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In Wolverine #19, Marvel’s veteran member of the X-Men is thrown into a confrontation that is reminiscent of the classic story Moby Dick.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers Wolverine #19, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
Wolverine is one of Marvel’s most versatile heroes, with a lengthy history of fighting pretty much every kind of enemy on the planet. This has now extended to a mutated creature that recall some of literature’s most iconic figures.
Wolverine #19 (by Benjamin Percy, Javi Fernandez, Matthew Wilson, and VC’s Cory Petit) pits the feral berserker mutant against his own version of a major beast from American literature, more or less giving Logan his own version of Moby Dick to confront.
Wolverine #19 largely focuses on a lingering plot thread from across the coast side of Krakoa: multiple mutants have been killed while swimming in the ocean, thanks to a mutated leviathan encircling the island. Having encountered the creature while on a mission with the rest of X-Force, Wolverine decides it’s time to deal with the creature the only way he knows how, namely by using his razor sharp adamantium claws against the beast. Taking the Arakkii ship he stole from Sevyr Blackmore, Logan sails out to sea. Alone on the ship, the entire issue is largely focused on a solitary Wolverine contemplating his place in the world and the mechanics of nature until the creature finally reveals itself. Donning a scuba suit and racing into the depths after it, Wolverine is eventually eaten whole — at which point he carves his way out of the literal belly of the beast and makes his way back to the surface.
It’s a surprisingly straightforward tale, and one that recalls Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby Dick. The book follows the sailor Ishmael’s account of Ahab, a captain of a ship who commits himself to hunting down the titular white whale after it bites off one of his legs. Unable to escape his vengeful nature towards the creature, Ahab ultimately gets himself and most of his crew killed in his determination to destroy the creature, incapable of putting aside his own vicious rage just as the whale can’t ignore its own natural destructive drives. It’s overtly similar to what happens to Wolverine in issue #19, as he ponders the faults with Krakoa and how it resists many aspects of basic nature, admitting that despite the promise of a peaceful mutant nation, he still sees the fury and pain of life and death as a key component of nature.
Like Ahab, Logan is attacked and brutalized by the sea creature, with the leviathan biting off most of his left arm as opposed to his leg. Dragged beneath the surface of the ocean, the mutant is taken to depths no man should ever have to endure to face a beast no normal man could ever hope to defeat. But thanks to a healing factor Ahab lacked, Logan survives, and is able to successfully complete his mission, albeit in the most brutal way possible.
In this story, Wolverine is depicted as a literal version of Ahab, only with the added perk of surviving his encounter with the undersea monster. But in some ways, he’s more akin to the whale itself, a creature of nature that takes whatever new threat appears and finds a way to carve it to pieces. Wolverine has accepted this as a part of who he is and embraces it, as it means the rest of Krakoa is spared the from the pain that he regularly suffers.
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