There will be spoilers for both “Wolverine: The Long Night” and “Wolverine: The Lost Trail” and “X-Men ’97” from Disney Plus. Maybe for “Deadpool and Wolverine” as well, though I highly doubt it. Spoilers will be located at the very bottom.

Deadpool and Wolverine Played Straight

Based on the trailers and hype surrounding “Deadpool and Wolverine,” it sounds like it’s going to be a buddy cop movie with some multiverse and time travel shenanigans. Wolverine will most likely play the straight man to Deadpool’s fourth-wall-breaking comic relief. Honestly I can’t see them doing the reverse. At the very least, making Deadpool the more serious of the two. The backlash would be a thing to behold.

The sequel to “Wolverine: The Long Night” has less than five returning characters from the original audio drama podcast from 2018. Most of the characters are new and while the sequel ties to its predecessor quickly, it more or less abandons everything about the previous story for one more in line with comic books. As I said in my review of The Long Night, Marvel Comics actually turned this audio drama into a comic book. From what I can tell, it doesn’t contain any of the plot from “The Lost Trail” as the comic and sequel audio drama were created at the same time. “Wolverine: The Long Night” comic ran for five issues from January 2019-May 2019.

Wolverine: The Lost Trail and the MCU

The Lost Trail while not an MCU project, borrows from the legacy side of Marvel Entertainment, the predecessor to Marvel Studios and the MCU. 90s kids shows like Spider-Man can be seen as the first crossover events outside of the comics. During the “Neogenic Nightmare” arc of the Spider-Man 1994 animated series, the main character meets the X-men in two chapters of the story where Spider-Man turns into a mutant spider. Later the wall crawling super hero teams up with some of the Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Captain America in a story based on a 1984-85 limited comic book event called “Secret Wars.” The show and comic share that same title. The penultimate arc of the animated Spider-Man show based on the comic book crossover came out a little over a decade before it was adapted in 1997.

It’s old news that the Fox Marvel properties of X-Men and Fantastic Four are now owned by Disney who in turn also own Marvel Studios. The second MCU story featuring a member of the X-Men is the continuation of 1997’s X-Men: The Animated Series. Both the original and “X-Men 97” can be found on Disney plus in the United States. It might be available outside the U.S., but you might have to use a VPN. Don’t worry, I won’t try to sell you anything.

Wolverine and Gambit: Remember It, Deadpool

To make an already winding explanation just a tad bit longer, “Wolverine: The Lost Trail” is more akin to the 90s animated shows on Fox Kids back in the day. Since The Lost Trail is set in Louisiana, you know the writers had to include Gambit. Unfortunately his purpose lies somewhere between a cameo for fans and something resembling Deadpool’s first appearance in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” It felt like a waste having him there for so little impact outside of fan service. Though watching “X-Men ’97” episode five didn’t help with my perception of his character in the Lost Trail. It’s hard to top such a good episode that made me heartbroken and filled with outrage at the same time. A weird sensation to say the least.

8.5+/10 Stars

Spoilers Go Here

Following up on the “X-Men ’97” comparison, another shared element are the prime sentinels. You can find prime sentinels in both media, but each creative team handles it differently. Comic book writers Scott Lobdell and Carlos Pacheco introduced human sentinels AKA prime sentinels in 1997. The two-season Wolverine podcast story hides this fact from the audience. It’s more an example of erring on the side of awesome as the foreshadowing lacks any noticeability on the first listen. I liked learning the federal agents were prime sentinels working for the people at Weapon X as a plot twist, but that may be because of “X-Men ’97.” Listening as the episodes released back in 2018-19 and I doubt I’d feel the same.

Overall, I enjoyed “The Long Night” more than “The Lost Trail.” That’s surprising for me because the main murder mystery plot kind of left a bad taste in my mouth. There were so many suspects and a lot of other subplots, which distracted from the whodunit plot? “The Lost Trail” is much more like a comic book. It’s the End Game to the villain’s Infinity War. The fact the last two avengers film in the Infinity Saga came out the same years as these two audio dramas.