Weapon X vol. 1: Weapons of Mutant Destruction Prelude

Launching what is effectively the latest iteration of “X-Force” — violent mutants employing violently morally dubious solutions to violent mutant problems — as a prelude to a crossover doesn’t strike me as the best way to go about things.  So I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed the issues collected here as Old Man Logan, Sabretooth, Domino, and special guest star the Totally Awesome Hulk team up to take on a secret organization that’s sending cyborg attackers after our heroes.  These aren’t just any old cyborgs, however.  This organization is augmenting them with the abilities of the mutants they’ve captured.  Now they’re looking to complete the set of abilities in order to create the ultimate weapon to wipe out mutantkind.

It’s certainly not the most original “X-Men” story I’ve read, but writer Greg Pak keeps the action coming at a fast pace and has the characters deliver some quality banter between each other.  I was going to say that he has a good handle on them, but Old Man Logan basically feels indistinguishable from vanilla Wolverine at this point.  Pak also ignores the ongoing business of Sabretooth’s “inverted” personality to deliver something closer to the classic version of the character.  Add Domino’s snark and Hulk’s arrogant intelligence to the mix and you’ve got all the necessary ingredients for a quality action story.

Assuming you don’t have too much of a problem with the main artist on these issues:  Greg Land.  While he’s developed a pretty bad reputation over the years for the obviousness of how he traces his art from other materials, what’s here represents one of his better efforts.  The “posed” nature of his art is well-camouflaged here and the linework feels less over-rendered.  Ibraim Roberson also pitches in with some stylistically consistent work on a couple issues while Robert Gill does a capable job on the one issue of “Totally Awesome” collected here.  So even if it is odd to jump right into a crossover from the start of this new series, Pak and company actually manage to make that prospect appealing rather than threatening.