Feeling Unengaged With Weapon X #26
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Sabretooth awakens in a hospital, immeasurably sick and with his head stitched on his shoulders. He can’t remember the last time he was sick thanks to his healing factor. A nurse arrives, and she is revealed to be one of the Morlocks that Sabretooth killed when he worked for Mister Sinister. She tells Victor that he is in Hell. He’s not sure he believes her, and he stumbles from his bed to find his son, Graydon Creed, in the bed near his. Meanwhile, Deadpool is stuck doing stand-up with his feet nailed to the floor and Domino heckling him from the audience. Weapon X is in Hell, and they are going to have to find their own way out.
Weapon X is a comic I’ve had a very mixed relationship with since it came out of the initial ResurrXion lineup. I love the members of the team, but the stories and, at times, artists have kept me from falling in love with the book itself.
I had hopes when it was turned into an outright X-Villains book after Omega Red joined, but even that lost me before long.
Weapon X #26 leaves me with a similar batch of mixed feelings. I didn’t mind Sabretooth turning into a devil-may-care mercenary anti-hero type, but turning the dangerous killer into a goofy team leader was a strange change for Victor. It reaches peak goofy here, and he seems to have lost all sense of self-awareness.
I thoroughly dislike Deadpool as a character, so his bit in this didn’t really do anything for me.
Victor willing to do anything to save Graydon is the strongest aspect of the comic, as it is the only time any of the characters seem to have any genuine emotional investment in what is going on. Beyond that, the story reads like a confused and unfocused mess.
Luca Pizzari and Roberto di Salvo do a decent job of rendering the tale, and there is something to be said about how disgusting and sickly Victor looks in the opening pages of the comic. The slight shift in styles is a little distracting at the midway point, but the two aesthetics still compliment each other for the most part. There is a strange adherence to the nine-panel layout throughout the comic, and it doesn’t really do anything for the book.
Frank D’Armata’s color work is solid here, if a little unexciting.
Weapon X #26 is a rather unsatisfying issue. The characters range from aloof to outright distracted from the threat at hand. I didn’t find myself emotionally invested in anything that happens. The nine-panel layout comes off more like a gimmick than anything beneficial to the narrative. Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this one and suggest giving it a pass.
Weapon X #26 comes to us from writers Greg Pak and Fred van Lente, artists Luca Pizzari and Roberto di Salvo, color artist Frank D’Armata, letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna, and cover artist Rahzzah.