Appearing in "Blood and Claws Part 2: ...It Tolls For Thee!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Inez
- Ernest Hemingway
- Eric Blair (First appearance)
- Vicente (First appearance)
- Jaime (First appearance)
- Lord Dark Wind (Kenji Oyama) (Mentioned)
- Hermann Goering (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
Items:
- Adamantium (on Wolverine's claws and body)
- Wolverine's Suit
Synopsis for "Blood and Claws Part 2: ...It Tolls For Thee!"
Continued from last issue...
Trapped in the middle of the Spanish Civil War of 1937, Wolverine and Puck join up with Puck's old flame Inez and writer Ernest Hemingway who are part of the Partisan resistance during an air raid on the city of Guernica. They manage to burst past the initial army of soldiers blocking their exit from the city, however they get pinned down by German/Spanish gunners armed with a Gatling gun. Logan, armed with a hammer and a wrench makes a break for it and beats the soldiers to death and takes their weapon, which Logan hopes will cover their back because he suspects that Lady Deathstrike is following them.
Lady Deathstrike is dealing with the soldiers as well in her own way. Having been found by Nazi captain Horst Schlachter, who thinks she is part of the Partisans, he has her hanged for killing one of his men. To his surprise, the cyborg doesn't die when strung up from a telephone pole. When they realize this, she breaks free from the noose around her neck and introduces herself to Schlachter and makes him an offer he can't refuse.
In modern day Australia, the Reavers are rocked by a strange tornado that they realize is temporal in nature. Following it up to the mound where Gateway sits, they watch as it suddenly vanishes, belching up crow feathers (of the very crow that Lady Deathstrike crushed to death to show her power to Schlachter in the past). Realizing that Lady Deathstrike was sent into the past, Donald Pierce fears that she might do something to change history and thus erase them all from existence.
Back in the past, Logan and the others arrive at the Partisan camp to find that they had just finished a deadly clash with the Spanish securiy forces that ended with a large number of their members being killed when a Russian dynamiter's explosives took a bullet. Among the survivors is a young boy that they took prisoner. When Inez tells them they can't take prisoners, her subordinate asks her if she'd like to shoot him herself instead.
Elsewhere, Captain Schlachter and Lady Deathstrike survey the damage caused in the battle at Guernica. She explains to him that upon the rise of World War II there will be much destruction. Starting to believe that she came from the future Horst asks Deathstrike what she can offer the Nazis. She explains that if they capture Wolverine and take him to her father, just a young Naval officer in the Japanese military, her father can realize his full scientific potential. Lady Deathstrike hopes to accomplish this in the hopes of changing history so her father wouldn't have to go on the fated Kamikaze mission that he would fail to accomplish, living in shame for the rest of his life. Their discussion is interrupted when one of the pilots above them spots the ruins of Ernest Hemingway's car and is ordered by Horst to seek out the resistance fighters.
The pilot does and attacks them at their camp, dropping a bomb that injures Puck. Wolverine counter-attacks with the Gatling gun and manages to damage the plane enough to cause an oil leak and force the pilot to retreat. Upon checking on Judd, they find that he is seriously injured. The closest hospital is in the town of Eroica, however there is only one way to get Puck there safely without him dying. Her comrades leave her with a decision. Unable to both transport Judd and keep a prisoner, they have her choose who dies - the boy they captured, or Puck. The young boy, scared for his life pleads with them to let him live and promises not to betray them to the Falangists. They allow the boy to go, however this is just a plot to distract him so one of the resistance fighters can shoot him. Inez tells Logan to do something, however Logan knows the stakes that are at play and does nothing as they apparently shoot the boy down dead.
The boy lives, and he manages to escape back to Guernica where Horst and Lady Deathstrike get a report back from the pilot just before his plane explodes. Unaware what route the rebels will take, they are more than happy to learn the plan from the little boy. The boy refuses to break his word when Deathstrike, waving her deadly claws in his face, threatens extreme torture if he doesn’t.
While on the pass to Eroica, Wolverine picks up the scent of Lady Deathstrike and Horst's army and sends the others ahead while he keeps the army back with the Gatling gun. Allowing them to blow up the Gatling gun with a grenade, Logan uses the smoke cover to change into his Wolverine costume and fight the soldiers the best way he can - with his claws. As Wolverine scraps with the soldiers, Lady Deathstrike calmly leaves Horst's side and enters into the fray determined to collect the adamantium skeleton that she believes rightfully belongs to her family.
This story is continued next issue...
Notes
- Part 2 of 3 of the Blood and Claws Wolverine event