MRL - Weapon X (1988)

[sonotadream]

Marvel Comics Presents: Weapon X (1988) - #72-84 - art and story by Barry Windsor-Smith

The story of Wolverine in the Weapon X program was first published in the anthology magazine Marvel Comics Presents in 1991.

It starts with Wolverine's narration. He's in a bad place, ruminating about the Apocalipse (as in the end of the world, not the egyptian guy).

He gets kidnapped to be part of some secret experiment that involves injecting him with adamantium. Surprisingly, the guys in charge - the Professor and Dr. Cornelius - weren't aware of his mutant status when they selected Logan as a guinea pig. The Professor then calls whoever is above him to complain about not being informed. He also sends a random lab tech to his death so he can see Logan in action.

The sequence where Logan rediscovers his claws is a nice little bit of body horror. It's followed by several panels of naked Logan in restraints, so that's interesting.

Cornelius and the Professor argue if Logan it's nothing but a mindless, murdering beast or if he has simply reverted to his true self. The Professor believes Cornelius can condition him into the perfect weapon.

They don't get off to a good start, with Logan attacking the Professor and him immediately panicking and wanting Logan dead. Soon, however, they have him facing a pack of hungry wolves and killing them. Sad, when you remember he used to live with a pack of his own. Does a good job of showing the dehumanization in the process.

Which continues when the Professor decides he needs to be able to control Logan like a puppet and the solution Cornelius finds is to hook Logan with a bunch of cables and transmitters and batteries - unwieldy and unflattering. I'm curious to see more of this unsavory corner of the Marvel universe, because in our brief glimpse at the Winter Soldier, he didn't have to put up with this shit.

But the Professor is paranoid about the fact Logan wants to kill him and he has reason to be. His mysterious superior takes control of Logan and sends him after the Professor, massacring everyone in his way. The Professor, having a crisis about the fact that he's disposable, manages to hide with Cornelius and his assistant, Hines.

Cornelius is having his own crisis about the fact the Weapon X program objective is to create an assassin (I guess he missed the fact that experimenting in kidnapped, unconscious people is unethical on its own, even if they turn out to be mutants). He also seems unable to grasp how good Logan's healing factor is, to the point it costs him his life.

The Professor decides to set a trap for Logan, using Hines as bait. It works, sort of. Logan is not interested in her, and his healing factor allows him to survive a fission reactor and he goes on to brutally murder the Professor.

Logan wakes up some time later with little memory of what happened. He has his mind back and, realizing nothing good will come from sticking around, he starts running, chased by something dark.

And then it turns out the entire escape was just a simulation. Cornelius and the Professor watch Logan fight a mountain lion, convinced they now have absolute control over him and Experiment X is a success. Until Logan claws his way through the door and, presumably, through them.

The last pages see Logan stumbling in the wilderness, while in voiceover, Hines shows she's the only one with a moral compass (she's also the only woman in the story…)