Review: ‘Wolverine: Revenge’ #1 Is Bloody Setup For The Carnage To Come

Wolverine is the best he is at what he does. Even he has bad days though, and in Wolverine: Revenge #1, he has the worst day.

Jonathan Hickman, Greg Capullo, Tim Townsend, FCO Plascencia and Cory Petit kick off the bloody path to revenge.

Something dropped Asteroid M out of orbit and killed Magneto, resulting in a massive EMP. Now the entire northern hemisphere has gone black, and their only hope is a SHIELD strikeforce, Captain America, and Wolverine. Unfortunately for them, the device that could restore the damage done in Magneto’s final moments is safeguarded by a quartet of Wolverine’s deadliest enemies, and our heroes don’t have a chance.

First of all, don’t expect this to be a story to hold back. This is bloody, violent, and shocking throughout. It’s a fantastic homage to Wolverine as a character and all the tropes that come with it. To fully embrace that, this is not a story that dances between the raindrops of other stories- this is fully its own thing so the carnage can be fully embraced.

And I loved it. I kind of wish the Magneto set-up had been a page of story and not a data page. Otherwise, this starts at an incredibly fast pace and only slows for a three page briefing. This knows what it is and leans into it. It’s not trying to be a complex character study, and it’s all the more fun for it.

Capullo and Townsend make it so much fun to read. Though the faces have a samey quality to them, Capullo paces the action so well and the characters are incredibly emotive. The violence is incredibly shocking, and rendered fantastically. Townsend deepens Capullo’s lines, and adds strong dimensions to his panels. Plascencia uses a great bright palette that makes the linework pop, especially the gore.

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