Warning: Contains spoilers for Venom War: Deadpool #2! Wolverine‘s “Berserker Rage” is one of his most terrifying attacks, because it’s not just a particular fighting style or battle maneuver, it’s more like a monstrous transformation that turns Wolverine into a bloodthirsty killer who won’t stop hacking and slashing Until everyone around him is dead. And now, Logan’s son exhibits his own version of Berserker Rage, and it’s even darker than Wolverine’s.
in Venom War: Deadpool #2 by Cullen Bunn and Rob Di Salvo, symbiotes continue their invasion of Earth, possessing corpses to become monstrous creatures known as ‘Zambiotes’. Deadpool and a few of his allies try to protect New York City from the zombie swarm, but after being overwhelmed in the previous issue, they retreat underground to the monster metropolis. There, Deadpool recruits more allies to help defeat the zombies, including Frankenstein, Man-Thing, Morbius and Poison aka. Jimmy Hudson – the son of Wolverine.
Sam’s psyche begins to crumble while fighting the zambiotes. He concludes that there is no difference between the creatures and himself, or any of the other monsters. So, Poison is thrown into a berserker rampage, killing as many zambiotes as he can while also attacking his allies indiscriminately. Sam hated himself for what he had become, and he hated all the other monsters around him just as much. He sees them as nothing more than ‘dead things’, so he tries to put them all for good. And the emotion that drives him is not anger, nor is it true hatred. It’s fear.
Jimmy Hudson’s Berserker Rage is based on fear, not rage, making it much darker
Sam is afraid of being possessed by the zombies, but he is more afraid of continuing to exist
What sparks Poison’s berserker rage is the zambiotes swarming him, as he becomes afraid of being possessed by them. He then states that the only reason they want to possess him is that he is already dead, just like his monster allies. That’s why he starts killing everyone in sight, he corrects the ‘wrong’ of their existence. But this itself is rooted in a deep fear, which began to grow in him since he became ‘poison’: a fear of life.
Jimmy Hudson was possessed by a poison (a multiversal alien creature) in the Venomized storyline, forever changing him into this half-dead monster. That’s why Hudson lived in the monster metropolis, because that’s how he saw himself, as nothing more than a monster. However, while the other monsters came together in self-affirming unity, Hudson carried only disdain for his own existence, because he was too afraid to face the world as the new version of himself. And that fear is what drives his murderous actions in this issue.
The tragic life of Wolverine’s son is building to this moment
Jimmy Hudson is originally from the Ultimate Universe
Jimmy Hudson’s entire life was built up to this moment, because he suffered no shortage of tragedies and identity crises. Originally from the Ultimate Universe, Jimmy didn’t know his father was Wolverine (or that he was a mutant) until his late teenage years. After his entire universe was destroyed after the events of secret warsJimmy is left stranded in a new reality (Earth-616). Then, during Venomized, Jimmy is consumed by an alien monster, effectively ‘killing’ the man he once was, and giving life to the dark shadow of his former self.
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Jimmy Hudson’s life was filled with immense hardship and unfathomable loss. And it seems that fighting legions of undead alien monsters was the trigger that finally made Jimmy snap. He looked at the zombies he was killing and saw only himself. The fear, hatred and rage he felt in that moment of ‘clarity’ was too much for him to take, and the result was WolverineSon exhibits a version of Logan’s Berserker Rage that is even darker (and much more depressing) than the original.
Venom War: Deadpool #2 by Marvel Comics is now available.