Wolverine begins this stretch in terrible condition. The Reavers have brutalized him, the Australian base is under enemy control, and the people he would normally turn to are go…

Wolverine begins this stretch in terrible condition. The Reavers have brutalized him, the Australian base is under enemy control, and the people he would normally turn to are gone. Uncanny X-Men #252 follows the immediate problem of getting out alive with Jubilee’s help. His healing factor does not make this an effortless recovery. Logan is still injured in the Hong Kong chapters, and his hallucinations complicate what is happening around him. The story gives the damage time to matter. He has experience, claws and a frightening tolerance for pain, but he also needs another person to keep him moving. Jubilee is that person before she has anything like a settled place in an organized X-Men roster. Their connection begins with something more urgent than training or introductions. She helps him when he cannot manage everything himself, and he carries that trust forward. Psylocke’s return makes their situation even more complicated. In #257–258, Logan recognizes his former teammate behind the Hand’s manipulation. Helping Betsy recover herself becomes part of keeping the X-Men alive, even while his own mind is in a bad state. By #261, the three of them have become a small working group, although Jubilee and Betsy are far from comfortable with each other. Logan’s arrangement with the Harriers puts their cooperation to a very questionable practical test. He is already trying to make them function together, even without a mansion or a larger team around them. This part of Wolverine’s history leaves room for dependence as well as toughness. He survives because someone helps him. Then he starts reaching outward again, trying to turn that small circle of survivors into people who can rely on one another.