Appearing in "Path of Stones, Wood of Thorns"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Bob Higgins (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Richard Higgins (First appearance)
- Jane Higgins (First appearance)
- Linda Higgins (First appearance)
- Guardian (James Hudson)
- Sabretooth (Victor Creed) (Mentioned)
- Magneto (Erik Magnus Lensherr) (Mentioned)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth
- North America
- United States of America
- New York State
- Westchester County
- North Salem
- Salem Center
- Graymalkin Lane
- The Higgins' House
- Salem Center
- North Salem
- Westchester County
- New York State
- Canada (Mentioned)
- Ottawa (Mentioned)
- United States of America
- North America
Items:
- Wolverine's Suit
- Ruby-Quartz Sunglasses
- Adamantium (Mentioned)
Vehicles:
Synopsis for "Path of Stones, Wood of Thorns"
This issue follows the events of Wolverine (Vol. 2) #90 and X-Men Prime #1...
Since allowing his animal side to take over and lobotomized his old foe Sabretooth[1], and Wolverine has taken to living outside of the mansion as his primal side becomes more prominent[2]. That day he begins to stalk the Higgin's family. Spying on their children as they pick flowers for their mother, whom they are completely unaware is being abused by their father.
Logan's current changes have greatly concerned his fellow X-Men, and that very evening Professor X, Storm and Beast meet to discuss how to progress in dealing with him. From what they can understand, the humanity that Wolverine has fought to obtain for years is slowly eroding away and they must come up with some way to reverse the process. That night, Wolverine stalks near the X-Mansion as Psylocke, Cyclops and Phoenix watch him from indoors. When the two telepaths attempt to scan Wolverine's mind all they see is a primal redness swirling around his consciousness. This brings out some fear in the gathered X-Men and Scott wonders out loud whom Wolverine might hurt next. Sensing their fear, Wolverine runs off into the woods again and begins howling to try and satisfy his beastial side. This blood curdling howl is heard all over the Xavier property, waking many of the X-Men.
Hearing Wolverine howling, Xavier, Storm and Beast begin going over the bio-scans of Logan's body since the Adamantium was removed from his body by Magneto[3]. They contact James Hudson in Canada, the next best expert on Wolverine and they go over his body scan. They are surprised to learn that the Adamantium actually impeded Wolverine's natural evolution, stunting his mutation and creating a limitation on his healing factor. Now that it is gone, it appears that Logan is now resuming the process. This astounds the gathered minds and they decide that they need to inform Wolverine of their findings right away.
They confront Wolverine just outside the Higgins house, where Higgins and his wife are getting into another bout of spousal violence when she attempts to call the police. As the couple fight each other, Charles and the other X-Men attempt to convince Logan to return to the X-Mansion to undergo some tests so they might learn more about his condition. Logan refuses to go, telling them that some things cannot be helped and that he should embrace the changes that his body is going through. Just then, Mrs. Higgins bursts out of the door of her home in a panic. Seeing her husband chasing after him, Logan leaps in the way and is about to strike the man dead wit his claws when the X-Men attempt to pull him off.
Wolverine is not so easily ready to back off his berserker rage and tries to fight loose and kill the man. Logan stops when Higgin's own wife punches him in the face, telling the shocked mutants that her husband doesn't mean to hit her and that she still loves him. Xavier and the others tell Logan not to get involved and finally Wolverine agrees when the Higgin's threaten to call the police and have them arrested for trespassing. Back on the Xavier property, the X-Men continue to appeal to Logan to let them help him. Logan, still thinking it's safe to return to the inside of the Mansion tells them that he will remain outside the mansion until they come up with some solutions. When they balk once more, he points out their hypocrisy in that they are insistent on helping him, yet they were willing to let a battered wife continue to live in a relationship full of abuse on her insistence. With no counter argument, the X-Men watch as Wolverine walks off into the wilderness to once more chase after the night.
Notes
- Title changes back to Wolverine (Vol. 2) and resumes previous numbering following four issues of being titled Weapon X.