Flashback :
The issue begins in a small town "Bayvelle" in Arizona a week ago, we are told that there are 350 persons living here
We see "Wolverine" killing some people and reporting to the Soteira kill team 9 and then activating a bomb.
Once activated we see a green explosion (remind me of the Green Explosion from Adamanitum Agenda) and one local man appear to be in pain
Now :
Daken is entering a bar and is meeting with Deathstrike and Sabretooth, Yuriko is the one who call him and tell him that Logan is alive
Daken doesn't trust Deathstrike or Creed and think they just want to kill him
Sabretooth smells that Daken is trying to use his pheromone powers on him and Deathstrike and became angry and grab Daken by the throat
He ask him if he want to see his dad dead, Daken answer : "No one want him dead more than me" (flashback of the end of Uncanny X-Force)
Deathstrike wants to kill Logan because that's her birthright (flashback to Wounded Wolf)
Creed tells Daken to behave and listen, for now there is a truce until they found and kill Logan but after that Creed would gladly put Daken six feet under
Sabretooth doesn't care if they found Logan dead or alive he will still take his body and chop it off to make sure he never come back.
Deathstrike said it's not vengeance though and that she has a device to track Logan adamantium signature
Flashback :
4 days ago, in the town of Maybelle, everybody is dead and we see the "Soteira kill team 9" (somekind of spec ops team) looking at one corpse and saying the results are negative
Now :
The trio is in Maybelle, Deathstrike said that Logan is close
Daken says she's wrong because he knows Logan's smell and he can say for sure that Logan was never here.
Sabretooth says he smells something and they decide to split up in order to find more clues, except Daken who think Deathstrike is crazy and just want to leave
But before leaving, Daken want to drink something
He sees someone in a bar, it's the Soteira kill team 9 from before he ask them what are they doing here and no matter if they answer or not he will kill them
Suddently a woman bite Daken on his leg, then on his back and finally on his arm, he manage to throw her away
We then see she's a zombie and she's not alone the town is full of zombies
Daken is surprised because he doesn't heal from the wounds and he's overwhelmed by the zombies and fall on the floor
While Daken is attacked we learn that those zombies are part of project supervised by the team 9.
The goal of this project : Resurrecting the dead but it's only a partial success and now we have zombies.
Issue ends with an infected Daken screaming while a group of zombies is about to eat him alive
To be continued...
So I'm very surprised by this issue, that wasn't bad at all. The art is a little inconsistent but as a whole it's perfect for an horror story like this one !
Tamaki's writing was great, she handled the characters interactions well and the pacing was good.
About the characterization :
- Sabretooth is scary, cold and you don't want to mess with him he's very different from the Weapon X serie (Daken mention Creed and Yuriko knowing OML) but he doesn't seem to be inverted. I know some people might be disappointed but honestly this Sabretooth is damn great.
- Deathstrike is the smart one, she knows what she's doing and her and Creed are basically co-leaders, she's very different from the Weapon X serie too.
- Daken is also closer to his original characterization, he's the wild card of the group, he wants to kill Wolverine and he thinks he knows better than anyone so of course he's the first casualty lol
Best Hunt mini yet (not a great feat I know) and I hope the creative team will manage to keep this level of quality for the rest of the mini.
By the way I'm not sure what's going to be the tone of the new X-23 serie, but if it's an horror story or a psychological thriller that could be something really great with Tamaki on writing duties.