‘Hellverine’ Blazes Forward As A Marvel Ongoing Series This December
by Tony Thornley
Akihiro Logan has been through almost as much as his more famous father in the short time since his introduction. This winter, he returns to his first solo ongoing series in years, and this time he’s bringing an unwelcome passenger with him.
Several months ago Akihiro — known to many fans as Daken, Dark Wolverine or Fang — was violently murdered by Sabretooth at the beginning of the Sabretooth War. A few months before that, Logan and Johnny Blaze teamed up to stop a demon called Bagra-Ghul from wrecking mayhem across the US. In the just concluded Hellverine miniseries, Akihiro and Bagra-Ghul merged to become the, well, Hellverine. In December, they return in a new ongoing series.
Written by Benjamin Percy, the longtime Wolverine and Ghost Rider writer who co-created the Hellverine concept, and drawn by Raffaele Ienco, Hellverine sees Akihiro and Bagro-Ghul take to the road again. The Hellverine will be blazing his own path forward, with Akihiro diving claws first into both Marvel’s superheroic world and its demonic dark side. He won’t be alone though, as his first stop on this cursed road trip will be to visit Doctor Stephen Strange!
On Hellverine’s success and future, Percy shared, “I was writing Wolverine, and I was writing Ghost Rider. Of course I was going to bring them together. The Weapons of Vengeance storyline was a monstrous hit, in part because Geoff Shaw and I introduced the Hellverine, a version of Logan with a flaming skull and flaming claws. The fan enthusiasm was such that a Marvel Legends toy was announced and a spin-off limited series got greenlit.”
“I had so much fun expanding the mythos of the demon Bagra-ghul and finding a way to not only bring Akihiro back from his savage death in ‘Sabretooth War,’ but to explore some fresh possibilities for a complicated character I’ve always loved. And now? There’s more mayhem and occultism and hellfire on the horizon. I’m grateful to readers and retailers for their support, because a Hellverine ongoing is coming your way. I’m joining forces with powerhouse artist Raffaele Ienco, and we’ve got huge, horrifying plans for the Hellverine and his role in the 616.”
Check out the debut issue’s cover from Kunkka above. Hellverine debuts on December 18 from Marvel Comics.
