Proteus vs. Wolverine: Shreds of Humanity

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

Greetings True Believers! I'm here again. This is the back-up story from Classic X-Men #32. It's called "Shreds of Humanity" and it stars Proteus, Wolverine and Nightcrawler. But it's really about Wolverine. I was going to post it for the OPM week but Photobucket scanblocked me. This story is so bad-ass so I'm going to post it anyway.

The tale is set during the X-Men's epic battle with the mutant villain Proteus. (One the defining moments of Marvel's merry Mutants, as one of their main purposes is to not only protect mutants from the rest of humanity but to protect the human race against out-of-control mutants.) This story is also prime Wolverine. Before he was overexposed, on million teams and suffed from the "god" syndrome. (Like Batgod, Wolviegod, Supergod.) He was one of the strongest characters of the X-Men's second generation. He was a grown man, bitter and jaded. He had no past and did not fully embrace the X-Men's peaceful philosophy. He loved Jean and his "rival" relationship with Scott gave us one of comicdom's truly great love triangles. He was a gruff older brother to Nightcrawler and Colossus. A threat to members like Iceman and Angel, a fellow rogue to members like Banshee and Thunderbird. Wolvie in his prime was a lot of different things but he was always pure bad-ass, which this post shows. Enjoy!






The Proteus storyline is still my favorite X-Men one. To me it has everything an X-story should. Proteus is also my favorite x-villain and who I believe had a lot more potential then was ever realized. He could be a malevolent Mr. Impossible or Q to the X-Men. He would have to been depowered to a certain level but it could have worked. Under the right writer he may been a Joker-type villain, sort of the example of the ultimate negative possibilty of mutant powers. His relationship with Moira was great too. It's heavily implied that he was a child of rape and Moira had a complex relationship with him. Given some of his dialogue during this storyline, it's had a very deep streak of Oedipus. Very creepy.

This is set when Wolvie and Nightcrawler run into Proteus after he had escaped from Muir Island and possessed a police officer. Proteus has just attacked them with his reality-warping powers.





Nightcrawlers begs Wolvie to stay calm because Proteus is too powerful. "Oh, God, no. Wolverine! Please! This is no time to play the tough guy!"




The fight between Logan and Proteus is devastating to Wolvie because Proteus' powers seriously mess with with Logan's enhanced senses.







Proteus turns Wolvie into a dali-esque spider-creature. At this point, I like to make a note about Proteus' mutant powers. During the story there is confusion whither he actually warped reality or made people think it with telepathy. It was confirmed in later that he actually did warp reality.




I really like this dialogue and art.




Proteus then turns Wolvie into a stereotypical blockheaded tough guy. But Wolverine just won't go down.







That is Wolverine. Love him or hate him, he is a balls-to-wall never give up warrior. That is also Proteus, consumed by hatred and his own powers. Determined to share his pain and hate with the world, utterly convinced of his own superiority. A perfect villain.

I hoped everyone enjoyed!

Comments

[captain_clown.insanejournal.com]

Wow, that was seriously awesome. Loved the whole cigarettes and drinking paranoia and the art was fantastic! Thanks!

[salamangkiero.insanejournal.com]

I'm not surprised at wolverine here - this is at that core of his character, that he just won't give up. That's why it was so painful for him to walk away from the wedding.

[captain_clown.insanejournal.com]

Yeah the writing is massively well-suited for Wolvie, love how he doesn't like the tough guy comment and the not giving up thing is very heroic. This is my Wolverine :D

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

What's curious, and satisfying, is that although this is SET in the Proteus arc, it was written in the late 1980's when Wolverine was well on his way to over-saturation. Yet it manages to create the sense of the Wolverine from that story.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

He shouldn't have been able to do the spider thing because he shouldn't have been able to alter the shape of his bones.

[wolydarg.insanejournal.com]

Proteus changes reality...

REALITY.

[jlbarnett.insanejournal.com]

he cannot affect metal. Metal is bonded to Wolverine's bone which would keep his shape locked.

[wolydarg.insanejournal.com]

Ah, noted, thought that was some quirk they put in the Exiles series. My bad, carry on >_>

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

Actually he can. He's shown warping things like cars, lamp posts, mailboxes, etc. He can't have metal in his energy form. He can warp Wolverine but he can't possess him.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

In any case, it should be noted that, at the time that the original Proteus story was written, it had not yet been confirmed that his skeleton was actually coated in the stuff - that came sometime later, if I recall correctly. So if you were being true to the period that the story was set in, you wouldn't pay any attention to the 'adamantium bones' thing anyway.

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

excellent point.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Thankyew.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

This was one of the better back stories in Classic.

[godspeedmoya.insanejournal.com]

i remember them doing an episode of this in the animated show. one thing i liked better about it was that proteus did break wolverine when he always did comeoff like a hardass

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Interesting stuff - reminiscent of the 'Jaspers Warp' storyline from Captain Britain. I actually prefer Jaspers to Proteus as a reality warper, but hey, it's Alan Moore - how couldn't you?

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

I'm not just a tough guy. It goes all the way to the core and it's called COURAGE..

Damn, Wolverine! That's why I'm on your team.

(hahahabuteveryoneisonateamwithLogan! :/)