As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

HELLVERINE vol 2 #2
Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Raffaele Ienco
Colour artist: Bryan Valenza
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Mark Basso

HELLVERINE:

Akihiro talks about Hellverine as if he was a different character, in much the way that Johnny Blaze talks about the Ghost Rider. He generally uses “Hellverine” to refer to himself in Ghost Rider form, and “Bagra-Ghul” to refer to the demon inside him which enables the transformation, but he’s not entirely consistent about it.

Akihiro considers “Hellverine” to be an “uninvited guest” whom he can usually keep under control, but the demon can force his way to the surface if he really wants. The demon allows him to sense evil. When attacked by Evan, who’s simply scared and trying to defend himself, Akihiro recognises him as non-evil and remains in human form to subdue him. Despite the signs of demonic possession in the area and his own inability to control Bagra-Ghul 100% of the time, Akihiro assures Evan that “You can trust me” – it’s a white lie to try and calm the kid down, but it’s certainly not entirely true. (Akihiro repeats several times that Evan can trust him, and it’s clearly not just a throwaway line.) It’s possible that Akihiro is using his regular old mutant pheromone powers to Evan too, since Evan belatedly realises that he’s being rather trusting for no sufficient reason towards the end of the story.

He has an “infernal sense” which allows him to read Evan’s mind, though only by locking eye contact, and possibly only with Evan’s co-operation. His demonic possession also makes him impervious to the cold around the Greenhouse – the story is vague about quite how cold it actually is, since Strange claims it’s “negative 40” but Evan is wandering around without any protection for his face, and there’s apparently wildlife to hunt. (X-Force was similarly incoherent about whether the Greenhouse was in an area that supported life.)

Bagra-Ghul has left one of its sculptures of body parts at the site of Akihiro’s former grave, where he was buried after being cut into piece by Sabretooth. (Let’s assume mutant powers were involved in digging a grave in frozen soil.) Having learned from Dr Strange last issue that they’re some sort of magical code designed to serve Mephisto’s plans, Akihiro reasonably concludes that this one is responsible for the demonic possessions affecting the Greenhouse, and tells Evan to destroy it (correctly recognising that Bagra-Ghul will not co-operate in this). For some reason, one of the local demons then attacks Akihiro anyway – presumably this is either an attempt to defend the sculpture, or an attempt to provoke Akihiro into changing into Hellverine so that he loses control of the situation. Hellverine then tries to kill Evan, but Akihiro’s personality is able to force his way back into control by focussing on feelings of guilt and shame, and then uses Hellverine’s powers to destroy the sculpture.

SUPPORTING CAST:

Evan. A new character, and this is most likely his only appearance, since he gets dragged to hell at the end. Evan is one of a number of mutants who have set up home in X-Force’s former Greenhouse base following the fall of Krakoa. Presumably this community was set up by some of the rescued mutants who were living there at the tail end of X-Force, although Evan can’t have been among them, because he doesn’t recognise Akihiro. None of the ones we see in flashback are established characters either, as far as I can tell.

Evan and his colleague Celine stumbled upon Akihiro’s grave – which had become a burning circular pit with dead animals around it, following his resurrection at the hands of Bagra-Ghul – and Celine was demonically possessed, leading to the whole community falling apart in a matter of days as the demonic influence spread. Evan seems to be the last mutant standing, presumably because he hid. Basically, he’s the guy who lasted this long through being a coward but gets to go out as a hero.

Evan seems to be a regular old civilian, but he does have a reasonably useful power to shoot kinetic energy blasts from his hands. His blasts do significant damage to Bagra-Ghul’s sculptures, which prove surprisingly vulnerable to a conventional physical attack from a bit part character – but maybe he’s more powerful than he looks. (Or maybe luring in a mutant to destroy them is the point…?)

Dr Strange. He’s feeling a bit more motivated than last issue, and he shows up in costume this time (and acting rather more like his usual self). He turns up right at the end to inform us that the “magic of hell” is “after mutantkind”, which is presumably meant to answer Akihiro’s question from earlier in the issue about why Mephisto would be interested in somewhere as remote as the Greenhouse.

FOOTNOTES:

Page 1 panel 3-4: As the footnote says, Sabretooth (and his group of alternate reality counterparts) killed Akihiro and tore him to pieces just outside X-Force’s Greenhouse base in Wolverine vol 7 #41. Bagra-Ghul revived him prior to last year’s Hellverine miniseries.

Page 7 panel 3: Again, the footnote is correct – the Greenhouse was created in X-Force vol 6 #47, during “Fall of X”.

Page 23: Akihiro killed his adoptive mother and her unborn child in a flashback in Wolverine: Origins #26. Dr Strange “threatened to end me if I didn’t learn to control the worst parts of myself” last issue, though that’s not precisely what he said. The actual line was “I believe Mephisto has a plan for you and Bagra-Ghul both. One that’s already in motion. And if you don’t put a stop to it, then that suspicion you live with, the feeling that’s plagued you your entire life, that you don’t belong here, that you shouldn’t exist at all – I’ll make sure it comes true.” So Strange actually told Akihiro to stop Mephisto’s plan, but Akihiro interprets that as a direction to control his demonic side.