Weapons of Mutant Destruction

Remember kids:  It may not say so on the side of this volume, but this is actually vol. 2 of the new “Weapon X” series.  Its first volume was a surprisingly entertaining start to what is basically the next iteration of “X-Force” and a prelude to this crossover between “The Totally Awesome Hulk.”  Greg Pak writes both series and while pairing them together may seem like an incongruous move, that actually works in this story’s favor.  While Amadeus “Hulk” Cho isn’t a killer, the “Weapon X” team is and they’re up against a group of scientists who are in the employ of the Reverend William Stryker.  The Reverend’s goal is still the eradication of mutantkind and now he’s got a new way to do it:  Using science to create a Wolverine/Hulk hybrid!

Yes, this is the storyline that gave us the Hulkverine and if you can’t get behind the awesome dumbness of that concept then this volume is definitely not for you.  There are some stabs at seriousness in the way that Pak plays up the “banality of evil” when it comes to the rank-and-file scientists as well as Cho’s efforts to see the humanity in the bad guys.  Most of this volume, however, is pure action-movie mayhem as our… protagonists close in on and go to war with the bad guys, all with maximum loudness.  What sets it apart is that Pak has a great handle on his cast and has them playing off of each other in fun and interesting ways.

The art is generally good, though parts of it clearly have issues.  Mahmud Asrar does the one-shot which kicks off the event and it’s solid work, even if I miss the brightly-colored solid linework he’s demonstrated previously.  The “Weapon X” issues are from Marc Borstel who has a clean, detailed style that occasionally gives his characters a plastic sheen to them and/or bug-out eyes.  Robert Gill’s “Awesome Hulk” work is the best with an appealing roughness that strikes a nice middle ground between the aforementioned artists and is great for showing us the Hulkverine — I mean, Weapon H — in all of its glory.  Next up for the “Weapon X” crew is “The Hunt For Weapon H” and I’m all for that after his introduction here.