Long arc, big story.

It starts with Storm breaking up a gambling ring that is looking for Wolverine.  They say he’s been robbing their games in the company of  a little girl.

The little girl turns out to be the cyborg Elsie Dee, created by Donald Pierce last arc, and the Wolverine is another robot–like a life-model-decoy–who Elsie created.

Turns out, she’s got independent thought now.

The rest of these issues feel like a series of short stories tied together by Elsie Dee’s complicated relationship with Wolverine.  Her baby talk is really annoying.

He likes to be a father figure, and she’s now intelligent so, according to Storm, she’s a form of life they shouldn’t kill.  The military hunts them down and they hide in the sewers where they meet Sabretooth and Morlocks.

Cable gets involved too because, you know, it’s the 1990s now.

And also Nick Fury.  Then there’s a weird interlude at a zoo. And a sea monster.

That’s in #44, which is by Peter David and Marc Silvestri. It’s relevance to this long story is even less clear.

It serves as a bridge to #45-47, which still involve Elsie and are cleaning up from the prior storyline.

Lots of hunting in this story. Sabretooth is hunting Wolverine, looking for a revenge fight. So is Deathstrike.

Wolverine, accompanied by Jubilee, is hunting some gangsters who are holding a lycanthrope hostage as a freak–for money.

The wolf-person is also being hunted by the daughter of one of his victims, who is hiding on rooftops wiht a telescopic rifle.

And one of Elsie Dee’s robot buddies is stalking the city, allied with the Morlocks, trying to find a new robot body for Elsie’s head.

Of course, Sabretooth and Wolverine fight. But along the way, Sabretooth learns about the imprisoned wolf-person, and decides to team up with Wolverine to free him.

Wolverine doesn’t want to be partners. Sabretooth also calls Wolverine “sonny boy” in this story–some of the first hints that Sabretooth is Logan’s father.

Issue #46 ends with Elsie still trying to get a new body built by Albert, the robot version of Wolverine. it says it is “to be continued” at the end, but not until #51-53, where it truly concludes. And gets much better than these issues.

Note: Issue #47 is a lame fill-in that I just tacked on here because I hated it.