here a second to consider this. We know, that Puck is significantly older than Elizabeth. But we also know that Puck has been portrayed as quite the lady’s man. And if there was ever a character who suffered “Daddy Issues” – it would probably be Elizabeth Twoyoungmen. So while initially, this scene seemed odd to me – that they would be bedding one another. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to come across as they were there “to have fun” – sort of a “friends with benefits” type of feel. The more I considered it, the more I could certainly see this happening.

Now that that is out of the way, let us continue with the story.

We see Heather get grabbed out of the air by something, white and fast. She turns to blast it – and it’s Wendigo. Matters go from bad to much worse, as she blasts that one – what appears to be another Wendigo lunges at her from behind, and sinks its teeth into her legs. Then the first one bites deep into her shoulder. Then we see the two Wendigos pulling at her.

We then see Wolverine charging to Heather’s rescue, while Rachael and Storm are monitoring Wolverine using Cerebro – and Racheal notes that Wolverine appears to be expressing a sense of fear, which seems impossible for the man known as Wolverine. But it’s unmistakable. Storm tells Northstar to get the Blackbird ready.

The final panel – this is where, as I said in the beginning, I couldn’t figure out what the fight between Rick and Eddie was leading up to – we see Wolverine facing off with an entire pack of Wendigos, leading to the idea, that those who unknowingly ate Eddie’s remains after Rick put him in the meat grinder, suffered the curse of the Wendigo – those who eat the flesh of man or woman, shall suffer the curse of the Wendigo.

Over all this was an excellent issue, as all of the Amazing X-Men issues have been. Though Mac got no dialogue, the “flashbacks” to him, as Wolverine was tracking him was quite nice. Heather explaining the she and Mac had a very bad year, seems to be an indication as to why she’s no longer brain washed (as she was in her last appearance in Alpha Flight), and perhaps why they no longer had a child with them. Seeing Puck and Talisman, was also a nice touch. And finally, seeing Heather in her Volume 2 costume, I thought was nice. (I personally never liked Heather as a super hero, I think she lost some of her character when this happened – but if she was going to wear a costume, I am glad it wasn’t the red/white, which I feel is something only Mac should be wearing).