Warning: Spoilers for Way of X #5!
In Marvel Comics, a returning threat in the form of the overpowered villain known as Onslaught has turned Laura Kinney’s Wolverine into a liability for the entirety of mutantdom, and now it’s clear that her corruption is only the beginning. It’s a good thing then that X-Men alum, Nightcrawler, and Professor X’s estranged son, Legion, are on the case because Wolverine is going to need all the help she can get at this point.
Drawn attention to in Way of X #5, by Si Spurrier and Robert Quinn, Nightcrawler and Legion have been investigating the resurgence of the uber-villain called Onslaught, and the highly insidious ways he’s been slowly corrupting the mutant population of Krakoa. Finding out that Onslaught is eating the periods of life that don’t come back when the X-Men and other mutants are resurrected, Legion and Nightcrawler immediately conclude that because of this, Onslaught is gaining influence over every mutant resurrected; a huge complication for obvious reasons.
Clearly a growing problem on its own, the more immediate issue comes in the form of a mutant fans know well, and one that Onslaught has squarely set his sights on: Wolverine. Recently resurrected after her mission to a place called “The Vault” concluded, Laura has suddenly become a ticking time bomb of Onslaught’s doing, a fact that’s as disturbing as it is dangerous, especially considering she has no clue of his nefarious plans.
Being a place where time moves much more slowly than in the “real” world, Laura Kinney and her fellow mutants of Synch and Darwin lived hundreds of years while inside “The Vault,” doing what they could to find out what the villainous group calling themselves the Children of the Vault were up to. Successful in their mission but unable to make it out of there alive, Laura is resurrected immediately upon Synch and Darwin’s return to Krakoa, and it’s here where the problem that is Onslaught rears his ugly head.
Known to be squirreling away small chunks of the lives lost by all mutants between the time their personalities and memories are “backed up” by Cerebro, their actual deaths, and eventual resurrection, most mutants end up losing only a few weeks, days, and sometimes even hours before they are brought back to life, giving Onslaught incremental power over them. But with Laura having lived centuries in between her last backup and her resurrection, she not only has unwittingly given Onslaught more power than he’s taken from the combined majority of the mutants on Krakoa but has also given him a much bigger hold on her psyche than what he normally would lay claim to if this were any normal cycle of mutant death and resurrection.
Combining this with the fact that Laura is now part of the main X-Men team after the recent relaunch of their series, and Onslaught’s slow but sure grip over all mutants has grown exponentially with Laura’s missing years swallowed up within himself, making her a liability for a team that quite simply can’t afford one. Wolverine may not be aware of what Onslaught is doing, but it won’t be long before his plans come to a head.
