Weapon X #5 Review and *SPOILERS* - Marvel Monday

The Big Promotion

Written By: Greg Pak
Art By: Marc Borstel, Frank D’Armata
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date:  July 12, 2017
Publisher: Marvel

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

*This review contains SPOILERS for the Weapons of Mutant Destruction storyline*

We are currently in the middle of the latest mini-crossover between Greg Pak’s books. In the latest part, it became incredibly obvious that these two books don’t really mesh very well. The new Hulk, Amadeus Cho, may be going through a rough time but he’s still a goody-two-shoes compared to the Weapon X team. Logan and his new gang of mutants are all killers which has led to some obvious tension between them and Amadeus. So much, in fact, that in the latest issue, Amadeus let a suspect go in order to stop Lady Deathstrike from killing him. I have a strange feeling that this is going to be a recurring theme in this storyline. Well, let’s jump into part 3 and see what we’ve got this week.

We begin our story in Texas where a young girl calls out to her parents saying that there is a mouse in the home. Her mother freaks out and pushes the child back in order to protect her. Her husband comforts the now crying child as the mother realizes she freaked out about a dead rat that was already caught in a trap. It is then made clear that this family doesn’t have the best home life as the mother seems to always be at work but they do still love each other. The mom heads off to work and it becomes obvious that she is one of the employees at the underground lab that is experimenting on these mutants. It turns out that her latest project has been creating cyborg rats that attack and kill mutants, hence her freaking out when she heard that a mouse was in her home.

We catch back up with Robert, the man who volunteered to be experimented on and just escaped from Hulk and Lady Deathstrike. He seems to be more devoted than ever to the cause now. We catch back up with Amadeus and Yuriko who inform the team about what happened on their mission. Once again, there is some tension due to the question of whether to kill or not. This is when Amadeus is able to give the information to the team about the Church of Human Potential and its leader—William Striker. After hearing it was him, Yuriko gave the team her knowledge of his church’s whereabouts. Domino and Warpath charge in and are immediately met by robots which they are able to take out rather quickly.

Meanwhile, Logan and Sabertooth track down the accountant responsible for Omnitex. This is the company whose missing inventory is being used to create the mutant killers. It doesn’t take long for Logan and Sabertooth to crack the man’s composure and he begins to talk. The scientists back at the underground lab get a notification and decide that they have to trigger a detonation to stop the man from talking. We see the mother from earlier is the one that has to manually take him out. The man dies immediately before he can give any information and the scientists decide they must trigger the detonation on all people connect to this man in order to protect their secrecy. However, this has the opposite effect and provides the last variable that Amadeus needs to find their location. It’s in Texas. We catch back up with the mother who reconciles with her husband and they make plans for the future before she goes back to work. Turns out that she is being promoted to a lower floor but when she gets there she is hit with an electric current which knocks her out and they throw her in the latest tank and begin their experiment. This is when the issue leaves us.

I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised with how much I’ve enjoyed this crossover despite it’s flaws, but I feel like the story has finally begun to drop for me. At this point, the underground lab has become so blatantly evil that I can’t even believe that they have people who sympathize with them. Like, we have hate groups in real life so I can believe that in a world with mutants that there would be a hate group against them, but these people have even begun torturing humans. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. In addition, it really felt like this issue was just our characters twiddling their thumbs until they get the information they need that will help them achieve their goals in the coming issues. Overall, it just felt like a filler episode but I did enjoy myself and the art was pretty good so I guess I’m still on board for this crossover.

Bits and Pieces

This issue mostly feels like a filler issue but there is plenty of enjoyable moments and some pretty good art to go with it. So while I did enjoy the comic, I have to admit that there are some problems that can’t go overlooked. The heroes kind of just sit around and the villains have become so evil that it is hard to believe that they actually exist (in the context of existing in a comic book that is…). Overall, the slow nature of this issue hasn’t spoiled this crossover for me yet.

6.5/10