Summary

• Marvel's Wolverine seeks revenge in a new miniseries by superstars Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo, with the first issue promising a modern classic.
• In Wolverine: Revenge, Logan teams up with fellow heroes for a mission in Russia, where he faces betrayal and high stakes.
• Greg Capullo's artwork shines in Wolverine: Revenge, delivering epic action moments and fan-service.

WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Wolverine: Revenge #1Wolverine’s looking for revenge in his latest Marvel Comics miniseries, and he’s got a superstar creative team to ensure he gets his bloody satisfaction. Wolverine: Revenge brings together Jonathan Hickman and Greg Capullo for the very first time, and the end result is shaping up to be a modern-day Marvel classic. The first issue in this proposed five-issue miniseries delivers on all fronts, equally filled with thought-provoking ideas and bloody superhero action.

Taking place in its own continuity, Wolverine: Revenge opens with a text page Asteroid M exploded above North America, creating the largest EMP in history and leaving the northern hemisphere in the dark. Wolverine is then recruited by Nick Fury for a dangerous mission to save everything.

Fury informs Logan that the only working power source is located in the Tunguska station in Russia, which is currently in the control of Mastermind and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Fury sends Wolverine, Captain America, the Winter Soldier and a team of SHIELD agents behind enemy lines for a heist, before things go horribly wrong.

This is the first Marvel Comic that Greg Capullo has provided the interior artwork for since 1993’s X-Force #25.

Wolverine: Revenge Has the Makings of an All-Time Marvel Classic

The out-of-continuity nature of the story makes Wolverine: Revenge more accessible, as prospective readers don’t have to have read previous years of X-Men comics to understand what’s going on. It also allows the creative team the license to run wild in the Marvel Universe in a way they never could in current continuity. The body count in this series is astronomical, with millions having died in the Asteroid M crash and the potential for billions to follow if Wolverine and the others don’t accomplish their mission.

It’s a great set-up for a blockbuster action story, and the creative team uses the occasion to deliver fan-service of the highest caliber. Looking to see Wolverine ride a Triceratops? Always wanted to see Logan disembowel a murderous dinosaur? How about Captain America, the Winter Soldier and Wolverine parachuting from an exploding Helicarrier? Wolverine: Revenge has all of that and more, delivering one memorable moment after another in a smorgasbord of badass-ery. The “What if?” nature of the story also allows for major characters to die (and presumably stay dead), which provides a whole new level of shock value that is actually shocking.

Yet while the story is never short on cool and epic moments, there is more going on beneath the surface of Wolverine: Revenge than is readily apparent. The heroes’ mission to retrieve the power source from Russia sounds like a noble quest, until Wolverine discovers that Colossus is working with Mastermind and the rest of the Brotherhood. When he asks how his former teammate could betray him in such a way, Colossus questions the nature of his mission: “You believe your cause is right, and therefore your thievery is righteous? That the West is owed it, and we should simply let you take it?”

Greg Capullo’s Artwork Shines in Wolverine: Revenge

The highlight of the issue is getting to see artist Greg Capullo let loose through the Marvel Universe once more. After a series of variant covers, Capullo makes his grand return by providing the interior artwork for Wolverine: Revenge, and the storyline seems specifically crafted to the artist’s strengths. Capullo gets to draw a variety of characters, and his renderings of Nick Fury, Captain America, Deadpool, the Winter Soldier and others are worth the price of ission alone.

The inventive layouts and detailed renderings that made Batman: The Court of Owls such a memorable comic are on full display here, and Capullo’s Wolverine already feels like an iconic representation, much the same way his Dark Knight was. Since Capullo got his professional start at Marvel, it’s nice to see the artist coming “home” and lending his talents to a high-profile Wolverine story. The entire art team deserves praise, as Tim Townsend’s crisp inks capture the energy of Capullo’s linework, and FCO Plascencia’s expert palette keeps the red flowing plentifully on the page of this “Red Band” series.

"With an engaging, blockbuster story by Jonathan Hickman and the jaw-dropping artwork of Greg Capullo, Wolverine: Revenge is an action-packed ride that more than lives up to the promise of its title.”

If there’s anything to criticize here, it’s that the comic often tells the reader what is happening as opposed to showing them. It’s not a fatal flaw, as all pertinent information gets across to keep the story clear, but comics are a visual medium. This is most apparent in Nick Fury’s briefing at the beginning of the issue, where we learn about Asteroid M’s explosion and its after-effects purely through Fury’s dialogue. This would have been much more powerful if readers were able to see it play out, even if only in a flashback or two.

Wolverine: Revenge Delivers On All Fronts

Despite minor quibbles, Wolverine: Revenge #1 is a book that comics fans won’t want to miss. With an engaging, blockbuster story by Jonathan Hickman and the jaw-dropping artwork of Greg Capullo, Wolverine: Revenge is an action-packed ride that more than lives up to the promise of its title. The end of the issue sets up Logan’s path of revenge, and the eventual showdown with the likes of Omega Red, Deadpool and Sabretooth should be epic to watch unfold. It will also be intriguing to see if any more familiar faces pop up in future issues, as fans learn who survived the apocalyptic event that set the story in motion.

The eventual standoff between Wolverine and Colossus will also be exciting to watch, as Logan doesn’t seem to be in much of a forgiving mood when the issue ends. The former friends and team-mates have a lot to work through as the fate of the world hangs in the balance, but fortunately they’ll have four more issues to work things out. With billions of lives on the line, the stakes couldn’t be higher for the title character in this alternate continuity, but Wolverine seems preoccupied with one thing and one thing only for the time being: revenge.

Wolverine: Revenge #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.