WARNING: The following contains spoilers for X-Force #9 by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, Dean White, & VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now
The Green Lagoon is the new tiki bar that’s been opened up on Krakoa. The hot spot is a become a nice hangout place for many of Marvel's mutants to congregate and even seems to have turned Anole and Blob into bartenders. However, one table off to the side of the room has a much more surprising and bloody way for mutants with healing factors to pass the time.
In X-Force #8, Wolverine and his family have come up with a bonding game that essentially involves stabbing themselves in the side of the head, and it actually seems to be doing a good job of bringing them together.
A crowd of mutants huddles around Wolverine and his family, wagering money on the outcome of this grim drinking game. Wolverine and his son Daken sit across from one another. Honey-Badger -- a clone of Wolverine who has come to see Laura, Daken, and Wolverine as her family -- spins a bottle on the table. Both Wolverine and Daken raise a fist to their head, essentially playing Russian Roulette without a gun. When the bottle stops on Daken, he has to unsheath his claws and stabs himself in the side of the head. Thanks to his healing factor though, Daken is back up and running in no time and even seems to set up another game with his father moments later.
Watching from across the bar, Jean Grey is understandably horrified by the game. She telepathically speaks with Wolverine and mentions that it’s not exactly a nice way for him to spend time with his family. But Logan disagrees, calling the entire enterprise a fun bonding experience. Shockingly, it doesn’t look like he’s wrong – both Honey-Badger and Daken are all smiles as they play, even after Daken has been forced to stab himself in the head. By the time an actual bar brawl breaks out, all three of them are positively giddy to get involved in a fight alongside one another, which is a far cry from how Daken and Wolverine used to see each other.
Wolverine and his family have had a tenuous relationship in the past. Daken, in particular, was initially introduced as a villain who was committed to attempting to kill the father after he'd unknowingly left him behind. Wolverine has even been forced to kill Daken in the past, drowning him during Rick Remender and Phil Noto's Uncanny X-Force to try to stop him from attacking the students at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning. After Daken was revived by the Apocalypse Twins, the brief death of his father led him to perform more heroic acts. He spent time alongside Laura and Gabby -- who he began to fully see as sisters -- and worked to save lives during a viral outbreak in New York City. Daken has since been fully revived and seems to have been accepted by Wolverine as a full member of the family.
This is a huge step forward for both Daken and Logan, as evidenced by the fact that they can play games with each other instead of trying to kill each other. It’s also nice to see Gabby fully accepted as a part of the family as well. With Laura gone on a mission into the Vault that’s expected to take – from her and her team’s perspective – over 500 years, it’s good to see that Gabby has found her other familial connections on the island. When Laura returns from her mission, this game might even be a great way for the whole Wolverine Clan to really come together.