Comic of the Week

Revenge stories are their own genre with certain tropes that we can expect. In many cases, these stories lead to the moral that revenge isn't as satisfying as first thought. In other cases, it's quite the opposite. In the case of Wolverine, the story that Jason Aaron has crafted is much more complicated. This is on par with one of my favorite revenge movies, Oldboy in terms of the layers of vengeance we go through and the exploration of the effects of one's actions.

The cycle of revenge started in this series when Wolverine was sent to Hell by the Red Right Hand, a group seeking revenge on him for killing their loved ones. There, he had to face many of his dead  victims. Meanwhile, his loved ones were being targeted back on Earth. Wolverine escapes and goes after the ones that put him in Hell, to get his revenge. He finally finds them and in the process has to kill 5 "warriors" they send after him. He kills these warriors easily and arrives in a room where all the members of the Red Right Hand lay dead after drinking poison. They did not want to give him the satisfaction of killing them himself. Besides, the real act of vengeance is about to be revealed. They want Wolverine to feel what they felt, and they got him. They got him good. I'd rather not go into spoilers of this issue because it's a good one. Please seek out this entire run if you have not read it.

Wolverine may accept that he's a killer, but that does not mean he is at peace with his demons. This arc has given him some new demons to wrestle with. I'm sure this will be referred to for years to come, but even if it isn't, it's one hell of a story. Complexity, emotion and action all rolled up in a vengeance wrapper. The art by Guedes is exactly right for Wolverine in general, but this story specifically. There were many times I felt as if the images were alive and moving. This has easily become one of my favorite titles right now and I look forward to seeing how Wolverine deals with this and what Jason Aaron has up next for him.