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Since his first full debut in November 1974 and joining the X-Men in 1975, James “Logan” Howlett/Wolverine has become one of Marvel Comics’ most recognisable and enduring superheroes.

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Quick Facts:
After John Romita Sr and Herb Trimbe met Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Roy Thomas’s challenge to create the first Canadian superhero, Wolverine’s amassed a ferocious rogues’ gallery, which extended to cybernetic assassin Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike with this story. First appearing in Daredevil #197 and with ties to Logan’s chequered past, this cyborg killer has had many brutal battles with Wolverine and other superheroes but fared far better in cartoons and videogames than in live-action.

The Review:
Lady Deathstrike is introduced writhing in agony as cables, tubes, and metal transform her body in the Body Shop, a black market enhancement clinic run by Rita Wayword/Spiral. Having tangled with Wolverine before and found him a formidable foe thanks to his superhuman reflexes and healing factor and his unbreakable, Adamantium bones and claws, Yuriko Oyama paid Spiral a handsome price to transform herself and three former Hellfire Club guards (Angelo Macon, Murray Reese, and Wade Cole) into cyborg mercenaries. The process, though agonising, sees Yuriko stripped of her humanity and peppered with cybernetic implants, and most of her flesh and bone replaced with self-replicating machinery. The most prominent of which are her razor-sharp talons, which Spiral guarantees make her more than a match for Wolverine. Though she volunteered for the process and relishes possessing the power and means to kill her foe, the newly christened Lady Deathstrike ensures that Spiral remember her promise to restore her humanity, and that of her fellows, once the deed is done. While Spiral “guarantees satisfaction”, he quietly muses on the irony of a cold-blooded assassin looking to regain her humanity by killing another and there’s a very real visual and implied belief that the “biomed transmutation” is irreversible. Eager to accomplish her task and restore honour to her family name and avenge the wounds they suffered at Logan’s hands, Lady Deathstrike begins the hunt, which takes her to Manhattan’s lower east side. There, on a bitter winter’s night, little Katie Power/Energizer of the pre-teen family the Power Pack enjoys the festive sights with her babysitter, Miss Randolph. However, they’re buffeted by a sudden blizzard and separated when one of the cyborgs comes charging in and taking shots at Wolverine.

Half-naked, grievously wounded, and in a feral state, the confused Wolverine terrifies Katie with his claws and flees with her into the snowstorm when the cops show up. Scared and pained by Wolverine’s embrace, Energizer musters her courage and fires off the biggest power ball she can, temporarily stunning Wolverine and giving her the chance to escape. However, she still sees Wolverine as a friend and recognises that he’s hurt and not himself, so she tries to appeal to his humanity. When that fails, she urges Logan away from his pursuers and into a taxicab. Although he’s lost his reasoning, Wolverine’s senses are as sharp as ever and, smelling Wade has a bead on them, Logan tosses Energizer and the driver from the car just in time and they take a tumble down a snowy ditch. The fall rattles Wolverine’s scrambled brains and sees him babbling in Japanese but, when Energizer shows him kindness and wraps him against the cold, words and memories slowly return to the tormented Mutant as his healing factor finally kicks in. While Energizer wants to help with her powers, Wolverine forbids her from getting involved any further and orders her to trust him to face his old foes alone. Similarly, Lady Deathstrike orders her men to stand down despite having Wolverine dead to rights as she wants the pleasure of finishing him herself. Still, the three are eager to get the job done, leading to Cole being skewered by Wolverine’s claws and Macon taken down off panel. Though terrified for his life, Reese moves to act on Lady Deathstrike’s advice to take Katie hostage, only to also get stabbed after a point-blank rifle shot to the head fails to put Wolverine down.

When Wolverine confronts Lady Deathstrike in Japanese, she reveals she had hoped for a fight to the death between warriors, and that’s exactly what we get for three brutal, blood-splatted pages. Driven by an insatiable need to avenge her father, the cruel-hearted Kenji Oyama/Lord Dark Wind, and make him proud, Lady Deathstrike strikes swift and true, babbling of her need to destroy Wolverine and thus escape her father’s shadow. When Wolverine mocks her, she slices his abdomen and targets his neck before running her talons through his gut. Disgusted by the gaijin and claiming her technological powers make her superior, Lady Deathstrike twists the knife and prepares for the killing blow, only for Wolverine to free himself and repeatedly slash at Lady Deathstrike, carving chunks out of her (partially off panel) and leaving her a bloody, mangled, semi-cybernetic mess in the snow. Shocked at how badly Yuriko has mangled her body to make herself his equal, Logan comes to his senses and chastises her for voluntarily stripping away her humanity just to try and match him. Recognising what she’s done to herself, and that she has failed, Lady Deathstrike practically begs Wolverine to end her, only for him to refuse, disgusted by the request. Instead, Wolverine chooses the moral high ground, renouncing the animal she tried to bring out of him, and condemning her live with her choices…or earn her freedom. Wolverine then goes to Katie, who kept her eyes shut and ears covered the entire time, and promises that, although he has a violent side to him, he’ll always be her friend and, together, they head out to find Miss Randolph.

Final Thoughts: 
This was quite the brutal and emotionally charged story for Wolverine, though similar narrative beats have been explored with Logan and to far greater effect. This wasn’t the first time he’d lost control of himself, sheltered a youngster, or confronted an enemy from his past and chose to be a man rather than an animal, and it certainly wouldn’t be his last. While I liked the winter setting with the snow and the blizzard, and the depiction of the bloodied Wolverine and cybernetic Lady Deathstrike, I found the art occasionally confusing. There was maybe a bit too much happening at once, and I think things might’ve been simpler if Cole, Macon, and Reese had been dropped, especially considering how personal the fight between Logan and Yukio is. That way, we could’ve seen more of Lady Deathstrike’s capabilities, perhaps see her disguise slowly stripped away as Wolverine lashes out in a blind rage from her sneak attacks. I appreciate the body count and the chance to see Wolverine picking off his foes, and that the story tries to paint him as an underdog, but that depiction doesn’t always work with the functionally unkillable and invincible Wolverine. Of course, “Wounded Wolf” circumvents this by having Wolverine in a feral state after being attacked and apparently drugged off panel. It’s said that Lady Deathstrike did “something” to Wolverine, but we never see what, just that he’s in a near mindless state from it and therefore terrifies little Katie Power. I liked this as it created a sense of mystery around Lady Deathstrike. Not many villains can wound Wolverine so badly and leave him in such a bad state. However, again, it would’ve been nice to see it so we can see what Spiral’s modifications have done to Yuriko. Instead, much of the early action is hidden behind a blizzard, which is dramatic and tense, for sure, and gives a sense of danger but also takes away from some of Lady Deathstrike’s presence and agency.

I’m no expert on Lady Deathstrike, or her father or her past history with Wolverine, but this story definitely hints at this all being very complex. Lady Deathstrike is bound by honour, despite her father’s cruelty and her hatred of him, and targets Wolverine to honour her dead father. This need becomes so great that she purposely forsakes her humanity and most of her body to become Wolverine’s equal, transforming herself into a truly horrific and visually unsettling cybernetic killer. The wires, metal implants, and her mangled look are disturbing enough but her talons are genuinely unnerving, giving her a kind of animalistic or even insectile look and enhance her inhuman proportions. Lady Deathstrike’s claws are sharp enough to grievously wound Wolverine and implied to match his Adamantium claws, though there’s no evidence that they are as sharp as that fantastical metal. They’re enough to overwhelm Wolverine, however, and make her at least his equal, though Wolverine’s stubborn nature sees him ultimately best her. This is framed as a victory of man (or, perhaps, nature) over machine and inhumanity, and Yuriko is left a barely recognisable mess in the snow begging for the easy way out while Wolverine begrudgingly denies his animal nature and forces himself to show mercy, if only so Yuriko must suffer with what she’s become. Again, this isn’t necessarily new for Wolverine, but it was executed pretty well here, especially with Katie on hand as a naïve and innocent bystander. I do think the issue dropped the ball with Lady Deathstrike, though, and should’ve spotlighted her more to explicitly show her as conniving, spiteful, and violent threat to Wolverine. It would’ve been nice to see her get a bit of a body count and be shown dismantling Wolverine physically and psychologically rather than following Logan and Katie as they flee though the snow. The finale makes up for it, but I still think there could’ve been a bit more to this otherwise brutal showdown.

My Rating:

Pretty Good

What are your thoughts on Wolverine’s first battle with Lady Deathstrike? Are you a fan of her cybernetic implants and unsettling talons? Did you enjoy seeing Wolverine in a feral state? Do you agree that Lady Deathstrike should’ve been the sole villain here? What are some of your favourite Lady Deathstrike stories or moments? How are you celebrating Wolverine’s debut this month? Whatever you think about Wolverine, comment below and donate to my Ko-Fi to suggest more of his stories for me to cover.