At the end of 1990, Greg Capullo took over the artistic direction of quasar with writer Mark Gruenwald and soon became a fan favorite, including designing a brand new costume for Quasar that was so good it has remained his costume ever since (a rarity in costume redesigns. Artists love to go back to the original look for most characters). Capullo then moved on to X-Force with writer Fabian Nicieza in late 1992, and now that he was drawing an “X-book” (just in time for a major X-Men crossover, The X-Cutioner’s Song), Capullo became a true superstar artist. In 1993, he left Marvel to join fellow star Todd McFarlane as the artist of SpawnNow, after more than three decades of absence, Capullo is back at Marvel with Wolverine – Revenge of the Fallena new miniseries by Capullo and writer Jonathan Hickman, inker Tim Townsend and colorist FCO Plascencia (who previously worked on Capullo’s Batman work) and letterer Cory Petit.
The series is an epic event filled with major guest stars (both heroes and villains) that tells an action-packed story with gripping scenes that draw on Capullo’s skills as one of the most dynamic artists in the comic book industry today.
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The story takes place in an alternate Marvel continuity where Magneto’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is still a worldwide threat, but Magneto’s Asteroid M was somehow destroyed and fell to Earth sometime before the start of this issue. If you’ve seen Armageddon or Deep impactcan you imagine the impact an object like Asteroid M would have on the world if it fell to Earth and, well, you know, caused a pretty deep impact. The asteroid landed in Canada and wiped out most of North America, but since it also released an EMP pulse that devastated the entire globe, there is now no functioning power on the planet, and the billions who survived the asteroid’s initial destruction are in danger of dying themselves soon unless someone figures out a way to power the globe.
As it turns out, a power base somehow exists on the planet, a Russian base run by the mastermind of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and SHIELD must secure that base and use its special “cold fusion” energy to power the rest of the world (cleverly, the base is located near the Tunguska River, the site where an asteroid hit the planet in 1908 (well, technically it exploded before it hit the ground) and caused an explosion between 3 and 50 megatons (the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in WWII were 21 megatons). Wolverine was on vacation in the Savage Land at the time Asteroid M hit the ground, so he survived the explosion and now teams up with Captain America, Winter Soldier and Nick Fury and some of his top agents (who were all on a mission far from North America, piloting the last three helicarriers of the SHIELD fleet), to secure the station.
However, the station is guarded by Deadpool (one controversial aspect of this comic is that Deadpool is very much a supervillain in this story. He does some really bad things), Omega Red and Sabretooth, as well as a surprise mutant who has allied himself with Russia against the “West” in the fight for this new energy source. After a series of shocking deaths, Wolverine is seemingly killed, but he survives and plans to… guess what?
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How does Jonathan Hickman’s story highlight Capullo’s abilities as an artist?
As you can see from the preview pages above, the story begins with Wolverine on vacation in the Savage Land, which gives Capullo the opportunity to draw some cool scenes involving a dinosaur fight. Note that Wolverine: Revenge is part of Marvel’s new “Red Band” comics program, which includes alternate versions of the comic with bloodier and more gruesome versions of the fights in the comic (and since the fights in the comic are already pretty bloody, that’s saying something).
I once asked a popular comic artist (who shall remain nameless) why he gave up on a popular title. He felt that the comic had too much talking and that he really wanted to “draw cool stuff.” Wolverine – Revenge of the FallenJonathan Hickman has definitely built this storyline around scenes where Capullo can show off HOW good HE is at drawing cool stuff, while also working with Tim Townsend (who some of the greatest comic artists have turned to for the past THIRTY YEARS to make their work shine) and FCO Plascencia (who, in turn, is good at making Capullo’s art shine), both of whom do a great job of making Capullo’s pencil drawings stand out.
There’s the bit above where Wolverine fights a dinosaur, an impressive full-page shot that sees Wolverine, Captain America, and Winter Soldier in action, and then there’s the comic’s shockingly brutal ending, which includes an explosive premise that forces Capullo to do some crazy stuff, but he’s so good at this stuff. He’s so good at making the action seem larger than life, practically jumping off the page.
There is a lot at stake in Hickman’s story, but even though there is a lot at stake, the central idea is essentially no different from what happened at the end of the iconic X-Men #132, where Wolverine tells us that the jerks did THEIR best and now it’s HIS turn, and I can’t wait to see what details his turn entails in the rest of this miniseries.
Source: Marvel
