Wolverine #131

Viper sends Wolverine out on a mission to find the source of a deadly virus.

Logan (Wolverine) is in the Himalayas, climbing Mount Namjagbarwa Feng, having accepted a mission from Viper, with whom he shares a marriage of convenience. Viper told him she had sent twelve Hydra agents to the mountain to follow a lead on the location of the legendary Shangri-La. Only three returned, apparently suffering from a deadly and highly contagious virus. Viper had asked Logan to find the source and return with a sample so that she could develop an antidote against a likely outbreak.

While Logan climbs, Viper receives updates on his progress. Then she visits the quarantine area where the three infected agents are being treated, learning one has died and the second is close to expiring. Before much longer, all three are dead, and she orders their bodies be tossed into an acid pit.

Meanwhile, Logan follows the trail of the agents to a cave within which he finds one of the Hydra goons, alive, but cowering in fear. Logan questions the soldier and gets closer to the truth of the matter. He tells Logan a monk had visited Viper and had provided some information. Subsequently, she had dispatched the team to the mountain to obtain a sample of the virus, under the pretense of exploring for an ancient city. They had found nothing.

During the descent, the team had gotten separated in a storm. Of the dozen, he remained, while only three others made it back to Madripoor. When Logan tells the agent they were infected, the agent counters that most likely, Viper poisoned them. Suddenly, the agent screams as the source of his fear, an alien arachnid creature, enters the cave.

The thing stings Logan with its venomous barbed tongue. Logan extends his claws and fights back, but the creature continues to strike Logan with the whip-like appendage. The toxins coursing through his veins weaken Logan, forcing him to collapse. The alien then approaches the Hydra goon, but Logan's healing-factor allows him enough of a recovery to leap at the thing. He severs its tongue and proceeds to hack at it. The creature then lunges at Logan, but impales itself upon his claws.

Logan and the Hydra agent exit the cave, and the X-Mån tosses an explosive inside. As they descend, he tells the goon to go into hiding, since Viper does not tolerate failure.

Logan returns to Madripoor with a vial containing a piece of the alien's tongue, which Viper is eager to accept. However, fully aware of her intent to use it to develop new poisons, Logan tosses the vial into the acid pit. Angrily, Viper tells him he had been tracked and so she knows the location of the cave, and will send men to retrieve another sample.

Some time later, a Hydra helicopter futilely hovers above the smoking remains of the cave.

[Note: There are two versions of this issue. The comic was first distributed with a racial slur in a word balloon on page 5. When the text was noticed, Marvel recalled the issue and distributed new copies which contained the proper text:

"Though the ceremony was interrupted by one of our closest foes, the killer known as Sabretooth..."

The original text read as follows:

"Though the ceremony was interrupted by one of our closest foes, the kike known as Sabretooth..."

Even with the recall, many of these issues had already been sold or distributed, making it easy to obtain the recalled edition.]