Armageddon is the talk of Marvel Comics, and to help usher in this mysterious new event, Captain America scribe Chip Zdarsky pens a brand-new Wolverine mini-series that leads directly into the event. Joined by Luca Maresca and Jesus Aburtov, Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1 is the opening silo for the most intriguing event of the year.
Like many Wolverine stories, we begin with his past, in a run-down bar. Wolverine meets a woman, Teri O’Barnes, who at first seems to be hitting on him, but is in reality tracking him. She is revealed to be the mysterious link to how Weapon X was able to find their escaped mutant.
Years later, Wolverine encounters her again. But it’s a sign of how much he has grown as a character that Wolverine is able to forgive her. Despite the fact that he’s plagued by nightmares and on edge, he agrees to help Teri find a mutant named Tyler Torrens, who she believes has been abducted by a mysterious private company that is emulating Weapon X, called Primewarrior. Teri, guilt ridden from her experience with Wolverine, resolves now to help mutants, and wants to help Tyler.
Walking on Familiar Terrain
It’s a simple premise, and one that treads on familiar ground: Wolverine and new iterations of the Weapon X program are a well-worn story concept by now. Zdarsky is able to keep things moving at a quick pace however, with Wolverine and Teri getting to the hidden Primewarrior base within a page, finding it recovering from a fire. Tyler is missing and, as Wolverine and Teri sneak in, so is a mysterious box that the project leads seem to place as a higher priority than even their missing, enhanced mutant.
Of course, Wolverine and Teri don’t go undiscovered for long; Primewarrior’s private military backers send a force to retrieve Tyler and the missing box, although it is unknown whether the box is with Tyler at all or with whoever raided the base and freed him. One of the people tasked with retrieving the box is a familiar face to Wolverine and Daredevil fans: Nuke. Just as Wolverine and Teri encounter the man who seems to have freed Tyler from Primewarrior; a character well known to those who have been following Zdarsky’s Captain America.
And so, the mini-series begins. Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1 is mostly an issue that establishes the story and sets up the pieces, and it does so effectively, if not entirely originally. Chip Zdarsky possesses a good understanding of Wolverine’s voice, able to balance his sense of maturity and empathy with his harder, more brutal self that comes out in moments of trauma and injustice.
The older, more mature Teri is a nice partner for Wolverine in this issue, having history with him in a way that feels significant, but not overwritten. Primewarrior isn’t the most original concept, but the Origin Box and the mysterious attacker provide more meat to the story.
Art Clash
The issue is drawn by Luca Maresca, whose clean style suits the story well. Jesus Aburtov provides the colors, and it is here where the issue suffers somewhat; the coloring style and the art don’t seem to mesh quite as neatly as they should, and while cover art (in this case, provided by Leinil Francis Yu) isn’t always complementary to the interior art, one can’t help by feel like the coloring choices made with the cover would suit the interior art for this story better.
Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1 is a simple but effective Wolverine tale. Readers excited for Armageddon might be a bit disappointed by the familiarity of this story; it is a classic Wolverine tale. But it is well told, and there is enough mystery in the strange box, as well as in the presence of certain other figures from Marvel that lend this comic intrigue. The art is competent, though the colors don’t quite mesh with the pencils.
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Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1
Wolverine: Weapons of Armageddon #1 is a simple but effective Wolverine tale. Readers excited for Armageddon might be a bit disappointed by the familiarity of this story; it is a classic Wolverine tale. But it is well told, and there is enough mystery in the strange box, as well as in the presence of certain other figures from Marvel that lend this comic intrigue. The art is competent, though the colors don’t quite mesh with the pencils.
