Weapons of Mutant Destruction

by Greg Pak

[Quirky Cat]

3 1/2 Stars

I read Weapons of Mutant Destruction as single issues through Marvel Unlimited.

Weapons of Mutant Destruction is another one of those volumes that collects issues from multiple events and plots. In this case it pulls from one event, and two series. For those of us that aren’t reading it in true volume form (like say if you were reading it on Marvel Unlimited) the reading order goes like this: Weapons of Mutant Destruction Alpha 1, Totally Awesome Hulk 20, Weapon X 5, Totally Awesome Hulk 21, Weapon X 6, and finally Totally Awesome Hulk 22.
Also, there are a good number of heroes mixing in together here that you’d probably never expect to see working together. Most of them are mutants, which makes sense given the plot. Included in this team-up we have Wolverine, Totally Awesome Hulk (the one non-mutant of the ‘team’), Lady Deathstrike, Sabretooth, Warpath, and Domino.



If you have any idea what Weapon X is about, then you’ve probably got a good idea of what is going to happen in this volume. Still, the team-up alone and its dynamics would probably make it worth reading as well. With this many characters involved odds are that there’s at least one character you care about showing up, right?
If you don’t know the Weapon X plot, there are a few basics you should know. The Church of human Potential has been actively working on ways to kill all the mutants. They don’t much care if they’re innocent, children, elders, or any of that. They basically see all mutants as being subhuman, and therefore worthy of extinction. It’s some pretty sick stuff, to say the least. Anyway, they apparently don’t have any problems with taking in humans (volunteers, supposedly) and adding mutant DNA and doing other modifications to turn them into weapons. Apparently that’s acceptable, since it’s for the greater good or some such BS. Like I said, it’s pretty messed up.
So my first impression when reading the Weapons of Mutant Destruction issue was…why on earth is a secure facility like the Weapon X program allowing the pizza boy inside? I don’t know about most places, but I work in a facility that’s secure (but not nearly as much as this place, obviously) and we don’t let pizza guys past the front door. Somebody at the door will sign for the food and deliver it internally. Or the person ordering would meet the pizza guy outside. The idea of this pizza guy making it all the way to the most secure parts of the lab…it makes my skin crawl. Also, there is no tip worth going through that hell. Sorry, but it’s true.
Once Hulk gets attacked by these very fanatics (with poor security, if I may say so) it doesn’t take long for him to track down the team already working on handling the problem. You can probably guess who that is. While they’re all more than willing to kill everyone behind this, Cho puts his foot down firmly on the subject. It leads to a whole lot of conflict. I honestly don’t ever see their relationship being repaired after everything is said and done. The truth of the matter is these teams work very differently, and it was foolish to expect otherwise. It reminds me of all the team-ups Batman has done, and how he always expects everybody to follow his orders and rules, even though that wouldn’t work against people who don’t recognize his authority.
I’ll confess that I really wanted to like this plot. I thought the combination of characters here would be really interesting, and therefore I was looking forward to it. Still, there were times where I found it lackluster. It had potential – the labs and experiments were super creepy, and the Bobby plot was gut wrenching. I think the problem is I just don’t have respect for any crossover mutant combinations. I mean, a Hulk/Wolverine mutant? Uck. Talk about overpowered. When they put too much effort into something like that it’s hard to respect it. On the bright side it was interesting seeing the different failures for said attempts, if just a little bit gross.


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