Marvel Comics Presents #72-84 (1991): Weapon X

This is the famous Barry Windsor Smith Weapon X story, which tells the origin story of Logan being captured by the Canadians and turned into a living weapon.  It’s really good, really well known.

We see that he was an agent for what appears to be the Canadian equivalent of the FBI but was kicked off the force for being too violent, which is what led to him being selected for the Weapon X project.

He wasn’t a volunteer–he was kidnapped, taken, and forced into the experiment. Interestingly, they had no idea he was a mutant. They also didn’t know he had clawbones in his wrists, but the adamantium marrow infusion causes them to pop out.

Logan proves himself to be uncontrollable, breaks out, and goes feral–stalking and killing the doctors and soldiers, one by one.

Cool.

This was the first story to add details to Logan’s backstory.

As I recall, Chris Claremont was against it–believing he should remain mysterious.

Wolverine is catatonic for most of the story, and so it is narrated by the three scientists in charge of the project.

The Weapon X is incredibly violent and dark. It was a strange call for editorial to put it in an anthology series that, up to now, has been mostly harmless and inconsequential.

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