Revisiting Wolverine: Weapon X

by Barry Windsor-Smith (Writer/Artist)

A lot of people can surely agree that there are some characters that are all over the place right now. Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, Iron Man, Superman and countless other popular characters are kept in quite a high number of books, being members of teams and being the object of constant team-ups with less popular characters. It’s always due to a bit of marketing, of course, but there are always other factors that comes in with those characters, like movies and other such things.

However, if there is one character that keeps on appearing everywhere, it has to be Wolverine. Being the poster-boy of mutants in countless X-titles, possessing a few titles with his name in it and being in several other teams, James Howlett is perhaps the most overused character in Marvel’s staple. However, a lot of that is due not only to the movies, but also due to his popularity from prior titles, like Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men or Miller and Claremont first Wolverine mini-series.

There’s no doubting that the character can be written very well, that there is a certain appeal to the duality of Wolverine balancing through ferocity and peace. However, not every writers tend to balance things out evenly, which means there are a lot of books available with his name on it, with a few being actually worth the trouble.

Wolverine: Weapon X #1

By Jason Aaron (Writer), Ron Garney (Artist), and Jason Keith (Colorist)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: At first, like any sane person, I really wanted to dismiss Weapon X as something that I need not waste my time reading or reviewing. I mean, at first glance, it seems to have all the trappings of what would pretty much be THE ultimate Marvel cash-in series. In my mind I thought, “It stars Wolverine, launches just weeks before a film starring the character hits theaters, and is subtitled “Weapon X” (which just so happens to be an integral part of the Wolverine movie)…yep…” Then I noticed that the creative team attached to the book is the same team responsible for “Get Mystique!” one of my favorite Wolverine stories of all time. Suddenly, Wolverine: Weapon X became a must read series…

The Story: After getting a tip from Maverick, Wolverine heads off to investigate the latest attempt at resurrecting the Weapon X program. It turns out that a private military contractor recently bought Weapon X files off the black market and is looking to give it’s mercenaries a boost. The investigation into the facility hosting the experiments triggers some old memories of Wolverine’s time as part of the program…

What’s Good: Jason Aaron and Ron Garney waste no time establishing the gritty, violent tone Wolverine: Weapon X will have. Both the visuals and the writing do a fantastic job of tapping into the dark side of Marvel’s main mutant. While it’s definitely too early to tell just which directions the first arc will take, it’s obviously going to be a brutal, bloody affair. And I, for one, could not be more pleased about that.

What’s Not So Good: I guess my biggest complaint is that the debut of Weapon X is very much a textbook example of how a standard first issue should play out. The first threads of a plot are introduced, Wolverine’s character is established, and off he goes with a purpose. The formula works, that’s for sure, but I wish the series would have hit the ground running a bit harder. I mean damn near everyone is already familiar with Wolverine on some level, so why not just get to it? Sure, it’s a blast reading Aaron’s take on Wolverine no matter what the character is doing. And sure, I couldn’t be much happier with Garney’s distinct visual style. But I wish things moved forward a bit more from a plot perspective instead of spending so much time establishing Wolverine as a badass…most people already know that he is.

Conclusion: I really like the first issue of Weapon X, especially on a technical level, I just wish it had a bit more substance. That said, what substance there is has some interesting storytelling potential that, under the control of Jason Aaron, Ron Garney, and Jason Keith, should be in good hands. I look forward to see what happens next.

Grade: B+

-Kyle Posluszny