011
- Team X Beginnings (version 2.0)
Mark
Texeira, Wolverine #61.
© and ™ by Marvel Characters, Inc.
The Weapon X program pulls Logan back into their operations, this time as part of a CIA-sponsored special operations force known as ‘Team X' with Logan's old nemesis
Sabretooth...
X-Men
Unlimited #3 (Dec 1993) – “The Whispers Scream”
Writer:
Fabian Nicieza; Penciler: Mike McKone; Inker: Mark McKenna with
Mike Gray
A freelance intelligence operative, Mr. Bashur, confirms
that Sabretooth was an intelligence agent known as Creed and used such pseudonyms as El Tigre
in Central
America and Der
Schlachter in Germany.
…Considering their bloody past,
it is unlikely that Logan would willingly work with Sabretooth. Therefore, I hypothesize that something
had to be done to alleviate the animosity over the murder of Silver Fox. And the first part of this hypothetical scheme would require in-depth information on Logan's past…
Weapon
X #23 (Jul 2004) – “War of the Programs, Part 1: In the Beginning”
Writer:
Frank Tieri; Artist Tom Mandrake
Prior to Logan's involvement in the Weapon X
experiment, the head of the program, the Professor, has a file
with the name, James Howlett. In other words, someone
has been gathering data on Logan's early life.
Wolverine
#65 (Jan 1993) – “State of Grace
”
Scripter:
Larry Hama; ArtistL Mark Texeira
John Wraith confirms from classified data that Logan
and Silver Fox's
cabin did in fact exist. This would suggest that significant historical
research was done on Sabretooth, Logan
and Silver Fox.
…The second part of this ambitious plan would require a new and believable Silver Fox whose existence would prove to Logan that she had not been murdered by Sabretooth. For this elaborate deception to
work, the CIA
would have to brainwash an American Indian woman into believing that she was actually Silver Fox…
Wolverine
#50 (Jan 1991) – “Dreams of Gore: Phase 3”
Writer:
Larry Hama; Penciler: Marc Silvestri; Inker: Dan Green with
Hilary Barta and Tom Palmer
Logan finds
a warehouse in Windsor, Ontario
used by Experiment
X to create and alter the memories of Silver Fox, Sabretooth and himself back in the 1950s. The nature of these sets seem to indicate that genuine memories were altered first before false memories were created to replace them. The existence of a 1950s-style senior prom set for Silver Fox suggests that the program selected a relatively young woman as a replacement Silver Fox and worked to alter her relatively recent high school memories.
…The third part of this ambitious plan would require the CIA and the Weapon X programs to alter
the 50-year old memories that Logan and Sabretooth had of Silver Fox …
Wolverine
#64 (Dec 1992) – “What Goes Around…”
Scripter:
Larry Hama; Penciller: Mark Pacella; Inker: Dan Panosian
While Aldo Ferro was not involved in altering Logan's memories during the 1950s, he was privy to Logan's memories from this era. Later during Experiment X, Ferro was hired to alter Logan's oldest memories, specifically into believing that Sabretooth had killed Silver Fox. In other words, Logan believed at some point during the 1950s that Sabretooth had not killed Silver Fox, but had only made a pass at her and that Silver Fox had knocked out Sabretooth's tooth in retaliation.
…Now that Logan and Sabretooth believed Silver Fox was alive, it was time to remove her from the picture before they got suspicious...
Wolverine
#61 (Late Sep 1992) – “Nightmare Quest”
Scripter:
Larry Hama; Artist: Mark Texeira
After the Weapon X robot Shiva triggers a memory
backlash, Wolverine remembers being in Cuba
during the early
1960s as Emilio Garra with Creed (codenamed El Tigre) and two
other agents: Mastodon (as Elefante) and John Wraith (as Halcon).
Their mission is to disable the final missile in Cuba
that Castro kept
after the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 1962). As Cuban soldiers
attack, Mastodon claims that a former member of their team and
Logan 's
one-time lover, Silver Fox, has turned traitor and is now known
as Zora de Plata, the Silver Fox of Sierra Maestra. Wolverine's
memory ends with the entire team being attacked by bizarre long tentacles
at the behest of Silver Fox.
Wolverine
#68 (Apr 1993) – “Epsilon Red”
Scripter:
Larry Hama; Artist: Mark Texeira; Backgrounds: Steve Biasi
Epsilon Red, as a psi-talent, explains to Wolverine
that his memories have been tampered with. “I have taken a stroll
through the corridors of your mind… Your mind is clogged with
false memory implants and total blocks. There are implants on
top of implants and so much memory tampering that there is now
permanent scarring and intermittent firing of synapses.” In other words, we can confirm that Logan
has endured multiple memory
implants from several time periods. One set is from
this time period (Silver Fox is alive, but dies) and another set is
to obfuscate his time with Team X (Silver Fox was once again killed by Sabretooth).
The above theory has proven to be somewhat controversial and Michael Curtis Williams gave voice to the doubters. "Where did you see that the CIA was trying to create a new Silver Fox? I've never gotten that interpretation before. I doubt that a fake Silver Fox could've gotten past Wolverine's senses. If your theory is correct, it is clear that this new Silver Fox is a mutant (or she wouldn't be affiliated with Team X or targeted by Shiva), so she may have shapeshifting powers (which might explain the tentacles in Cuba). Of course, I could be totally wrong about all this, but I've just never seen this interpretation before (and I can't think of a reason for the CIA to create another Silver Fox, especially one with limited contact with Logan, and then let her become a terrorist). Let me know what other evidence that you have."
My response, aside from simplifying and rewriting this section, is as follows, "The biggest issue I have with Team X version of Silver Fox is that she has been shown to have died unequivocally some 50 years earlier. I find it highly unlikely (though not impossible) that these are the same Silver Fox. She was a normal Indian woman back in the 1910s, and the odds of having three unrelated mutants in the same mining town before mutants were even known to exist strains credulity. Team X, on the other hand, needed Logan to believe that Silver Fox was still alive in order for him to work with Sabretooth. And since these events took place before Logan came to trust his animal senses (he was still unaware that he was a mutant), I am hypothesizing that his Team X handlers created another Silver Fox for the sole purpose of fooling Logan into believing she was still alive. Bear in mind that the Team X Silver Fox only makes a brief appearance during this era before disappearing again. That the Team X Silver Fox has memories that include a 1950s prom seems to suggest that she is significantly younger than the original Silver Fox (who would have been at least 70 at this point). I freely admit that my explanation is never overtly stated, but I still believe that this explanation is more plausible than any put forth by Marvel."
…It is also interesting to note that there is no further record
of Mastodon as a member of Team X. Perhaps he was solely involved
to reinforce these altered memories. Regardless, Sabretooth and Logan
are now ready to work together as a two-man team with an occasional
assist from John Wraith…
Wolverine
#50 (Jan 1991) – “Dreams of Gore: Phase 3”
Writer:
Larry Hama; Penciler: Marc Silvestri; Inker: Dan Green with
Hilary Barta and Tom Palmer
A photograph of Creed and Logan
in front of the
pyramids in Egypt
seems to suggest
happier times.
Wolverine
#129 (Oct 1998) – “Whatever It Takes…”
Writer:
Todd Dezago; Penciler: Leinil Francis Yu; Inker: Edgar Tadeo
Wolverine refers to Sabretooth as his old “Army buddy.”
This is most likely a reference to their time together as intelligence
agents working for the CIA.
…While many of the events of Team X seem to occur during the
1960s, it is the elasticity of Marvel Time that is at work.
These events should take place in the late 1950s prior to the
creation of the Fantastic Four in 1961, but Marvel Comics continually
moves the start date of the Marvel Universe forward to keep
their characters eternally young…
Wolverine
#49 (Dec 1991) – “Dreams of Gore: Phase 2”
Writer:
Larry Hama; Penciler: Marc Silvestri; Inker: Dan Green &
Hilary Barta
Professor Xavier and Jean Grey mind-probe Logan's memories to assist him in
remembering his past. In a flash, Logan
remembers being in Palma
Soriano,
Cuba
on November 24, 1963
with Creed. They are on
a mission as partners, Creed going under the codename El Tigre
and Logan as Emilio Garra. In a local cantina, Creed expounds
on the conspiracy surrounding President Kennedy's assassination
when Cuban soldiers burst in to arrest them. The memory ends
with Logan
trying to escape through a backdoor.
Wolverine
#50 (Jan 1991) – “Dreams of Gore: Phase 3”
Writer:
Larry Hama; Penciler: Marc Silvestri; Inker: Dan Green with
Hilary Barta and Tom Palmer
Logan
confronts Nick Fury about his mission with El Tigre in Cuba
during 1963. Nick
Fury's and the CIA's
rapid response to Logan
's queries suggests
that the 1963 Cuban mission did occur.
X-Men
#6 (Mar 1992) – “Farther Still”
Plotter:
Jim Lee; Scripter: Scott Lobdell; Penciller: Jim Lee; Inker:
Art Thibert
Logan
remembers Creed stating that he had saved Logan
's life numerous
times while working at the CIA.
Wolverine
#61 (Late Sep 1992) – “Nightmare Quest”
Scripter:
Larry Hama; Artist: Mark Texeira
Wolverine has another brief memory of being in
the jungles of Southeast
Asia (presumably
Viet Nam )
with Creed and John Wraith. Creed kills a local girl who saw
them, arguing that she could have compromised their mission.
Marc
Silvestri, Green and Barta, Wolverine #49.
©
and ™ by Marvel Characters, Inc.
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