Death of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program

Death of Wolverine (Collected Editions)

by Charles Soule, Salvador Larroca, Ángel Unzueta (Illustrator)

Desperate Flight!
The escaped subjects of the revamped Weapon X program flee increasingly deadly attempts to bring them back under control. What will kill them first - their pasts, their strange new powers, or their mysterious connection to the Wolverine?

Collecting: Death Of Wolverine: The Weapon X Program 1-5, Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, X Men, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 10, 2015

About the author

Charles Soule is a #1 New York Times-bestselling novelist, comics author, screenwriter, musician, and lapsed attorney. He has written some of the most prominent stories of the last decade for Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm in addition to his own work, such as his comics Curse Words, Letter 44 and Undiscovered Country, and his original novels Light of the Jedi, The Endless Vessel, The Oracle Year and Anyone. He lives in New York.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Weapon X Program - a talkshow hosted by Wolverine as he gruffly but charmingly interviews a series of Marvel characters? Nope, just another shitty team book - this time starring nobody you’ve ever heard of! At least Charles Soule’s Inhuman series had Medusa…!

Recently, Wolverine got turned into modern art and Marvel are insisting that counts as “death”. As he was in the process of being turned into a statue, he saved some people in tubes and in this book we get to see them wake up and fight some random dudes with guns. Our main character has a voice in his head and he’s cosplaying as Star-Lord - he also kinda looks like Logan! The others are generic nobodies and we’re supposed to care about their journey to find out who they are. Or something.

It really does seem to be the case that when good comics creators get hired by Marvel or DC, they begin churning out the shittiest comics imaginable. Bad editors, demanding schedules, who knows what the reasons are. But Soule is actually a really good writer, and to be fair his She-Hulk was lots of fun, but this whole Death of Wolverine event has been one long flatline.

The characters in The Weapon X Program are so tediously written - there’s even one scene where we get to see Soule brainstorm their codenames on the page! Their quest - who cares? Are we meant to give a crap about these one-dimensional nobodies? And what’s with that cover - who’re all those shadowy Wolverine-type clones with claws?! That doesn’t happen in the book!

Shit prevails for most of the book until the final one-shot, Life After Logan, which had some life to it. Cyclops eulogises Wolverine by going to a bar, beating up some mutie-haters, and having a pint; Colossus and Nightcrawler head to Agarashima, Japan, to pay their respects to their fallen comrade and of course get into a brawl - Logan would’ve approved; and Armor, Wolverine’s last in a line of young female proteges, mourns his death.

Life After Logan is fun and sweet in equal measure and is the sole reason to pick up this volume. If you want to read a bad team book of nothing characters with dull powers, pick up Soule’s Inhuman books which are marginally better. But really I’d skip the whole lot and read Soule’s Strange Attractors or Strongman books instead to see why he’s considered a quality writer.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly a pretty solid series. Salvador Larocca's art is great as always and it's actually an interesting story to come out of the Death of Wolverine story line.

[anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is me arriving at the last minute to a discount day and realising that all the other books disappeared.
At least I picked up something.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the new additions to the Weapon X program lore and the beginning of their story. Also, the tribute pieces involving Logan's friends were pretty spot on.

[David Dalton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am catching up on the whole Death of Wolverine storyline. I got caught up in the Old Man Logan stories and wondered what happened to our timeline Logan. Well, someone said he died. So I picked up that collection. Yup, he "died", So, until he undies, I thought I would see what took place after Logan's so-called death. This collection got me started. I have the next collection on my 1o in Kindle Fire ready to go: The Logan Legacy.

I guess I better hurry up, as our Logan is already starting to appear in certain Marvel comics in Jan, Feb, and March. Logan dead? No way, cannot wait for the two Logan's to met up!

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed the premise and characters and the pace,
and even though the art seemed a little bit loose
for the amazing Salvador Larroca,
I very much enjoyed that too.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the low score on this volume. It has a solid story filled with action and engaging characters that have little in common with established superpowered individuals. If anything, it's a breath of fresh air from all the costumes and codenames (though they also adopt codenames for practical reasons). I say give it a try. It's better than the story of Logan's death.

Paradise is the name of the facility that has been continuing the work on the Weapon X program. Logan took it out before succumbing to being incased in liquid adamantium. Six test subjects with extraordinary abilities have escaped, but are now hunted by relentless mercenaries. Even confused as they are, they band together and make their getaway using thir abilities.

Each of the tests subjects has a past they would rather keep to themselves. Sharp finds that he can't recognize his own face - he is experiencing flashbacks from someone else's life and an inner voice that tries to control him. Neuro has a dark past as a serial killer, but this persona only comes out at certain times. He kills the sixth member of their group before she can reveal his sordid past. The rest of the test subjects are the superhumanly fast Endo, the strongman Skel and Junk who has many animal features and abilities.

They try to get answrs from another former test subject, Victor Creed, but he only reveals that Sharp's inner voice doesn't come from Logan. Sharp confronts the voice and gets it to reveal its name - Ogun. Meanwhile the rest of the group are captured because of Neuro's betrayal. Sharp changes his callsign to Shogun, but his deadliness remains as he saves his teammates. They remain united for now.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty dope. Unlike what seems to be the popular consensus, I usually enjoy Soules writing and this one was on point. Seems like I should have read this before Logan Legacy but oh well. We get some new characters in Sharp, Junk, Endo, Skel and Neuro. They find themselves in the Paradise facility with powers and team up to escape. From there they are on the run while also trying to figure out their powers and why they were put in that facility in the first place. There was even a character for the Death of Wolverine mini that made a cool appearance here. Then you get a nice sort of send off for wolverine in the last issue as we see Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Armor pay homage to Logan. This book leads right into Logan Legacy (which I just read) which that leads into the Wolverines run ( which I have lined up to read next. Can’t wait!!)

[Bruce M · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the new characters and the dialogue. The art here is solid, too.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with any Comic Book Event™, this was 5 issues of what should have been a two issue story. Along with The Logan Legacy, it's basically exposition for the weekly Wolverines series.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the things I dislike the most about the X-universe is how every writer creates a group of characters that they try to make happen to no avail. One thing I hate about Marvel events is the thought process that such events need to be augmented with several unnecessary miniseries. This combines both!

Thankfully, Soule brings something to these characters to make the mildly engrossing.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 3 quarters of this was a boring story about weapon x escapees. Which if that were the whole book I would have rated this 2 stars. That last quarter was about people mourning Logan.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read the "death of Wolverine" story, you know that it ends at a Weapon X type facility. And while the main story focuses on Wolverine and his demise, one question that this book answers is - what else was happening in that facility?

Charles Soule manages to squeeze a bit more juice from the whole "death of Wolverine" story, by exploring this topic further and introducing us to some of the people being experimented one there. Of course, they all have powers, and are highly dangerous. They escape the facility and are on the run, as the government tries to recapture them. We find out about each member, and find out that an old foe is amongst them.

To my surprise... this was actually pretty good. I thought it was going to be kind of a forced and thus, uninteresting story, but Soule manages to make some pretty interesting characters who gel well together - whether or not they are getting along. The premise is solid, and Soule adds a tinge of realism that really nails down the whole "experiments gone wrong" type of vibe. This is all illustrated by Salvador Larroca, who is a great artist, and who's work I haven't seen in awhile. Glad to see his style is still evolving and still looks great.

I would definitely recommend this to people who like more of the Weapon X stuff, as its a good story that ties into the whole Logan legacy overall.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Weapon X/Plus program is one of the more interesting facets of Marvel Lore (outside of their cosmology). It involves Captain America, Wolverine, Sabertooth, we3, Deadpool, Weapon H, etc.

This is a tie-in from Death of Wolverine that is a creative force--it actively creates five new character (from the program), however I'm not optimistic that any of them will be breakouts.

As I've said--I actually like Wolverine but find the overexposure of him seriously grating. The Death of Wolverine main event was very Spartan and almost minimalist.

That being said--the "Life After Logan" issues is closer to 4-stars. I like Civil War: The Confession and such issues a lot, so this one is quite good.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get past half-way through what would have been the second issue - there were far too many discrepancies between the art and dialogue frankly and then all the escapees are in a personnel carrier and the character 'Neuro' turns out to be some kind of serial killer (of women) and kills a woman, who up to that point had been unconscious, but gets a psychic flash of who he is, as he surgically tries to remove a tracking device. As he slits her throat the panel is drawn as if the van has suddenly turned into something the length of a coach - that means the others can't hear what she says leading to her being murdered. Very infuriating and annoying, so I gave up on it...

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the Death of Wolverine, Wolvy rescued some test subjects from Cornelius's new Weapon X experiments. This is the story of those test subjects. Their powers have nothing to do with Wolvy's, despite the silhoutted claws on the cover. Instead we get the usual speedster, super-smarty, strong guy, highly-skilled fighter, etc. Most of their backstory is left intentionally vague, which makes it tough to get emotionally invested (although one could argue the same thing about Wolverine's history when he was first introduced). This felt pretty generic.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this more than I expected. I would have liked it more if it had nothing to do with Wolverine, and maybe Marvel in general. At its heart its just a story of a group of newly powered individuals trying to figure out who they are and who they can trust. The book didn't need the Wolverine hook but I understand why. The art, by a handful of pencilers was good. Overall, a good read that I didn't see coming.

[Joseph Inzirillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this was an interesting twist on the death of Wolverine. The first set of stories is better than the last one. The first set continues Weapon X and makes me want to learn more. The second part is more of what the X-Men did after he died.

I really need to get caught up on my X-Men lore.

[M.i. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weapon X program is back in business and there's a substitute Logan wrecking shop.

[Frans Kempe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of superpowered persons leaves the facility where Wolverine died destroying it. They try to find meaning to their existence

[Daniel Beimers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was expecting some Wolverine, but instead got some stories about characters unknown to me and some X-Men. Enjoyable main story read.

[Willow · Rating 2 out of 5]

This definitely exists. The oneshot at the end is pretty good, but the main miniseries was boring and I just couldn't find any connection to the new characters in it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Lenise · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fact that everyone’s way to honor Wolverine was by fighting because they know that’s how he got down was chefs kiss fr 🥺💛

[Anchorpete · Rating 2 out of 5]

Out of the two tie ins to the Death of Wolverine event, this is the weakest. I admire the ambition of the X-men book editorial staff, allowing for five new characters to be created for this arc. Unfortunately none of the rejects from the Weapon X program are interesting. wait, that is a lie, the one who looks like Psi-mon from DC, with his brain popping out of the top of his head, and Sharp are fairly interesting, once you get a glimpse into their backstories.

The stories that focus on the X-men characters dealing with Logan's death, at the end of the book are pretty weak as well. You get the feeling while reading each one that they were made specifically to sell extra comics, connected to a publicity stunt event. When you read the second story, that focuses on Colossus and Nightcrawler, you get an extreme sense of Deja Vu. Both Colossus and Nightcrawler have died in the last twenty years, and here they both are, alive and healthy, grieving over the loss of Wolverine. Perhaps they are smiling so much in their story, because they know that within a matter of issues our favorite Canadian mutant will be back.

[Adam Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far more interesting than the actual Death of Wolverine, this follow-up gives us a few of the survivors from the Weapon X program that Wolverine was in the midst of destroying when he died.

I'm impressed that, for the most part, these Wolverine clone experiments are much more diversely powered than Sabretooth, X-23, Dakken, Lady Deathstrike, Feral, Wolfsbane, Raze, Jimmy Hudson, Honey Badger, and the friggen Hulkverine. This volume is the classic group of strangers are put in a dangerous situation, and must depend on each other to survive trope. And also the Everyone Is Hiding Something trope. And it works. I was put off by the possible premise set forth about the lead character, but enjoyed the reveal of the twist.

While I don't think any of these characters are destined to be long term X-characters, they're a fun changeup from the stat-x quo.

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the heels of the Death of Wolverine, here we have a story about... some random people who were nearby! They were test subjects for Dr. Cornelius who manage to escape while Wolverine was laying waste to the place (I guess they weren't the ones that he just killed along the way). We follow them as they struggle to get away, and in the end, it sort of ties up one of the loose ends from the event, and leads into the Wolverines series. This isn't comics at their most engaging with deep insight into characters that have been old friends for years, but this is a fairly good start with some new characters. I'm not sure how important these characters will end up, since I haven't read the Wolverines series yet, but even standing alone, it was a fairly good read for dealing with new characters.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect with this one, but I was pleasantly surprised.

It follows a new group of Weapon X trainees as they escape from the facility and try to find out who and what they are. The characters are interesting, and the story has quite a few surprises.

There's also a few stories detailing how some characters deal with Wolverine's death, but they are short and don't get really deep. Still not bad though.

Art is good as well and fits the story.

Just overall better than I expected because I thought this was just a way to make quick buck from the Death of Wolverine buzz. I suppose in a way it was, but it was good enough that it didn't across as too blatant. This leads into the WOLVERINES series which I'll be reading soon. I'm curious to see where these characters go.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in Weapon X is sharp and I enjoyed the new characters as well as the mysteries they're uncovering. Unfortunately, it has several structural issues. The biggest problem is that readers interested in "The Death of Wolverine" weren't really looking for a book about 5 new characters ... and though these characters are interesting, they're not really interesting enough to carry the whole book. Beyond that, their plot feels stretched out, so that after 5 issues, we finally get to a big turning point ... and realize that this was all just a setup for something else.

So, it was totally OK and not painful to read, but ...

[Zack! Empire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly this feels like it's only connected to the Death of Wolverine storyline in the flimsiest way possible. At the end of Death of Wolverine the Weapon X Program was left in ruins, so it was nice that they were going to carry on with that story, but not like this. Were any of these guys Marvel characters before? I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing not. This seemed like a case of, "Just throw some shit at the wall and see what sticks." I kind of get the feeling they were trying to get another "Wolverine" book out there, in the shape of a team made up of former Weapon X'ers. It comes out feeling pretty empty.

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a couple of good panels. But it didn't really make sense.

And the characters aren't too interesting. They're pretty undefined and seem to hew close to cliche. It's kind of an interesting idea: What does a world of people who are like Wolverine do following Wolverine? But it's really more of the question about Armor in Wolverine & the X-Men. And (if they're around) Daken and X-23 or something like that.

The idea that there's someone whose powers are "tactical" was kind of interesting in Tao but it often gets unstoppable. Who do you stop someone who's already right? That kind of a thing.

[Fate's Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started out at least curious about this book, where a bunch of people with little to no memories of their former lives and no knowledge of the present except that they seem to have super abilities, break out of some sort of experimentation facility. But while their adventure has potential, their personalities are... flat. Then there's the anti-trans forced sex change that seems to have been randomly inflicted on one of the characters, and the fact that they're all sort of personality-less except for vague hints about their histories as bad guys... This book lost momentum for me before it even really got going. Super disappointed. And what was with the Star-Lord mask thing? Weird.