‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ #11 Review: Booze and Bullets

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… I have not been feeling too well so I missed last week’s review, but I am jumping back to hit ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ this week. Hope you enjoy it.

Wolverine: Weapon X #11 (preview)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Pencils: Ron Garney

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue opens with a new hero taking his first trip out into the city on rounds. He had been training and preparing for years but his night does not go as planned. He is gunned out and killed almost immediately by Deathlok. The cyborg then moves on to his next target.

Meanwhile Logan and Steve Rogers are catching up. Wolverine is taking Cap on a worldwide barhopping tour to celebrate his return to the living and filling Rogers in on what he missed. Logan has tapped his fellow X-Man, Nightcrawler, as the pilot in return for a promise to attend church in the morning.

The cyborg’s next target is a young couple on their first date. Deathlok confronts them and it turns out that their child will be a hero in the future. Once their identities are confirmed, they are executed.

Logan and Steve are on their fifth bar when they stop for a little heart to heart. Cap says he is glad that Logan stayed with the Avengers and Wolverine admits to losing hope when Rogers fell. They also discuss Wolverine’s love life and the state of mutant affairs before a local gets in Logan’s face about his taste in music. A bar brawl naturally starts. But since they had made it to five bars, Kurt won twenty dollars from Scott.

Deathlok fights his way through a horde of police and security in a hospital to reach his next victim but not even an ax to the chest can stop him. He enters the Maternity Ward and kills the next future hero.

Steve and Logan arrive back in New York the next morning and go their separate ways. But Logan is quickly confronted by an unknown woman who calls him by name and tells all about the Deathlok’s killing the heroes of the future. Naturally Wolverine does not believe her. Meanwhile the final low level target is killed and we learn that there are at least eight Deathloks and they now are all focused on killing Captain America.

MY TAKE: I enjoyed this issue quite a bit, especially the interaction between Captain America and Wolverine. While the Deathlok story line definitely has potential, the real meat of the story is the catching up of the two old friends. This is something we really have not seen before, Steve and Logan just sitting around drinking and talking, and I thought it was done very well. I hope these scenes will be followed up on in either the new Avengers’ series or in this title.

The Deathlok story is meant to be the main part of the arc but it felt like it was the lesser focus here. Still the idea is very solid even if it not the most original  plot and the Deathloks look to be a serious threat. The first sequence in particular was amusing and well done if a bit over the top. I enjoyed the single minded and focused pursuit of the cyborgs and the set up definitely pulled me into the story. The surprise reveal or the army of the creatures does a lot to up the stakes for the next issue.

I did have a little bit of an issue on how similar the plot was to Terminator 3 with the list of people to kill. It also did not make much sense to me that they would start with the lesser targets and leave the primes for later. That simply means that the harder heroes to kill have more advanced warning and time to prepare. Killing the children and the inexperienced heroes could have been done at any time. It would have also been nice to see a little bit more about the characters that are killed so it has more of an impact. Of course that might be addressed later in the arc.

In the end, this was a strong issue, mostly due to Cap and Logan interactions, but still has enough of hook to the overall story to keep things interesting. I am not sure on the use of another mysterious female character but I have not seen enough to judge her character yet. But even with the unknown elements, as long as the characterizations and interactions remain strong, the story will still be very good. I am eagerly awaiting the next issue to see where the plot goes from here.

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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Jesse
14 years ago

I thought it was a good issue, and like I’ve said in the open thread…I particularly dislike the buddy relationship between these two. Cap’s cheesecake methods to justice just doesn’t appeal to Logan and vice versa. The way Cap addresses Logan in the opening of NA is a more appropriate tone to their relationship. Moving on to the story, I liked the fact that they are taking out the little issues in order to get ready for the big prize. You have to win the battles before you can win the war, I suppose would be the appropriate analogy. I… Read more »

jrpbsp
14 years ago

You have a point about making sure to kill the lower tier characters but I still don’t agree. If anything they could have had one unit killing them and the rest going after Cap. Hitting him at night and completely unaware has a far better chance of success then going after him during the day and with potential warning,

Jesse
14 years ago

We just don’t know how many different characters they axed off panel…those cyborgs could have been working worldwide for all we know. I’m just interested in the direction of the story and the lasting ramification. Here’s hoping to see some more Maverick action as well

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