Hellverine #3

History

The ongoing series of which this issue is part was announced in August 2024, with Percy — who co-created the Hellverine concept during the 2023 'Ghost Rider/Wolverine: Weapons of Vengeance' crossover — returning as writer alongside artist Raffaele Ienco, with the launch set for December 2024. Percy has described the character's momentum as comparable to Cosmic Ghost Rider's breakout trajectory, crediting fan and retailer enthusiasm — including a Marvel Legends action figure — with escalating the property from a one-shot concept to a mini-series and then to the ongoing. Issue #3 was edited by Mark Basso under editor-in-chief C. B. Cebulski, with colors by Bryan Valenza and letters by Travis Lanham; variant covers were produced by David Mack and Dave Wachter, with the standard cover by Kendrick 'Kunkka' Lim.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Released February 26, 2025; cover-dated May 2025; 32 pages, rated Parental Advisory (T+); part of the X-Men: From the Ashes publishing initiative.
• Story title is 'The Devil's Orphan' — the third chapter of the ongoing series Hellverine (Vol. 2), later collected in the trade paperback Hellverine Vol. 1: Lost Highways (August 2025), which collects issues #1–5.
• First appearances of Haru (village leader of Jasmine Falls, Japan) and Botan (Haru's son), both new characters introduced to the Marvel Universe in this issue.
• First appearance of Itsu in the role of 'Mother' — Akihiro's long-dead mother resurrected and demonically possessed by Mephisto, forcing Hellverine to confront and put her down.
• Dr. Strange reveals the series' central macro-plot: Mephisto has been converting locations tied to Akihiro's personal tragedies into supernatural corruption sites that turn nearby mutants into killers, deliberately fueling anti-mutant sentiment.
• Dr. Strange introduces the Book of Lamentation — a new in-universe magical artifact — and gives it to Akihiro to help decipher Bagra-ghul's ciphers before departing the series.
• Creative team: writer Benjamin Percy; artist Raffaele Ienco; colorist Bryan Valenza; letterer Travis Lanham; editor Mark Basso; cover by Kendrick 'Kunkka' Lim; variants by David Mack and Dave Wachter.
• The issue's Japan setting revisits the continuity established in Wolverine #40 (2006), in which Itsu was first shown murdered while pregnant with Akihiro — Percy explicitly builds on that decades-old story beat.

Full credits

Variants (1)