Cover Date: October 2023; On Sale Date: August 2023
Writer: Benjamin Percy; Artist: Geoff Shaw; Letterer: VC's Travis Lanham; Colorist: Rain Beredo; Editor: Darren Shan & Mark Basso; Editor in Chief: C.B. Cebulski; Cover Artist: Ryan Stegman
Years ago, Ava Flores takes the possessed child Bram to a nursing home where he murders one of the residents to feed the demon inside of him. In the present day, Wolverine hitches a ride behind Ghost Rider on his motorcycle as they race from Pennsylvania to Utah, arriving at the Weapon Plus base inside Devil's Backbone. Ghost Rider transforms back into Johnny Blaze, and he and Wolverine are detected by the base's crew, led by Father Pike. Elsewhere, CIA agent Jeff Bannister researches the occult texts provided by Blaze on his computer and winds up releasing a demonic presence, from which he is saved by Blaze's companion Talia Warroad.
Back at Hell's Backbone, Wolverine and Blaze enter the Weapon Plus base, where the find that the group has been experimenting on demons. Wolverine comments that the program has released the Stitcher demon inside Bram to hunt down mutants. Suddenly, control helmets slap down on their heads and electrocute them into unconsciousness. Meanwhile, Talia and Jeff do more research into the demonic Stitcher entity.
Father Pike brings the now adult Bram into the Weapon Plus lab, where Wolverine has been prepared for possession by Bram's demon, the Bagra-Ghul. Bram takes his place beside Wolverine and the demon Stitcher is transferred from Bram to Logan, transforming him into the Hellverine. Father Pike tells the now demon-possessed Wolverine to go feed upon the mutants of the world, and the Hellverine detects mutants 5 miles in the distance. He steals Johnny Blaze's motorcycle and rides off into the night.
THE ROADMAP
This story continues from Ghost Rider (2022) # 17 and continues into its conclusion in Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance Omega # 1.
Johnny Blaze and Wolverine met during the race at Hell's Backbone in Ghost Rider (2022) # 5. The site was then used as Blackheart's base of operations until Ghost Rider (2022) # 10, when he was defeated and sent back to Hell by Ghost Rider.
The control helmets used on Blaze and Wolverine are the same kind that Infernal Labs used to control Danny Ketch in Ghost Rider (2022) # 12-15.
CHAIN REACTION
The "Weapons of Vengeance" crossover continues into the ongoing Wolverine series, which introduces us to the "Hellverine".
Let's just get it out of the way, the "Hellverine" is an inherently goofy premise for a character. Giving Wolverine demonic powers and hellfire claws is one of those ideas that sounds like fan casting or head canon, it's just silly and I can't really believe that Marvel went for it. That doesn't, of course, make it a bad idea at all, it's just got a long road to climb to reach the seriousness that Ben Percy has maintained for this crossover so far. I can admit that the story took a swerve I wasn't expecting, with Wolverine becoming possessed by the Stitcher demon and not by the Spirit of Vengeance itself. I mean, it's an easy assumption to make, what with the flaming skull and claws on display for the "Hellverine".
That does, however, bring up concerns regarding the storytelling. Why, when possessed by a different demon, does Wolverine suddenly look like Ghost Rider and even have control over his flaming motorcycle? It's like it operates on a kind of fuzzy logic that "demons" are all the same when even in previous issues of his own run Percy has taken pains to differentiate the Spirits of Vengeance from run of the mill demons. Even one as particular as Stitcher needs to adhere to a set of rules for any of this to make a lick of sense. I can see the creators coming up with the visual bits first, the flaming claws and such, and working backwards from there to come up with an in-story justification for it.
Now, when those visuals are by Geoff Shaw, it can be real easy to fall into a trap where story takes a back seat the incredible artwork on display. Shaw's gotten to draw a woefully underwhelming amount of actual Ghost Rider in this crossover so far, so the image of him riding through the desert with Wolverine on his back is great to see. Similarly, the money shot of Wolverine transforming into his new demonic form is amazing, echoing back to the Barry Windsor Smith days of Weapon X with an appropriately infernal bent.
So, the story has made its way to the point it really wanted to reach with "Hellverine's" introduction. Let's see where it goes from there when the story concludes.
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