Comic Book Review: Wolverine: Weapon X #2

The Revolution enjoyed Wolverine: Weapon X #2. Outside of Millar’s Old Man Logan story, this was the most fun I have had reading a Wolverine story. Jason Aaron is not doing anything fancy at all on this title. Instead, we are getting a straight forward action adventure story. And that is fine with me. The less that we get Logan: the prehistoric dog boy, the better. Let’s hit this review for Wolverine: Weapon X #2.

Creative Team
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ron Garney

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with a meeting at the San Francisco Post. The Editor-in-Chief is pissed that his reporters have no good stories. Garner, the woman Wolverine saved last issue, offers to do a piece on Wolverine and try and discover who he is. That, unlike the other X-Men, there is little to no information on Wolverine. The Editor-in-Chief brushes off Garner’s idea stating that Wolverine is all way too overexposed. (Ha! Well played, Aaron.) That there are videos all over YouTube of Wolverine stabbing people.

The reporters leave the meeting. The reporter assigned to cover the X-Men chews out Garner for trying to scoop his territory. The reporter tells Garner to leave the X-Men alone and to go find her own damn stories. We zip forward to Garner at her apartment. She has done tons of research on Wolverine trying to figure out his name and where he is from.

Garner then gets a phone call from an anonymous source. The person tells Garner that Wolverine is only a small part of the story. That Garner is missing the bigger picture. The person tells Garner to start with Blackguard. The person then hangs up the phone. Garner smiles and says that she knew she had a story.

We cut to Logan on an airplane for Colombia. Logan is drinking and reading a Louis L’Amour book.

We shift to Logan walking into a small bar in the pacific coast of Colombia. Evidently, the Blackguard soldiers are like ghosts that suddenly appear in town and then disappear into the jungle. Logan’s plan is to try and lure the Blackguard men out of hiding and to attack him. The bartender immediately recognizes his old friend Logan. (Of course. This has become a running joke with how many people know Logan across the world.)

Logan buys drinks for the house. Logan parties and gets drunk. Logan then stumbles home. We then see two Blackguard soldiers watching Logan from afar. The two soldiers notice that Logan is drunk.

One of the soldiers pulls out his sniper rifle and bets the other soldier that he can put the bullet in Logan’s left nostril. Evidently, the sniper has three special bullets that release 38 different kinds of cancer into Logan’s system. (I love it!) It may not kill Logan, but it will slow him down.

Suddenly, when the sniper looks back through the window to Logan’s motel room he notices that Logan is gone. The Blackguard soldiers start sniffing the air. They then see Wolverine standing at the bottom of the tree that they are hiding out in. With one swipe, Logan chops the tree down with his claws. Logan starts brawling with the two Blackguard soldiers.

Logan notices that the Blackguard soldiers have heightened animal sense and heightened strength and reflexes. Wolverine notices that the two soldiers have artificially engineered techno organic healing factor. That means they aren’t mutants. During the fight, Wolverine notices that the two Blackguard soldiers also have Adamantium laced bones.

Wolverine thinks how these soldiers got the complete make-over. Wolverine thinks “The only things these guys are missing is-” Suddenly, the soldiers pop out their green energy claws. Wolverine responds “Oh, you gotta be kiddin’ me.”

Wolverine keeps brawling with the two soldiers. Wolverine thinks how he has decades of experience on these two soldiers. That Wolverine has killed more people than these two soldiers have even met during their lives. Wolverine thinks how it is going to take more than these two soldiers to beat him.

Suddenly, catches new scents in the air. We see at least ten more Blackguard soldiers arriving onto the scene. They all surround Wolverine. The soldiers do not say a word. They just move in for the kill. Wolverine then realizes that as much as he hates to admit it that he just cannot win this fight. Wolverine then makes a quick escape.

The commanding officer of the Blackguard soldiers gives the orders that Wolverine does not leave the jungle alive. We cut to deep into a jungle and see a spider lurking on a spider web. We then see Logan hiding with his claws out. Wolverine thinks “Come and get me, you bastards.” End of issue.

Commentary
The Good: Wolverine: Weapon X #2 was another solid read. Aaron delivers a straight up action adventure story with this issue. Wolverine: Weapon X #2 is a well paced story. Aaron knows exactly how to massage the flow of the story. There are no slow moments in this issue. The beginning of this issue performs some necessary plot progression and then Aaron wastes no time delivering thirteen pages of action to close out this issue.

And the quality action is the magic of this issue. Aaron certainly knows how to deliver plenty of exciting brawling. I loved how Aaron has Logan discover each of the various Weapon X powers that the soldiers have during the fight. It was nicely constructed and was an interesting way for Logan to realize that these soldiers are full Weapon X powered men. And Wolverine’s reaction to the energy claws was perfect.

My favorite part of the showdown between Logan and the Blackguard soldiers was the bullet that causes 38 different types of cancer. That was great! Aaron is clearly having fun writing this title.

Wolverine: Weapon X #2 was a well plotted issue. Aaron moves the story along in a clear direction. The story is tightly written and focused. Yes, the story is relatively simple as Aaron has kept the plotlines to a minimum and focused on delivering excellent action and adventure.

In this issue, Aaron has Blackguard and their Weapon X soldiers on one side. And on the other side Aaron has placed Logan on his path toward Blackguard and Garner on her path toward Blackguard. I am sure that the two paths will eventually meet as Garner and Logan will have to team up to take down Blackguard and expose their illegal activities.

Aaron continues to demonstrate a nice feel for Wolverine’s character. Aaron nails Wolverine’s external voice. Logan’s dialogue and inner narration are both spot on and have a nice flow. Aaron gives us a wonderfully no-frills Wolverine that is true to his core personality.

Clearly, Aaron went back to Claremont’s classic Wolverine from the 1970’s and 1980’s for his inspiration on how to write the character. This is a no-nonsense approach to Wolverine. And I am extremely grateful for that. This simple back to basics take on Wolverine is not only more entertaining than what we are getting on Wolverine and Wolverine: Origins, but it is also much more new reader friendly.

Aaron understands what made Claremont’s Wolverine so cool. And Aaron also understands that there is no need to unnecessarily saddle Wolverine’s character with too much back-story. There is no need for Wolverine to have an overblown history and complicated continuity. There is no need burden Wolverine with convoluted soap opera plot lines.

Wolverine is much like Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name or Dirty Harry. Less is more. Like those classic action characters, Wolverine is at his best in his most simple form and does not need all the window dressing. All a writer has to do with Wolverine is place him in the middle of an adventure and let him do what he does best. And that is kicking tons of ass.

Of course, just because Aaron is delivering a no-frills action story does not mean that he is not paying attention to details. Aaron gives plenty of little touches with Wolverine’s character that makes the reader chuckle. I liked the scene at the San Francisco Post meeting where the Editor-in-Chief comments how overexposed Wolverine is. This was Aaron playful poking fun at out how overexposed Wolverine has become with the merciless onslaught of Marvel titles he stars in.

I also liked how Aaron had Logan reading a Louis L’Amour book on the airplane. That is exactly the type of book that I would imagine Logan reading. Aaron’s well placed humor works well with Logan’s character and never feels forced or distractingly over the top.

Ron Garney delivers plenty of nice artwork. I dig Garney’s art in this issue more than what we got in the previous issue. Garney’s artwork is average in the scenes involving Garner. However, the scenes with Logan is where Garney’s artwork really shines. Garney draws one bad-assed looking Wolverine. And Garney delivered a wonderfully choreographed fight scene. Garney’s artwork makes Wolverine: Weapon X #2 a clean looking issue that is easy to follow.

The Bad: Personally, I have no complaints with Wolverine: Weapon X #2. However, readers who desire deep substantive stories crammed full of intricate plotlines and excellent character may not enjoy this issue.

Overall: Wolverine: Weapon X #2 was a fun and entertaining read that satisfies my itch for a more old school version of Logan. Aaron is not trying to re-invent the wheel with this title. Aaron is not trying to create some great artistic story. Instead, Aaron is delivering an entertaining two-fisted action adventure story that is worth the cover price. Wolverine: Weapon X #2 offers the reader the best Wolverine story that you are going to get out of all the myriad of titles that he appears in.

If you have been unimpressed with all the ridiculous things that Marvel has been doing with Logan over the past several years then definitely check out Wolverine: Weapon X #2. I would also recommend Wolverine: Weapon X #2 to new readers. You do not need to know anything about Logan’s ludicrous back-story including the Lupines, Romulus, the Muramasa Blade and Daken in order to enjoy this issue. And thank the comic book gods for that.