Wolverine: Weapon X vol. 3 — Tomorrow Dies Today
Normally I’d complain about having a tie-in one-shot being arranged out of chronological order in a series’ latest trade paperback collection. It’s just the fussy fanboy that I am. With this latest “Wolverine: Weapon X” collection, the “Dark Reign: The List” one-shot is the last story featured here despite the fact that not only was it published before the title story, but is also referenced in said title story. Now, I say “normally” because in this case the story in question is pretty fun and it winds up offsetting the ultimately disappointing main story.
“Tomorrow Dies Today” starts off strongly by showing us Wolverine celebrating Steve Rogers’ return to the realm of the living by picking him up in the Blackbird and hitting just about every exotic bar in the western hemisphere. While they’re doing this, we’re shown the exploits of several Deathloks who are systematically murdering low-rent superheroes and ordinary couples for no apparent reason. This becomes Wolverine’s business when he’s accosted by a girl who claims to be having dreams of the future and informs him that their next target is Captain America. (Bucky Barnes, not Steve as Wolverine helpfully sorts out for us.)
The storyline is basically “Terminator” by way of the Marvel Universe, and things only get crazier once the guest stars start showing up to help in the fight against the Deathloks. It’s a good premise for a story, but the problem here is that it’s not one about Wolverine. What writer Jason Aaron has here is a clever Deathlok story that features the title character. To be fair, it’s a pretty good Deathlok story as it has a nice twist on the character’s usual setup by having the human part of the machine be a bloodthirsty lunatic and the machine be the more sensible and understanding factor. The final twist is pretty obvious, and the ending feels pretty flat as a result.
Of course, the larger problem is that I (and likely everyone else who bought this) came here to read a story about Wolverine. As a result of the focus on Deathlok, his involvement here winds up being pretty superfluous — you could swap him with any other superhero and it wouldn’t change the story one bit. Again, it’s not a bad story, but it’s not good enough to make up for the fact that it’s not what I came here for. Even with Ron Garney’s great work on the art here.
Fortunately, the other two stories collected here are much better. “The End of the Beginning” is a great tribute to the unique friendship that Wolverine and Nightcrawler built up over the years before the latter’s death in “Second Coming.” With the reading of his will, it turns out that the late Kurt Wagner has one final request for his friend and teammate: bring a concert grand piano (imported from Germany) to the Church of Holy Ascenion on top of a mountain in Venezuela. Naturally there are no nearby landing strips and the roads are all washed out this time of year, so Logan has to bring it up there the hard way. During the trip, we’re treated to flashbacks of the pair’s often contentious relationship and shown how they finally got past their differences and became friends. I’m not spoiling anything to say that Wolverine makes it to the church with the piano intact, but it’s the meaning behind Nightcrawler’s final lesson that really makes this story memorable.
Coming back to “Dark Reign: The List” at the end of the volume does feel a bit odd due to its chronology. It feels odder still due to the fact that it almost has the same problem as the title story since it starts off as a team up between Noh-Varr, the Kree Marvel Boy, and Wolverine but quickly mutates into a team up between the former and Fantomex. The story has Norman Osborne finally finding out about The World, the “breeding ground” of the Weapon Plus program and making his move in order to secure it for himself. Unfortunately the program’s latest weapon is a sentient virus that attacks the faith reserves in the brain, which has the effect of zombifying anyone who comes into contact with it.
Don’t expect a scathing critique of organized religion, as Noh-Varr and Fantomex are here to crack wise and blow a lot of things up in the process. As a result, this story becomes a high-octane blast of ridiculousness, which suits its aims and length just fine. Though the religious and conclusions of these two stories give the impression that Aaron is leading Wolverine down the path to some spiritual awakening, I wouldn’t start picking out a baptism site yet. Given the character’s history, I’d bet on the ultimate revelation being that he finds out something along the lines of God not really having it in for him at all. This is in spite of what the past 25 years of his comics have shown, but in keeping with the religious theme here, I’ve got faith that Aaron has something more interesting than that planned.
After all, he’s sending Wolverine to hell in the next volume! That should be something to see.