Reading Diary #26: Weapon X by Greg Pak

[shroomystar]

Weapon X (2017) opens with Old Man Logan (a Wolverine from an alternate future, not to be confused with mainline Wolverine, who is currently dead where this comic is set) being attacked by cyborgs whom he cannot smell coming, with adamantium claws. After gathering that there’s a program out there trying to take him—or a sample of him—to improve said cyborgs, and that they’re most likely after similar mutants, too, he sets out to gather up a team to put a stop to this.

I’m rereading this one, this wasn’t my first read. I think we’re up to the third with this one? I was feeling rather bad and needed a pick-me-up, so I pulled out good ol’ reliable… Meaning a comic featuring Sabretooth/Monet. Obviously. Usually, my choice here is Uncanny X-Men (2016) (for which I also own the tpbs), because they are featured a lot more, and Monet is actually part of the team for more than one arc, and, crucially, actually does things. Weapon X is probably objectively the better comic, however (though they’re both rather mid unforch), and I haven’t reread it in quite a while, much longer than Uncanny, and it has gems such as “Ah, don’t sweat it, I know ya love me,” so I picked that one.

It’s quite the fun book. I think it’s funny that both of the two comics where Sabretooth and Monet are featured together and in a romantic relationship (though they’re never officially dating) are plagued by Greg Land art, but it’s not as bad in this one and there are other artists for it that have quite nice styles, and the Monet portions aren’t by Land at all this time around (though she’s horribly lightwashed in the last bits, and she also doesn’t really do, well, anything except give Victor a tiny bit of closure before his inversion arc ends and he gets resurrected without any memories of it; which Monet does not know up to today she doesn’t knowwww that he doesn’t remember her!), but it’s nonetheless a mostly fun book.

As I am mostly here for Sabretooth (since Monet is, again, barely there), I will talk about him the most. This book gives a very interesting perspective and take on inverted Sabretooth as a character: whereas before he was kind of a brooding, tortured guy about it, struggling with his newfound morality and all that comes with it, here he is back to a sly guy who’s a bit careless and rather crass, which is much closer to regular Sabretooth. The book kind of seems like it doesn’t want to commit to him as an inverted character, so much so that at times I cannot help but wonder if Pak forgot he’s supposed to be inverted, but at the same time, as much as I like the gentle, brooding guy from Uncanny (though he was really only gentle to Monet) who tried his best, I do think he skirted around the line of “Wolverine replacement since Wolverine is dead so he’s just Wolverine with Sabretooth paint coat” a little too closely. In Weapon X, this is avoided entirely by adding, well, Wolverine.

One can explain it as Logan bringing out this old dynamic in Victor, and later issues do a good job balancing his inversion and giving him more depth than trigger-happy murder guy, especially contextualized when Monet reappears and with the context that his inversion was already slowly but surely wearing off (I really do think they would have done that without a mind wipe, however! The Alzheimer’s allegory got lost completely this way!), but it’s still… odd, to go from Uncanny to Weapon X as a reader.

But it’s also, well, fun. I love the team and its dynamics—especially once Logan gets taken off the board again—and the shenanigans they get up to as an X-Force esque team toeing the line of good and bad rather hard are so much fun. I am sad Jimmy left during the final arc, though I understand his decision—Sabretooth is insufferable (affectionate) (but also genuinely) at times, though their dynamic is also deeply fun—but it makes the rest of the team no less fun. Omega Red doesn’t do much, either, but the little arc he has is awesome (and this is actually the first comic I met him, though Krakoa’s X-Force entirely endeared me on the character, these were the foundations), and Kotik is very cute. I find Deadpool a bit annoying frequently, but he’s also fun here. I loveee Domino, and I can never decide whether I enjoy her on-page romance with Jimmy more or if I’d rather ship her with Yuriko (whose “friendship” with Sabretooth is so fun in this run… she’s the one he was the closest to, in a lot of ways, down to her calling Monet his ex-girlfriend, implying he talked to her about Monet, lol), because their dynamic is awesome, too. Domino, of all people, as the straight-man of the team (on occasion), is so fun, too.

The pink heart background when Victor apologized to Monet for leaving her behind… Omega Red interrupting something that very much was shaping up to be a love confession… The team teasing Victor about Monet… The Cronet of it all is very fun and very sweet, too, despite how it’s a little cheapened by Monet’s absence for most of the run and also her, well, not doing anything. Again (lol). God, I’ll never get over him getting shredded in front of her. Now Pietro needs to die in front of her and she’ll fulfill her 100% boyfriend mortality rate once again. I’m joking; Pietro please don’t die.

I was surprised by how quickly I read the book, all 27 issues in one sitting. Now, is that because of the fact I’ve already read it or is it because the book doesn’t have much substance (it doesn’t)…? Who knows. I have a good time with it every time, even if it is by no means groundbreaking. The major annoyances are the way it ends (the end is well-done, don’t get me wrong, but it’s such a cheap way to get Victor back to villainy), the fact Monet doesn’t do anything, the lightwashing, and the first arc with Amadeus Cho; I cannot be bothered to read issues from his run to understand the whole event. It’s the first arc! And already a crossover! I don’t even dislike Cho Hulk, but oh my god! Lmao. I really like Old Man Logan’s dynamic with Victor here, too. I find it touching that he tried to see something good in Victor despite it all. Cheers, inverted Sabretooth, you were fun.