Both series are part of the wider Krakoan Age saga, bridging the gap between its Reign of X arc and the subsequent Destiny of X. They're written by Benjamin Percy with art from Joshua Cassara and Federico Vicentini, continuing threads from X-Force (2019), Wolverine (2020), and Inferno (2021).
In X Lives of Wolverine, Logan’s mind is sent back into the past to save the present. He must return to different stages of his former life, possessing his younger self, to protect Professor Xavier and his ancestors from a time-travelling assassin.
Back in the present day, in X Deaths of Wolverine, Moira McTaggart is on the run following the end of Inferno, with Mystique in pursuit. And another version of Logan has - somehow - just arrived on Krakoa. A Wolverine that’s infected by Phalanx technology and intent on an unknown mission.
The first issue of X Lives of Wolverine was released January 19 2022; the first issue of X Deaths of Wolverine was released the following week, January 26 2022, with alternating issues published until both series concluded.
The X Tropes of Wolverine:
- An Arm and a Leg: When Moria realizes she's being tracked by her arm, she cuts it off and uses it to set a trap for Mystique.
- Arc Welding: The two series tie together narrative threads from Percy's runs on X-Force and Wolverine and the events of Jonathan Hickman's Inferno. Omega Red and Mikhail have been recurring threats in Percy's books, whereas Moira's exile from Krakoa was the ending of Inferno.
- Bad Future: The Omega Wolverine version of Logan has returned from one, similar to Moira’s sixth life from the previous Powers of X series. But this time Moira sided with Orchis and the A.I.s, and it was her help that enabled them to win and ascend into the phalanx.
- Bat Family Crossover: A variation of sorts. While it's technically its own mini-series, it's also positioned as a milestone for the whole Krakoan Age arc and a crossover between Percy's X-Force and Wolverine.
- Call-Back: Jean and Xavier use the same method to make Wolverine mentally time travel and possess his past self that Rachel used on Kate in the Days of Future Past storyline.
- Came Back Strong: At the end of X Deaths Moira is revived as an Omega Sentinel, ready to destroy Krakoa.
- The Corruption: The Omega Wolverine is infected by the Phalanx transmode virus. Although his healing factor is fending it off and preserving his free will. At least to start with.
- Dye or Die: Due to the CIA trying to capture her, Moira cuts her shoulder-length brown hair into a blonde crop as a disguise so as to avoid them.
- Evil Knockoff: The 'Omega Wolverine' after Moira in the present is revealed to be Phalanx in nature, suggesting timeline 6 (as well as all others) are still active. Subverted when Daken, Scout and Laura confront him. He's actually Logan, returned from a different variant of timeline 6. And he's back to stop Moira from betraying the mutants and killing them all.
- Foreshadowing:
- The 'Omega Wolverine' that’s appeared in the present doesn’t simply kill all the humans in his way. He's the real Wolverine, back from a Bad Future, not an Evil Knockoff.
- Laura asks the 'Omega Wolverine' version of Logan what will happen if the Phalanx infection overcomes his healing factor. Then Moira shoots him with the neutralizer gun, canceling his healing factor.
- Genuine Human Hide: Moira calls Banshee for help. Persuading him would take too long, so she simply kills him, skins him and wears his flayed face to fool a Krakoan portal.
- Grand Theft Me: Omega Red's Mental Time Travel manifests as this as he possesses people, which also grants them at least some of his powers.
- At one point he also pulls this trick on Wolverine himself.
- Mikhail also pulls this trick on Wolverine’s unconscious present-day body, then promptly stabs Xavier.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Wolverine beats Omega Red once and for all by stabbing him with his claws and ripping him in half.
- Heal It With Fire: Moira uses a hot clothes iron to cauterize the stump after she severs her techno-organic replacement arm.
- The Heavy: Mikhail Rasputin is the Big Bad for X Lives, but Omega Red is carrying out the orders and making things hard for Logan.
- Immediate Sequel: X Deaths #1 picks up where Inferno (2021) left off, with Moira running through a Krakoan portal from Mystique and Destiny.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Moira develops one during X Deaths.
- Killed Offscreen: Banshee, who’s killed and flayed by Moira.
- Know When to Fold Them: Seeing Omega Red has failed to kill Xavier and Wolverine now knows where he is, Mikhail simply cuts his losses, takes his army somewhere else and leaves Gregorovich to his fate.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Jean Grey and Xavier amend recent memories for anyone nearby at the end of each of Wolverine and Omega Red's confrontations in the past.
- Loophole Abuse: X23 is shocked when she sees Logan shove a claw deep up Arnab Chakladar's nose, she cites Krakoan law of not killing humans. Logan tells her that Arnab isn't dead and they should burn down the lab and destroy everything inside it to make sure. Practically an example of Protagonist-Centered Morality as Arnab is just lying there and drooling from his lobotomy, this is especially notable since Arnab was just a bystander and not Orchis or other foe to mutants (Moira forced him at gunpoint to help her, before she explained what's happened to her and why she's hunted by mutants).
- Mama Bear: Sharon Xavier, despite just having given birth to Charles (and an already-dead Cassandra), is willing to aim her shotgun at Logan to protect her child.
- Mental Time Travel: Logan goes back in time to different stages of his life to prevent a time-traveling Omega Red from killing Charles Xavier. Omega also does this via possessing other people.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Omega Red manages to possess Logan himself, displacing or overruling Wolverine's own Mental Time Travel. Which should leave nobody to stop him from killing Xavier. However, Sabretooth doesn't know or care about any of that. He just wants to attack Logan, so Omega Red can't persuade him to get out of the way and allow Xavier's murder.
- No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup: There's a reason Orchis isn't running around with an army of Brain Upload cyborgs, when Arnab Chakladar the CEO of Epiphany created Moira MacTaggert's robotic body it was a joint work between the two scientists based on Arnab's latest business project. Logan lobotomized Arnab and had the Wolverine family destroy the lab Moira had been rebuilt from, including any scrap of data they could find.
- Redemption Failure: After everything that went down with the Vampire Nation, Omega Red appeared to be content to just live on Krakoa and serve it as a member of Weapon X... but then Mikhail Rasputin helped him discover exactly what the Krakoans, under Beast's orders, had done to him both mentally and physically, which prompted him to betray them in favor of Russia.
- The Reveal: The Phalanx-infected 'Omega Wolverine' that's arrived in the present isn't the villain. He's a version of the real Wolverine from the future, sent back to stop Moira from betraying the mutants.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Sabretooth gets a face full of angry stings when Logan throws a nest into his face.
- Sibling Team: Since Logan is not available to interfere, Daken, Laura and Gabby go after the Omega Wolverine together.
- Simultaneous Arcs: X Lives of Wolverine's present-day elements occur simultaneously with the first few parts of X Deaths of Wolverine. It's not until the final pages of the final issue of X Lives that Logan, exhausted from fighting Omega Red, is told about events on Krakoa and brought into the X Deaths plot for its final issues.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Jane Foster reveals to Moira MacTaggert that she's dying of Stage 4 cancer. It's later revealed that the cancer is plant-based, meaning that it was possibly made in Krakoa within her No-Zone.
- Worst Aid: Moira amputates her arm with a heated knife while bathing in iodine and chugging whiskey, and cauterizes the wound with a hot clothing iron.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Referenced in-universe. One of the X Deaths data pages has Destiny retelling the “Appointment in Samarra" story, updated to a modern New York setting, as an analogy to Moira's situation.
