Written by Charles Soule
In six months time, a blood covered Mystique is going to walk through a door while crying. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s cut back to the present where a bunch of new Weapon X rejects (from the Weapon X mini) are gathered with a bunch of people with claws (and Mystique, from the Logan Legacy mini), and they all want to go raid the Weapon X facility where Wolverine died. They talk about going in and raiding the place, but then the Wrecking Crew shows up and everyone splits up to go scope the place out and try to find the body. Also, to fight the Wrecking Crew, that also happens.
Everyone pairs off, and they try to bond. X-23 and Daken build on their interesting dynamic, Sabretooth is teamed with a new version of Ogun that is haunted by the spirit of actual Ogun, who just wants Creed dead, and Deathstrike winds up with some Weapon X’er that tries to give her couples therapy for her Logan obsession. Laura is worried about Daken, he doesn’t want her concern, and theirs is the group that finds Logan. Anyway, the Wrecking Crew tears through everyone else while they look at Wolverine’s metal plated corpse, and that’s when we get our big spoiler bad guy appearance! He shows up, maims one of our main characters, then steals Wolverine’s corpse and teleports back away! And they can’t heal!
- I really do like the newly retconned back to semi-normal version of Deathstrike. I have no idea why she got so complicated, and I’m starting to forget that she was ever sentient AI or a Latin girl.
- Sabretooth actually pulls off a brown and tan Wolverine costume pretty well.
- Same goes for X-23 with the blue and gold streaks in her hair. Not sure why, but it works for me.
- I liked Nick Bradshaw on Wolverine and the X-Men, and I still like him here. Pretty much everything but the generic Weapon X’ers looks great.
- Shogun is kinda awesome, and the one and only reason I’ve debated finishing the Weapon X book.
- What’s the point of having a different artist for two of the last pages? I mean, they didn’t change the characters involved (just adding one), so you go from Daken in long sleeves to Daken in short sleeves with a tattoo that had been covered up for the ENTIRE ISSUE, and then when they switch back to Bradshaw, bam, tattoo is covered again.
- If Daken is without a healing factor to end the issue, then how did he pop his claws earlier in the issue without anybody noticing as he bled everywhere?
- Save for Shogun, every Weapon X character looks ridiculous.
- Despite all the action…the book was boring. The plot is dull, and I never really got drawn in.
Still waiting for a story that shows how Daken went from being a Horseman of Death to being Daken again. I mean, shit, they gave us a horrible explanation for his healing factor in Logan’s Legacy, how about WHY IS HE EVEN ALIVE?!
Last time I saw Sabretooth was in Axis where he was a prisoner now that he was a good guy and felt guilty over his past actions. Before that was in the Logan’s Legacy mini where he was still evil and had long hair. When was he given Wolverine’s costume and let out of Avengers Tower to roam free with a bunch of other killers?
The Cornelius control words as a plot is just…dumb. Very dumb. I mean, yes, I’m not at all shocked that X-23 and Sabretooth have programming, but the rest of them? When did they get Daken? When did they get Mystique? Why in the hell would they get Mystique?
The idea of a bunch of characters that have close ties to Wolverine going looking for his body to keep it out of the hands of people who would do bad bad things with it is a good idea for a series. They could have just given us that without forcing everything together. Like, Daken, X, and Creed all make sense. Deathstrike in her new-old look and her obsession, yeah, it also makes sense. Hell, the fact that Logan and Mystique are supposed to have Raze makes her a prime candidate as well. But why over complicate it?
If it’s a battle for the name Wolverine, that’s fine too, and I would totally be interested in reading that series. That’s a much better reason than “An evil doctor gave us mind control triggers that we didn’t even know about until a guy dressed as Ogun kidnapped us and used them and said he’d erase them if we helped him get Wolverine’s corpse”. See? Complicated.
My favorite X-Men villain comes back to end the issue, and he does so in his classic look and not any of the recent reimaginings. For that alone, I am happy. Even if I never saw him as the type to rip someone’s arm off and then pluck out their eye. He’s too civilized for that. Also, he wouldn’t hire the Wrecking Crew. Dude works in mutants.
I’m not sure this book really needs to be weekly. I mean, yes, you can say that about any of the weekly books out there, but the biggest difference between this book and the ones DC is producing is that all of their weekly books are following multiple threads, and have been from the start. This issue continues the boring excuse for a gathering of mind control triggers, then has everyone work together to fight the Wrecking Crew, before the surprise bad guy shows up and reveals he paid them. This book needs more going on if it’s going to really justify taking a chunk out of my wallet every week, because in it’s current format, I don’t see myself lasting more than a month.
Overall: 6/10
