{"id":5605,"date":"2020-09-27T20:37:59","date_gmt":"2020-09-27T19:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5605"},"modified":"2020-11-12T21:07:22","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T21:07:22","slug":"the-incomplete-wolverine-part-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5605","title":{"rendered":"The Incomplete Wolverine, Part 8"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Part 1: Origin to Origin II<\/a><\/em>
Part 2: 1907 to 1914<\/a><\/em>
Part 3: 1914 to 1939<\/a><\/em>
Part 4: World War II<\/a><\/em>
Part 5: The postwar era<\/a><\/em>
Part 6: Team X<\/a><\/em>
Part 7: Post Team X<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, we’ve reached the big one. It’s just one story… but a lot has been nailed on to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Barry Windsor-Smith’s “Weapon X” first came out, I found it vaguely annoying. It’s thirteen parts long, and it doesn’t really answer any of the mysteries about how Logan got his adamantium skeleton. It just depicts what had always been fairly obvious – that he was given it against his will by villains. What it doesn’t do is identify those villains. It personifies the organisation through the characters of the Professor, Cornelius and Hines, but it makes very clear that the Professor answers to somebody else, and never explains who that is. So the big mystery about Wolverine’s adamantium remained unresolved – and on top of that, the main character spends most of the story either comatose or zoned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But read with the knowledge that it doesn’t actually explain anything, it’s much more enjoyable. For our purposes it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s some heavy unreliable-narrator material, especially towards the end of the story. Even so, the general thrust of “Weapon X” has been confirmed in plenty of other stories, so it seems that most of it happened more or less as depicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #72<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 1” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
Early March 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logan’s performance as an agent has been deteriorating due to alcohol abuse and an increasing obsession with the mutant issue (something that broadly tallies with the First X-Men<\/em> miniseries and the Shadow Society<\/em> one-shot, both covered in the previous chapter). Fired from his job, he’s living at the Prophecy, a home for “fallen Christians” – he’s an atheist, but he says he lied about his religion in order to get in. Logan is planning to catch a train to the Yukon, as he said he would at the end of Logan: Shadow Society<\/em>. In the meantime, he’s plagued by dreams of his claws, which at this point in time he doesn’t know about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Logan’s capture takes place between chapters 1 and 2, but it’s shown in flashback in chapter 2. It’s also shown in various forms in Weapon X <\/em>vol 2 #23, Wolverine<\/em> vol 2 #48, X-Men: Origins – Wolverine<\/em> <\/strong>and Weapon X: First Class<\/strong><\/em> #1<\/strong>. As he leaves a bar and gets into his car, Logan is attacked by Weapon X Project agents, who shoot him with a stun gun. He fights back thanks to his healing factor, but he’s eventually subdued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #73<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 2” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
Late March 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, Logan is shaved (his hair grows back quickly) and placed in a tank of nutrients, where he’s given his adamantium skeleton. While our hero spends the issue insensate, he’s experimented on by Professor Thorton, Dr Cornelius and Ms Hines. You’ll recall we saw these three before during the Team X era, though in this story Cornelius and Hines are presented as relatively recent recruits. (In part 1, it’s suggested that Cornelius is a doctor on the run after a series of supposed mercy killings, while Hines is an innocent who simply applied for the job.) There’s something to be said for declaring their Team X appearance to be non-canon – it’s certainly a needless complication – but let’s shrug our shoulders and run with it for now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, the trio discover that Logan has superhuman healing abilities, which comes as news to all of them. The Professor makes his excuses to avoid having to answer awkward questions about this, and the experiment continues without him. The general thrust of “Weapon X” is that although the Professor’s unnamed superior knows about Logan’s powers, everyone on the site has been kept in the dark because they’re all expendable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As you might imagine, the scene where Logan gets his adamantium has been revisited a number of times. There are flashbacks in the very next issue, but also in X-Men: Origins – Wolverine<\/strong><\/em>, and Weapon X: First Class<\/strong><\/em> #1-2<\/strong>. And, unnoticed by any of the other characters, the Micronaut Bug<\/strong> and the alien villain Annihilus<\/strong> briefly pop into the room during a brawl through space-time depicted in the 1997 Bug<\/em><\/strong> one-shot. It’s literally one panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s also this…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WOLVERINE: EXIT WOUNDS<\/a><\/strong>
“Red in Tooth and Claw” by Larry Hama, Scot Eaton & Sean Parsons<\/strong>
June 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the adamantium implantation, the scientists monitor Logan’s thoughts and see him dreaming about Silver Fox’s death. Cornelius is worried that they haven’t got rid of Logan’s most traumatic memories. The Professor is pretty relaxed about that, and figures they’ll come in handy. More of this story later, as it interweaves with several chapters of “Weapon X”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolverine<\/em> vol 3 #54<\/strong> has a flashback which clearly establishes Romulus as the hidden villain behind Weapon X. While Logan is still floating in the tank, the Professor lets Romulus and Sabretooth drop by to gloat. Romulus reminds the Professor of how important Logan is to him, and stresses that Logan must remember nothing of this. This scene doesn’t fit very neatly with “Weapon X”, since the Professor is still phoning up his boss to complain about his lack of information even after Logan gets out of the tank… but you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a flashback in Weapon X: First Class<\/em> #2<\/strong>, Logan wakes up in his cell, and promptly attacks two guards. Once he’s subdued, Cornelius and Hines decide to keep the incident quiet rather than risk punishment for their mistakes – presumably, for not realising that Logan would wake up so quickly. Afterwards, Hines secretly brings Logan some food, and apologises to him – it’s a scene that takes her role as “the nice one” at face value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #74-76<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 3 to 5” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
April and early May 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Logan sleeps off his treatment, the Professor calls his unidentified boss (Romulus) to protest about being kept in the dark about Logan’s mutant powers. When Logan wakes up, still covered in wires, he stares at his hand in confusion, and then pops his claws for the first time, to the surprise of everyone. He promptly kills a hapless lab attendant and smashes through a window to get to Cornelius and the other scientists – but as soon as he tears free of the wires, he collapses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cornelius is having second thoughts, but the Professor convinced him to plough on with training and reconstructing Logan. At the Professor’s insistence, Cornelius creates a device that lets the Professor give him spoken suggestions, but complains that it’s pointless because Logan simply can’t be controlled. Ignoring the warning entirely, the Professor uses the device to demand that Logan recognise him as his master. Instead, Cornelius’ device, which shows images of Logan’s thoughts, shows an image of Logan’s spiked skeleton, crying out “What have you done to me?” Logan stirs again, and is quickly subdued – but an image appears on the screen of the Professor lying dead at Logan’s hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #77<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 6” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
Late May 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A silent, unmoving Logan is placed in a snowy landscape for his first outdoor test. The Project set wolves on him. After a delay, he flies into a berserker rage and kills them all. Logan is “switched off”, falls to the ground, and is brought in by Weapon X soldiers. A version of this scene also appears in the Exit Wounds<\/strong><\/em> story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #78<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 7” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
Early June 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weapon X implant various experimental devices into a conscious Logan – a control device with a three mile radius, and a helmet which is needed to control him over anything more than 150 yards. This is the iconic “Weapon X” look which keeps getting reference – however, the original story goes out of its way to stress that this stuff is basically junk. It’s clunky, it’s awkward, it’s heavy, and at a push it’s maybe proof-of-concept. The thrust of “Weapon X” is that these are banal people who are out of their depth and are ploughing on anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The excruciating procedure is also seen in flashback in a single panel of New X-Men <\/em>vol 1 #130. <\/strong>During it, Logan briefly dies, and has another of his battles with Lazaer in order to return to Earth, as seen in flashback in Wolverine<\/em> vol 3 #58<\/strong> (in a single panel). Once the implants are complete, the Professor experiments with controlling Logan directly, but remains worried that Logan is not truly under control. He tests it by pouring hot coffee over Logan’s face; Logan doesn’t react. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In X-Men: Origins – Wolverine<\/em><\/strong>, there’s a flashback of Logan sitting chained in a cell, and being horrified on seeing his own claws. That story also claims that Logan underwent memory implants<\/em> during Weapon X as well, which might help account for some of the oddities we’re coming to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A flashback in Wolverine<\/em> vol 2 #49<\/strong> shows Logan – now with clunky helmet – standing in the snowy forest looking impassively at a tree, which he hallucinates to be a monster with Silver Fox trapped inside. Weapon X set a bear on him, and he fights it while Thorton and Cornelius discuss his reaction. This sequence also appears in <\/strong>Exit Wounds<\/strong><\/em> and in a flashback in X-Men: Origins – Wolverine<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS vol 1 #79<\/a><\/strong>
“Weapon X, part 8” by Barry Windsor-Smith<\/strong>
Late June 1991<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Logan kills a bear in another test, then passively returns to base with his wranglers. Cornelius is concerned that the helmet and battery packs are cumbersome, and begs for more time to get the design working properly. Exit Wounds<\/strong><\/em> adds a scene in which Logan goes briefly out of control, and has to be subdued by his wranglers. At any rate, the Professor insists that they’re ready to move on, and wants to test Logan against humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where things get awkward. In the original “Weapon X” story, things more from here quite rapidly towards a conclusion – but it’s also suggested that this is part of the mind-games that are being played in the later chapters. However, there are some flashbacks which show Logan undergoing other tests, and they unequivocally do <\/em>show Logan being tested against human opponents. On top of that, they show Logan without <\/em>the control helmet and batteries, which doesn’t fit into the “Weapon X” narrative at all. If you squint a bit, you can just about accept that they take place during part 8, or perhaps earlier, and that Logan’s memory of them gets wiped before the Professor and co set him up for their fake-escape trick – and that for whatever reason, they go back to the control helmet and batteries afterwards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n