Prominent members of the program
This series is the second volume of the Weapon X comic series, published in June of 2002 with writing by Frank Tieri and art by Georges Jeanty.
The series follows the adventures of the newly revamped Weapon X program which is under leadership of a ruthless new Director who has his own personal agenda against mutants while employing what mutants he can to work against their own kind to further his ambitions, but said mutants also have ambitions of their own -be it power, status, or revenge.
One of their first and biggest orders of business is to reign in the rebellious rogue, Victor Creed, who has made fools of the organization on more than one occasion. With his skills being too good to waste, the Director just makes sure he has enough inhibitors to be kept in line.
The series ran until 2004 with a total of 28 issues until its cancellation. Declining sales had forced the book to take a new direction, and Tieri was forced to abandon certain story points.
The second volume provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Your Powers Combined: The final three issues show Mr. Sinister creating a Super-Soldier with the powers of several X-Men, predating his similar experiment XRaven.
- The Atoner: Garrison Kane commits a Heroic Sacrifice to atone for his support of this Weapon X incarnation.
- Bad Guy Bar: Sabretooth plays cards with his old drinking buddy Constrictor and Daredevil's personal headache Typhoid Mary in the 26th issue.
- Birds of a Feather: Director Colcord starts reciprocating Aurora's affections after she is mutilated by Sabretooth just like he was mutilated by Wolverine.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Sabretooth, when the Director questions him on the brutalization that took place at his hands.Sabretooth: I'm afraid you're gonna have to be a little more specific doc —I brutalize a lot of people.
- Butt-Monkey: Wild Child had this is spades from the start of the series. Usually it was his abuse at the hands of Creed, from having his vocal cords severed to being routinely beaten up by him. He also loses the affection of once lover, Aurora, who finds him creepy & repulsive while trying to woo The Director of all people.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You; The Director uses Agent Zero's neural implant to stop him from killing Sabretooth, after Sabretooth has betrayed the program completely, stayed one step ahead of all of its agents for weeks, murdered multiple prospectives candidates, and almost sold all of Weapon X's secrets on the black market.. because Sabretooth stole some data discs on his way out and the Director wants them back badly.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Creed gets a brutal one at the hands of Agent Zero.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Kane's soul has been eaten from years of unnecessary upgrades he installed attempting to cope with his feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing. His "love for life almost gone" and now having decided he's only of use to anyone as a machine, he allows himself to become Weapon X's merciless enforcer.
- Darker and Edgier: For as obscure as it is, this is probably one of the darkest X-Men stories ever told. The Director restarts the Weapon X program with the aim of executing a Final Solution, and the second half of the volume features an honest-to-God mutant concentration camp, Neverland. Many C-List Fodder mutants such as Maggot and Siena Blaze lost their lives in this camp before it was shut down.
- Deadly Upgrade: This incarnation of Weapon X specializes in giving upgrades to its agents, most of which fall into this. Washout for example has his hydrokinetic powers enhanced at the cost of them breaking his body down, Garrison Kane receives cybernetic upgrades that deaden his conscience, Sauron's enhancements allow him to breathe fire but greatly reduce his intelligence, and so on.
- Deal with the Devil: Deadpool, Marrow, and Chamber are all lured into working for this incarnation of Weapon X through makeovers that restore their original human appearances. Deadpool and Marrow revert back to their standard looks after their respective betrayals, while Chamber keeps his until the device that makes it possible is damaged.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Director Colcord wants to exterminate all mutants simply because Wolverine mutilated his face during his original escape from the first Weapon X.
- In issue 0.5 he intentionally enhances new recruit Washout's powers to Deadly Upgrade levels in revenge for the man calling him a "confetti-faced wacko".
- Domestic Abuse: Director Malcolm with Aurora. They live happily together until Jackson stops by and gets to him about being a "Mutie Lover". Angered by the words, an unsuspecting Aurora approaches him playfully and he beats her mercilessly while hearing Jackson's words "Mutie Lover" over & over again.
- He's also this for his ex-wife Kathleen, who left him and took the kids after his disfigurement. In response to finding out she married another, he had Sabretooth beat her new beau to near death and warned her that he is her wife until either she dies or he does, and then had Sabretooth dispose her lover.
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: MLF latecomer and teleporter Locus is killed offscreen in the first issue by Sabretooth, because he just couldn't kill enough women to get himself any satisfaction at the time.
- Dumbass No More: Sabretooth was not portrated as a dumbass even before this series (that would come later), but this is probably the most cunning and capable incarnation of Creed in the character's entire history. Far from just using his wits to screw with Wolverine, this Sabretooth outsmarts the entire Weapon X program, and even after being recaptured and tamed with loyalty implants he still always has the upper hand. In the final issue, he accomplishes what is probably the most impressive noggin-joggin feat of his whole career, getting the better of Mr. Sinister.
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: A major theme of this volume. Garrison Kane and Wild Child both look wildly different from their previous incarnations, to the point that readers only familiar with them as they looked before would find it hard to even recognize them, and characters such as Marrow and Chamber are given makeovers that also drastically redesign their appearances as rewards for joining the program.
- Enemy Civil War: After Cable's assault on the program and the death of his chief enforcer Garrison Kane Colcord becomes vulnerable to the machinations of The Starscream Brent Jackson, leading to an enemy civil war called the War of the Programs. The battle exhausts both factions, causing them both to collapse into irrelevance and forcing their leaders to go underground.
- Fallen Hero: Garrison Kane, previously an ally of Cable, descends into this by allowing himself to fall prey to Cybernetics Eat Your Soul and becoming the Director's strong right arm.
- Forced to Watch: Wild Child, after he & Aurora fall into Sabretooth's trap. He forces Wild Child into a corner and brutalizes Aurora, warning him that he will kill her should be get involved. He continues his assault while telling Wild Child to beg for her life if he cares for her.
- Genius Bruiser: Creed had been one step ahead of the program for a while, with the Director noted himself that he'd underestimated Creed, who he now sees as a top priority to handle. A later showing has Creed even managing to outsmart Mr. Sinister.
- Hypocrite: After sparing his wife, Director Colcord warns her that since they took vows, she's stuck with him & there will be no others for her. Right after that he goes to the hospital and starts his relationship with Aurora, whom he begins living with.
- It's Personal: Marrow & Agent Zero have personal vendettas against Sabretooth, the former for his part in the Morlock Massacre and the latter for Creed fatally wounded him before in addition to seeing Creed as a traitor to his race.
- Karma Houdini: Neither Director Colcord nor Agent Jackson face any consequences for their truly evil actions.
- Knight of Cerebus: For as little-remembered as he is now, Director Colcord was a shockingly dark character, easily the darkest anti-mutant villain of his day, and even all these years later not even the likes of William Stryker or Graydon Creed ever went so far as to open mutant concentration camps like he did.
- Love Martyr: Aurora for Director Malcolm. She's suffered her own mental issues, but she is heavily fixated on the director for no explained reason. He's a Jerkass on a good day, and his facial disfigurement doesn't make him the most handsome man. Marrow even asks her what's up with the booty-shaking at him, and wondering if her eyes have been damaged in some way.
- Magic Floppy Disk: The information Sabretooth steals from the program is written on plastic floppy disks that were outdated even at the time of this comic's publication.
- Making a Splash: New character and Weapon X recruit Washout has this power.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Being defeated and rebooted by Cable cures Kane of his insanity, leading him to have this reaction and commit a Heroic Sacrifice to atone for his misdeeds.
- Out with a Bang: Creed is shown lying in bed post sex with a woman next to him who didn't survive the experience.
- Origins Episode: The first issue details the fateful encounter with Wolverine that led a young security guard to become the ruthless Director of Weapon X.
- POW Camp: The Director opens Neverland supposedly to be one of these, but in fact it's a concentration camp with the exact same purpose as Auschwitz.
- Reduced to Ratburgers: Played with in issue 0.5. Wild Child eats a live rat, but no one forces him to, it's just a sign of how badly his psyche has eroded.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Kane, Mesmero, and Sauron all wear predominantly orange and/or green outfits.
- Serial Killer: The third issue reveals that Sabretooth has gone on a killing spree in New York, murdering and mutilating eight women in three weeks.
- Ship Sinking: The always-bumpy Aurora and Wildchild relationship was sunk for good by the events of this story, as Aurora's nasty personality shift leads her to viciously reject her former lover. Even after Wildchild stands up to Creed for her sake, Aurora is an Ungrateful Bitch and throws herself at Director Colcord instead.
- Shout-Out: Sabretooth is bound up in a straightjacket and mask just like Hannibal Lecter after Weapon X recaptures him.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Aurora and Director Malcolm.
- Smug Snake: Agent Jackson isn't a half-bad schemer on his good days, but he's Too Clever by Half and his bid to become The Usurper just ends with Weapon X split right down the middle and collapsing after a war between his and Colcord's respective factions.
- Mesmero has always been this, but due to Weapon X's enhancement of his powers takes it into overdrive. Unfortunately for him he is soon subjected to Break the Haughty after the death of his mother.
- The Starscream: Agent Brent Jackson, the Director's ambitious Number Two, wants nothing more than to usurp and replace him. He gets his chance to try after Kane's death.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: Sauron falls prey to this as a consequence of the enhancements the program gives to him. While always impulsive, he degenerates into a downright Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who bungles his one and only solo mission so badly he's never allowed to go on another one again.
- Token Good Teammate: Chamber of Generation X is recruited to the team by Agent Jackson. The whole thing is a setup by the X-Men for Chamber to be The Mole for them.
- To Serve Man: Sauron, previously only a vampire of mutants, now uses his life draining powers to feed on random humans and not even to maintain his transformation, but just because he likes to.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- While Kane was already a Badass, the upgrades he received from the program allowed him to use Power Copying, making him a match for just about any mutant short of Cable.
- Marrow went from being afraid of Sabretooth as a little girl to giving him a challenge in their face-off.
- Mesmero's powers are enhanced to the point where he can now use Mass Hypnosis at will.
- Agent Zero was dealt a brutal defeat by Sabretooth who ended their fight by impaling him & dropping him from the roof of a building, leaving him at death's door. Being healed & upgrading by the program, he finally deals Creed a crushing defeat and only doesn't kill him due to the Director activating his inhibitor.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Aurora has always struggled with mental illness, but here she is portrayed as an outright nasty and cynical woman who either scorns or tries to seduce everyone around her.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Aurora has no gratitude at all for Wildchild rescuing her from Sabretooth, only giving him a blithe 'how very nice' before telling him to leave so she can finish eating.
- The Unfought: This Weapon X incarnation was played up as a dangerous new villain team for the X-Men when first introduced, but oddly enough never got around to fighting them and only even fought Cable's personal strike force just once.
- Unholy Matrimony: Aurora & Malcolm who eventually buy a house and live together as a couple, which goes well for a while and turns sour in a big way.
- Unwitting Pawn: Mr Sinister is manipulating the program from within. Neither the Director nor Jackson ever realize it, though in a latter issue Sabretooth of all people somehow gets the better of him.
- The Vietnam Vet: Issue 27 opens with a flashback of Sabretooth's first meeting with Scalphunter (John Greycrow) in Vietnam during the war.
- Villain Protagonist: The book focuses heavily on more villainous characters with a couple of anti-heroes sprinkled in.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Director Colcord and Agent Jackson both go into hiding after the War of the Programs. Colcord returns many years later as part of a new villain organization called J.A.N.U.S. but Jackson is still MIA to this day.
