Hello, my friends. With so many long-standing franchises crowding up the attention spans of several people, it takes a lot of hard work and effort to see a new intellectual property stand out and carve its name into the world. Not only would this particular character rightfully do so, but it also left a lasting impression on the action genre and our modern consciousness to boot.
Created by Derek Kolstad, the movie would get its theatrical release on October 24, 2014, with him in the writer’s chair while Chad Stahelski and David Leitch shared directing duties, though the Director’s Guild of America ultimately awarded Chad with the lone director’s credit while David would be listed as one of the film’s producers. For this film, our titular character has retired from his legendary profession of a hitman. Before his wife Helen passed away, she gives him a small beagle to help him cope with his loss. However, a chance encounter with Iosef Tarasov leads to the spoiled Russian punk & his goons to break in to his home, beat him up, murder his dog and steal his car (specifically a Mustang). As such, our main man must return to his old ways in order to seek bloody vengeance on the kid before also crossing paths with the youth’s crime boss father Viggo. Made on a budget of at least $20 million, it would ultimately shoot up over $86 million during its theatrical run while being praised by critics. With its wondrous approval by reviewers and audiences, a sequel began to churn as a new franchise began to form. While Chapter 2 was being made, it was announced in December 2016 that Lionsgate Entertainment would team up with Dynamite Entertainment to bring the character into the comic book realm. On that note, let us begin to delve into our featured subject.
Written by Grek Pak, drawn by Giovanni Valletta (Issues 1 and 2) & Matt Gaudio (Issues 3-5), and colored by David Curiel & Inlight Studios, this five-issue mini-series saw a surprisingly scattershot release date. Issue 1 came out in November 2017 and would see 22,311 copies sold. Issue 2 wouldn’t be released until April 2018, where it wound up selling 15,102 books. Issue 3 would then make its way onto store shelves in September and initially sell 13,098 copies, while Issue 4 had a December release and managed to have 11,305 books sold. As for Issue 5, that would ultimately see the light of day in February 2019 and had 10,785 periodicals purchased. As for its trade paperback collection, it came out on June 16, 2020. So, what kind of fierce tale occurred that allowed our main man to become the famed Baba Yaga that he’s become in the underground assassins’ world? Let’s lock and load up to find out.
We open in El Paso, Texas, as a man in red enters Pax’s Diner while telling someone on his phone that he has some key information. Afterwards, another guy comes in and asks for some pie, but the first man interjects by mentioning that he got here first and that he would like a strip steak. The waitress then tells the other guy that he’s free to sit anywhere, yet he can have some quiet time if he chooses the counter. It turns out that he’s John Wick as he simply mentions that he likes it quiet. While he’s sitting at the counter, he overhears the man in red provide an address to an accompanying woman. Specifically, the target location is 1515 Oakland Avenue, Apartment 5B, and it’s been rented out under the name “Baker” before he adds the fact that Pecos is allowed to do whatever he wants there and that they can carry their scheme out tonight. Just as John receives his pie slice, the man in red gets agitated not only towards the waitress but also at Wick. Just as she’s about to finally go prepare his steak, he and his female comrade instead decide to take their leave.
We then cut to thirteen minutes later as John buys some groceries before he arrives at a rundown building that he proceeds to break into, only to find a cat that he decides to feed before heading out. He then arrives at the aforementioned building called “The Suites” before he checks into a hotel located right next door. Despite the clerk offering him a room on the ground floor due to the air conditioning unit not working on the upper levels, Wick still decides to take it since it’ll still give him some preferred quietness. We then flashback to twelve years ago in El Sauzel, Baja, California (located in Mexico), where a young John has swiped some money from a group of men called “The Three Bills.” As they chase after the youthful Wick, the lead man named Buffalo (or Buff) scolds a fellow member named Pecos for letting a young boy swipe several grands from him while he’s trying to run their business. They then spot John athletically leap onto a car before jumping over the fence as someone in shadow suddenly fires a bazooka, causing some major destruction. Despite several surviving citizens grieving over this horrid turn of events, Pecos decides to shoot them down while Wick sees this from afar.
Back in the present, he wakes up and notices a white cat in the nearby apartment along with a certain man. Suddenly, he gets surrounded by the red jacket man, Pecos, and their goons as John proceeds to grab a couch cushion, makes his way across a connecting beam, and smashes through a window where he proceeds to swiftly take the opposing thugs out, including Pecos.
Just as he gets disarmed, the red jacket man soon learns that Wick isn’t here to get him. Instead, he’s after Pecos as he jogs the fiend’s memory of the Mexican-based massacre from a dozen years ago. Pecos compliments him for how much he’s grown up, yet he has his “chance to make things right” as he takes out a hidden handgun, only for John to swipe it from him before shooting him down.
After he takes Pecos’ cell phone and wallet, Wick asks the man named Charon if he’s fine, to which he says that he is. John then gets asked if he’s “in the business,” to which he says that this moment was “personal” as Charon’s cat takes a liking to him. Charon then confronts the wounded men as they tell him that Wick doesn’t have any beef with them, to which Charon himself confirms their claim while also mentioning that he personally does as he proceeds to execute them. He then thanks John for the surprise assist before he recalls two guys that Pecos had just mentioned named Buffalo and Billy, who turned out to be members of the local Continental, and thus, they would’ve had certain advantages over him had he pursued them. Wick then asks about the Continental, to which Charon explains that the El Paso branch was established in 1909 and that because of their “prior association” along with John’s “current helpfulness”, Charon offers to “reintroduce” him to said establishment, though he would be expected to follow the house rules now that he’s an adult. From there, they take their leave as they’re met by a police officer named Douglas as Charon gives him a gold coin before properly introducing him to Wick. Not too far away, the familiar woman named Carmen is observing this while having called up her superior named Maria as she informs her leader about the failed heist, as well as the grim fate of Pecos and his men. After learning his name, Maria tells her comrades that a freelancer must be made aware of them. As such, Issue 1 ends with her saying that she’ll need some help in executing John Wick.
Issue 2 begins with Charon taking John to the El Paso branch of the Continental. As Wick gets guided past the main lobby, Charon says that this hotel serves a certain “kind of clientele” and that its patrons are professionals before he accesses a special door that leads into a special bar/restaurant area. John then spots a pair of rival assassins casually having a drink with each other as Charon tells him that the establishment has a rule in place that prevents “business” from being carried out on hotel grounds. Shortly afterward, they’re met upon by Maria, who joins them at their table and mentions that her men (both living and otherwise) have brought up their encounter with Wick & his skillset to her.
With several present assassins prepping their guns, Charon reminds her that John is here as a guest and gets to be protected by the house rules as long as he follows them. Charon then brings up how it’s against Continental rules for its staff to be attacked before he asks Maria if she still employs Pecos. As she takes out some of her gold coins, she says that he went rogue and operated outside of her organization, even mentioning that the Russians wouldn’t dare to interfere with any Continental employee. Charon accepts her excuse before she thanks John for dealing with it and that she’s open to give him some work. Wick declines her offer as he mentions that he’s a freelancer who’s briefly in town and that taking Pecos out was a “personal matter.” She still allows him to have some gold coins as a gift before asking him if he would like “a different kind of gift”, to which he tells her to mention that Pecos may have survived if anyone asks her. Maria then gives Wick some advice in that life within their business becomes a lot easier if they “give up personal matters” before she takes her leave. Afterwards, John also heads out as he arrives at the abandoned building before getting a text on Pecos’ cell phone from Buffalo asking about his comrade getting shot.
From there, we flashback to twelve years ago in Mexico where he and Billy spot some gun-toting witnesses within their sights before they and Pecos shoot at any still-living beholder. Back in the present, Wicks uses Pecos’ cell phone to falsely inform Buffalo that Billy hired John to shoot him and that he’s potentially next. Soon enough, Billy also gets falsely informed about Buffalo hiring Wick to go after Pecos and that he’s next. Either way, both sides individually agree that they must locate John. As Wick walks along the streets, he notices some assassins spotting him while he ultimately buys a can of cat food, returns to the abandoned building, and feeds the stray cat before heading inside, just as several killers arrive and follow suit.
It turns out that Buffalo and Billy have each sent in their own groups of goons before they come across each other. Buffalo and Billy soon learn that they are being played into distrusting each other before they tell their men to join forces. Just then, John (who’s hiding right above them) drops an empty can of cat food onto one of the thugs, resulting in a firefight breaking out amongst the assassins. Soon enough, Buffalo and Billy drive their way into the building to get their remaining men under control before they begin to open fire and properly draw Wick out of hiding.
During this, the resulting gunfire ignites a gas line, causing the building to catch on fire. Ultimately, they all run out of ammo as Billy tells Dougie to get their bullet bag from the car. At that moment, John emerges and proceeds to beat the remaining thugs up. From there, Issue 2 ends with Billy and Buffalo fleeing from the now-burning building as Wick heads after them.
Issue 3 opens with Buffalo and Billy running for their lives, while the former finds it hard to believe that a single man is unleashing loads of destruction onto them. He then sees the rest of his group as he orders them to get ready by spreading them out when suddenly, he and Billy see a car speeding right towards them as they all open fire on it. It then crashes into their vehicles and winds up in a violent rollout before Buffalo notices that their target isn’t even inside the opposing automobile. Soon enough, John emerges from the smoke and engages the goons. While he does take a few shots, he ultimately manages to shoot down every last thug that got in his way. Billy and Buffalo are then forced into hiding as they try to ask him why he’s gunning for them, to which Wick reminds them of the Mexican village massacre since 53 people wound up losing their lives in said moment. Buffalo says that he and his comrades weren’t responsible for that bloodshed, and that the blame should go to a woman named Calamity.
We then flashback to the El Suarez-based chase as Buffalo explains that he and his men didn’t want to kill him but instead wanted to retrieve the money that was stolen from them. However, Calamity heard the whole commotion and saw the young John running from the devious men before she felt the deadly urge to fire her rocket launcher and cause some destruction. Back in the present, Buffalo says that he and his comrades were just as abhorrent of the act as a result. Unfortunately for them, John still remembers them executing the innocent survivors before he leaps in and takes the remaining henchmen out.
Buffalo and Billy barely manage to escape as the latter gets his arm grazed by a bullet and tells his comrade that they need help. They end up calling Maria, who ultimately decides to assist them by guiding them to a drop-off location. From there, Wick catches up but loses track of them before he notices his gunshot wounds. Afterward, a car pulls up and he soon learns that Maria is requesting to see him. He soon returns to the El Paso-based Continental as several outside assassins are forced to stand down since he’s Maria’s guest.
John then makes his way to the main lounge and meets up with Maria. While she plays some cards, she explains that he’s still unaffiliated within their “industry” and that every major operator has become aware of him & his skills. As such, they’ll all make their own attempts to either acquire his services or rub him out. Fortunately, she runs the country’s biggest operation and can provide him with “the greatest benefits and security” as her employee. As such, she offers him the most lucrative contract ever offered towards “an individual operator” and that she won’t ask him to compromise his code. However, he turns down her offer before taking his leave.
Afterward, she returns to her room, where Billy and Buffalo are hiding out as they use their Markers to indebt themselves to her in their blood. From there, Maria tells them to kill John since she doesn’t want to “disrupt the market” or provide his services to a competitor. Billy and Buffalo tell her that they sacrificed their Markers just to escape from Wick’s wrath, but they don’t know how they can take him out. Despite their discontent, Maria reminds them of their “ace in the hole” and that they’re bound to deliver to her. From there, they arrive at an asylum where they get guided to a cell as Issue 3 ends with the reveal that Calamity is still alive and that her deranged skills will be unleashed onto the world once again.
Issue 4 begins “200 feet below El Paso, Texas” where Calamity is being released after spending over a decade within this institution getting all kinds of treatments. She then says that she needs her belongings, to which the physician reluctantly decides to comply as an orderly acquires a box containing her gear, which includes her Desert Eagle handguns. Fortunately, they don’t have any bullets in them. However, she manages to subdue a worker, acquire his assault rifle and fires away at the staff while also knocking the physician out with a swift kick. Buffalo & Billy ultimately get her to stop before she puts her original clothes back on and tells them to point her “in the right direction”.
As they make their way onto the streets, Buffalo jogs her memory of her blowing up a Mexican village while trying to take out a young John as he tells her that “it didn’t stick”. While Wick extracts the bullets from his side within his hotel room just three miles north of them, Buffalo warns Calamity that the same young boy has grown up into the toughest assassin they’ve ever encountered. She then asks why John would be holding a grudge after swiping some of their money, to which Billy reminds her that she did kill lots of people within the Mexican village as she realizes that Wick cares.
From there, we cut to a quick flashback to the destruction of said village as a young John sees another boy named Fidelio trapped within the rubble and tries to help him, but another explosion prevents him from doing so. Back in the present, Wick gets a knock on his door as he soon discovers that Charon is helping him out by providing him with a medic. John asks Charon why he’s offering this kind of service to him, to which he says that he was saved from “an unscheduled cleaning” and that he’s willingly obliged. He also warns Wick that Buffalo & Billy have gotten “a new asset” and that they’re looking for him. Suddenly, Pecos’ cell phone gets filled with several text messages as they all learn that Calamity has announced her return and is looking for any kind of help in taking John down over at his location of 1517 Oakland Avenue for a hefty payday as several assassins proceed to answer the call. Charon does offer him some discreet transport out of town, but Wick refuses. Charon then tells him that he’s lacking the necessary supplies before offering to get in contact with the right supplier, but John declines as he notices several disguised killers waiting for him while also spotting some of their weapons that he can take.
From there, he begins his assault by executing one assassin in order to acquire his throwing knives. He then uses one of the small blades to take out another killer and acquire his handgun before he shoots two approaching men in order to swipe their assault rifles. With three more assassins opening fire at him, Wick manages to shoot at a nearby baby carriage and hits the contained explosives in order to effectively fend the opposing killers off.
Suddenly, a car comes in as Maria arrives in order to talk to him. Despite praising his skillset, she warns him that Calamity is merely testing him before she properly comes after him. Maria then describes her as “the most ruthlessly effective cleaner” she’s ever encountered and that if he was working for her, then he wouldn’t have any competitors. John simply tells her that he’s not worried before heading out as Maria’s driver named David offers to finish him off with a simple gunshot. Fortunately, Wick is able to execute him with a swift headshot before taking his leave. He then calls up Billy and requests for this final confrontation to end at a quarry outside of town, to which he and Buffalo greatly consider since they could assemble the right equipment in order to properly attack within said area. However, Calamity gets a different idea as she fires her rocket launcher and causes some destruction towards a populated building. From there, Issue 4 ends with her telling John via his cell phone call that they’re going to finish this “right this time”.
Issue 5 opens with the El Sauzel-based flashback intercutting with the present as both have Wick rushing towards some kind of peril where innocent people are in danger. From there, his climactic clash begins as he fires towards Calamity though he ends up shooting the adjacent roof, which causes a piece of it to fall apart, and she winds up misfiring a shot from her rocket launcher. Afterwards, she fires a grapple gun and makes her way towards ground level while John rides off on his motorcycle. He then receives a call from Charon who tells him that this escalating conflict will attract “other parties” and that nobody in the business is up for “this kind of chaos” since the responsible parties will be accordingly disciplined. As such, he recommends for Wick to ride away since he’s already won simply due to his in-progress pursuit of Calamity, Buffalo & Billy. However, John decides to stick around as he and Calamity engage each other in a shootout before she’s able to shoot him off of his motorcycle.
Billy then grapples down and tries to engage him, but Wick manages to disorient him and swipe his gun before holding him up at gunpoint. At that same time, he finds himself in a standoff since Buffalo and Calamity have a few bystanders at their mercy as well. Buffalo then orders John to let Billy go or else Calamity will execute their hostages. Wick tries to talk her out of it, yet Billy tells him that she hasn’t been “right in the head” ever since she was little especially since he and Buffalo found her within a box over in Waco. He even mentions that she was raised “out in the woods, behind a shack” and that he & Buffalo had to keep her in said box for three months after they found her and that even though they did their best to train her, she’s always been “a wild one”.
Despite her background, John tells Calamity that he was informed about her killing anything for the fun of it before tempting her into taking both Buffalo & Billy out. However, she doesn’t fall for it as Wick pistol-whips Billy and throws him over to his comrades before telling Buffalo to let their hostages go. However, he says that promises made to a freelancer mean nothing before he orders him to throw down his gun.
In that moment, John calls up Maria and tells her that he’s reconsidered her job offer. From there, she calls up Buffalo and tells him to stand down just as the police arrive to help the hostages escape. Buffalo argues that they have a deal, to which the officer reminds him that the bargain only has him going after Wick and not the whole city before he and his fellow cops take their leave.
John then emerges and manages to get a few shots onto Billy & Buffalo before the latter holds Calamity up and tells Wick that he’ll hand her over as long as they all lay down their weapons. However, she manages to headbutt Buffalo and flip over to his backside in order to reclaim her gun. Billy then tells her to let his comrade go before John shoots his elbow as it disrupts his aim and causes him to accidentally execute Buffalo with a headshot. Calamity then guns Billy down before Wick gets the drop on her with a pistol-whip. She then notices that he’s hesitating before she attempts to execute him, yet he’s able to deliver the kill-shot first.
Later, John returns to the El Paso-based Continental where Maria meets up with him before they share a drink while she comments about how he’s now a member of her team. He then tells her that he’s aware that she hired Buffalo and Billy into going after him, to which she tells him that he saw it coming and that both helped each other by the end of it. She then says that he initially came here in order to get the Bills but wound up within an organization. Maria then adds the fact that unlike Calamity and the three Bills, he requires some “structure”, “rules” and “order” so that he can properly do what he’s “made to do”. And so, the mini-series ends with Wick getting prepped with a new suit & some weapons before he infiltrates a seedy operation and executes its goons.
Overall, this five-part prequel tale served as an interesting venture into how our favorite hitman acquired his initial status. With it mainly taking place in El Paso and not the greater New York City area like in the films, this essentially sees how he wound up within the main underground assassins’ system that inhabits this world. While the description for this mini-series mentions that our main character was recently released from jail at the start of this venture, that particular detail isn’t really made clear since the flashbacks mainly show how a child-sized Wick is connected with our main antagonists. Maybe the fact that he’s in El Paso for this story could possibly mention how he served his time within a jail in the greater area, but I didn’t discover said fact. Also, for something that’s supposed to be a prequel to the mainline movie series, it doesn’t really delve into any kind of development of his soon-to-be famed assassin skills. Thanks to the two bullets that were shot into his side, it does hint at the near-inhuman levels of durability that were developing and would ultimately help him throughout his film saga. In terms of other things that worked within this mini-series, the establishment of John’s professional relationship with Charon was nicely presented since that led to him being introduced to the first of several Continental Hotels that he and every other assassin can call as their neutral resting spot. Charon makes his presence felt at the proper moments and proves to be a helpful figure to Wick, while the story itself serves as a neat rise of both him and the skillful hitman moves that would help in making him an imposing figure for the opposing assassins to come. After all, the Three Bills (mainly Buffalo & Billy) would begin to realize how much of a slaying force our main man is once all of their henchmen get taken out, which would force them into bringing Calamity onto their team. Because Pecos gets taken out fairly early, he doesn’t get much of a chance to make some kind of presence. While Billy does get to live up to the climax, he doesn’t stand out too much when compared to Buffalo who has the feel of a commanding order amongst the Three Bills. In terms of Calamity, she’s something of a loose cannon who makes an initial impression early on in the flashback before she proves to be a lethal killer and becomes prominent once her services are needed. So while Buffalo had more of a physical presence due to him being out in the field throughout the majority of the narrative, Calamity’s fierce weapons skills allowed her to be the more deadly figure once the climax rolls around. To wrap things up in terms of characters, there’s Maria. When we first see her, it seems like she wants John rubbed out. Once she actually meets him however, her true intentions start to become clearer as she wants him to become a part of this underground assassins’ world as a part of her team. As Wick and the readers would ultimately find out, she had a hidden plan to get him onto her team and her protection program by hiring the key men from his past into possibly taking him out. Maybe something could’ve been done with her need to keep up appearances while also keeping to her true intention of making sure that John gets all of the assassins’ benefits that she can provide. Ultimately, she serves her prequel function nicely and serves as a good building block towards Wick’s initial development. Pacing felt good throughout as the order of events were presented very coherently without anything remotely jarring. From the flashbacks that slowly reveal new and important details to the events of the present-day moments, it delivers the kind of narratively respective care one would expect from this well-oiled franchise. Finally, there’s the artwork. It can get scratchy at times, especially when it comes to people’s faces from a certain distance. Fortunately, it has a good amount of a professional touch to have the action scenes have some good energy, has the right amount of color balances to make each scene move the story forward and it absolutely allows its readers to make out what’s going on. In the end, there’s some aforementioned details that I wish were brought to the forefront in order to make this a slightly tighter experience. For what’s present though, it’ll give series fans an enjoyable romp with some good characters, thrilling action and a foundational sense of world-building. If you’re old enough and the franchise peaks your interest, then give this mini-series a read and decide for yourself if it’s worth taking aim at.
John Wick (created by Derek Kolstad) is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. & Summit Entertainment.
