Weapon X Retrospective- Chapter 3

by Dave Scrimgeour and Kevin McCluskey

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​Writer- Barry Windsor-Smith
Artist- Barry Windsor-Smith
Letterers- Jim Novak & Barry Windsor-Smith
Editor- Terry Kavanagh
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Synopsis

The Weapon programmers struggle to keep their tenth experiment contained.

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Dave
So, here we are, onto Part 4 of 'Weapon X,' and its just dawned on me that none of these issues have a chapter name or story title.  It just seems like a giant graphic novel broken down into small segments.


Kev
Definitely.  It certainly seems like something that Marvel decided to serialise initially, rather than produce as a graphic novel straight off the bat.  They get two bites at the cherry that way, I suppose, and I'll be honest, I'm loving it as a format.  To the extent that I wish more comic book stories were told this way.  More anthologies, please.


Dave
It cuts down (no pun) the time wasting aspect of storytelling.


Kev
Ha, ha!  Yes.  It certainly does.  What do you make of the cover to this chapter?


Dave
I think it's another great cover.  I love the clear green background that subtly changes tone.


Kev
Yeh, me too.  It’s a stark image against the blank greens of the background.  It really highlights just how isolated Logan is in this story.


Dave
He is essentially trapped, tied down.  He certainly isn't free.


Kev
Yeh.  Hog-tied.  Like an animal.


Dave
Do you think the dialogue bubble of Cornelius on the 3rd panel of the first page, "Devil with that!" is deliberately blocking out the Professor's dialogue to signify him talking over him?


Kev
Definitely.  I think it's a really good technique.  One that I haven't seen being used all that often, but it's certainly effective.  Dr. Cornelius makes it clear for us at this point that The Professor had an agenda here that even he was not aware of.  The agendas and subterfuge are strong in this one.


Dave
The broken glass jutting out in those first 3 panels is quite effective as well , they are shaped like claws.


Kev
Yeh, Windsor-Smith is really starting to push the animalistic elements of this story at this point.  We’re dealing with a fractured narrative again here, cutting back and forth between the present and flashbacks.  It works incredibly well in terms of keeping the reader on unsure footing, which is an excellent comparison to how Logan himself must be feeling at this point.


Dave
That’s an excellent panel on page 1, of Wolverine smashing through the glass in the James Cameron blue colour cinematography.  The colours are great, and the visual image is a strong one.  Again Barry Windsor-Smith has kept the dialogue very chunky for such a small number of pages.

"Broken glass, everywhere. People pissin' on the stairs, y'know they just don't care."

Kev
Yeh man, that panel is great.  Like you said, with the shards of glass looking very tooth and claw.  I hadn't thought of the blue as being James Cameron-esque, but you're right, that was a Cameron signature, wasn't it?


Dave
It was.  Especially 'The Abyss,' but even 'Aliens' as well.


Kev
Totally.  There's a fair amount of it in his 'Terminator' films as well.


Dave
Oh yeah, 'Terminator 2' in particular.   The whole scene in the Pescadero State Hospital, that was superb cinematography.


Kev
Yeh, it's a great look.  I do love how Cornelius’s flashback is represented in those cold blues this time.  It's completely at odds with the warm palette of reds and pinks that we’ve had in the past couple of chapters.


Dave
Logan really does look like a monster standing there, like a wild animal poised to strike.

When you're the studio engineer, and you ask the band's singer to do one take too many.

Kev
“I met his eyes for a second…  Filled with hate and fury…  But I couldn’t tell if it was some animal bloodlust…...or horror at what we have done to him.”  That’s pretty much the crux of this story, and Logan as a character really.


Dave
The Professor really is one cold calculating character, isn't he?  He favours science and logic over emotion, talking about the worker who was killed, "The boy’s relatives can be compensated."  This guy is a real psychopath.


Kev
The first panel on page three is excellent.  The use of the primary colours, the reds, blues and greens of Logan’s bonds and hair, as well as the green and orange of the caption boxes is very effective.  And yeh, you're right, the conversation within them, between Cornelius and The Professor, shows exactly how cold and heartless The Professor truly is.  Totally cold.  Heartless.


Dave
The detail put into that panel of Logan tied up is great.  Those large panels can be quite time consuming to draw, so to take this much attention shows how skilled an artist he is.


Kev
Totally.  I'm blown away by some of the level of detail Windsor-Smith crams into these panels.

"Trust, who do ya? Trust, what makes you a real lover? Trust, I put this question to ya cause I want you to be with me."

Dave
Yeah, and again those broken glass shards jutting in also.


Kev
The three panels that make up the top tier of page five are also fantastic.  They way they literally depict Cornelius being drawn further into the darkness by The Professor, to the point where his face is almost consumed by the shadows.  Superior storytelling.


Dave
The story is slowly moving forward, but the narrative is finally reaching the explanation point of what is really going on.  And today's lecture by The Professor is, "Did you know Wolverine is a mutant?"  Logan is really just an experiment to The Professor.  "A determinedly violent individual......pummeling his way through a purposeless life..."  That's a very harsh viewpoint to take on Logan.  The Professor is most definitely of the psychopathic/sociopathic trait, someone to use for his own ends.


Kev
Definitely.  His choice of words is really interesting.  To say that Logan has been "pummelling his way through life" is very particular.  Very evocative as well.  And perhaps not all that inaccurate, considering Logan's long history.  I do think that he's way off base with the idea of Logan having had a "purposeless life" though.


Dave
Logan is the original 'Treadstone' subject, way before Bourne came along.

 
Kev
Ah, that's a great point actually, yeh.  The Weapon program is like 'Treadstone +,' isn't it?


Dave
Does The Professor genuinely think he is freeing Logan from his demons by mass torture?


Kev
I don't think so, no.  I don't think The Professor sees Logan as anything other than a lab rat.


Dave
One thing is for sure, he is taking pleasure in this process of experimentation on Logan.  He's a sadist, to say the least.


Kev
Yeh, he's definitely sadistic, no doubt about that.


Dave
Those panels of Logan writhing in agony are superb.  They kind of make you feel uncomfortable reading those two pages.  It’s the tension subtly building up again.  The eruption of Wolverine rage.

The id,

ego

and super-ego.

Kev
Yeh, the old "beserker rage," eh?  It's impossible not to feel sympathy, and sorry for Logan here, as he tries desperately to free himself from his bonds.  Well, unless you're The Professor, of course, then you don't care about him at all.  The Professor is going all Nietzschean on us now, “Yet I see a man as ever he was.  But with his subconscious stripped bare…  Cut from his very soul…...and scored to the bone.”  And then he also goes all Freudian on us with, “The double ID is supplanted by the superego and all of Logan’s primal instincts are focused and resolved.”  That's a lot of psychoanalysis going on there.


Dave
A lot of his own projections as well, I think.  He still doesn't fully psychologically understand a complex individual like Logan.  Cornelius is the empathetic voice in this story.


Kev
He is indeed.  Especially after The Professor burns Logan just to put him down.  Which is a pity, considering Cornelius more or less just pledged his allegiance to The Professor.


Dave
I reckon The Professor was calmly awaiting Logan to make his move, knowing Cornelius would panic, and blast him with whatever that blast was, as proof of his healing abilities.


Kev
The Professor is certainly manipulating Cornelius at this point, definitely.


Dave
“...a mindless murdering animal," quotes The Professor, who seems to have no name.  Ironic really, ‘cause what is he if not the same?  Just hiding behind science and gadgets.  Windsor-Smith is going to great lengths to keep any backstory on The Professor hidden, as no other details are provided.  The Professor is going all full 'Treadstone' here, "Logan must be reconstructed now...trained...then programmed....manipulation of the mindless."  I agree, he is also manipulating Dr. Cornelius, digging him further down into this inescapable horror he is creating.

 
Kev
You're right about The Professor being just as dehumanised as Logan.  He has no empathy whatsoever.  And yeh, he's hiding all that behind his education, his status, and his profession as a scientist.  It's as if that somehow makes all his actions justifiable in his own mind.  This is becoming a very philosophical story actually, about what it is to be human and how we treat other human beings. 


Dave
True, Cornelius represents humanity, The Professor just represents inhumanity for the advancement of science.  "It's your calling."  Cornelius knows he has no choice, and The Professor knows this too.  He is probably realising he is a pawn, like Logan, just in a different way.  It's odd though, reading through this, just getting into the story, then it abruptly stops.  The last panel, on the second last page, of Logan lying there is a superb close up.

Logan's always had a way with the ladies.....because he's smokin' hot. I'll get my coat.

Kev
Absolutely.  There’s a strong suggestion of the Nazi experimentation programs here as well.  Not least with The Professor saying to Cornelius, “Manipulation of the mindless, Doctor Cornelius…  It is your calling.”  It's like he's comparing Cornelius to Joseph Goebbels, in that he can manipulate people into accepting the inhumane experiments that The Professor is carrying out on human beings.  As the Nazis themselves were.


Dave
​I like the wee touch of The Professor and Cornelius talking, with The Professor's hand on Cornelius' shoulder, in those first couple of panels on the last page.  Like two buddies just casually having a conversation.  Everything with The Professor is very calculated, he is a master manipulator.


Kev
Yeah, The Professor is definitely coercing and controlling Cornelius at this point.


Dave
What do you think of the shortness of these issues?


Kev
I'm loving it.  I can't express enough just how much I'm loving the pacing of this story.  And again, I think a lot of that has to do with the format it's been presented in.  I'm not sure I'd be so keen if I had to wait a whole month just to read another eight pages, like back in the day, but yeh, I'm loving how the story is slowly unfolding.


Dave
Yeah, it is unfolding at a good pace, and the narrative makes full use of this.

(D) & (K)

​Next: More torture porn.

Cobra Commander?!?!