One of the stranger things about comics fandom is that a lot of people expect you to remember your first comic. For many, it’s like the time they bought their first album, or the time they first went to the cinema – they’re always ready to go all misty-eyed about the time their parents randomly pulled a Lee/Ditko Spider-Man, or a Kirby New Gods off the shelf or spinner-rack at a drugstore in exchange for their silence on a shopping trip. Or to eagerly recount the moment someone pulled them aside at University and put a copy of Sandman, Watchmen, Preacher or Transmetropolitan into their hands after years of comics-abstinence as the point where it all changed for them.

For me, though, the question is hard to answer. It’s like asking whether you remember the first TV show you saw, or the first song you heard. Does anyone remember that? TV and music aren’t special occasions, like buying an album or oging to the cinema – they’re part of the background of your life. That, for me, is what comics are. They’ve always been there, in the background. From The Beano, to Sonic the Comic, to Marvel’s UK reprints. I’ve just always read them.

That said, the way I normally answer this question is to reveal what my first ever US comic was, because that answers the spirit of the question, if not the letter of it. The comic in question was Weapon X #3, released in March ’95 (cover dated May). Technically, it’s an issue of Wolverine, retitled because the entire X-Men line was smack bang in the middle of a massive and complicated crossover called the Age of Apocalypse. I found it in a newsagents on a trip to visit my grandparents in Clacton-on-Sea, and I remember puzzling over it. I knew from the X-Men cartoon that Weapon X was Wolverine’s code-name, but I wasn’t sure if it was his comic. Until I noticed the signature claws on the cover. I was actually shocked to see him using them on a person, because in the cartoon he could only use them to cut through doors, fences, pipes and robots, lest children’s fragile minds be violated. With the promise of all that and more, I had to have it.

I don’t remember what I left on the shelf. I definitely picked up X-Men Adventures Season III #3 at the same time, though, which was an adaptation of Part 3 of the Phoenix Saga from the cartoon. I was so pleased to own them that when I got back home, I displayed them on top of a chest of drawers in my room like they were trophies I’d won. Immediately, there was something special about them. They weren’t just comics, they were *American* comics. Back then, aged only 12, I thought those comics were incredibly rare and special things to own, all the way from the other side of the Atlantic, and I treated them with astonishing reverence.

Of course, as an issue, there’s nothing particularly interesting about Weapon X #3. It’s the third part of a 4-part story, by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert, neither of whom were particularly in their prime. I spent ages reading and re-reading the Bullpen Bulletins pages to see what else was going on in the other series, longing to read them too, amazed at their interconnectivity. Weapon X #3 might not have been my first ever comic, nor even the first ever Marvel comic I read – but it was the one that made me into the fan I am today. It was what gave me my first undiluted taste of US comics, and it caused something inside me to click. There’s no doubt in my mind that if it hadn’t been Weapon X #3, it would have been something else – but for whatever reason, that’s the way it happened.

This week: Reviews of Cable #23, Red Robin #9, Superman: World of New Krypton #12 and Wolverine: Weapon X! Read the rest of this entry »

This week: Capsule reviews of Batman: The Widening Gyre #2, Gotham City Sirens #4, Hulk #15, Wolverine: Weapon X #5 and X-Men Forever #8! Read the rest of this entry »

Barry Windsor-Smith’s Wolverine story is considered a defining chapter in the life of Wolverine, a fact evidenced by the recent re-release, issued alongside Origin and the Claremont/Millar miniseries to tie-in with the movie. So how does it hold up to modern-day scrutiny?

It has to be said that as a story, it’s actually much weaker than you might expect. Perhaps time has stripped it of its mystique – when originally published, serialised in Marvel Comics Presents, the story contained many new and interesting details of Wolverine’s past, but by today, the finer points have long since passed into the character’s common lore. Similarly, since it is a full-length graphic novel compiled from 8-page instalments, rather than written as one, the pages become a repetitive miasma of endless conversations between the same scientists – and what’s more, Wolverine himself is mostly a device in the story, spending most of it reduced to a feral and incoherent state and offering no narrative perspective.

So, with that being the case, one can only wonder why Weapon X remains a story worth owning. And the truth is, it’s obvious from the moment you start reading – the thrill of the artwork remains intact, as striking as ever. Windsor-Smith’s storytelling techniques are uniquely talented, and the artist commands each panel and page masterfully. Images that could make covers and splash pages themselves are composed in virtually every panel. Time may have stripped away what made the story unique, and the presentation may have robbed it of its pacing, and storytelling trends conspired to make it seem outdated, but there’s a purity of technique on display that can’t be denied.

This particular edition collects additional Wolverine material from Windsor-Smith, including a more recently-written short from the same period, offering the perspective of a grunt working security at the Experiment X facility. There’s little special or interesting about it, but its inclusion is worthwhile nonetheless.

And so, before buying Weapon X, you have to wonder – are you the sort of person who’ll enjoy it? There are plenty of good reasons that the story might bore you, after all, and even the most casual Wolverine fan will learn very little new from it – especially since continuity revisions have already altered much of the story’s substance anyway. However, if you’re able to approach it as a piece of historical and technical importance, then you should find that there’s more than enough to enjoy.

Oh good, you’re probably saying. Another Wolverine title. Why, if you count, Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins and Wolverine: First Class, he’s only got three to his name – and one of those is an all-ages, out-of-continuity book, so it doesn’t count. Plus, Spider-Man had four books, and Wolverine’s about as popular these days…

Now, in fairness, there is actually a niche that needs to be filled. The Wolverine title has been tied up in a “series of miniseries” mentality for years, leaving the character with no personal arc to speak of, no regular supporting cast, and generally feeling like a guest star in his own title. Wolverine: Origins, on the other hand, is mostly concerned with one giant story about conspiracies, Wolverine’s son, and is generally very backwards-looking. Wolverine, as much as I hate to admit it, needs a real starring role somewhere, and if they’re going to put him back on that track, they might as well do it in a new series.

Which is where Wolverine: Weapon X comes in. The decision to reunite Jason Aaron and Ron Garney, the creators of the fantastic Get Mystique arc, is a smart one, since that story was the best Wolverine arc in years. Aaron immediately sets about building up Wolverine’s world, establishing that the story starts in San Francisco – making this title firmly peripheral to the rest of the X-line – and introducing him to a reporter character who might be the first new member of the supporting cast that Logan has desperately lacked over the years.

The rest of the book deals, not unexpectedly, with the Weapon X program. Using both that and the character of Maverick places this book in the same category as last year’s Invincible Iron Man – it’s a moviegoer-friendly launch, but nevertheless, set in current continuity. And a good job it does of filling that role too. Come into this book cold, and you’ll have a crash course in Wolverine by the end of it. He’s a hero, but not a very nice one, and he’s been messed around by the government in the past. Fine. We got it. If you’ve never read a Wolverine comic before, you’ll be catered for brilliantly.

saw iv dvd But there is one problem that the quality of Aaron’s writing and Garney’s art can’t assuage, though. As much as I can sympathise with – even get enthusiastic about – the editorial need for a new Wolverine book, I can’t bring myself to want to read past issue one. It’s Wolverine. Again. And Weapon X. Again. The character’s been doing this dance over and over for years now. Is there really nothing new that can be done with him? If anyone can do it, Aaron and Garney can, but for now I’m just left wondering where the originality of Get Mystique has gone. For all its promise, this really is just another Wolverine book. And we’ve already got plenty of those.