In this review of Weapon X-Men #1, why isn’t this team just called X-Force? Because Deadpool says so!
WEAPON X-MEN #1
Writer: Joe Casey
Artist: CHRISCROSS
Main Cover: Alex Ross
Variant Covers: CHRISCROSS, DECLAN SHALVEY, MARK BROOKS, GLEB MELNIKOV, STEVE SKROCE
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: February 19,2025
This review contains spoilers
Weapon X-Men #1 kicks off with Logan (aka Wolverine), sitting in a Paris hotel bar, recounting to a drunken stranger his recent mission of tracking down stolen adamantium. Turns out that while a low level villain named Khyber was killed for his metal implants, the murder isn’t connected to the adamantium-hunting entity from Logan’s new ongoing series.
Wolverine, with Deadpool in tow, picks up Chamber (Jon Starsmore), at a London bar before heading to Cable’s secretive mission site, which turns out to be in Doctor Doom’s Latveria. There the team discovers the recently reincarnated X-Man Thunderbird (John Proudstar), using his mutant super strength to hammer an army of Doombots into piles of scrap metal. Logan approaches Thunderbird and gets sucker punched, hard.
Thunderbird takes off, with Cable and Chamber in hot pursuit. Deadpool stays behind with Logan, who realizes that the gas from earlier impacted his rapid healing ability. Without skipping a beat, Deadpool switches from comic relief to full-on betrayal, and shoots Logan point blank in the eye. Deadpool cops to the elevator attack and incapacitates Logan by triggering a charge in the bullet lodged in Logan’s head.
Meanwhile, Cable has Chamber zap Thunderbird with a psionic blast (his specialty). After the smoke clears, the three mutants discuss Thunderbird’s actions in Latveria, and soon discover that Cable’s helicopter has been blown up. With both Logan and Deadpool both missing, Cable seems to suspect a mole.
Weapon X-Men #1 ends as we cut to a small craft piloted by Deadpool as he transports the comatose Logan to his mysterious new client who is revealed to be Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker.
Analysis
Woof. What a fast-paced, action-packed, head spinning, head-scratcher of a debut issue. First off, why is Weapon X-Men #1 not simply called X-Force? With heavy hitters like Cable, Wolverine and Deadpool, (who have all served on various iterations of the mutant black ops team), plus powerful newcomers like Thunderbird and Chamber, this is X-Force in all but name.
Deadpool offers his typically clever meta commentary and coins the name. Thunderbird’s late brother James (Warpath) also served on a couple of X-Force teams, so there’s a legacy connection. What changes does writer Joe Casey (Incredible Hulk) bring to the table with this mostly familiar line-up? More importantly, why is this not a red band title? Deadpool shooting Logan point blank in the eye is a gory, multi-panel sequence.
Weapon X-Men #1 expands Marvel’s already sprawling X-Men line with another slapdash team full of conflicting personalities, a mysterious motivation for one team member, and a not entirely surprising betrayal by another. The villain reveal isn’t really surprising either. Von Strucker obviously killed Khyber for his adamantium, and has hired Deadpool to bring him Wolverine. But is that enough of a hook?
The top notch creative team alone should probably justify checking out this five issue limited series: from
X-Men writer Joe Casey’s wild script, to artist ChrisCross’ amazing visuals (including some clever prop comedy), and plenty of cool action. Plus there’s the added bonus of the legendary Alex Ross painting the main covers.
How will Logan not just kill Deadpool after this? Maybe Deadpool has a plan, and is using Logan as a trojan horse? Deadpool seems not to know it’s Von Strucker, but still, maybe he’s thinking ahead for once.
How will Von Strucker stand out? Are there surprising changes in store for this classic villain? Or does it even matter with this story?
Final Thoughts
Overall, does Weapon X-Men #1 justify its existence with a compelling ensemble, gorgeous art and witty one-liners? Give it a shot for the creative team alone.
