For over a century Wolverine has fought for the X-Men’s cause but now amidst a war with the Eternals, Logan may finally pay the price for the bodies that have piled up throughout his superhero career. Whether out of blind berserker rage, selfless necessity, or pure malice, Wolverine has killed possibly more than any other revered Marvel hero. On top of mutantkind’s war against the Eternals during the A.X.E.: Judgment Day crossover event, Wolverine will also be judged for all his past sins by both an ancient celestial and a vengeful villain.
Throughout Wolverine’s stay with the X-Men he has had to undertake several missions to ensure the survival of mutants. Wolverine has committed several atrocities on these missions and with immensely powerful threats on their way to judge him, Logan will have a lot weighed against him. While Wolverine is undoubtedly a hero, his violent history doesn’t put him in a good light. His villainous deeds go as far back as his days as a soldier in Vietnam in Daniel Way and Steve Dillon’s Wolverine Origins. In addition to being a killer for the sinister Weapon Plus program, he abducted a young Frank Simpson and urged the boy’s father to kill himself. Then after years of torturing and programming Frank, Wolverine sends him to kill every inhabitant of a peasant village in Vietnam which effectively completes Frank’s transformation into the supervillain Nuke.
Since then Wolverine’s path would lead him to commit a number of terrible acts including needlessly drowning his son Daken (Uncanny X-Force by Rick Remender and Phil Noto) and killing dozens more of his own children in Jason Aaron and Renato Guedes’s Wolverine. His most recent misdeed, however, ties directly into Wolverine’s conflict during A.X.E.: Judgment Day. In 2020’s X of Swords event tie-in, Wolverine was tasked with journeying into Hell and stealing a Muramasa blade that is capable of cutting through adamantium and rendering healing powers inert. The Beast, the ancient demon lord of the Hand organization, was to gift the sword to his daughter when she marries her fiancé. However, in an effort to retrieve the blade, Wolverine killed the groom on the wedding day. Now seeking vengeance and going by the title of Hellbride, she is set to unleash the forces of Hell on Wolverine and make him pay for all the pain he’s inflicted.
Writer Benjamin Percy spoke with Comicbook.com on his upcoming A.X.E. tie-in with Wolverine #24 and #25. Read the full excerpt below:
“This is a story about judgment. There is the Celestial from above, there is the Hellbride from below. But there is no harsher critic of Logan than Logan himself. But this of course isn’t just about him. The world is being threatened. His battle will not be for his own survival, but others, despite his head and soul being on the chopping block. … I knew she would return, and when I learned more about the Judgment Day event, it seemed like the perfect opportunity. She is, after all, as an ambassador of Hell, doling out her own damning verdicts. A dark mirror to the Celestial.”
This added element of revenge with the Hellbride presents an opportunity for Judgment Day to take place on both an individual, personal level with Wolverine’s story, as well as on a grander, cosmic scale with the Eternals. Considering that Wolverine is one of the most singular personalities within Marvel Comics, this is not surprising, and gives fans something to look forwards to within an already busy crossover event.
With the Hand’s Hellbride and the Celestial Progenitor on the horizon, it’s difficult to see exactly how Logan will defeat his new enemies and come to terms with himself while the X-Men fight for survival against the Eternals. Luckily, fans won’t have to wait too long when Wolverine #24 and #25 release on September 7 and October 12.
