Barry Windsor-Smith created the definitive story of Wolverine for many with Weapon X, and now Panini Comics collects it in a stunning Marvel Gallery edition.
If we had to pick the best character in Marvel Comics, it would undoubtedly be Wolverine. Now, thanks to Panini Comics, we can enjoy a fantastic edition of perhaps the most underrated story (although someone like Mark Millar might have something to say about it), and it comes to us under the title of Marvel Gallery Issue 1: Weapons. X.
Wolf, the mysterious man
Although the year Introduced in the mid-1970s as a no-nonsense villain in the popular Hulk comics (by Lane Wayne, John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe), the character of Wolverine soon gained popularity thanks to his natural demeanor. It mostly depends on his bad temper and mysterious aura (and his adamatium claws, of course).
And not only did Logan’s memory problem not remember his childhood or his age, he didn’t even know where the skeleton that turned him into a truly badass mutant came from. Over the years, many of the gaps in this Canadian life have been partially filled in, and this volume is one more piece in the puzzle.
The story of In the early 1990s, author Barry Windsor-Smith was gifted with absolute creative freedom to create a Wolverine story about how he became a weapon of mass destruction. For this, the Weapon X project had to come to light.
Man, Mutant, Device
This is the story of what Wolverine is, and it’s not a pretty story. Life comes from pain, and this mutant is activated by what will become his new self. Weapon patient.
But the intended change is not only physical but also mental. If you can’t hold the device comfortably, what’s the point? And maybe that’s where the scientists got it wrong and sparked the bloodshed that comes from Logan’s Escape (no relation to the movie starring Michael York).
Although at first it seems like we’re dealing with a story about Wolverine searching for his past to explain everything he’s forgotten, we’re left with more questions than answers. But that’s the leitmotif of the character, right?
Barry Windsor-Smith and El Terrible Vacuum
But if this story has left its mark on something, it is not in what it says, but in the way it works. Barry Windsor-Smith unleashes all of his skills on these pages, whether it’s to create a very claustrophobic atmosphere when he’s playing or to get his claws out when it’s time to make the blood jump out of the panels.
It challenges the modern reader with a very different narrative in which he seems to have no place to put everything he wants in each vignette, constantly playing with point of view and demanding and exhausting reading (there is something especially familiar about the time frames of the two lines. They run parallel) than was popular in dynamic comics at the time. It’s out.
Sometimes the extreme violence and overuse of technological elements with us have some oriental influences that work wonderfully in this case. And all the warm and cool tones are filled with color that constantly mixes, creating a shocking sense of anger and psychosis that will be admired every time we see the face of our punished protagonist.
This edition is suitable to fully enjoy all these aspects due to its large size and the quality of the materials used. There’s no better way to enjoy The Wolverine Escape than with this volume in your hands.
Published in hardcover by Panini Comics, it contains 200 color pages measuring 23.5 x 33 cm. And the US edition includes issues #72 through #84 of Marvel Comics Presents, #205 The Uncanny X-Men, and material from #166 of The Wolverine, plus covers and episodes of the included issues. Additional material at the end. It has a recommended retail price of €40 and goes on sale in April 2023.
Marvel Gallery Issue 1: Logo X
Weapons X Edition like you’ve never seen it has been restored from the original pages!
A saga that dares to tell for the first time the most amazing moment in Wolverine’s life.
The incomparable Barry Windsor-Smith writes and draws the essential story of a mysterious conclave of mutants that turns Logan into the murderous weapon we all know.
Authors: Frank Thierry, Barry Windsor Smith and Chris Claremont.