Peter David takes over for an extended arc known as “The Gehenna Stone Affair.” Wolverine returns to the United States, going to San Francisco with Jessica Drew to try to stop a cult from reviving an ancient evil demon by reforming the shattered Gehenna Stone.
So, it’s a “quest for pieces of the stone” story. That’s a pretty cool and standard comic book trope, in use for decades, and it continues to work well.
There’s a demon named Hadad. Actually he’s a “God” with followers.
And of course Wolverine makes way to the demon…
…Who Wolverine kicks in the face.
Lots of combat like that. All well done. It’s John Buscema after all.
Of course, it ends with a successful end to the demon plot. The demon, Ba’al, seems to die in the end.
But he’s a demon. He’ll be back in the pages of Blaze, about 15 years later.
This story changes the Wolverine series’ tone.
For most of this series, Logan has been “undercover” in the identity of “Patch,” eschewing the use of this claws and pretending not to be the famous mutant superhero. I haven’t really understood the motivation for this, and apparently Peter David didn’t either because halfway through this story Wolverine is back in costume again.
And he’s done with that Patch nonsense.
He’s goin’ to Disneyworld.
Art is John Buscema, notably with Bill Sienkiewicz as inker.