Weapon X #19 Review (Positive)

[Silver Fang]

This wasn't as good as chapter 18, imo, but it was still a good read. Now to get complaints out. We still suffer from some cringey dialogue from Sabretooth doing memes during the Titanium Soldier fight. Could've done without that. in addition to him still acting like he's never been a leader before. Next is the complain of Warpath saying Wolverine has the strongest healing factor this side of Hulk. I believe Deadpool & Sabretooth were stated & shown to have better healing factors that his. So like the Criticize thread, his capabilities are getting overdone here.

And the story can still come off cliche, and corny at times. But again, still much better than what we got in chapters 2-17. lol Along with the Awesome Hulk crossovers & the Weapons of Mutant Destruction one-shot.

Now that complaints are out of the way.

spoilers:

We did get some character work continued. We see the preview pages of course. Omega Red briefs Creed on the mission the voice in his head assigned him. He has to kill the general of the titanium army. Sabretooth does not want to start a senseless fight. We get a good moment where he empathizes with Red as someone who's been experimented on and mind-controlled before. He explains everyone on his team has gone through it, so that's why they understand & could help him. We hear the voice in Red's head again, and it's revealed to be his brother. After hearing that Red is starting to move away from his target, his brother threatens him. He can sense the tiger Red is holding, and if he disobeys, they will contract every muscle in his body. He'll kill his beloved pet, and die a painful death himself. Red asks Creed to hold the tiger, which he does before Red goes on to attack. Creed yells for him not to, but he's discovered by soldiers as well and most fight. The fight scene was very well done. But again, the meme dialogue was cringing. After defeating some of the soldiers, Creed picks the cub back up and tells it they need to find Red before he does something stupid. We cut to Warpath getting Omega's former victims loaded onto the ship where he plans to get them somewhere safe. Entering the cockpit, he finds Logan dozing. Warpath wonders what's up with him, and Logan says he's just old. His healing factor has been weak since around the time he made Sabretooth the leader. Warpath thinks that's why he lost his mind & put Creed in charge. Logan thinks Creed can be fine if he's not constantly treated like a villain, but Warpath protests he is a villain and can't be trusted. Logan says that will be for Warpath to decide once he's gone. Book seems to be setting up for Old Logan's death. But hard to believe them killing him off in this series off all things. Back at the concentration camp, Red continues his fight with the General, before Domino & Deathstrike come in. Red curses at the X-Men, and Yuriko is pissed at being called a disgusting name like that. The General is finally revealed to be a mutant. She was hiding her true self and trying to change the anti-mutant gov. from the inside. Sabretooth steps in to stop the fight and talk to her about them working together since they're all in the same boat. They hate SICKLE, and SICKLE hates her since they sent Red to assassinate her. If she can provide a ship, they can all try to take down SICKLE, and get revenge on Red's brother, like he promised Red.Domino conveys all this to Yuriko, who can't keep up with the Russian. Domino is pissed because Sabretooth is talking about doing all this for free, noting that she can't get a break with the group. Omega Red tells Creed that his brother has control of him, and will kill him if he doesn't kill his target. So Creed puts the plan into action of removing the nanobots, with Yuriko's help. Warpath phones Domino, not liking how they left things last chapter & also to get a status update. Domino explains everything, including helping Omega Red, and their plan to go after SICKLE. Warpath thinks it's crazy and could cause the deaths of many. Creed says if he can't beat them to join them. Finally, Warpath declares to Creed that he's going to beat him once & for all.

end of spoilers

So again, a decent read. Sabretooth's characterization still isn't great given the cringey "hip" dialogue. But at least he is trying to be a more serious leader that empathizes with the others, and tries to talk things out first if he can see they have all gone through the same struggles. Domino is still flawed as well with her only motivation being money. But she is a bit more serious, rather than being the ditsy party girl unaware of her surroundings like she was before. She lost some of her ditz factor, but still has the Mr. Krabs money love. An improvement, but like Sabretooth, still eh.

Also nice we may have seen our final Weapon X-Force team member this chapter. MUCH better than it being Mystique. So if this is our new member, I am fine with that.

Warpath has now overstayed his welcome for me. Sabretooth & Deathstrike are both questionable in the character, yet Creed is the one he's gone out of his way to hate on. And I am hoping the solicits aren't lying, and that Sabretooth really is gonna kick him off the team, with the other sided against him as well. He's due for some humbling.

[Mr Abductor]

I honestly couldn't take the Sabretooth dialogue.

[Filthy Mutie]

...is Omega Red's "brother" a callback to Remender's Super Omega Bros.? Is it Soul Skinner? Or... did I miss Omega Red having a brother over the years?

[akiresu_]

Look, I like most of it. But that page, with "I can haz cheeseburger" sours it all. The rest of the issue could have been stellar and it'd still be one of the worst comics I've ever read. That was an absolutely disgusting attempt at humour and it failed so miserably. I felt genuine pain and offence reading that.

Pak is constantly surprising me in how he is clearly a talented writer, with some incredible work under his belt (and appears to be a very likable dude, personally), who just makes some of the most bizarre and, frankly, awful decisions with his storytelling.

But, really, how did that get past editorial? This is some poor, poor writing. If I saw it in someone's fanfiction I'd consider it dreadful, but in a damn big two comic book? Ridiculous.

[Silver Fang]

I honestly couldn't take the Sabretooth dialogue.

Yeah. Again, that's still a weak point with some of his dialogue. Far as his characterization, nothing beats the "yo mama" joke to Warpath from chapter 17. Along with his "Yo, to me my Weapon X team! You don't let someone take your leader!" Nothing has been as bad as that!

But this was getting close. The fight worked better without Pak (or Van Lente) trying to thrown the meme deal in.

Some of their attempts as meme and "hip dialogue for the young generation" falls utterly flat whenever they do it. They need to stop with the gimmick memes, and let the characters be the old-schoolers they are. No tween dialogue, with Sabretooth having a smart phone, an online dating profile, using twitter, and texting emojis. No more Domino acting like a frat girl.

[Filthy Mutie]

Look, I like most of it. But that page, with "I can haz cheeseburger" sours it all. The rest of the issue could have been stellar and it'd still be one of the worst comics I've ever read. That was an absolutely disgusting attempt at humour and it failed so miserably. I felt genuine pain and offence reading that.

Pak is constantly surprising me in how he is clearly a talented writer, with some incredible work under his belt (and appears to be a very likable dude, personally), who just makes some of the most bizarre and, frankly, awful decisions with his storytelling.

But, really, how did that get past editorial? This is some poor, poor writing. If I saw it in someone's fanfiction I'd consider it dreadful, but in a damn big two comic book? Ridiculous.

It immediately made me think of Juggernaut from X3.

[Tazpocalapse]

I liked this issue i really liked the little twist that the officer Red was ordered to kill was a mutant herself complicating the matter a little more.

[Park Slope Pixie]

No. Instant-fail. The corny meme speak is dated as fuuuuck. A Tom Selleck reference would have less musty scent than this .

[Drakeon]

Yeah, another terrible issue.

Art looked nice but the dialogue kills the book

[King_Thor13]

Blargh this was bad again. Can somebody please save Domino + the adorable tiger cub from this subpar title? Hella cringey dialogue and the plot feels clunky. Really hope that mutant general doesn't join the team either cos that'd be stupid as hell. Damn it I just want proper X-Force back.

[Silver Fang]

Blargh this was bad again. Can somebody please save Domino + the adorable tiger cub from this subpar title? Hella cringey dialogue and the plot feels clunky. Really hope that mutant general doesn't join the team either cos that'd be stupid as hell. Damn it I just want proper X-Force back.

Sadly, this will have to drop down to 110th place to be considered for cancellation. I think it was said the book peaked at 82nd place, but has been steadily dropping. It's the lowest selling team book currently, and many don't seem to give it much thought when listing or talking about the X-Books.

I don't know if it's still around because it's gonna finish the end of this year, and lead all the characters into something else. Or if this is just the book for characters that nobody else can, or wants, to do anything with.

I liked these last 2 chapters, but don't think they're great by any means. 18 and 19 were improvement over everything else Pak wrote for these characters throughout his run with them, but it's got to improve a bit more. Otherwise, I am still waiting for when we don't see it in solicits, like Generation X #88. Then we know it's been axed.

I'd rather Ed Brisson be writing Sabretooth. Or for Bunn to get him back. I think Bunn did a better Domino too for the short time she was in Mercs for Money. Warpath has also been saved, since he's going to Astonishing. And Old Logan is almost out too. But Creed, Domino, and Yuriko are still stuck in here. Again, I suppose the characters nobody else wanted.

[Thievery]

I thought that the comic was all right, but not as good as the last two issues.
I think that the attempt to make the dialogue sound hip and funny is a way to keep Weapon X from reading like a complete misery fest. Just a guess on my part. But I think that if you are going to use this line up of characters, you should probably tone down the comedy and embrace your group of killers doing what they do best. Except for Domino of course. Just my opinion.


As for Creed's dialogue, I view it as a way to take some of the rough edge off of Creed, and make him seem more like a likable leader, and less of a bastard. Again just a guess on my part.

[Mr Abductor]

Sadly, this will have to drop down to 110th place to be considered for cancellation. I think it was said the book peaked at 82nd place, but has been steadily dropping. It's the lowest selling team book currently, and many don't seem to give it much thought when listing or talking about the X-Books.

I don't know if it's still around because it's gonna finish the end of this year, and lead all the characters into something else. Or if this is just the book for characters that nobody else can, or wants, to do anything with.

I liked these last 2 chapters, but don't think they're great by any means. 18 and 19 were improvement over everything else Pak wrote for these characters throughout his run with them, but it's got to improve a bit more. Otherwise, I am still waiting for when we don't see it in solicits, like Generation X #88. Then we know it's been axed.

I'd rather Ed Brisson be writing Sabretooth. Or for Bunn to get him back. I think Bunn did a better Domino too for the short time she was in Mercs for Money. Warpath has also been saved, since he's going to Astonishing. And Old Logan is almost out too. But Creed, Domino, and Yuriko are still stuck in here. Again, I suppose the characters nobody else wanted.

You know if this book gets cancelled in the 20s they probably won't revive it or bring something like it again later on, meaning we probably won't see Sabretooth in a lead position any time soon. If this thing can get past issue 30 Marvel might continue it again later along the line though.

However if this book does get cancelled before so, the only way i can think of it coming back is if the new Wolverine solo does really well and garners a spin off like Weapon X again, but in all honesty the Wolvie solo book only needs to sell more than 20k to get a family of books going lool Black Panther and Deadpool pretty much constantly sell in the 20ks and can get minis,ongoings and spin offs going...

[Silver Fang]

You know if this book gets cancelled in the 20s they probably won't revive it or bring something like it again later on, meaning we probably won't see Sabretooth in a lead position any time soon. If this thing can get past issue 30 Marvel might continue it again later along the line though.

I'm fine with that, because Pak Sabretooth isn't one I wanna see anywhere else. And if this book runs too long, then his version of Creed may be the one we get stuck with.

Sabretooth wasn't in a lead position when Bunn, Brisson, and Duggan were writing him. But those were the Creeds I wanted to see more of. The one Tamaki seems to be writing in Claws of A Killer is good.

But I am tired of Pak & Van Lente's frat boy Sabretooth. These last chapters are good for this series. In fact, chapter 18 was the first and only issue I bought. But hardly the best Creed we've gotten. Pak's Sabretooth is too silly, and immature in a loser frat boy (who thinks he's cool) way.

If you're familiar with the old Doug cartoon, Pak's Sabretooth is basically Roger Klotz. lol
Roger_Klotz.jpg
Roger was a loser who thought he was cooler & tougher than what he was. He was a wannabe bully, that even most of the kids younger than him weren't scared of. He was more annoying than intimating, and showed to be a joke on many occasions.

[Mr Abductor]

I guess i agree with you lol rather have Sabretooth be written well and used in short sprouts then have him around all the time like that loser Roger guy above lol and not get taken seriously.

Nevertheless it seems like they want to keep this book around because its going monthly i think. Maybe Marvel's keeping the book around for Wolverine to go against Weapon X-Force with his HEAT CLAWS!!!!! lol