Magneto dies (again) creating an apocalyptic electro-magnetic pulse that wipes out all power on Earth, killing millions. With the remaining Brotherhood of Evil Mutants controlling the planet’s final reactor, Nick Fury rallies the surviving Avengers for a last ditch heist to secure it - and fails. With everyone dead at the hands of the Brotherhood, it’s down to Wolverine… to get Revenge!
I haven’t been keeping up with the X-Men at all these past few years (and the glimpses I’ve seen have confirmed to me that I’m not missing out on anything worthwhile) so I have no idea if Magneto’s latest death is tied into a line-wide storyline or whether this book is a standalone (and I don’t care to know either guys - if I did, I’d look it up myself so spare yourself the trouble of updating me in the comments). Either way, Wolverine: Revenge is a pretty decent one-and-done story, in the vein of Old Man Logan, albeit not nearly as inspired.
I don’t know anything about Jonathan Hickman as a person but I’m willing to bet he’s a big Clint Eastwood fan. He’s already done a Western-style series at Image, East of West, but this book especially reads like a mix of The Outlaw Josey Wales and Unforgiven - no bad thing.
The opening chapter is fast-paced and engaging, even though the conclusion had me scratching my head. Bombs in chests might take out most superheroes but the Brotherhood must know that Wolverine would survive - he’s survived way worse before. So why would they do that to him and walk away thinking they’d solved the question of whether or not Wolverine would be able to come after them and exact his revenge?! Stupid.
And I can buy that Sabretooth, Omega Red and Mastermind would want to see Logan dead, but Deadpool and the surprise character? It just wasn’t convincing to me to see that character do a heel turn like that.
This is a miniseries so I can understand why Hickman did this - he packs in a lot in this short space - but it didn’t feel like the survivors were ever any threat to Wolverine. He shows up, cuts them down, and moves on to the next with too much ease. The benefit of that though is to keep the story moving at a decent clip so that you’re not left the chance to be bored for long.
I also don’t think Hickman writes Deadpool very well - it didn’t seem like the character at all. Still, it’s an amusing nod to that atrocious film X-Men Origins: Wolverine to have their final encounter set on the rim of a reactor.
It’s always enjoyable to see Greg Capullo’s art and his pages look great here - especially the stuff in Limbo where you see the years of him drawing Spawn really paying off in the creatures from that dimension coming after Wolverine. And the ending is a fun way to close things out too (and also makes me think that this is either a What If?-type book or something separate from continuity).
All that said bub, Wolverine: Revenge isn’t bad - despite its flaws, it’s a fun, quick Wolverine book that’s worth checking out if you’re in the mood for a classic Western-themed Wolverine comic.
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