Wolverine: Soultaker #2

Issue Date: 
May 2005
Story Title: 
Soultaker: Chapter 2: Awakenings

Akira Yoshida (writer), Shin “Jason” Nagasawa (pencils), Guru- Efx (colors), VC’s Rus Wooton (letters), Katsuya Terada (cover), John Barber (assistant editor), Nick Lowe (editor), Joe Quesada (editor-in-chief), Dan Buckley (pubisher)

Brief Description: 

Wolverine finds the shrine from his vision, and explores it. He also notices a temple, which is guarded. Logan scouts the shrine, and through a window notices blue smoke. He contacts Yukio about it, and wants to check it out. He does and breaks into the temple, unseen. But he gets angry when he finds an unconscious girl lying on a table, and surrounded by monks. He wants to attack them, but he calms down when the monks say they want to sacrifice their lives to protect Mana. Logan realizes that Mana was the girl the necklace was named after. After some quick explanation from the monks and the mentioning that the evil inside the necklace is Mana’s twin sister, Hana, they are once more attacked by the weird looking ninjas, who are called the Followers of Ashurado. The ninjas kill all the monks, but Logan manages to get himself, Mana and her blade outside. He takes care for her, and puts the necklace back on Mana’s neck. Suddenly, the necklace starts to glow, and Mana wakes up. But she freaks out, and tells Logan that, by freeing her soul, he has also allowed the evil that was inside the necklace to escape!

Full Summary: 

Tokyo, Japan:
Wolverine walks up some stairs, and makes it to a temple. There, he looks around a bit, and notices some spikes on a roof. As Logan looks at the spikes, they shine. Wolverine doesn’t care much and walks through the temple’s entrance, which is guarded. He continues his walk, where he notices a separate part from the temple, where two people are standing.

He hears a bell ring, and the two people clap in their hands. Then, they pray. Logan walks over to them, and the two people walk away. Logan notices a well, and throws some money in it. He rings the bells above the well. They ring, and Logan puts his hands together, like he prays. He looks through the window in front of him and, in the shrine, blue smoke appears. Logan claps his hands and walks away.

Later that night, he uses a pay phone to contact Yukio. Logan explains to her that he has found the shrine, the one he saw in his vision. But, Logan believes that something suspicious was going on. Yukio asks an explanation. He tells her about the spikes from the roof, which he knows are meant to prevent anyone from going inside the temple itself. He also tells her about the guards, and that he plans to break in. Yukio wishes him good luck. Logan thanks her, but first asks how Amiko is doing. Yukio tells him that she’s doing just fine. Logan warns them to be careful, and not get into any further mess, and hangs up. Yukio thanks Logan, and puts her “working” clothes on.

Again later, Wolverine manages to jump safely over the spikes, unnoticed by any of the guards. He opens a door, and more blue smoke comes from it. Logan goes inside and the smoke begins to stink. He arrives on a balcony and looks down. He stops and becomes angry. Below him, people dressed like monks sit on their knees in front of an unconscious girl, who lies on a table. Wolverine recognizes the girl from his vision.

He snikts his claws out, and jumps down, ordering the monks to get away from the girl. The monks aren’t impressed, and take out their lances and quickly surround Wolverine. The monks’ leader tells Logan that he doesn’t know who he is, but promises him that he won’t get near the girl. The leader also isn’t impressed by the claws, as he and the others will gladly sacrifice their lives in order to protect Mana. Logan remembers the name, as in “the Mark of Mana.” The girl is what the necklace was named after! Wolverine informs the monks that he has the necklace.

They decide to talk. The monks introduce themselves as the Servants of Shosei, and Wolverine refers to himself as Logan. The Servants explain that Mana has no soul left, and sacrificed herself to defeat an ancient evil. Logan asks if this “evil” just happened to look at Mana. The monks confirm that, and reveal that the evil was Mana’s twin sister, Hana. Logan tells the monks about his vision, which scares them. They mention a name, “Ryuki,” and panic when they hear that Logan touched the necklace. They beg that they let them know where it is.

Suddenly, a guard called Masashi gets thrown into the room; dead. The ninja’s from before are responsible, and enter the room as well. The leader introduces them as the Followers of Ashurado, and mentions that they are supporters of Hana. He begs Logan to help them get away from Mana, at all costs. Logan promises to do that, but the battle doesn’t go well for the heroes. The ninjas kill them all, including the leader. With his final breath, he begs Logan to take Mana out of there, and to take her blade with him as well. Wolverine does, and fights his way through the ninjas.

Some time later, Logan is at Yukio’s house. There, he takes care of Mana, and tries to figure out what the necklace is all about. He puts it on Mana’s neck, and suddenly begins to glow! Mana wakes up, and freaks out. She reveals that by freeing her soul from the necklace, Logan has also allowed the evil that was imprisoned in it to escape!

Characters Involved: 



Servants of Shosei (all unnamed)

Heathen and other Followers of Ashurado (the ninja’s)

Masashi (a guard)

various citizens of Tokyo (unnamed)

Story Notes: 

First appearance of Mana and the Servants of Shosei, and the ninja’s get named for the first time, though not individually except for Heathen, as goes the same for the Servants.

This is the first time that Wolverine wears his new X-Men costume in a limited series.

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