This week, a great series came to an end. Not in a cancelled sense of the word by any means. The series is simply being replaced with a similar title. If you can’t guess, I’m talking about Wolverine: Weapon X. Coming out of absolutely nowhere, Jason Aaron got his first Wolverine ongoing title and created some of the best Wolverine stories on the market during it’s year and some odd months. It’s no surprise to anyone that he was given the keys to the relaunched ongoing title now that Wolverine: Origins is over.
Of course, this isn’t Aaron’s first run around with Wolverine. No, he had two good arcs before this book. But the difference between Weapon X and those stories, as well as any other Wolverine book out there, is that Weapon X had one key element that none of the other books managed to appropriately incorporate. What was that factor? Follow me after the cut as Multiversity delivers it’s second requiem to a great series (as well as look gleefully into the future).
When Wolverine: Weapon X originally came out, it was at the same time that a Wolverine on-going existed as well as Origins and various minis – not to mention all the teams he was on. Despite the team behind the book (famous for their work on Ghost Rider), there was no real reason to follow this book over any of the other ones. Origins was the “main” story, Wolverine turned into Dark Wolverine (aka Daken’s book), and the mini’s … well, you followed which ones you want. On a sheer lark, I decided to take a look at Weapon X because I’m a sucker for first issues, and what came was my favorite Wolverine story, a new favorite writer, and the only Wolverine book worth buying.
Of course, Aaron was an accomplished writer at the time. His Ghost Rider run is fantastic as I’m told and made people want to read a Ghost Rider book. He also has the critically acclaimed and Multiversity adored Scalped, which is still going (and you should read it). On top of that, he had written Wolverine twice before that: The Death Of Wolverine and Get Mystique. But those books lacked a certain element that Aaron brought into Weapon X, and it’s what has propelled this book above and beyond: he gave Wolverine a heart.
Wolverine is a character that has been boiled down to essence by many of his writers: he’s on every team ever, he’s a grump, and he doesn’t mind killing. Not many people take the time to really explore Wolverine’s emotional spectrum though. His two main (non-solo) books are Uncanny X-Men and the Avengers, and both Bendis and Fraction certainly don’t work on character building. Meanwhile, over in Wolverine: Origins, Daniel Way was attempting to balance the Romulus storyline in an epic 50-issue series that at man times felt like nostalgia porn (based on all the characters he brought back (CYBER!)) and at other times just felt like… well, whatever. So to have Jason Aaron come in out of nowhere and really breath life into the character was a welcome change of pace.
It actually started in 73 and 74, where Aaron told a two part story. The first half featured a panel per day in the life of Wolverine, and the second featured a heart to heart chat between Spidey and Wolvie. Since then, Aaron has established a lot of ground on Wolverine’s relationships with his supporting cast, including giving him a new girlfriend and then spending an entire issue dealing with Wolverine’s exes. He also showed us how Wolverine has to attempt to balance his super hero life with his personal life, and the dangers that lie within. Not only that, but after Steve Rogers came back, he and Wolverine got an issue where the two went out drinking and talking about old times with Nightcrawler as a designated driver. This was the entire premise of the issue, and under the hands of any other writer I feel it would have just come out hokey. But Aaron, with all the wisdom that beard of his can hold, wrote a perfect one-shot story of how the two characters relate to each other after quite literally decades of friendship.
Aaron’s infusing of an emotional core was no more apparent in the final issue of the book, though. Nightcrawler passed away in the events of Second Coming, and with his final slot Aaron addressed the relationship between the two characters. Wolverine has very few true friends, and his relationship with Nightcrawler has always been an interesting one that many different writers have tackled. Aaron’s features Nightcrawler leaving a task for Wolverine post-mortem and having us watch Wolverine perform the task while reflecting on his friendship. As Wolverine finally reaches the top of the mountain (both figuratively and literally), he is given a particularly moving scene in which he finally is able to reconcile his differences with Kurt and properly grieve his friend. This is something that I’ve been WAITING to happen in the pages of X-Men, but has only been briefly glossed upon by Fraction because a) there’s no time and b) I suppose it’s not an element that Fraction wants to deal with. With Aaron’s title, though, the issue works perfectly as a one-shot, a requiem, and a closing issue.
Of course, there is more to it than just the heart. The first arc, The Adamantium Men, featured an intriguing conspiracy arc, some excellent action sequences, and both the introduction of Wolverine’s new lady and the inclusion of a now powerless Maverick. With Ron Garney at his side, Aaron gave us some fantastic sequential art, and there’s a page in the final issue of the arc that is breathtaking that features Wolverine fighting the “final boss,” so to speak (seen above) – all before giving us a last page kicker. The second major arc found Wolverine mysteriously locked in an asylum with a new villain named Doctor Rot and artist Yanick Paquette and made for one of the most insane and creepy Wolverine stories I’ve ever read. In fact, Doc Rot is a character that I demand seeing more of, because his entire backstory is haunting. Most recently, the arc before issue 16 was Tomorrow Dies Today, featuring a new Deathlok, a crazy/awesome alt-future with a super bearded Wolverine, and Ron Garney once again on the art details. Most of the time I’d scoff my nose at Deathlok as a character, but Aaron found a way to make him intriguing and – believe it or not – heartfelt.
I would say that for those of you tired of the same old Wolverine stories, you need to take a look at Weapon X. I had no idea what to expect at the beginning, but what I got was pretty fantastic. It’s been the best Wolverine stories in the past year, and I’m excited for the future Aaron has in store. To be honest, there are a lot of unresolved storylines. Where is Doctor Rot now? For that matter, where is Wolvie’s new girlfriend Melita and Maverick? Aaron obviously had a lot that he was setting up, but the series was basically tackled on an arc to arc basis in a way that you wouldn’t have to have read previous arcs to keep up. The idea was to make the book accessible per story, and it did that very well. I just hope that all the work Aaron put in to the beginning of his Wolverine story isn’t going to disappear now that Weapon X has ended.
So what’s next on the horizon for Aaron and Wolverine? Well, Aaron is taking Wolverine to Hell and we’re promised a reunion with Sabretooth. What will come from this, I can not be certain. Sabretooth has managed to stay dead for a good long while, and while I’m against resurrections it’ll be interesting to see where Aaron is going with this. So while we say goodbye to one title, I urge you to give your trust in a man that has shown he knows that Wolverine is the best there is at what he does, and what he does can involve more than just vapid storytelling revolving around clever deaths and intrusive retcons.
In the mean time, though, you can be sure to pick up copies of Wolverine: Weapon X in your local comic book shop in three nicely packaged trades or back issue bins. Also keep on the look out for Wolverine: The Road To Hell as well as Wolverine #1 and Astonishing Spider-Man/Wolverine, all by Aaron.
