Despite the presence of big names like Sabretooth and Deadpool, Wolverine is the most famous participant in the Weapon X Program. However, there were others that the program deployed on missions too and some went on to become allies of Wolverine.
One of them, John Wraith, also known as Kestrel, was a teleporter who acted as Team X’s infiltration and extraction expert for a time, but he remained a relatively obscure character until X-Men Origins: Wolverine. His brief time in the spotlight allowed his character to return to comics, only to face a similar end to his movie counterpart.
John Wraith first debuted in 1992’s Wolverine #60 by Larry Hama, Dave Hoover and Keith Williams after being teased in 1991’s Wolverine #48 by Hama, Marc Silvestri and Dan Green. While he might seem like a standard teleporter, John had what was referred to as “phase-jumping” abilities. He could disappear from any point in space and reappear in another without making any noise or leaving a visible trace. The high range of his ability made John the perfect infiltrator for Team X, the team of mutant test subjects that Weapon X deployed on missions.
But unlike his companions, John was kinder. He followed his mission orders as instructed, but was also far more merciful than his fellow test subjects. He disliked killing innocents if they got in the way of the mission. Much like Wolverine, he eventually left the Weapon X Program but was later re-recruited by its new director. Sabretooth, who wanted to betray the program, broke John’s neck and left him for dead.
That was the last anyone heard of John Wraith until X-Men Origins: Wolverine. His history was much the same as it was in the comics. But in the movie, Wolverine came to him and the Blob for help in hunting down Sabretooth, who was working for the Weapon X program in a twist on the situation that resulted in comic John’s last appearance. The two agreed to help, but John crossed paths with Sabretooth before Wolverine did.
John was confident in his ability to handle Sabretooth though. All he had to do was maintain his phasing while landing blows and eventually Sabretooth would go down. What John did not realize was that Sabretooth had learned a lot about the way John fought. Teleporting in and out of the way was effective, but useless if his opponent could predict where he would appear. Sabretooth did just that, managing to place his arm right where John would reappear, fatally wounding him.
Though the movie version of John died, his comic self would get a second chance at life. He was revealed to have survived his encounter with Sabretooth, becoming a preacher in the time since then and a confidant to Wolverine. Wolverine came to John to discuss his doubts about the new start on life, with John counseling him to the best of his ability as one of the few people who knew him from before his time with the X-Men.
But violence followed Wolverine closely, especially on that day. In 2010’s Wolverine #1, by Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes, John discovered that Wolverine’s body had been possessed by a demon while his friend’s soul had been sent to Hell. Unable to do anything about the latter problem, John tried to stop Hellverine from setting fire to the church and killing John’s parishioners. But much like both versions of his encounter with Sabretooth, John was unprepared for the sheer savagery that someone like Wolverine could unleash. Hellverine ran John through with his claws and then left him to die as his church burned.
As a mutant, it’s only a matter of time before John is revived and steps onto the shores of Krakoa like so many of his contemporaries already have. But for now, Kestrel has returned to his relatively obscure status after a brief moment in the spotlight.
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