Marvel's Wolverine prequel comic introduces Nathaniel Essex

A prequel comic tied to Insomniac Games' Marvel's Wolverine has introduced Nathaniel Essex, the X-Men villain better known as Mister Sinister, into the game's story, Polygon reported.

Marvel's Wolverine #1 was released on Wednesday as a San Diego Comic-Con tie-in and is written by the game's narrative director, Walt Williams. It follows Wolverine leading Team X, made up of Sabretooth, Mystique and Sunfire, on a mission to infiltrate a facility belonging to Bolivar Trask. Before setting out on what Wolverine suspects is a trap, he calls the team's actual leader: Essex.

Essex appears at The Essex Institute in Canada and tells him the mission is worth running regardless, saying it is time for Team X to strike back at Trask in force.

A misdirection with precedent

Insomniac's marketing has centred Trask, the anti-mutant scientist whose name has run through the game's trailers. Polygon noted that the studio has redirected attention before: Marvel's Spider-Man was promoted around Mister Negative as its antagonist, only for Doctor Octopus to emerge as the primary villain. Polygon also reported that Sinister's involvement was among the details surfaced by earlier leaks of the game.

In the comics, Essex is a scientist turned mutant by Apocalypse who is preoccupied with collecting and testing mutant DNA, particularly that of the Summers family. Polygon suggested The Essex Institute may serve as Insomniac's version of the Weapon X program, the source of Wolverine's adamantium.

Nothing in the issue states Essex is an antagonist, and he is introduced as the figure Wolverine reports to rather than fights. Polygon's reading is that the framing is deliberate, and that a character running a clandestine mutant operation out of a Canadian facility is unlikely to stay an ally for the length of the game.

What comes next

PlayStation scheduled its Deep Cuts: Marvel's Wolverine panel for Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con on July 23, running from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. PDT. Marvel's Wolverine is set for release on Sept. 15 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, with previously revealed antagonists including Omega Red alongside Trask.