Hellverine first appeared in the 2023 Wolverine and Ghost Rider crossover, Wolverine/Ghost Rider: Weapons of Vengeance. Wolverine was possessed by a demon called Bagra-Ghul, forcing Ghost Rider to battle the demon/mutant hybrid. Hellverine was too good of an idea to just burn off in a one-off story, and after a miniseries bringing the concept back with Wolverine’s son Daken as the fiery demon, Marvel announced a Hellverine series. Hellverine #1, by Benjamin Percy and Raffaele Ienco, introduces the new status quo for Daken as Hellverine, including how he came back to life.
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Spoilers Ahead!
Bagra-Ghul Chose Daken Because of the Darkness in his Soul
Daken and Wolverine were enemies for years before making peace on the mutant island of Krakoa. After the fall of the island’s mutant government, Daken joined his father and X-Force at the North Pole, where Daken would be one of the first casualties of the Sabretooth War. Daken’s death was quite grisly – Sabretooth and his multiversal Sabretooth army cut him up and used his body parts to leave Wolverine a terrible birthday message – and because Krakoan resurrection was off the table, there was seemingly no hope of resurrection for Wolverine’s son.
Hellverine #1 shows that after Barga-Ghul was removed from Wolverine, the demon looked for a body that was familiar to it and found Daken’s corpse, which had been stitched back and buried. This led to the Hellverine miniseries, where Bagra-Ghul tried to use Daken to get to Wolverine, rejoined Project: Hellfire, and battled the Destroyers, ending with the father and son riding motorcycles into the sunset.
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While Wolverine was possessed by Bagra-Ghul, the demon decided to start to target evildoers for its twisted “lament configurations” and Daken followed suit. Much like Ghost Rider, Daken can sense evildoers, and becomes Hellverine in order to destroy these sinners and create its art. Over the course of the first issue of Hellverine, Daken kills a man who robs convenience stores and murders the clerks, a kidnapper with a semi-trailer full of victims, and a serial killer who dropped his victims into the lake near his home. However, every time he kills he feels like he’s a passenger in his own body. All of this leads him to Doctor Strange, someone he knows can help him.
Doctor Strange tells him that Bagra-Ghul is linked with Daken because of the man’s capacity for violence and death. Daken links with him – in an ability that seems like a twisted version of Ghost Rider’s Penance Stare – and Strange makes a startling discovery: that Bagra-Ghul is still working for Mephisto, empowering him every time he creates his bloody tributes. Daken is an unwitting servant of Mephisto and Strange tells him to go back to the site of his death at the North Pole to learn how to stop Bagra-Ghul and Mephisto’s plan.
Daken’s Struggle As Hellverine Is a Dark New Take on Ghost Rider
The original Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, was possessed by a demon named Zarathros, who Mephisto would bond to humans to mock the Spirits of Vengeance. Mephisto, and later his son Blackheart, always wanted to use Zarathros as a way to spread their hellish dominion to the Earth but were thwarted by the hosts of the Ghost Rider at every turn. Bagra-Ghul’s mission on Earth was ordained by Mephisto – to create monuments to pain and terror. Strange’s warning to Daken shows that Bagra-Ghul’s art has another purpose for Mephisto, one that could spell doom for the Earth.
Daken’s life has always been one of continual pain, both what he dealt out to others and what was done to him. He welcomed Hellverine because it gave him another chance at life, but the bargain is much worse than it seems. Mephisto’s plan is still unknown, but whatever it was terrified Doctor Strange. Daken has often found himself swayed by the darker side of life, but if he can’t defeat Bagra-Ghul, that weakness could cause more destruction than he ever imagined possible.
Hellverine #1 is on sale now.
