Weapon X

by Marc Cerasini

Book Overview

The Story of Weapon X. Before joining the X-Men, Wolverine was simply a directionless loner mutant named Logan. Weapon X isn't just another story about the Wolverine you know and love. It's the cruel... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141652164X
• ISBN13: 9781416521648
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Pocket Star Books
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.3" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

Being a fan of Wolverine for over twenty years I loved this book. I love how it took the original story and went more in depth with it. Explaining how they actually turned him into a living weapon that they couldn't control. I really liked how they went in depth on the scientists past and how they ended up working on Logan. Hopefully the people involved in the new Wolverine movie use this story for inspiration.

Probably the best X-Men novelization out there...

Wolverine: Weapon X by Marc Cerasini is a delicious read, whether or not you've read the seminal Barry Windsor-Smith version (if you haven't and you're a Wolverine fan, shame on you, it's ISBN # 0785100334. Treat yourself, you'll be glad you did). If you haven't read the Weapon X graphic novel, then this is a rare opportunity for you, a chance to see how Logan was forced to have his Adamantium skeleton. If you have read the BWS version, then prepare to be delighted by tons of new detail. Without giving away much of the plot, the story begins with Logan between government spy jobs, down on his luck, and hiding out. But what little luck he does have evaporates when he is captured by a secret Canadian organization. Soon he's undergoing hellish surgery and experiments, designed to completely change who he is inside and out. The writing is very well executed, the plot fast, and the imagery intriguing. There is a sub story about Logan back from his spy days that is completely unique to this novel, so even if you think you know all there is to know about everyone's favorite Canadian mutant, check this one out anyway. It's got enough new things to keep regular X-Men readers happy, and is well told enough that a newcomer to X-Men and Wolverine would not be lost. Not recommended for children as there is reference to sexual abuse and torture. But recommended to everyone else as a fine addition to your library.

Myostatin Blocking Enzymes Aren't Fiction

Although I rarely read comics, I was somewhat familiar with the back story of Woverine before picking up Wolverine: Weapon X, and really enjoyed Cerasini's take on the events. I especially liked how he took certain things into consideration regarding the adamantium bonding process which had always bothered me (an explanation of how they were able to bond the metal to the bone without interrupting important biological processes - sorry, you'll have to read it to find out). Something readers might find interesting is that the myostatin blocking enzymes used to enhance Wolverine's muscularity are not fiction. Although the "myostatin blockers" advertised in bodybuilding magazines are bogus, there are real drugs for blocking myostatin currently undergoing clinical testing for FDA approval, and scientists are already capable of altering genes to block myostatin production. A search for Sejin Lee (one of the main scientists involved) and myostatin will turn up some interesting reading for those who want to know more about just how muscular a person (or mutant in this case) can become when myostatin production is blocked.

WARNING: This is not your little brothr's X-men

For reasons I won't get into, I was skeptical of this novel at first, but I quickly became a fan. Why? The typical prose novel based on a superhero is simplistically YA in its prose style, tame in its content, and formulaic in approach. This one is none of the above. It is a stunning and disturbing modern horror story. It's also dead brilliant, and it is not for children (or anyone who has absolutely no knowledge of Wolverine beyond the Hollywood movies). From the surreal first page of Wolverine: Weapon X, even the first sentence, you know you're not in your little brother's world of formulaic superheroes. Cerasini starts by giving us Logan's intense, fractured point-of-view, as he drifts in and out of consciousness at the start of the story. What we are reading are splinters of Logan's present, past, and the fractured wanderings of his mind trying to make sense of what's happening to him at the start of the drama. No sentence or idea in this first chapter is thrown away. The language and disturbing rantings have been carefully wrought, laced with meaning and metaphor based on Logan's long history. (The Earth's water cycle, for instance, is clearly a reference to Logan's own eternal warrior back story, which, yes indeed, has been explored in previous Wolverine graphic novels published by Marvel.) This book, which was also published by Marvel Press in hardcover, is based on Marvel's own Barry Windsor-Smith graphic novel of the same name (Wolverine: Weapon X). This story is just one chapter in the very long history of the mutant named Logan, whose transformation into Wolverine was a century-long process. Wolverine: Weapon X is an "origin story" in the sense that it informs us how Logan came to gain his adamantium skeleton. As you'll see by the end of this book, what Logan goes through solidifies more than his skeleton. Like Windsor-Smith's original graphic novel, Cerasini taps into the deadly dark anti-hero tradition (begun in comics by the greats - Alan Mooore and Frank Miller). The story opens when Logan (a down and out, ex-Canadian special forces solider) is kidnapped and taken to a remote Canadian laboratory where technicians begin their experiments on him under the direction of a disturbingly driven genius (the professor). The original graphic novel never explains why the professor had this done, or who the technicians were that would choose to participate in Logan's excruciating transformation. Cerasini fills in these blanks, painting each minor character with disturbing clarity and realism, showing us their back story and what brought them to a point in their lives when they would agree to serve the professors ends in this way. We also find out why this enigmatic (and utterly creepy) professor chose to transform Logan (the reason does not disappoint). The plotline faithfully follows Windsor-Smith's graphic novel while exploring it in ingenious ways (thus constantly surprising and intriguing this reader). This is dark, fierce

A Great Sci-fi Evil Doctor's Novel

I Thought that this was a really good book. It explained alot of what had happened to Logan, and what they did to him. The book really makes you think, and the science in the book really helped me remember things for my biology test by associating all the boring facts with a really interesting book.