Here's another arbitrary theme for you to ring in the last month of the year. I don't have any Christmas-themed comics on hand, so let's just pretend that these are festive. Regardless, this is one I've wanted to write for a while, because it involves some deep lore, and I love me some deep lore. Scroll on down and I'll tell you all about it. THE THEME: To set the stage for this week's theme, allow me to talk about some in-universe Marvel history. If you're familiar with X-Men and Wolverine (specifically, if you've seen movies such as the shitty Origins movie and Logan), the term "Weapon X" may ring a bell. This is the designation given to Wolverine when he was experimented on to become a one-man, well, weapon. The thing is, "Weapon X" isn't just a cute nickname alluding to the X gene Wolverine possesses; the "X" is actually a Roman numeral, which means Wolverine is the tenth "weapon" of his kind. That leads us into the Weapon Plus program. This is a program encompassing many human experiments in the Marvel universe with the intent of making them into living weapons or creating super soldiers. Now, "super soldier" is sure to be another familiar term for some of you, because that is what Captain America is referred to. Cap is the first super soldier created through experimentation chronologically in the Marvel universe, and has been designated as Weapon I as a result. Over the years, many entities have tried to replicate the experiment that made Captain America, with varying degrees of success. These experiments used different methods to go about empowering people, some of which are connected to various other Marvel characters. Examples of this include Weapon IV (which indirectly resulted in Man-Thing's origin), Weapon V (which used the Venom symbiote), Weapon VI (which gave Luke Cage his powers), Weapon VII (which gave Nuke his pill-based powers) the aforementioned Weapon X (which experimented on mutants like Wolverine), and more. There are also various other characters who fit the same bill of "experimented on and given powers" but don't have an explicit designation, such as Deadpool (who was given a healing factor), Deathlok (who is a cyborg), X-23 (who was cloned from Wolverine), and even the Ultimates version of Hulk (whose gamma experiments were attempts at recreating Captain America). Some of these fall outside the Weapon Plus program, but are nonetheless connected in some way. As you can probably tell, Weapon Plus is an important pillar of Marvel lore with connections to many facets of the universe, and this theme aims to celebrate that with five comics featuring characters and series who share said connections. As there are a lot of comics that fit the bill, I tried to narrow it down to stuff with more explicit connections to Weapon Plus (like comic series actually titled Weapon X), but anything with even a tenuous connection is fair game. THE COMICS: ![]() WEAPON X (2002–2004) #1 Publisher: Marvel Writer: Frank Tieri Artists: Georges Jeanty, Dexter Vines - This series follows an incarnation of Weapon X led by a mutant-hating director, and he's busy sending a team of (ironically) mutants to recruit more prospective individuals to the program. Unfortunately, someone's caught wind of Weapon X's activities, and it's not other than Sabretooth (a product of Weapon X himself). Now, it's a race for the two sides to stop the other from enacting their plans. - Comixology link ![]() WEAPON X (2017–2018) #1 Publisher: Marvel Writer: Greg Pak Artists: Greg Land, Jay Leisten -We have another, different Weapon X incarnation here, and their mission has slightly changed: create a new army of killers to exterminate mutants. These murder machines were unsuccessful in taking down Old Man Logan, and now he's looking to an unlikely ally to help take down this new, more dangerous Weapon X. - Comixology link ![]() WEAPON X (2017–2018) #26 Publisher: Marvel Writers: Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente Artists: Luca Pizzari, Roberto Di Salvo - This is further into the Weapon X series I described above. The team trying to take down Weapon X has been sent to hell (like, actual hell) by Azazel, in an effort to stop the soul of William Stryker (renowned for his hate of mutants) from returning to Earth. It's a surreal ride that takes a number of characters through their own personal hells, and features (strangely enough) some Deadpool silliness. - Comixology link ![]() WEAPON H (2018–2019) #7 Publisher: Marvel Writer: Greg Pak Artist: Ario Anindito - Weapon H is the alter ego of an ex-soldier named Clayton, who was experimented on and turned into a Hulk-Wolverine hybrid (a "Hulkverine", if you will), possessing the powers of both and that of a bunch of other mutants. In this one, he's teaming up with the one and only Captain America to take down the Skrullduggers (dragon creatures that can shapeshift like Skrulls), which have found their way to Earth thanks to the shenanigans of the Roxxon Corporation. Weapon H's admiration of Cap shines through here, further cementing the Captain's legend. - Comixology link ![]() WEAPON H (2018–2019) #10 Publisher: Marvel Writer: Greg Pak Artist: Guiu Vilanova - This issue continues Weapon H's adventures from before, and now, he and his team find themselves in a realm called the Weirdworld in an effort to rescue the Roxxon Corporation employees stranded there. What tthey find is classic Roxxon horseshit, as it turns out the corporation is using Morgan le Fay (evil sorceress extraordinaire) as a power source, and she is not happy about it. Features Korg, Titania, and Man-Thing. - Comixology link When I first found out about the Weapon Plus program as a kid, I went into a rabbit hole of reading, trying to uncover as much of its history as I can. It ended up being one of my favorite pieces of lore in Marvel and comics in general, and I hope I did a good job of conveying how prominent it is within the Marvel Universe. Perhaps this has piqued your interest enough to jump into the rabbit hole yourself, and if this post does that for even one person, I'll be more than happy. PANEL(s) OF THE WEEK: - end -
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