‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ #5 Review: Fear of Drowning

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… Starting the first of the reviews from this week with ‘Wolverine; Weapon X’.  Hope you enjoy it…

Wolverine: Weapon X #5 cover Wolverine: Weapon X #5
(preview | thread)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Penciler: Ron Garney

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP (previous issue): The issue opens with Wolverine in H.A.M.M.E.R.’s custody; specifically being held by Agent Getrude Jacks. After they talk for a minute, Wolverine promises to finish the job and Jacks lets him go.

Maverick picks him up and tries to discourage him from going after the remaining members of Blackguard’s Strikeforce X. The CEO and other eleven members are on a oil rig in the Pacific waiting for him.

Wolverine makes a stop to see the body of the leader he killed. The men have no specific weaknesses, Logan simply managed to overwhelm his artificial healing factor. He tells North they need to make one more stop.

On the oil rig the alarms sound and the CEO comes running to take a piece of Wolverine for scarring his face. Unfortunately, Logan did not try to sneak on board but came flying a gun ship. He blows up the rig killing or dumping a lot of the soldiers and the CEO.

In the water they face drowning and sharks drawn by the smell of blood. Logan keeps strafing the men as well, making sure their healing factors can not save them. One of the soldiers manages to get on board the helicopter and take out of the rear rotor crashing it into the sea.

They both make it to shore but Logan is the faster to recover and he drowns the other man in the shallows and puts him back out to sea.

Meanwhile the Senate votes to not give Blackguard any contracts and they credit Melita Garner’s article for the change of fortune. Agent Jacks and Maverick infiltrate Blackguard and purge all the files marked as Strikeforce X. She sends North off without her but is soon captured and taken to Osborn.

We briefly see the CEO and three of his troops have survived but are stranded on a deserted island. Wolverine meets with Garner and shows he was behind her information all along. She asks for another story but he says this one is not done yet. He still needs to find whomever stole the Weapon X files in the first place.

The man who sold them, Grecian, is running for his life but is stopped by the man who gave them up and is killed. In the end we see that the informant is David North.

MY TAKE: This was a good, if somewhat surprising, end to the storyline and an overall well-done issue. It was nice to see Wolverine using both his brains and his military contacts to solve a problem rather then just his claws and healing factor. It might have been nice to have the concluding battle with the Strikeforce X team be a bit longer but after the fight scene last comic, this was still very satisfying.

I am not completely sure about the supporting cast. Agent Jacks is the most interesting new addition to me and she is left in a bad place. Melita does not strike me as a good romantic match for Logan and without that, I am not sure of her function. The Blackguard CEO and the rest of his Strikeforce X were good, if somewhat unoriginal, villains and they are obviously being set up to reappear in a later story. Hopefully we get some names for them by then.

Of course, the biggest supporting role goes to Maverick and I am really glad to see him taking a more active role in Marvel. He is a fun character and he works well as a voice of reason here. I think his relationship with Agent Jacks has a great deal of potential as well. I am not sure about the big reveal of him being the thief of the data but hopefully it will be explored more later.

There is not a whole lot of plot but that is to be expected in a concluding issue. Most of the loose ends are tied up nicely and the main villain survives to plague the hero again which is pretty normal. Though considering he is pretty easy to replace, I was a bit surprised that the CEO lived at the end of the issue.

The character moments were plentiful, mostly shown by Logan’s thoughts. I liked some of Wolverine’s internal monologue, especially his admitted fear of the water, but it got too preachy by the end. In truth, I thought the whole thing dragged on too long and I could have done without the speculation on Heaven and Hell. It felt heavy handed when I read it.

In the end this was a solid concluding issue for a strong first arc in the new series. Aaron is doing a great job portraying Wolverine as both a superb fighter and a smart tactician and has a firm grasp of his personality as well. I am eagerly awaiting the next plot line which looks to be something truly original in the Wolverine annals. Considering the quality of these first issues, we should be given a great story.

Thanks for reading my review for Wolverine Files. I will be keeping to this format for the most part but please keep the comments coming and I will see everyone again next time.

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14 years ago

once again i can’t wait to get my own copy of this one..i loved the fact that wolverine used his brains and his connections to beat them, while reading this line: “The men have no specific weaknesses, Logan simply managed to overwhelm his artificial healing factor. He tells North they need to make one more stop.” i was telling myself “please, not the muramasa blade” which would have been the easy way out..

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