By Jim Beard
WOLVERINE #1 looms large this September as the most dangerous member of the X-Men heads straight for hell! Writer Jason Aaron brings you this fiery fable, aided and abetted by artist Renato Guedes.
“We’ll see Logan put through the wringer like never before as he’s literally dragged through hell, forced to not only face all the old enemies he’s killed over the years, but to face some of his own darkest secrets as well,” says Aaron of WOLVERINE #1. “In a way, I guess it’s me wanting to bring some of the flavor of my recent GHOST RIDER work to Wolverine. It’s also an extension of the ideas of faith and hope I’ve been exploring in all my Wolverine work, though just in a very dark way.”
Aaron believes there’s a single element that’s made for the very best Wolverine stories over the years, an element he’s promising to bring to the new book in force:
“Claws,” he explains. “And things that can be stabbed with claws.”
A few past Logan tales come to mind when he ponders Wolverine’s weapon of choice.
“The original [Chris] Claremont/[Frank] Miller limited series, where Logan kills half of the population of Japan,” he notes. “And Steve Skroce’s ‘Blood Debt’ where he kills the other half.”
Readers may catch a glimpse of where Aaron’s mind-set for the new series comes from when he lists a few other Wolverine stories that he claims as favorites.
“‘Not Dead Yet’ by Warren Ellis and Leinil Yu and of course Barry Windsor-Smith’s ‘Weapon X,'” he says. “I also love the stuff that Grant Morrison did with him in NEW X-MEN.”
But, of course, it’s the new WOLVERINE title that occupies his waking hours and his dreams at the moment, and it’s for that which his enthusiasm knows no bounds. Especially one particular aspect of Logan’s latest journey.
“I can’t wait for people to see Renato Guedes’ vision of hell, which I think is just jaw-dropping,” Aaron touts. “And then there’s a little throwdown in issue #4, between demonically-possessed Wolverine and Colossus that promises to be a cornucopia of metal-on-metal ultra-violence.”