Customer Reviews

Wolverine: Weapon X (Marvel Premiere Classic)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First of all, I want to disagree with the reviewer who stated this was not the Wolverine story. He is mixing this book up with a new series of the same title, which by the way, is also excellent. Second, this is a slow-paced story. However, the slow pace intensifies the utter horror of what was done to this character, and the inhuman indifference of the scientists who are experimenting on and torturing a living, feeling,being. This is a book which needs a second and third reading; after each pass, I found additional elements that I hadn't noticed the first time through. This isn't for kids or fans of slam-bam action by one dimensional heroes in colorful spandex. However, if you want a dark, intense read, this book is for you.

Every comic fan needs to have this one. The art is simply breathtaking. But who'd expect anything less from a master like Barry? The storyline is tough and violent. Windsor-Smith digs up Wolvie's past, how he came to be, with all the suffering and pain. After reading this you'll better understand his anger. Anger at the authorities who shaped him and mistrust towards anyone carrying a doctor badge. Buy it!

This is the graphic novel that tells what happened to Logan when he received his adimantium. Mind games... physical changes... training... everything. The artwork is first rate and the writing is even better than the art work. It is one of the few trade paperbacks that are on the same level as DC's Kingdom Come and Dark Knight Returns

Graphic, surreal, disturbing, highly entertaining. These words only begin to describe what an amazing work of art this story is. It's not just another comic story. It's a thinking man's comic book story. Before reading this you must first forget everything you know about reading comics. The narrative and art is just as disjointed and surreal as it is in depth and detailed. It leaves the reader with as many questions as it answers. There are no splash pages, no trendy one liners, there is nothing wasted and nothing can be glanced over. Any attempt to read this masterpiece by Berry Windsor Smith like a normal comic book will leave you confused. It incorporates elements of science fiction, body horror, cyber-punk, and reads like an acid trip at times. It's importance to the character of Wolverine is unmistakable. Writers have spent the past decade elaborating on this story, possibly the most important Wolverine story ever written. Writers like Larry Hamma, Grant Morrison, and others have used THIS story to further the character of Wolverine. Some of those stories were good, some not so good, but NONE have been on par with this visual masterpiece. This is MUST READ for any Wolverine fan.

Okay, first off, Barry Windsor-Smith wrote AND drew this story. That says a lot. Because of this, you really get the sense that this was a carefully planned tale. Each frame has been meticulously contemplated. Not a single space is wasted. You really get a full, complete vision with this book, a solid, stand-alone story where you don't need any issues before or after to get the whole picture. And I like that.

And it's a really entertaining story, too. Much more in-depth than the films as far as Wolverine's brain-washing and training goes.

I only have some slight complaints about this book, neither of which make me regret my decision to buy it. First off, the artwork, while detailed and really cool most of the time, can sometimes be confusing and a little too sketchy. It also hasn't aged as well as some artwork. However, like I said, it's really cool, and the way the story is told through pictures is almost like watching a film.

Secondly, the story isn't overly complicated, but it wasn't as easy to follow as it could have been. I'm still slightly unsure of what exactly happened at the end, but I probably just need to give it a second read.

Bottom line, a really cool book. A tad confusing, and sometimes a little too sci-fi in nature, but definitely worth the money.

"Weapon X" was originally presented as a 13-part story, including a prologue, that was published in 8-page installments in "Marvel Comics Presents" issues #72-84 in 1991-92. This was a Marvel title that presented four 8-page stories in each issue (except for the grand finale), some of which were multiple-part sagas and others that were one-shot deals. So while Barry Windsor-Smith was telling the story of "Weapon X" ("Before Wolverine" the first cover tells us), there is a multi-part story featuring Shanna of the Jungle and various stories involving everyone from Daredevil and Dr. Doom to Red Wolf and Captain America.

The chief attraction of "Weapon X" was that Barry Windsor-Smith was doing the artwork. In fact, Windsor-Smith was doing everything except some of the lettering, which Jim Novak handled. This meant that for the entire run of the story line BWS was doing the cover art in place of the usual rotation amongst the four stories for the cover art. The idea of the story was simply to finally go back and explain how it was that Logan, the mutant whose power was a regenerative ability, ended up with the skeleton laced with adamantum. Originally the idea was that Wolverine was simply born that way, but eventually there was this whole mysterious background that a secret military organization did this to him (keep in mind, we are talking a CANADIAN secret military organization, despite the revisions in the "X2" movie). The mad scientist behind the plot is Dr. Cornelius, who basically sees the opportunity to build the perfect offensive weapon.

The key thing to remember in reading "Weapon X" is that this is not a Wolverine story. For the first part of the narrative Logan is unconscious in the tank, hooked up to all sorts of fun toys while he endures the painful treatment, and then he is a primal killing machine, whose mind has not yet come back from where ever it went to hide during the process. The idea is to let the character cut loose in full berserker mode before disappearing into the wilderness to eventual emerge as the Wolverine who ends up with the X-Men. In the novel "Frankenstein" the creator's sin was not that he brought the creature to life, but rather than Dr. Frankenstein abandoned his creation. Well, in "Weapon X" the sin is the brutal act of creation. Windsor-Smith basically begins with the procedure underway, and Logan's culpability in his own transformation is not a part of the equation.

The result is neither a great story nor great art, even for devotes of Windsor-Smith's illustrative style, but "Weapon X" does fill in a major hole in the Wolverine backstory. Artistically it is reminiscent of Windsor-Smith's style when he was drawing comic books that would often have several pages reaching double figures in the number of frames. It is hard to tell how problematic the eight-page "chapter" format is to the telling of the story, but you get the feeling the story would have been stronger if it was a bit shorter.

This masterpiece, written in 1991, presented the first major attempt to highlight Wolverine's mysterious past. Barry Windsor-Smith is both the writer and artist of Weapon X, and his talents in both areas provide a synthesis rarely found in other comic books. This is not a typical comic book, so don't expect the super-hero stories you may be accustomed to. There are no colorful costumes, famous catchphrases, supermodel-like heroines, or one-on-one duels with full page artwork. What it does contain is a dark, intense, and starkly realistic story of how the man Logan was transformed, brutally and involuntarily, into the superhero Wolverine. The setting is the Weapon X science facility in the backwoods of Canada, and the action picks up quickly after the adamantium bonding process. The story answers the two major questions regarding Wolverine, how he got the adamantium and his amnesia.

OK, if you want to read a synopsis of this book, or other philisophical mumbo-jumbo, scroll on down. But I'm here to give you the skinny - this is an incredible collection, absolutely stunning, and an indespensible part of any Wolverine fan's library. Barry Smith's art is raw and savage, and manages to capture the "cold" feel of Canadian outback and underground secret labs, to say nothing of Weapon X himself. The story is actually pretty decent here too, what there is of it, anyway. This is actually the origin story of Wolvie's adamantium bones, not the character himself, but is a much cooler tale than "Origin" (boy, THAT was a stinker, but anyway...)
bottom line? You can't go wrong with this one: HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

This volume finds Logan down on his luck, drifting around Canada after being ejected from special ops, he's kidnapped by a secret government group. Immediately, the brainwashing and Adamantium bonding begins. A bald, twisted man named Professor is behind it all, though he seems to be taking orders from some invisible backer. Dr. Cornelius and his assistant Miss Hines are reluctant aids to the barbarism.

This tells the story from Logan's kidnapping to his escape. Barry Windsor-Smith both scripts and provides the breathtaking art. It's a shame he doesn't produce comics and graphics more often. The pencil work is unique and the scripting is solid.

By far, this is one of my favorite Wolverine stories and I recommend it for comic book fans and newcomers alike.

This reprints the Wolverine stories from Marvel Comics Presents #72-84.

Before Paul Jenkins gave us Origin: The True Story of Wolverine, Barry Windsor-Smith crafted this story detailing the defining moment of Marvel's most popular mutant. Weapon X details how a nomadic mutant named Logan is kidnapped and experimented upon in order for him to be turned into a living weapon. From the memory alterations, brainwashing, and adamantium grafting; Wolverine is born. What makes Wolverine: Weapon X so good even to this day is the surprising amount of violent and mature content that strikes a chord with X-Men fans new and old. Windsor-Smith's script is action packed, and his artwork is breathtaking indeed (as a previous reviewer already pointed out) as well. Of all the recent Marvel Premiere Classic hardcover graphic novels to hit the market lately, Wolverine: Weapon X is one of the few that is actually deserving of such a treatment, and the story as a whole remains one of the essential X-Men and Wolverine titles in the whole X-Men mythos. All in all, if you're a Wolverine fan new or old, consider this handsome hardcover an absolute must own.