Wolverine: Weapon X Review (Marvel Premiere Classic)

Wolverine: Weapon X

Writer & Artist: Barry Windsor-Smith

Collects Marvel Comics Presents #72-84; originally published 1991.

Hoo, boy... And I thought Brian Michael Bendis wrote some dialogue that was hard to follow. He's got nothing on Barry Windsor-Smith's running conversations in this book. I'll admit, I was a little put off by it at first, but stick with it, because this is one of the best Wolverine stories you will ever read. The basic plot of this story is Logan being abducted and turned into "Wolverine" by the Weapon X program. But this book should really be looked at as three distinct acts, each with a very different voice and focus, that create a very unique reading experience.

First off, we've got Logan being abducted and experimented on by the Weapon X program. The focus here is really Wolverine and his hazy, pain-filled, drug-influenced perceptions and recollections of the experimentations on him. He spends most of his time lying on a table or in a vat of some sort of liquid, wires and tubes coming in and out of his body all over the place, while faceless voices, somewhere above him, carry on conversations about him as if he's a car being worked on in the shop. (Page 58 is a really good example of this.) This is why I said not to worry too much about following the conversations... The details of what the Professor and Cornelius and the rest of them are saying isn't really overly important. You just need to know they're operating on Wolverine as if he's an object, instead of a man.

The second segment of this story is, what can probably best be described as, a horror story. (Page 58 is also where it really shifts gears into this second act.) Now, our focus is on the Professor, Cornelius, and Hines as Wolverine gets loose, hunts them down, destroying everything and killing everyone in the process. Think the movie Alien, where Wolverine is the alien, and Canada is outer space. Again, Wolverine isn't a person here. He's just a ruthless, mindless animal who only wants to hurt those who've hurt him. (Although I'm not sure "revenge" is necessarily an animalistic trait... but either way, he's not a reasoning, logical individual here.) There's also a cool twist where it's implied that someone higher up than those who worked on Wolverine is now controlling him, and is ordering him to wipe out all traces of anyone or anything involved in the creation of him as a weapon.

And, finally, for the final act, Wolverine becomes a man again. A very angry, severely disturbed man. But a thinking, reasoning human being nonetheless. He makes his escape, and we see that our favorite "hero," even when he has his sense and mental faculties back, isn't above some good old fashioned revenge. (And with good reason... I certainly can't fault him for it.) Which makes the case that Wolverine really isn't all that heroic, and when we get right down to it, is probably why we all love the character so much.

Alright, now we get to my tiny, little, almost insignificant critiques... I really did have to force myself to get through the first 20 or so pages of this story, simply because of the aforementioned dialogue issues. If I hadn't been determined to write this review, I probably would have stopped reading it without ever realizing why Windsor-Smith was writing it like that. I'm not exactly sure how this could've been made clearer, but I'd be willing to guess this story's lost more than a few readers because of it. Which is really a shame. Push through it. It's worth it.

Also, why does the Weapon X facility look like a third-rate meth lab? (I guess I'm really not sure how much difference that is than a first-rate meth lab, but I think you get my drift.) It does lend itself to a real Frankenstein-ian feel, which is kind of cool, but I have a hard time buying that a project of this magnitude would take place in a university science lab surrounded by barbed wire. Like Wolverine isn't going to break out of that place...

Oh, and Wolverine's hair was just a mite ridiculous. I mean, really... I know it grows fast, but he looks like lion crossed with Martin Van Buren crossed with Chief Standing Bear.

And, finally, while this is in no way a knock against this particular book, it is a pretty big slam against Marvel editorial. We have here, on page 105-109, the greatest reason why Wolverine should absolutely not have "bone claws." Page 105 is really where the third act starts up, and Wolverine's humanity resurfaces. He wakes up in the aftermath of his "horror story" rampage, surrounded by blood and gore and carnage, having no memory at all of what's just happened. He's looking around, noticing all the dismembered body parts and stab wounds, and wondering just what the hell could've possibly caused this. Then, the horror gradually dawns on him, his claws slowly pop out, and he realizes that he was the savage animal responsible. Come on! How cool is that! You can't have that if he already knows he has claws! AAAAGGGHHH!!!! (That was frustration on my part.) I realize that sequence is part of a simulation, but I don't care. I don't care how Marvel wants to retcon it. It doesn't matter. That was freaking badass. Bad. Ass. It makes him human. It makes him real. And it provides all the justification necessary to explain why Wolverine is the way that he is today. End of story.

(Whew... okay... give me a minute to calm down...)

(All right... I'm good now.)

Okay, on to the extras. We've got a brief introduction by Larry Hama that was written in October 1992, shortly after the story was finished. We've got a cover gallery with all 12 covers, the original hardcover cover, two trade paperback covers, and a pin-up from Windsor-Smith. Then we've got a "flashback sequence" from Wolverine #166 and the cover to #167, both done by Windsor-Smith, detailing Wolverine's escape from the Weapon X facility. This was a pretty cool sequence, but it just left me wanting to read the rest of the story. Still, I can fault Marvel for throwing in extra stuff. It never hurts anything to have a little more.

Final Verdict: 9/10 (only because the opening dialogue sequences threw me off so much)