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 #15 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writing), Goran Sudzuka (art), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  Logan finds new and interesting ways of beating himself up after last month’s shocking finale.

The Review:  Once in a while, our standard review format doesn’t quite work, particularly when a book’s positives and negatives are deeply intertwined.  This is one of those times.

Reading this issue, there’s no mistaking the fact that Jason Aaron is a very, very good writer with an excellent handle of his craft.  His script is filled with deep, heavy emotion and he shows a complete mastery of Logan’s unique voice that I can only wish more Marvel writers had in their own backpockets.  This is an emotionally affecting, gut-wrenching book that bleeds depression like an unrelenting funeral doom album.  After last month’s revelation, it’s the aftermath you’d expect and more.  That Aaron isn’t content to dump a major reveal and move on is admirable, as is his willingness to explore the emotional ramifications more than anything else.

But here’s the problem: as good as the script is on a technical level and as evocative and Aaron’s prose is, he goes too far in his depiction of Wolverine’s self-flagellation.  It’s a narrow line to walk and, for me anyway, Aaron ends up  going too over the top, winding up in unintentional comedy country.  Wolverine’s self-imposed penance is, in a word, ridiculous.

Having him jump off a mountain again and again?  Having him drag coffins all around he country?  It’s too much.  Excluding the fact that this all comes dangerously close to depressing for depression’s sake, Logan’s actions wind up being unbelievable.  I mean…the man jumps off a cliff again and again like a certain Warner Brothers coyote.  When tragedy turns into morbid slapstick, it’s clear something has gone terribly wrong.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with depressing comics, but this book is a downer without much of a purpose beyond, well, being a downer, as though Aaron sat down with the sole express purpose of writing the most depressing Wolverine comic of all time.  This also leads to situations that beggar belief.  For instance, in one scene, I found myself particularly incredulous at the idea that an average Joe on the street would be willing to cut another man’s throat without a second thought.  Again, I may be coming off like a broken record here, but it’s just too much.

Wolverine #14 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Renato Guedes (pencils), Jose Wilson Magalhaes (inks), Matthew Wilson (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story:  Logan realizes that it was never his revenge that he was working towards as the Red Right Hand’s plan reaches its gut-wrenching endgame.

What’s Good:  Wow, Jason Aaron nails us with some huge, huge twists this month.  I mean, I suppose it was to be expected that we’d get a big curveball in this final issue, but seriously….just wow.

Right from the get-go, we discover the nasty surprise that the Red Right Hand has in store for Logan and it’s a stunner.  After all the diabolical acts they’ve perpetrated on Logan, it’s such an utterly twisted about-face.  Once again, all I can say is that Jason Aaron is a sick man and that this was the sort of thing that only he could come up with.

The best part of that twist though?  It’s a big twist, yes, but Aaron fools us into thinking that that’s the endgame.  And it’s not.  At all.  In fact, it’s just the appetizer for the megaton hammer of a shocker at the end of the issue.  As most readers have probably suspected, the Red Right Hand have been playing Logan for a fool as he rampaged about their compound.  However, no one could’ve possibly expected this.  Guaranteed, your jaw will hit the floor.  It’s one of those things where, one panel before the reveal, you start to realize what’s going to happen but still can’t quite believe it when it does.  It’s one of those shockers that’s guaranteed to make you pause and stop reading just for a moment.  Holy crap.

The team of Guedes, Magalhaes, and Wilson also do a fine job once again.  While we’ve seen their abilities in depicting action and grotesque stuff in general, they do solid work on subtler things this month, most notably Logan’s emotional reactions and the facial expressions of a couple key members of the Red Right Hand.  Of course, that’s not to say that they don’t get a chance at depicting some good ol’ violence.  Truly, their depictions of dead bodies really don’t hold much back.

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