Does anybody else smell burning hair?
While on a mission with Johnny Blaze to investigate a new Weapons Plus program, Wolverine becomes imbued with darkness as the Weapon of Vengeance.
Back when Marvel was doing a whole series of "The End" comics, things set in the distant future and showing the final adventure of various characters, I had an idea for a Ghost Rider story that would have seen him always "on," never having enough time to relax, and so we would never have seen him powered down. As the battle reached its climax, the villain would have had Ghost Rider on the ropes, about to win, when suddenly we learn his identity: the flame on his skull would have split in two, sweeping up off the sides like Wolverine's hair, and for the first time in the story he pops his claws. Logan, the only one left alive who could host the Spirit of Vengeance.
Glad to see that idea lives on.
"Weapons of Vengeance" was a four-part crossover
featuring Wolverine and Ghost Rider, dealing with a demonic threat from their shared past. In Wolverine #36, an anti-mutant government agency bonded that demon to Logan and created Hellverine. This figure is an excuse to reuse the basic Wolvie body with a new circular X belt. The figure includes fists with no claws, and also hands with his claws out. They're not the regular claws, though, but new ones sculpted to look like flame: thicker than metal blades and swirling around. They, and the flames on his head, are cast from translucent plastic and so will light up really nicely from behind.
Since we're seeing Wolverine's bare skull among the flames,
it makes sense that Hasbro remembered to paint it silver, rather than leaving it bone-colored. Initially in the story he wore a Weapon X headset, so they could have sculpted him with that, but "bare skull with flames shooting out of the eyes and cheeks" is way more striking than "robot helmet and teeth underneath it." The skull isn't plain silver, either: there are thin black lines on the top that suggest the way the adamantium on his bones is sometimes drawn like it was applied in plates rather than enrobing him like a chocolate candy.
Hellverine doesn't include a piece of the Blackheart Build-A-Figure, but he's a cool enough Wolverine variation that he could earn a spot in your collection all by himself.
-- 03/01/25
What final story would you make up for any character of your choosing? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
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