Wolverine: Chop Shop #1

Issue Date: 
January 2009
Story Title: 
Untitled
Staff: 

Mike Benson (writer), Roland Boschi (artist), Dan Brown (color artist), Jeff Eckberg (letterer), Tomer Hanuka (cover artist), Joe Sabino (production), Daniel Ketchum (editor), Axel Alonso (executive editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Dan Buckley (publisher)

Brief Description: 

Logan is on the hunt for some real nasty people. He allows himself to be bedded at his hotel by a beautiful woman, knowing that she isn't there simply for carnal pleasure. Once she thinks he is asleep, she drugs him and several of her companions enter the hotel room, taking Wolverine away in a van to their makeshift chop shop. There, two of Logan's organs are removed from his body, which is then dumped nearby. His organs are destined for paying customers. Left for dead, his body soon heals, and he heads for payback. He kills one of the doctors who is relaxing with a cigarette and proceeds to do likewise to the rest of the gunmen hired to protect the doctors. When the last man falls, Logan returns to the city and pays the woman, Annabel, a visit. He threatens her, and she soon informs him who is behind the operation. Logan forces her to visit the guy in charge, Sebastian, and inject him with the same drug she stuck inside Logan. Once Sebastian is out cold, Logan cuts out one of his organs and places it inside a box, leaving Sebastian dead. He hands the organ to Annabel who is forced to take it to a local hospital. Logan then allows her to go free, knowing that she'll be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life.

Full Summary: 

(present)

Wolverine is relaxing in an empty bar, looking silently at the grand city views through the large expanse of window. A beautiful woman enters wearing a long fur coat and asks the bartender for a martini, dry, which is more than she can say for herself. "God, it's cold," she mutters. Wolverine knows from the moment she enters the place and smells her sweet scent that she'll be trouble for him. The way her perfume mixes with her sweat and the soap she's used he knows that she is the one. She removes her coat and half-turns to Logan, jokingly asking if he has a blow dryer on him. "Sorry," he replies. How about a cigarette, she asks. She receives the same apology.

She smiles and tells him he doesn't look sorry. The bartender asks if she'd like to start a tab. She says she would, and he should probably start mixing his next drink, because she plans on having many. She adds that Logan can have one, too. She hates drinking alone. Makes her think she has a drinking problem; which she doesn't. Logan accepts graciously.

The woman informs Logan that her dad... he had a problem. He was allergic to booze and, when he drank, he broke out in felonies. Logan doesn't respond to the joke, but thanks her for the drink. She sits facing him and tells him he hasn't looked at her once. "'scuse me?" asks Logan. She says she doesn't wish to be conceited, but most of the time when she walks into a room, especially a bar, she turns a couple of heads. Guys start sending over drinks, but here she is buying him one. "What'cha want me to do," he asks, "Whistle atcha?" She replies that she'd prefer a good one-liner, followed by why his marriage is in the toilet. It's something she's accustomed to.

Logan reaches for his hat and tells her he hasn't got any lines, and if he was married it'd be a train wreck. She tells him that she likes how his hair does that thing. Does he use product? She feels like she's losing him, and smiles broadly, using the allure of her bright blue eyes. She introduces herself as Annabel, and asks what he does. Logan tells her that he guesses he works with his hands. What about her? What does she do besides buy strange men dinks in hotel bars? Annabel tells him that she does some modeling for fashion magazines, and lately she's been acting. She used to be a ballet dancer but loves food too much. Has he seen how small dancers are? You weigh over a hundred and fifteen and you're a candidate for a gastric bypass.

Logan stands and grabs his jacket. He asks how the acting thing's going for her. Annabel replies that she's got a couple of auditions this week. She'll let him know how it goes.

Logan has fought the baddest of the bad. He's fought everyone from the Hulk to the Sentinels to Sabretooth, but none of those fellas have got anything on a beautiful dame. Moments later, they are in the elevator with Annabel wrapped around his solid frame. They tumble into his hotel room and head straight to bed. Logan reckons it's not every day something like this happens to him, believe it or not, so he goes along for the ride.

Some time later, Annabel wakes up and quietly asks if he's awake. He doesn't respond, so she reaches under the bed and into her bag; removing a syringe from her small collection. She injects Logan in his stomach and starts getting dressed. Logan had hoped that he was wrong about her, but he wasn't. As the drugs go through his veins, his muscles contract, locking him up all corpse-like. He curses himself for believing in her, even for a moment. Once he is seemingly unconscious, Annabel opens the door and three men remove Logan and throw him into the back of a van.

(flashback)

A couple of weeks ago, Logan was tipped off about a ring of thieves. It didn't really interest him until he heard what they were hawking. It actually made his knuckles stand up. He doesn't believe in the bogeyman or leprechauns or creationism, and he's heard some cockamamie myths in his time, but this came from a reliable source. Someone he didn't think would steer him wrong. The source was a rich man whose guards had already been taken care of by Wolverine. Logan's claws ensured the information would be reliable.

(present)

After using himself as bait, he lies on an operating table in a dark room where people are smoking It's not what one might call hygienic. Two doctors operate on him, and one of his organs is removed. One doctor asks the other to be careful with it. The organ is destined for Jose Javier. "The drug lord?" enquires his colleague. The doctor asks if he's surprised. Who does he think buys organs on the black market? The organ is placed into a box while another is removed from Logan's torso.

Even for Logan, being murdered and having his innards sold to the highest bidder is real gruesome stuff. This kind of thing ain't supposed to happen. His body is removed from the table and tossed into some water nearby. It isn't the first time he's stared evil square in the face. He's seen plenty of ugly stuff. Ever see the Blob? But, this sickens Logan and haunts him in ways he can't even begin to explain. His body begins to grow back the removed organs. It's really painful, more so than having them removed. Imagine taking a knife and scraping it against your bone. Multiply that by a thousand times, and that's how it feels.

Eventually, his body recovers enough for him to clamber out of the water and onto the bank. He wants these people to know that pain. He'll make them pay. He walks through the rain back to the building where he was operated on. Inside, two more bodies are laid out on the floor, being placed in body bags. One of the doctor's, Phillips, asks his colleague Jeffrey to finish cleaning the operating table. He needs a cigarette.

Phillips walks outside and lights up, before relaxing in his car. As he sits down he looks in the mirror and sees Logan's eyes staring back at him. He barely has time to worry about it, though, as three claws punch straight through his back and out of his chest. His head slumps forward and hits the horn which blasts away continuously. One of the hired thugs approaches and asks if he' okay, before looking inside the vehicle and seeing the blood.

The guy pulls his weapon out and looks around, but there is no one there. Logan doesn't want them to die slowly. He wants to make them to feel it in the pit of their guts. He's gonna help them find religion. The gunman heads back to the building and tells everyone that someone killed the doctor. Several men grab their pistols and rush outside. Jeffrey is shocked, and says they guaranteed that there wouldn't be any complications. One guy turns round and tells him to shut up. They'll handle this.

They head for the car and check on Phillips. He's clearly dead. One guy wonders if it's a message from the Korataev Brothers, their opposition. Another reckons that they will be sorry for this. He'll call Sebastian. As he speaks, one guy named Ludwig asks him to wait. He sees Wolverine rushing towards him fast and gaps, "Mother of God!" He lets rip with his gun, but Logan is past them in a flash and they look around to see where he went. Ludwig recognized him as being one of their victims. He wants Logan found and killed, right now!

Even as they concoct a plan, the others don't really believe Ludwig, and reckon it's the vodka talking. They still suspect the Korataevs. As they chat, Logan sprints towards them with all six claws extended and slices them in two. He then proceeds to eviscerate several more, beheading one of them. One guy, bleeding and throwing up, manages to reach the building. Ludwig asks him where the men are. The injured guy tells him he was right. Their victim came back. He drops dead as Logan enters the building looking incredibly menacing.

Ludwig backs away and begins shooting, but Logan is on him in an instant. He lifts him from the ground as his claws make yet another kill. Jeffrey is terrified and starts running. He is a big guy, and the strain is too much for him. He collapses to the ground clutching his chest and quickly dies from a heart attack. Logan's literally scared him to death.

(later)

With the chop shop now out of business, Logan returns to the city and knocks on Annabel's door. As she asks who's outside, Logan smashes the door in and enters. Annabel is sent sprawling. "What are you?" she cries upon seeing Logan. He is on top of her in an instant and extends his claws across her face. He warns her to shut up or he starts punching holes. For a moment, he considers doing to her what she did to him, but it would be too easy to end it like that. He stands and she looks up at him. She tells Logan that he doesn't understand. They threatened to kill her if she didn't help them. They said they'd kill her mother. Logan orders her to give him a name, or he'll do something worse.

Soon, Annabel is at Sebastian's spacious and expensive home. She presses the buzzer and Sebastian opens the door, asking how she got there and where her guards are. She tells him it's urgent, and is ushered inside. She asks if they are alone. He locks the door and replies yes. He asks what is the meaning of this. Behind him, Annabel says she is sorry, before plunging a syringe into him.

She then departs and heads straight to the hospital carrying a small red box. She tells the receptionist that he told him to take it there. The receptionist asks who, but Annabel leaves the hospital and grabs a cab. Logan watches discreetly. Two things are certain, he thinks. She'll be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her miserable existence, and she ain't gonna be forgetting him some time soon. The doctors at the hospital open the box and find one of Ludwig's organs inside. "Call the police," one exclaims.

Logan's said it before and he'll say it again. There's something about a beautiful broad. Even if you know they've got something up their sleeve, they can still put you under their spell. He heads for a nearby bar where, once again, a beautiful woman asks him if he's got a cigarette. "Sorry," he replies. "Don't smoke."

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Annabel

Sebastian

Thugs including Ludwig and Yuri

Doctors including Jeffrey and Phillips

Bartenders

Hospital Staff

Unnamed woman in bar

(in flashback)

Wolverine

Thugs

Story Notes: 

This one-shot also contains four cover concepts by the artist Tomer Hankua.

Issue Information: 
Written By: