Barry Windsor Smith’s recent Wolverine story that provided a lot of details about his experiences in the Weapon X program, being changed into the adamantium-enhanced mutant we all know, was so influential and obviously great that, of course, it spawned a sequel.
It’s not as good, but it’s not bad.
Wolverine and Jubilee go to a hidden Weapon X facility in Canada, and along the way Wolverine has deja vu and flashbacks–pieces of his past. This time, they’re about having been partnered with another agent who looked an awful lot like Sabretooth.
Among other things, he finds out that someone named Shiva has key information to his past.
He returns to X-Mansion, where the Professor and Jean both scan him and tell him he has had false memories implanted, so there’s no way to know if any of it is real. Nice way for creators to write about Logan’s past without committing to anything.
Also, he puts on his brown costume.
He’ll wear both that and the yellow one in these three issues, signaling an “important” story.
He learns that SHIELD has a deep file on his past so, for his giant 50th issue, he invades the Helicarrier (on a motorcycle!) and confronts Nick Fury. Hydra is also involved, and they try to destroy the files before Logan can read them, but he is still able to determine that CIA was also involved in Weapon X.
I don’t really like this part. It means Canada wasn’t smart enough to have their own secret program. I don’t think the U.S. has to be responsible for everything.
Specifically, we are reintroduced to Hydra agent Silver Fox (no, it’s not an elderly hottie), who appears to also have been in the Weapon X program with Wolverine and Sabretooth. We
And his memories of the “cabin” from the first Weapon X arc are, apparently, implanted and false.
I say “appears” and “apparently” because it’s not clear to me how much of this is true, how much is just more “implanted” or fake history, and how much more is retconned later.
Issue #50 also reveals that the “Shiva” Wolverine has been tracking down for the whole story is actually a robot.
Which he destroys.
I want to say that a lot happens here, but it’s unclear how much is real and how much is false memories. And frankly, if we’re talking about files stolen from SHIELD, those could be false too.