It is said that when you are faced with death your life can flash in front of you. You are confronted by all of your triumphs and mistakes. In Daken: Dark Wolverine #15 from Marvel Comics, Daken Akihiro, after getting shot in the head, must face the horrors he has committed in his life. Writer Rob Williams along with artists Riley Rossmo and Michele Bertilorenzi have Daken go on a spiritual journey that will change Daken by the end of the story.
Frantically confused and looking for help, Daken ran to the one person he thought would help him, FBI Agent Donna Kiel. What he found was a bullet to his brain. High on the drug Heat, Daken’s senses and healing ability were overwhelmed which put him into a feverish state. Daken is rushed away in an ambulance where the drug Heat kicks into overdrive and the hallucinations and the images of the afterlife come to plague him. Daken is forced to look at all the people he has murdered and his response puts him onto a new path of clarity with a single goal in mind.
The art of Riley Rossmo takes center stage in this issue. Rossmo’s fever induced images take Daken on his path through his own Hell. Faced with distorted images of his past and present the nightmare world that Daken is dealing with comes to life. The art captures the feeling of confusion while instilling a sense of menace in the surroundings for Daken. It is a distinct contrast from the art of Michele Bertilorenzi.
Bertilorenzi’s art depicts the real world around Daken as he is treated for his gunshot wound. Moon Knight and Donna Kiel are still on the trail of finding the Claws Killer and Bertilorenzi’s art provides the grounded look of reality that moves the story to the next phase.
Rob Williams continues to find new ways to show the wickedness of Daken. With Daken laid out in a hospital bed he is forced to look into himself and what he finds is something more horrific than what the cunning, criminal mastermind shows on the surface. Even with the character confined to a bed we see him develop and find a new focus for his aggression. Daken has figured out his new target and nothing will get in his way.
The decision: Daken: Dark Wolverine #15 is the conclusion of the ‘Moonwalk’ storyline with Daken’s first confrontation with Los Angeles’s vigilante Moon Knight. This issue does a lot to explore the deeper side of Daken and deal with his addiction to the drug Heat and the part of him that is nothing more than a ruthless killer. Williams structures a story that bounces from the feverish nightmare world of Daken’s hallucinations drawn by Rossmo to the reality that surrounds Daken as he is treated for his gunshot wound drawn by Bertilorenzi. The outcome of Daken’s brush with death has the lead character focused with a renewed sense of importance.
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