The Untold Truth Of Wolfsbane

First appearing in 1982's The New Mutants graphic novel, Wolfsbane remains one of Marvel's younger mutants, though you wouldn't know it to look at her life. The Scottish mutant born as Rahne Sinclair has died, been reborn, romanced princes from other worlds, and given birth to a child only to watch him come to a terrible end. She was a founding member of both the New Mutants and X-Force, a full-fledged member of the X-Men, a government employee in X-Factor, and even a private investigator in a later incarnation of X-Factor.

Wolfsbane's mutant abilities mimic the legendary powers of werewolves. She can change herself into an actual four-legged wolf who, unless you saw the transformation, you wouldn't necessarily distinguish from any other wolf. But she can also transform into a half-human/half-wolf form in which she enjoys enhanced senses, healing, strength, and speed, as well as potentially lethal claws and fangs.

Like many mutants, Rahne's gifts have often been more curse than blessing. As soon as she was introduced, her unintentional resemblance to werewolves of myth made her a target of fear and religious scorn, particularly from her own father. The combination of shame instilled in her at a young age, her tendency to repress her desires and emotions, and the beast waiting within her have led to some extremely volatile situations. For more, keep reading for the untold truth of Wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane never has the chance to meet her birth mother, who died during childbirth. She's raised by the fiery zealot Reverend Craig, right up until the moment Craig and his angry mob chase her into the gentler arms of Moira MacTaggert. Reverend Craig indoctrinates Rahne with his religious fanaticism, to the point where she refers to own powers as "gifts of Satan." The shame he forces upon her leave deep marks, and in most of his subsequent appearances he not only makes clear his disgust for Rahne and his hatred for mutants, but rarely misses an opportunity to insult the memory of Rahne's late mother. 

It isn't until 1996's Excalibur #93, at which point Rahne has learned to combat the emotional trauma she suffered at Craig's hands, that she reveals what she knows about Craig. The reverend isn't just the man who raised her — he is, in fact, her biological father. Confronting Craig about another mutant girl the reverend is infecting with shame and self-hatred, Rahne tells Craig that ever since she escaped him she's researched his life. Before he lived in Kinross, where Rahne was raised, Craig had a ministry in Ullapool where he made Rahne's mother — a local sex worker and his "special project." Craig collapses in tears as Wolfsbane reveals all she knows about his hypocrisy, though unfortunately it isn't the last we see of him.

One of the unpleasant side effects of sharing a body with more bestial forms is that Rahne can often turn a bad situation worse by going wild, in some cases attacking her best friends. We see signs of this as early as her first appearance in The New Mutants original graphic novel. Towards the beginning of the story, Karma demonstrates her psychic abilities by briefly taking over Moira MacTaggert's body, and Rahne responds by instantly going into her half-wolf transitional form and threatening her fellow New Mutant. 

Moments of extreme emotional stress have proven either fatal or near deadly for anyone near Wolfsbane, whether they're friend or foe. When the New Mutants are manipulated by an alien named Gosamyr in 1988's New Mutants #68, Rahne brutally attacks Dani, a.k.a. Mirage. When Rahne is fooled into thinking Cannonball has romantic feelings for her, she mistakenly believes it's Dani who's using her illusion powers to trick her and attacks her close friend viciously. In 1992's X-Factor #76, during a time when Rahne is stuck in her transitional half-wolf form, Wolfsbane goes wild and kills a man after that man murders his own sister. Likewise in 2010's X-Factor #208, after learning that her old boyfriend Rictor and Shatterstar have become lovers, she changes into her half-wolf form and charges Shatterstar, crashing through a second-story window with her victim in tow.  

Rahne's hateful bio dad Reverend Craig eventually makes the bad choice of being more than just a part of Wolfsbane's past and involves himself with an anti-mutant group calling themselves the Purifiers, a decision that leads to his violent death at Wolfsbane's hands. Ironically — in spite of Rahne's tendency to lose control and the fact that Craig's treatment of Rahne would lead some to argue she had every reason to kill him — even though it's Wolfsbane's body that does the killing, the choice is taken out of her hands. 

In 2008's X-Force #1, Wolfsbane is captured by the Purifiers and while she's their hostage, she's brainwashed as part of a plot to kill the mutant Warren Worthington, a.k.a. Angel. The team doesn't know this when they rescue her; when she wakes up and sees Angel a few issues later, she goes wild and attacks him, ripping off his wings during the assault.

In X-Force #6, Craig shoots Wolfsbane and corners her in the same room where Angel's severed wings hang from the ceiling. As he advances upon his unwanted daughter, meaning to murder her, he briefly stands in front of the severed wings and looks like an angel. Rahne's brainwashing kicks in, she transforms into her half-wolf form, and Reverend Craig goes to meet his maker.  

From the very beginning, things don't go well for Wolfsbane's son Tier — and the end of his short life is even more explosive and tragic than its beginning.

Tier is the son of Rahne and the Wolf Prince of Asgard Hrimhari. Hrimhari is sadly forced to sacrifice himself to save Wolfsbane and their unborn child, but he leaves his mark on Tier before his passing. When Tier is born in 2011's X-Factor #224, the mystical nature of the child causes him to exit Wolfsbane's body from her mouth rather than the traditional manner. Immediately upon his birth, Tier's instincts kick in and he kills the mystical Agamemnon who helps Rahne during her delivery, and the death scares Rahne enough that she abandons her newborn. He's eventually taken in and raised by Jack Russell, better known as Werewolf-By-Night. 

Rahne is reunited with her son, who ages more quickly than a human child. Tier is eventually revealed to be a central prophesied figure in the Hell on Earth War — a conflict between different Hell Lords like Pluto, Satannish, and Mephisto. Whoever kills Tier is said to win the throne of Hell. In 2013's X-Factor #256, Tier almost defeats the devilish Mephisto. Before Tier can finish him off, the mutant Strong Guy — who is resurrected without a soul in a previous story — runs Tier through from behind with a trident, killing him and winning the throne of Hell for himself.

The volume of Uncanny X-Men that ran from 2018-19 had a high body count, but among all the deaths depicted in the series, none caused as much of a stir or upset fans quite as much as Rahne Sinclair's violent demise in Uncanny X-Men #17. We actually see her funeral before her death, which is told in flashback as Wolverine and Kwannon hunt down her killers, and Kwannon uses her psychic abilities to show Logan what happened to Rahne. 

A group of young men approaches Rahne on a park bench and flirts with her. When she rebuffs their advances, the men get physical, and Rahne briefly loses control and transforms into her half-wolf form. Once the men realize she's a mutant, their attitude towards her changes and they feel Rahne has somehow tricked them into being attracted to her. They savagely beat her to death. 

Readers picked up on the scene meaning to reflect transmisogyny violence, and many weren't happy about it. For example, there's Women Write About Comics' Nola Pfau, who felt Uncanny X-Men writer Matthew Rosenberg "means well," but still emphasized that when writers depict "violence that occurs against us [trans people] without bothering to depict us, we are not helped. We are not aided by this choice; the violence against us becomes normalized, but our presence does not." Rosenberg publicly apologized for the hurt caused by story, and urged his followers consider donating to TransLifeLine.