Vengeance of the State
Wolverine battles against Tiger Shark in Heroes & Villains an Acts of Vengeance tie-in written by Archie Goodwin and pencilled by John Byrne.
While a lot of Acts of Vengeance tie-ins are readable as stand-alone stories, this one ties in quite heavily with stories from Wolverine involving Terra Verde's dictator Felix Caridad and his henchman Geist attempting to create a patriotic hero for the country using magic cocaine. They've kidnapped Wolverine's old sparring partner Roughouse and Wolverine feels obliged to free him from his captors. Meanwhile, the Acts of Vengeance are underway and Kingpin has sent Tiger Shark to Terra Verde to assassinate a hero called La Bandera. Wolverine gets in the middle.
While the Acts of Vengeance elements of the story aren't very central, the story itself is fine and having read the 18 previous issues of Wolverine a lot of the things seem less insane (magic cocaine...seriously). The real draw to this for me has got to be Tiger Shark. Tiger Shark is just a fun villain, treading the line between unstoppable tank and incompetent failure. Here, he is more the former than the latter and we get a fight between him and Wolverine which ends on the cliffhanger of Tiger Shark attempting to drown Wolverine.
In terms of negatives, I must admit - despite the Acts of Vengeance label - this is definitely more of a Wolverine story than an Acts of Vengeance story. In fact, if not for a short scene featuring the Kingpin explaining he sent Tiger Shark to kill La Bandera as one of the Acts of Vengeance, there's nothing really that suggests this is an Acts of Vengeance story. And what confuses me more is why the Kingpin would send Tiger Shark after La Bandera - a superhero we have never seen before and will never see again - when there are bigger fish to fry with the Cabal's Acts of Vengeance.
But, honestly, there's nothing really wrong with this issue, it's a perfectly acceptable read, the criticisms really only stem from it's some what inaccessibility to a new reader or a reader who's just here for Acts of Vengeance. But other than that, this is an ok Wolverine story with a good villain in Tiger Shark and a rather enticing match-up with Wolverine battling Tiger Shark. Even as a part of Acts of Vengeance this is still enjoyable if you can live with a few loose story strands you probably won't follow.