Hi, folks… Brian, here! Today we have on deck a review of ‘Wolverine: Weapon X’ #2!  So, without further ado…

Wolverine: Weapon X #2
(mini-preview | threads)
“The Adamantium Men”- Part 2
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Ron Garney

We’ll be breaking this review down into a recap and then sum up with my thoughts. If you wish to avoid spoilers, then proceed to ‘Thoughts From A Human’s Point of View’.

SPOILERS BELOW…

We open our story in a meeting room at the San Francisco Post where investigative journalist Melita Garner makes a case to her editor for doing a story on Wolverine’s background since so little is known about him, much to the aggravation of a fellow reporter who’s already covering the X-Men beat. Her editor thinks that Wolverine is already overexposed as a public figure and wouldn’t be of much interest to the paper. Later on at home, Melita tries placing some calls to retrieve Logan’s military records, with no success. She then receives a mysterious phone call from someone warning her that she will get herself killed if she continues to dig and that Wolverine is only a smaller part of the picture. The caller tells her that she needs to set her sights on Blackguard, the same mercenary unit that Wolverine is after. With an abrupt click on the other end, Melita realizes that she has her story.

Meanwhile, Logan makes his way down to the Pacific Coast of Colombia, where he revisits a local drinking establishment he’s been to in the past. He drops a wad of money and buys drinks for the entire place. While acknowledging his own keen tracking senses, he opts to take a different strategy for locating the Blackguard unit by simply staying put and letting them come to him.

Hours later, Logan stumbles his way back to the hotel with a bottle in hand and a song on his lips. High above, two Blackguard soliders crouch in the branches of a tree, one of them aiming a high-powered rifle towards Logan’s room. The rifle is armed with three bullets designed to release 38 different kinds of cancer within the intended victim’s system. They figure it will at least slow him down. Jokingly, the two soldiers take bets as to which nostril of his nose they can shoot the bullet through, from their distance.

As the soldier takes aim he quickly realizes that his target is gone. The soldiers begin sniffing him out, as they are enhanced with similar tracking abilities as Logan. They lock onto the scent only to find Wolverine, suited up and ready, below them. He pops his claws and slashes at the tree, causing it to tip over. One of the soldiers falls right onto his claws, but continues to fight him off. Wolverine quickly uses his senses to size up his opponents’ capabilities…drug-induced animal-like senses, bionic implants giving them enhanced strength, artifically engineered techno-organic, nanite-induced healing factors, adamantium bones, and much to his dismay as he gets them shoved through his body…energy blades.

A long and fierce battle erupts between the three in the jungle. After a while, amidst spilled blood and fallen trees, Wolverine realizes that it’s inevitable that the two will go down. However, things take a turn for the worse as a dozen more soldiers like the ones he’s been fighting appear and surround him. Knowing his limitations, Wolverine breaks through the mercenary crowd and makes a tactical retreat into the wild. The soldiers fan out to look for him, not realizing that Wolverine has them right where he wants them…To Be Continued!

THOUGHTS FROM A HUMAN’S POINT OF VIEW: Jason Aaron delivers a great issue in this new series. The kid gloves are off as we now have our two opposing factions square off. The last half of this issue really has to go to the talents of Ron Garney as he gives us an especially brutal beginning to what will probably become a long and intense battle. Wolverine looks downright spooky with beady eyes, peering through shadows. The battle is so fierce, their jungle surroundings become decimated. You really get the sense that Wolverine will not have an easy fight on his hands. Aaron also does a great job with handling Wolverine as a strategic fighter who’s no longer willing to just throw himself into the thick of things without having a plan of action, hoping that his healing factor will make up for it.

The only part of this series that I’m still not completely sold on is the character of Melita Garner. The young, plucky reporter who will inevitably get in way over her head and most likely fall for Wolverine hasn’t exactly set my world on fire yet. But I’ll give Aaron the benefit of the doubt and see where he takes her.

All in all, a solid entertaining issue. If you haven’t jumped onboard with this series yet, do so!

Feel free to let me know how this review strikes you.  Share your opinion or your own review…