Ultimate X-Men: Shock and Awe, Part 1
Issue: #59
Writer: Brian K. Vaughan
Pencils:
Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colors: Justin Ponsor

The issue opens in the past in El Paso, Texas. A younger Ororo Munroe is riding a motorcycle, pursued by Yuri, the person who taught her how to hotwire and steal bikes and cars. Ororo is ready to strike out on her own; Yuri wants the motorcycle she’s riding. Yuri says she can’t let Ororo get away with stealing from her, or every car thief in the area will think they can get away with it, too. She attacks Ororo with a chain, which the other woman dodges. Ororo warns her to turn back, because Yuri doesn’t ride well on wet roads. As Yuri puzzles over that (the road is completely dry), it begins to rain. The motorcycle chase continues, despite the rain, until Yuri suddenly realizes she’s in the path of a tractor trailer, which hits her head-on.

In the present, Ororo is walking down the street of a town in Alberta, Canada. She stops to look at a motorcycle; the owner asks if she wants a ride. She tells him she’s looking for a man named Logan. Hearing someone yelling behind the bike owner, she decides she’s found him. Logan is in a bar, looking for the men who killed a sixteen-year-old boy. One of the men inside insists they killed a monster, a sasquatch. When Ororo steps into the action, Logan throws one man against a wall and uses his claws to slice another man’s gun into pieces. A third man breaks a chair over Logan’s back. Logan doesn’t even stagger. The men in the bar attack him as a group. He throws one out the window. Ororo uses the moisture in the air to create wind and snow, disabling their opponents.

Hearing police sirens in the distance, Logan and Ororo walk outside. Logan tells her to go home and let him deal with the law. She breaks a car window and steals them a ride, revealing that she’s a former car thief. As they drive off, they’re being observed by someone who radios in her location. The man on the other end tells her not to approach Wolverine, but she tells him his transmission is breaking up, calling herself Deathstrike.

In the stolen truck, Logan tells Ororo that he left the X-Men to find the part of his life that he can’t remember. He shows her a wedding ring that supposedly came from his wife. Ororo offers to help him search for his family. He turns her down, saying it’s too dangerous and that remnants of the Weapon X program are probably following him. In the middle of their discussion, they notice a woman standing in the middle of the road. Just before the truck hits her, the woman reveals long, claw-like fingers that slice the truck in half. Logan and Ororo crawl out of the wreckage to confront the woman, who Ororo suddenly realizes is really Yuri.


Submitted By: Seldes Katne