Fantastic Four Reunites Wolverine with The Marvel Universe

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #2 by Dan Slott, Sara Pichelli, Elisabetta D’Amico, Marte Gracia and Joe Caramagna, in stores now.

The Fantastic Four have returned, and with a bang. Just two issues into the relaunched title, we've seen Reed Richards and Susan Storm mentoring the Future Foundation on universe-building, only for Franklin Richards to shockingly power down for some mysterious reason.

With a new villainess, the Griever at the End of All Things, appearing as a result, Reed and Co. have been thrust into action to defend their science tribe, calling in reinforcements after the FF's new villain destroyed Molecule Man. But amid this reunion with their allies and friends, one particular hero whose services the FF has called upon stands out: Wolverine.

That's right - it appears that Logan was just reunited with the rest of the Marvel Universe for the first time since his death.

Fans expected such a public return to take place in an event, an X-Men book or the soon-to-launch Return of Wolverine miniseries. After all, Logan carefully stayed off the radar throughout the Hunt for Wolverine, leaving fans hungry for the moment he returns and makes his presence known once again.

While the likes of Daredevil, Misty Knight, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Kitty Pryde and few others have an idea he's one again among the living, no one knows what's going on for sure. How he came back, how to find him and what's he's up to is a puzzle that remains shrouded in mystery.

We do know the only folks he's personally interacted with so far were Black Widow (whom he gave the Space Stone to) and Loki (whom he sliced and diced to keep it from). Not even Professor Xavier (or the reborn X, as he's calling himself these days) knows about Wolverine's resurrection. In short, Wolverine wanted to stay off the grid for his own dark reasons, and it was apparently working... until now.

Namorita, Luke Cage, the Inhumans, Storm and Black Panther make sense as part of Reed's assemblage; they're all more than allies, their friends and family, all of whom have had experience as members of the FF in the past. Of course, Wolverine was part of a special FF team himself, along with Spidey, Ghost Rider and Hulk, but the question remains -- how did Reed know he was alive? It makes you wonder if this is indeed the real Logan. And if he's not real, are the rest of the squad genuine?

Everyone seems unsurprised by Logan's presence, so either they all know he's back and alive, hinting that this particular team-up may occur after Return of Wolverine, or none of these recruits are real and this is just an intimidation trick/tactic employed by Reed to make the Griever think he has more backup than first thought. The fact we don't see Logan's #HotClaws throws further fuel on this fire.

We did see Ben and Johnny plucked from their locale to join the party, though, so maybe it's only Reed's family who are well and truly brought to the fore. That'd mean all these Avengers and other heroes have been fabricated as part of a numbers game by the senior Richards. Whatever the outcome, when Fantastic Four #3 arrives, all eyes will be on Wolverine to see if he is the real deal, or if Reed has pulled a fast one in order to strike fear into Griever.

CBR

Wait... Did Fantastic Four Just Reunite Wolverine with The Rest of the Marvel U?