WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #2 by Vita Ayala, Greg Land, Jay Leisten, Frank D'Armata, Saladin Ahmed, Kev Walker, Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca & VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Thanks to his mutant healing abilities, Wolverine has been afforded an extraordinarily long life and many adventures. The new Wolverine: Black, White & Red anthology mini-series explores many one-shot adventures in the life of Logan. Some stories are about his time before the X-Men and some are during.
One such tale occurred with Wolverine and Kitty Pryde getting involved with underworld business in Madripoor. The chapter, titled "Do we die today?," was by Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca. Logan and Kitty, going by their alter-egos named Patches and Cat, found themselves facing off against a trio of new mutants with wild codenames.
A group of new mutant baddies was trying to take over part of the underworld controlled by Tyger Tiger. The apparent leader of the trio of villains, Sanzu, has mutant powers that nullified those of Wolverine and Kitty Pryde, leaving them with only their fighting skills to depend on. The name Sanzu comes from a mythological river that "brings life to an end," and her abilities live up to the title. While the heroes watched, she used her secondary power to drain the life out of Tyger Tiger through touch.
Kitty tried going after the huge, muscled man named Beasty-Brute. Usually, Kitty would phase through a bad guy like Beasty-Brute and cause real damage, but without her mutant abilities, her punch does no damage. His superhuman durability kept him safe. Turning his other power on Kitty, he displayed his superhuman strength by punching her so hard that he broke some of her bones and sent her flying across the room.
Soulscream's abilities are almost as lethal as Sanzu's. He grabbed Kitty by the head and with the touch brought a psychic onslaught upon her. While she screamed in pain as blood ran down her ears, the villain laughed. When Wolverine slashed at Soulscream, he found that the other mutant had a similar healing ability of his own.
Although Wolverine and Kitty were outnumbered without their mutant powers, they still kept fighting. Sanzu was able to grab Kitty and started to drain her of life. Wolverine's claws and adamantium skeleton helped him fight longer than Kitty, but even he began to slow down as his wounds did not heal and he was bleeding out.
Wolverine thought to himself that they may appear to be down and out but "this is when we're most dangerous." Kitty and Wolverine are both masters in hand to hand combat and can think on their feet, using unexpected things to their advantage. Kitty mustered enough strength to punch Sanzu and knocked her off balance enough to shove Sanzu into Beasty-Brute. The sudden physical contact between the two villains shifted Sanzu's focus on Beasty-Brute, nullifying his powers and absorbing his life force while Kitty and Wolverine regained their mutant abilities. The move by Kitty actually knocked out Beasty-Brute and Sanzu.
Wolverine's wounds began to heal, giving him a boost against Soulscream. The two healing mutants attacked each other, trying to injure one bad enough to knock them out of the fight. Wolverine admitted that he and Kitty are known as heroes but really they are the best at doing what "isn't very nice." In a quick flash of movement, Wolverine rammed his claw through the eye of Soulscream, saying "heal this."
With all of the villains out cold, or possibly dead, Wolverine and Kitty helped Tyger Tiger to her feet and left. This side shot proved that Wolverine and Kitty are not the cuddly X-Men heroes that they are often portrayed to be. They are ruthless and will fight with all they have to triumph over evil.