If you’ve already wrapped up Marvel’s Wolverine, you know that Insomniac has left the game’s cast of characters in a place that’s as interesting as where it left Peter Parker and Miles Morales at the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. That’s significant in and of itself, since it means that the studio is looking at Logan’s long-term value, a detail that’s kind of evident if you consider some facets of his character arc in the current game. But there’s more.
We believe there’s a strong argument to be made in favor of Logan’s story getting a direct sequel, a belief that stems from the game’s ending and what we make of where each of the cast has been left. Of course, Logan’s at the center of it all, and his story is one of loss just as it’s always been.
We’re taking a little pause here to give you a warning about a ton of spoilers ahead, so you can come back to this one once you’ve rolled the credits and seen the secret ending. But we believe that all of what Logan has lost in his debut in Insomniac’s universe is simply a path to another adventure where he commands the spotlight with his usual ferocity. Let’s get right into why we think so.
A Lost Ally
Let’s begin with Essex, the only awkwardly placed character in the game’s core cast. He’s a man forced to wear many hats in this story, as he has to serve as the leader of Team X, a sort of Xavier-esque figure to Logan, as well as the story’s main Big Bad. But no matter what we think of his character, his role and legacy in relation to Logan are things that merit examination when you think about where the story’s going next.
You could say Essex gave Logan a bit of stability and direction with Team X, and his role as its leader was a convenient way to bring Mystique and Sabertooth into the equation too. His safe haven was also where most of the cast came together before the story took them in different directions.
He’s also the first real loss, Walter’s tragic fate aside, that we believe is going to allow his influence to stretch beyond his grave and touch Logan’s search for answers about his life. We now know his obsession with the evolution of mutantkind made him the very thing he might have once despised, forcing Logan’s hand in their final confrontation. Even in defeat, Essex leaves Logan with one final consequence, as the Helix energy reawakens Apocalypse’s influence and brings his former identity as Death back to the surface.
It’s a significant moment that alters the course of Logan’s character arc in a moment that’s so sudden it becomes all the more impactful. That’s all the more so when you consider that there’s a Helix Engine in play, and that Apocalypse’s corrupting influence already has Victor/Sabertooth sniffing at his heels.
By the end, Insomniac also set up an interesting contrast between Logan and Victor that is now rooted in Essex’s legacy, and could be a parting gift that Logan would have rather not received once its implications reach him in the future, wherever that takes him. But let’s return to the present for a moment, and look at another important thing that Logan lost in this story.
The Loss Of A Life
If you look at Marvel’s Wolverine as an account of Logan’s life since Essex found him in a feral state, it’s a journey where he has discovered a lot of himself, and even found enough of a footing with his human side to have a bit of a soft heart and a more gentle disposition when the occasion demanded it.
He’s built a life, with memories of Team X, working relationships with a lot of fellow mutants and humans, some time to himself, as the call to look for Jean, which we’re getting to in a minute, began to pull him away from his comrades. There’s been room for Sabertooth’s resentment to fester; the sense of abandonment he felt at Logan’s departure is now a perfect catalyst for Apocalypse to make him a willing persona of whatever he wants him to be.
He’s had time to reflect on his time as Death, or whatever fragments he’s been able to remember of it, and perhaps reconcile himself with the implications of whatever Essex had told him about it. In short, he’d had a full life before the game’s story, and perhaps made more sense of it over the time we spent at his side. But all of that is gone now, Jean is forced to burn Apocalypse’s influence from Logan’s mind, leaving him to begin an entirely new chapter with the knowledge that she was the one constant running through his fragmented past.
The Loss Of A Friend
Jean’s death-and-rebirth imagery strongly hints at Phoenix material, and the implications that it carries for those of you who know about that particularly nasty side of Marvel’s cast are an interesting facet of the story. It’s great that Logan’s past as Death has been established, with the role fitting a man whose primal rage and feral fighting style seem almost tailor-made for Apocalypse’s influence.
But Jean has now burned Death from Logan’s psyche twice, his present memories being collateral damage. The Helix Engine may have put Wolverine at risk of becoming Death again, but that isn’t the case now. But what’s left of Logan’s psyche paints his friendship with Jean in such a tragic light. He knows she’s been a friend who looks out for him and respects him for who he is. But that’s hard to connect to for a man who doesn’t really know who he is (or was) anymore. Let’s not forget the secret scene’s revelation that they’ve known each other longer than Logan realizes, and that the conflict between Jean and Apocalypse may have drawn them together across the many lives they’ve both led. Jean’s already been reborn several times, and has only now come into the knowledge of it all after the Helix Engine woke her dormant Phoenix powers.
Of course, the loss is less devastating than the other stuff we’ve talked about since the two of them parted on relatively good terms, and it could even be good news if you consider that the door’s wide open for Jean to make a return. She could perhaps even really test Logan’s regenerative abilities (if Insomniac goes in the Dark Phoenix direction). But as things stand between her and Logan, she knows him better than he knows himself, and that’s not an easy place to be for two characters who are bound by what seems like fate, but who could be pawns in a twisted game.
A Winding Road Ahead
Marvel’s Wolverine has given us a story that kind of comes full circle if you think about it. It began and ended with Logan losing his memories of his earlier life and searching for answers. Sure, his search starts from a better place this time around, but that doesn’t make the loss of everything he’s built any less tragic. It makes us eager to join him on his new chapter sooner rather than later.
That he’s now on the road is only one part of our excitement for whatever’s next, though. It’s where those roads could take him that has us so excited about all the possibilities. With mutants now known, and potentially feared across the world, and Victor on a surefire path to becoming quite a menace with Apocalypse’s voice and the Helix Engine working him over, we’re wondering if he’s going to be the reason Logan and Jean meet again in the next game.
We’re also excited about the possibility of Jean and Callisto’s efforts to protect mutants tying into the broader X-Men universe, and perhaps the chance of Logan meeting the man who eventually helps him balance his human and mutant sides is something we think is definitely a possibility.
There’s also the possibility of seeing more of Logan’s earlier life, and potentially other mutants whom he might have met along the way who have managed to stay undercover over the years. Could Logan be on the way to losing a former comrade in whatever comes next for him, only to find another family along the way? We certainly hope so, for his sake.
There’s also Apocalypse to consider, as the door is now wide open for him to make an entrance in the future that could help Insomniac bring in a whole bunch of heroes to meet the challenge he poses. Perhaps that could be further along the cards than the next game featuring Logan, but the fact that he’s already cycled from Wolverine to Sabretooth should be considered.
That those roles have often fallen to Xavier and Magneto, given their immensely powerful abilities, is something we can’t help but feel excited about, even though we don’t know if that’s where things are headed.
But we know that whatever comes next for Logan and the rest of the cast in Marvel’s Wolverine, we’re going to be along for the ride no matter where it takes us. Logan deserves his answers, and we’re more than happy to join him on the search for them.
