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Summary
Weapon X-Men
featured a diverse range of Wolverine characters, each with unique development and backstories.
The storyline was a blend of action, drama, and humor, with Zombie Wolverine adding comedic relief.
Marvel Comics showed that a Wolverine-heavy story can work by telling tales of the character in unexpected ways.
Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Weapon X-Men #1-4!Wolverine is one of the most popular characters in the history of Marvel Comics, which is why so much X-Men content is centered around the Canucklehead. From Wolverine getting his own solo comic series back in the ‘80s, to Logan being featured as the main character of the original live-action X-Men films. However, his popularity quickly soured with fans and critics alike, as many complained of ‘Wolverine fatigue’. But now, with Wolverine’s latest Marvel Comics outing, X-Men has found a way to continue telling Wolverine stories without fear of overusing the character.
Marvel Comics’ limited series Weapon X-Men (by Christos Gage and Yildiray Çinar) has come to an end with the release of its fourth issue, and it proved to be one of the most fun Wolverine stories in recent memory. The typical Wolverine storyline is rife with gruesome violence and utter heartbreak, usually at Logan’s expense. Old Man Logan and the ongoing Sabretooth War are two great examples of that being the case. This one, on the other hand (while still having moments of violence and sadness), was just a good time from start to finish.
The main reason why Weapon X-Men was so entertaining was that it threw Wolverine (multiple Wolverines, actually) into a situation the hero isn’t used to, and watching them traverse this new narrative territory was half the fun.
Weapon X-Men follows a Phoenix-possessed Jean Grey who gathers a team of Wolverines from across the multiverse to track down and defeat an alternate version of the classic X-Men villain, Onslaught. The Wolverines in question were: Weapon X from Age of Apocalypse, Logan from Old Man Logan, Wolverine from Earth-X, Zombie Wolverine from Marvel Zombies, and a newcomer, Jane Howlett. In the end, the Wolverines were successful in stopping Onslaught’s rampage across the multiverse, but like many before it, this story was less about the destination, and all about the journey.
Sorry, But Wolverine Is Actually Cooler Without His Adamantium
While his adamantium skeleton and claws are an iconic aspect of his character, Wolverine is actually much cooler WITHOUT adamantium – and here’s why.
Weapon X-Men Ensured Every Wolverine was Fully Developed
It’s quite impressive that a storyline as cosmic in nature as Weapon X-Men still took the time to develop each Wolverine. Indeed, all the members of this ‘Weapon X-Men’ team (minus Zombie Wolverine) revealed their respective backstories before going through personal journeys that changed each of them in some way, helping them improve themselves.
Weapon X from Age of Apocalypse was the first to undergo this narrative treatment.
As many fans know, this version of Wolverine hails from a universe that’s as close to hell as one can imagine. Humans are killed in droves, mutants tortured, experimented on, and forced to breed, and what’s left of civilization has been forced into hiding. However, as bad as all that is, the worst part about it for Weapon X is that he lost the love of his life: Jean Grey.
While Jean is a main character in the AoA storyline, Weapon X does eventually have to endure her death – something that he’s still raw about in Weapon X-Men. However, after being given the opportunity to travel to a different universe and speak with a Jean Grey variant, Weapon X was helped through his grief by another version of the very person he was grieving.
Wolverine from Earth-X was the next to see major character growth.
This Wolverine is balding, out of shape, and utterly depressed, all while in a loveless relationship with Jean Grey. He stopped being a hero after the Jean Grey of his reality lost her mutant abilities. This left both Logan and Jean in a state of perpetual resentment towards the other. But more than that, Logan was filled with self-loathing, as he didn’t think he was good enough to even call himself ‘Wolverine’.
However, after Earth-X’s Logan saved an entire reality by attacking Onslaught when no one else had the strength to, he fully redeemed himself in his own eyes. Then, once the mission was complete, he realized that he had to let go of the resentment he held for his Jean, as he literally just fought to save the multiverse, and he didn’t want to lose the only person in all the cosmos that he truly, deeply loved.
Then, the book turned its attention toward the newcomer Wolverine, Jane Howlett.
Jane’s story is a bit different from the other Wolverines, as Weapon X-Men gave the others closure to their previously-told storylines, but acted as Jane Howlett’s origin story. In fact, that’s perhaps the main reason Jane is a standout character in this book, as readers learned her origin and only a little bit about her, and then were left wanting more.
Jane Howlett is from Earth-1281 circa 1909, and while her origin had a few key differences from that of James Howlett, the other Wolverines find her story similar enough to greatly empathize with. After her origin was revealed, Jane went on to be an integral part of the Weapon X-Men team before being sent back to her own universe – and that’s what fans want more of. Jane still hasn’t gone through the torture of Weapon X, the redemption of the X-Men, or the heartbreak of watching it all crumble before her eyes like her Wolverine counterparts, which means her story is only just beginning.
Finally, Weapon X-Men closes perhaps Wolverine’s most iconically heartbreaking storyline: Old Man Logan.
Old Man Logan is a storyline that’s close to a great number of Wolverine fans’ hearts, as it tells the utterly crushing story of Logan at his absolute lowest. Tricked by Mysterio into slaughtering his fellow X-Men, and then forced to live in a post-apocalyptic world that eventually also took the family he was able to make despite the horror he endured, this version of Wolverine has arguably had it the worst out of his multiversal variants.
While Wolverine does find redemption in the original Old Man Logan storyline itself, he still had yet to heal from the immense trauma he suffered – until Weapon X-Men. In Weapon X-Men #3, Old Man Logan is offered the chance to save the X-Men he was tricked into killing, but in the following (and final) issue, he turns it down for the sake of the entire multiverse. Logan has finally accepted the reality of his unfathomable loss, and is finally on the road to forgiving himself for what he has done, and forging a new and better future.
Though the arcs for practically all the Wolverines were undoubtedly heavy, Weapon X-Men as a whole was rife with humor, mostly due to the hilarious comic relief that came in the form of Zombie Wolverine.
Zombie Wolverine didn’t have any meaningful development, and he unapologetically either tried to eat any human in his vicinity or spread the zombie virus to every universe he and his team visited (and was even successful on one occasion). While that seems horrific, the tone in which it was portrayed was absolutely hilarious. Not only was Zombie Wolverine himself a comedic breath of fresh air, but every Wolverine’s reaction to him simply existing was hysterical.
Zombie Wolverine made this miniseries far more well-rounded than it would have been in his absence, as he added humor to an otherwise incredibly grim X-Men storyline. Plus, he proved the versatility of Wolverine as a character who could be outrageously funny and also brutally hardcore.
Weapon X-Men was an Excellent Example of How a Wolverine-Heavy Story Can Work
On the surface, it may seem like Weapon X-Men played right into what many fans and critics have been criticizing about Wolverine: there’s too much of him. This is a storyline with five separate versions of the character, after all, so that sentiment would be understandable. However, upon reading it, that’s not the case at all.
Not only is the original Wolverine of Earth-616 nowhere near this storyline, but every Wolverine who was involved was unique. None of these Wolverines could have possibly been considered ‘the same character’, and the book made sure to flesh out each one to make that point more pronounced. This proves that Wolverine stories aren’t overdone, they just need to be done differently.
Admittedly, the same story about Wolverine exploring his past, or going on a solo mission where he’s forced to sacrifice his morals for the greater good can be a bit exhausting, especially if it’s happening to the same version of the character over and over again. However, if Marvel Comics told more stories like Weapon X-Men (in increasingly bizarre and unexpected ways), then fans will soon find that the critics were wrong – you can’t have too much Wolverine.
Weapon X-Men #1-4 by Marvel Comics are available now.
Wolverine
The human mutant Wolverine (a.k.a. Logan) was born James Howlett, blessed with a superhuman healing factor, senses, and physiology. Subjecting himself to experimentation to augment his skeleton and claws with adamantium, Logan is as deadly as he is reckless, impulsive, and short-tempered. Making him the X-Men’s wildest and deadliest member, and one of Marvel Comics’ biggest stars.
“}]] Weapon X-Men proves you cannot have too much Wolverine. Read More