FINALLY! After being teased with the conclusion of Jason Aaron’s “”Wolverine’s Revenge” arc for a couple of issues, we finally get it in “Wolverine” # 14. I was growing tired of this series. The last few issues seemed to follow the exact same formula. Wolverine fights and defeats a lesser threat that we know has no chance against him and while he’s fighting we get flashbacks that look into the past of a different member of The Red Right Hand and shows how Wolverine ruined their life. Here we get to see what’s behind the proverbial final door. We see that all of the flashbacks we’ve read had little to no importance but the Mongrels that Wolverine killed to get to the end, oh they are of surprisingly significant importance.

Aaron managed to blindside me. At one point I was thinking “What a cheap ending” only to have my head snapped back at a reveal that could seriously effect Logan down the road. Aaron does give us another flashback here and, just like the last one, it’s very well done and actually adds a little more disturbing feel to an already dark story. As a whole, this is a very satisfying conclusion and I particularly liked that this ending had enough gravity that it will carry over into the next issue. It makes the story arc feel important and I really like that. And what an ending! What I’ll call “the flame sequence” (so not to spoil it) was amazing and really packed a punch for me.

I’ve also enjoyed Renato Guedes’ art work. He’s been great at drawing the brutal action sequences you expect from a Wolverine book. But there is a lot of emotion is this issue and he really impressed me with his ability to relay it to the reader. So many panels strongly convey feelings of sorrow, pain, anger, and shock. Guedes’ nails it.

This isn’t a perfect book but it’s pretty close. Aaron really brings things to a startling end and the ramifications are likely to be felt down the road. Guedes delivers some really strong art that seem to capture exactly what Aaron intends. After getting tired of this series, now I feel that my patience paid off. Aaron and Guedes definitely stuck the landing.