WEAPON X: THE DRAFT - WILD CHILD #1
"Shock the Monkey"
Not Recommended (2/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Matt Nixon
Pencils: Ethan Van Sciver
Inks: Norm Rapmund
Colors: Hi-Fi Design
Letters: Paul Turtrone
Editor: Mike Marts
Price: $2.25 US/$3.75 CAN |
I honestly didn't know what to expect from this series of Weapon X one-shots (leading up to the launch of a new Weapon X series in September). THe writer behind it all is regular Wolverine scribe Frank Tieri, though, and I haven' cared much for what he's been doing on that title. There's certainly some potential in the premise, but that potential isn't realized here. Nixon's story doesn't go far enough to fill the reader in on the characters' histories, and the exaggerated art misses the mark.
The Weapon X project is "recruiting" a new wave of mutants, and it sends the feral young mutant known as Wild Child to snatch a new recruit. His target: Aurora, Wild Child's one-time Alpha Flight teammate. Getting the shapely speedster out of the insane asylum in which she was imprisoned proves to be relatively simple, but bringing her back to the Weapon X facility is a far greater task... mainly due to the special place the woman holds in the misshapen mutant's heart.
Van Sciver's work runs hot and cold for me, and here, I'm downright chilly. I think the problem stems from the inks, though. Rapmund's style tends to be loose and exaggerated, and Van Sciver's detailed style calls for tighter, more focused inks. Another problem is that I care nothing for the design of the title character... and I use the term "design" in the loosest sense of the word. Wild Child is obviously meant to put us in mind of the title character of the classic horror film Nosferatu, which is prominent today thanks to the recent John Malkovich/Willem Dafoe film, Shadow of the Vampire. I realize that the creators were going for monstrous here, but it would have better had they developed their own monster. Wild Child's appearance consistently took me out of the story.
This is one of two such one-shots being released this week, and just in case someone is curious, the Sauron book is the better starting point, as it spells out the premise much more clearly. Overall, while I love the art of J.H. (Promethea) Williams III, I don't care for the covers on these books at all. However, the problem doesn't lie with the art (though something more than a simple profile image of a character or two would have been nice), but with the design. The title of the book is never made clear; it looks almost as though the books are the same comic, albeit with different covers.
For this story to work at all, the reader has to be familiar with Wild Child's history, as well as those of Weapon X and Aurora. Mind you, I'm up to date on most of those elements, and the story still failed to hold my attention. The plot is derivative, and there are a number of distractions in the art and script (a place called "the Manitoba Psychiatric Hospital for Women" would be in the Canadian province of Manitoba, not Ontario, yes?).
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