I guess Wolverine is still married to Viper, because he’s doing what she says and that’s part of the third ring of marriage. You know the three marriage rings, right?
- Engagement ring
- Wedding ring
- Suffer-ring
Ba-dum!
And speaking of tasteless things, this is the also the famous “Kike” issue, where Wolverine is narrating a review of his past dealings with the Sabretooth, and calls him the racial slur…
I didn’t even know he was Jewish!
Reportedly, this was a typo resulting of the sloppy handwriting of the editor, the letterer not being familiar with the term, and then that same editor not proofreading the book carefully. Given the frantic pace, overworked staff, and Marvel’s general, late ’90s attitude of not giving a sh!t how sh!tty their books could be, it’s understandable.
As soon as the problem was identified, Marvel tried to collect all copies and destroy them, inadvertently making this one of the most valuable issues of this series.
Now, as for the main story: Viper sends Logan out to track down the source of a virus that has somehow taken down Hydra. He figures out that the virus is caused by alien spider bites, kills the spider, and brings its venom to Viper. He also blows up the cave where the alien spider lived, and the story implies that that will prevent Viper from weaponizing the venom.
It doesn’t make any sense scientifically, but I guess its supposed to make us, as readers, more comfortable with the new Wolverine/Viper alliance.
Note that the story was by Dezago, but Brian K. Vaughn wrote the script. Some early work by a comic book legend–and, I believe, his first Marvel script. (It was certainly his most racist one–just kidding!)