Wolverine Origins #33 "Weapon XI" Part 1

[Mark Caringer]

post any questions and comments below

[Megalictis]

Mark, thank you for creating these video reviews! They look great!

Overall I really enjoyed the story in this issue, and especially the art by Braithwaite and Reinhold. (Page 2 panel 2 - tell me that's not Clint Eastwood!) I think on the big points of the story (the purpose of Weapon X, the plan for Daken, the manipulation of the Hudsons) Way dropped a lot of cards on the table, which felt realy satisfying after so long.

Many of the pieces revealed fit into place and made perfect sense:

Romulus didn't just discover Logan and shape him - he planned Wolverine's birth! So many of the women in Wolverine's life have been Romulus' pawns, but now we learn that it started with his mother!

Wolverine wasn't merely selected as the most promising candidate for the Weapon X Program - it was always about him! Romulus "made" him as a virtually-unkillable weapon, but using Weapon X he upgraded that weapon to be able to kill superhumans. Then Romulus lost control of that weapon thanks to Charles Xavier.

The Muramasa blade is the key to making Daken an even better weapon. By bonding that metal to his claws he would become capable of killing even a virtually-unkillable weapon, like Logan. And letting Daken join Osborne's Avengers is all part of Romulus' plan to get the blade out in the open so he can take it. (It is still unclear if Romulus and Muramasa were cooperating or if Romulus merely took advantage of the blade's existence).

This would have been a terriffic issue (and it was still very good despite it's flaws) but then Way reached too far in trying to tie all the pieces together. I was disappointed by the glaring flaw in the consistency of continiuty, both inside and outside Way's overall narrative. The explanation of the Hudson connection works to a point, and that point is the birth of Frederick MacDonald-Hunson. After that the timeline becomes impossible and Way's logic escapes me.

I can buy that Wolverine's mom's maiden name is Hudson.

I have no problem with the idea that Elais Hudson ran the Hudson Bay company and his brother Frederick Hudson ran the camp that trained the Devil's Brigade, and that they're both Wolverine's uncles.

I can buy the idea that Romulus is controlling the Hudson family.

I can even live with the idea that the same Frederick Hudson ("Uncle Fred") is somehow still running that camp by the time Daken is old enough to be trained there... even though that would make him about a century old! Since Daken was born at Jasmine Falls at least five years after WWII - so no earlier than the early than the early 1950's - it would have been around 1970 or so by the time Daken was there. That's where Way's timeline falls apart.

Caitlyn MacDonald was Frederick Hudson's secretary and mistress at the training compound but she left just before Daken murdered Hudson, which would have been around 1970. According to issue #33 Caitlyn's son, Frederick II died in a bar fight at age 30, (that would be the year 2000 or later) leaving three sons by three mothers: Truett Hudson, Victor Hudson, and James (MacDonald) Hudson. Even if we assumed Frederick had fathered all three boys by age 18 (around 1988) they would just be entering their 20's today!

So, unless time travel is involved, those three sons can't possibly be the same Professor of Weapon X (previously revealed to be named Andre Thornton, who gained Nathaniel Essex's notes from a Nazi concentration camp in WWII), or James MacDonald Hudson (Vindicator of Alpha Flight who ran Dept. H and was on his honeymoon when Wolverine escaped Weapon X), and that blind guy whipping Daken back in issue #15.

The only "no-prize" explanation for this issue that makes any sense is that Fury screwed-up or lied about part of the Hudson geneology, and Logan didn't catch it or pretended not to notice.

[evolution]

Have you read: Issues #26 & 27, maybe that will be helpful.

It tells you how old Daken is and when he first came to the camp where he trained under Mr. Burr.

[Mark Caringer]

mega your awesome, your knowledge amazing me. its good to see you back on too, its been awhile.

well it looks like once again marvel has a few mistakes in their history, but overall i enjoyed the way Way fits all this history together and tries to make it work, evne though their are a few flaws.