Review: ‘Weapon X-Men’ #1 Is At Odds With Itself

Give Weapon X-Men #1 credit: that is exactly what it says on the tin. This is indeed a comic featuring a team of X-Men, composed of alternate reality versions of Wolverine (aka Weapon X). Unfortunately, there’s also not much more to the comic than what it says on the tin. 

Picking up where the Original X-Men one-shot from last year left off, an alternate reality Phoenix has assembled a team of Wolverines to help her battle an alternate reality Onslaught who is a fusion between a different Phoenix and Magneto (in the same way that the “main” Onslaught was a fusion of Professor X and Magneto).

The plot, from there, is pretty straightforward: Phoenix drops the Wolverines (sorry, Weapons X) into an alternate reality, there’s some “slice of life” moments to establish the “schtick” of the alternate world, and the Weapon X-Men end up fighting Onslaught (it’s hardly a spoiler to say they don’t defeat the villain of the story here in part 1). 

In many ways, it’s reminiscent of Judd Winick’s Exiles series from the early 00s, which featured a team comprised of alt reality riffs on familiar characters getting dropped into different worlds (there was even an “all Wolverines” story at one point during the book’s run). The key to the stories being told there as well as in Weapon X-Men #1 is the interaction between the characters and the ways readers’ knowledge of their “prime” counterparts informs those interactions. Yet that intra-team interplay here is one of the issue’s biggest problems. 

Writer Christos Gage‘s team of Wolverines is made up of largely familiar existing alternate versions of Wolverine, or familiar alternate reality riffs. They’re led by the “Age of Apocalypse” Wolverine, who is the (relatively) steady hand on the wheel. There’s a Zombie Wolverine. Old Man Logan is there, a tortured soul struggling with his violent past (aka the Wolverine on this team of Wolverines). The Wolverine of Earth-X, aka Potbellied Floppy Hair Wolverine, is there. The group is rounded out by Jane Howlett, an Edwardian era Lady Wolverine.

To Gage’s credit, he writes an in-universe explanation for Phoenix assembling a team of Wolverines instead of just a team of X-Men (of course the real reason is, as far as Marvel is concerned, more Wolverines = more money): because Phoenix knows that above all, Wolverine will do what needs to be done, even if that means killing her should Onslaught take control (whether the fact that, in the original “Dark Phoenix Saga”, Wolverine pointedly failed to kill Phoenix when she begged him to is meant to be a narrative setup or just Gage forgetting a detail of that story remains to be seen).

The problem with all this is that the way Gage writes the team interplay is tonally dissonant. On the one hand, the stakes of the story are well-established, and they’re nothing less than the complete subjugation of all realities under Onslaught’s control. The Age of Apocalypse Wolverine and Old Man Logan fit that tone: the former seems to grasp the full extent of the situation, having lived through the near-destruction of his world, while the latter is suffering under the weight of his own trauma, which is in keeping with the overall vibe of their mission.

Yet at the same time, Earth X Wolverine and Zombie Wolverine are played for laughs: other characters point out how out-of-shape Earth X Wolverine is, while Zombie Wolverine prattles on like Deadpool, cracking jokes about the “prejudice” being shown towards zombies by the other characters. Every story — even the darkest or most dire — needs a dose of levity, and you can hardly fault a comic built on the premise of “the X-Men, but they’re all Wolverines” for having a little cheekiness. But the two extremes — the attempt to sell the stakes as a Big Deal while also cracking fat jokes about the sadsack Wolverine on the team — undercut each other. Weapon X-Men #1 is trying to have its cake and eat it, too, and it simply doesn’t work.

Gage’s story and characterization isn’t helped by the art, which is mostly workmanlike and lifeless. Yildiray Çinar is not incapable of turning in engaging, stylistic images, but his work here is very by-the-numbers. Lots of mid-range shots and standard layouts; it’s clear and easy-to-follow in terms of storytelling, but is also largely lifeless, lacking verve (the occasional homage to the cover of Captain America Annual #8 aside).

Given what Çinar has done elsewhere — and similar artistic situations across the X-line of late — it’s not hard to imagine he’s working under an especially tight deadline, and it may be cutting into the finished product.

Yet, for all that, the art is hardly the biggest problem in Weapon X-Men #1. While Gage does his best to justify the conceit at the heart of the series, his attempts to do so come into conflict with what is, ultimately, an inherently silly premise. The end result is a comic that doesn’t know if it’s meant to be deadly serious or goofy fun. In trying to please both masters, it ends up pleasing none.