Comic Book / Weapon X (2017)

^{Click for the Weapon X-Force team}

This is the third installment of the Weapon X series, written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente with various artists such as Greg Land, Yilidray Cinar, Marc Borste, and Luca Pizzari, among others. This was one of the new on-going titles that came during Marvel's re-branding, Resurr Xion and lasted 27 issues.

A team born of circumstance, Old Man Logan, Sabretooth, Domino, Warpath, and Lady Deathstrike must join forces to stop the new program hunting them down and threatening to destroy mutant-kind. Though they came together due to a common enemy, they eventually become an official X-team, functioning as the hunting unit. This vicious group must learn to cooperate and try to do their jobs without killing each other first.

Eventually, Sabretooth takes over as leader with Logan and Warpath taking their leave. Creed plans to focus the team on mercenary jobs and they re-brand themselves as Weapon X-Force. Omega Red and Mystique join their ranks, along with honorary members, Monet St. Croix and Deadpool.

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The third volume provides examples of the following tropes:

• Aborted Arc: The "Weapon X-Force" incarnation of the team was set up... just in time for the series to be cancelled and for the original X-Force to receive an ongoing.
• Abusive Parents: Mystique with her son, Graydom, whom she abandoned and assassinated. Victor is worried after finding him in Hell, but Mystique just tells him to put Graydon back where he found him.
• Action Series: The book mainly fits this genre. The characters aren't given any deep motivations or depth. It's mainly just fight sequence after fight sequence.
• All Animals Are Domesticated: Kotik. He's initially hostile, but warms to Creed and Omega Red by the next issue and acts like a kitten.
• Amicable Exes: Mystique with Creed and Azazel, leads into Working with the Ex.
  • While disguised as Foreigner, she was contacting Creed to do jobs with her and they work fine together, despite him annoying her sometimes.
  • She and Azazel are on good terms. He was even upset she made effort of posing as his assistant to spy on him but never spoke to him.
• Apologizes a Lot: Creed to Monet in issue 24.
  • He apologizes for the mess she's in and she tells him not to because it sounds weird coming from him. But he persists, saying he's serious and expresses his regret for not being there for her during her Emplate-curse.
  • When they're captured by Sauron to be sacrificed, he apologizes to her again and she yells at him to stop apologizing and think of a plan or she'll shove him into the pit herself.
• Badass in Distress: Everyone but Mystique ends up captured by Stryker at the end of issue 23. They're thrown in a holding-cell where they're told by the satanic cult guard to chose their weapon for the games to start in ten min.
• Big Damn Kiss: Domino and Warpath during their battle with the Nuke Platoon.
• Butt-Monkey: Sabretooth for the first half of the series.
  • Beaten senseless by Hulk Cho while Warpath and Logan chat and ignore it.
  • Kicked across a State by Weapon H and was the only one not healed a day later.
  • Manhandled by Laura while Logan watches in amusement.
  • Kicked in the face by Laura when trying to talk to her.
  • Being kidnapped and getting his life force drained by Omega Red.
  • Beaten up by Warpath
  • Manhandled in his birthday fight with Logan
• Calling the Old Man Out: Graydon does this to Victor when pointing out how he and Mystique abandoned him for being human.
• Character Death: Sabretooth, Domino, Mystique, Deadpool, and Omega Red are killed in order to be sent to Hell. However Azazel has their bodies in suspended animation and can release them so their healing factors can revive them.
• Characterization Marches On: With Sabretooth. The first six issues, Creed worked and got along with others, aside from snarking with Logan. When tracking the cyborgs, Creed agrees not to kill them, figured out how they were able to travel, and listened to Logan when he had a plan. He even plays Good Cop during an interrogation with Logan and freaks out when the scientist mysteriously dies. Moving to issue 7, Creed becomes The Heel and The Millstone. He recklessly charges at Weapon H and is kicked across a state. After the beating, Logan comes up with a plan to stop Weapon H without lethal force. Creed objected, having already decided to kill Weapon H, prompting Logan to yell that he's been difficult and fighting him from the very beginning.
• Clark Kenting: Creed, in issue 22 where he's just wearing a suit and glasses, his alias being "Dick Steele."
• Close-Call Haircut: Deadpool napalms Monet's head, which leaves slight singes on her but burned off her hair, leaving a bald spot.
• Covers Always Lie:
  • Creed's Uncanny-X-Men design was used the first eleven issues of the series with his short hair and costume. Creed had long hair and wore street clothes in the book.
  • The cover for issue 16 has Victor maiming Logan, which didn't happen in the book.
  • Issue 24's cover showed all of the team, including Mystique, dead in a mass grave. They weren't killed or sent to Hell in this issue and Mystique wasn't in the issue.
  • Issue 27 had a distraught Monet holding an unraveling Sabretooth. Monet was hardly focused on in the issue, and her relationship with Creed hadn't been a focal point since issue 24.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Azazel bluntly told Mystique that she inspired his jealousy by coming to him with Sabretooth, with whom she also coupled and had a child. When Victor taunts him about it, Azazel decapitates him.
• Defiant Captive: Sabretooth at the start of issue 24, during their imprisonment.
• Everyone Can See It: Nobody believed Creed and Monet were just friends.
  • Yuriko thought Monet was Victor's ex-girlfriend, despite his protests.
  • Domino was a Shipper on Deck who gushed at them a few times.
  • At one point, Deadpool wondered if they're gonna kiss and called them lovebirds shortly after.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: For the original team. Warpath quit when Sabretooth took charge. Logan wasn't in good health and resigned, thinking Creed's heart was in the right place.
• Flying Brick: Warpath for the original team. Monet later on, having the same powers as Warpath, plus more.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: "Friend" may be too polite, but Sabretooth fit perfectly. The first half of the book, it was made clear that nobody in Weapon X was crazy about him.
• Friends with Benefits: Domino and Warpath. She even states he's not her boyfriend, but a hot guy she likes to play smashmouth with.
• Guest-Star Party Member: For the Weapons of Mutant Destruction arc, Totally Awesome Hulk joined the original team as their piggy bank, chauffeur,smart guy and team muscle. His presence is instrumental in the creation of Weapon H. Amadeus Cho would later quit once he realized that everyone on that team is a hardened killer (though he does become friends again with Domino in her solo series) and aren't going to change.
• Healing Factor: Everyone in the book has one, except Domino, who makes up for it with her luck.
• Heel–Faith Turn: William Stryker who sold his soul to Hell when it became clear God didn't support his anti-mutant propaganda.
• Hell Seeker: Everyone becomes this in issue 25, though not for the standard reason. Stryker vows to return from the grave to kill them, so they all need to go to Hell and destroy him for good to prevent his continued attacks.
• The Heart: Split between Logan and Warpath for the original team. In their absence, Domino sometimes tries to fulfill the role, but isn't too effective.
• Hypocrite: While it's nothing new for the character, Reverend Stryker's hatred of mutants based on his belief that they're "creations of the devil" has grown to the point of overshadowing any semblance of faith entirely; specifically to the point where even he realized God would never support his actions. So Stryker went looking for endorsement from someone else.
• The Leader: Logan functioned as this for the original Weapon X team, being the one who started bringing them together. Sabretooth has taken over as of issue 17, and plans to focus the team on mercenary jobs.
• Licked by the Dog: Kotik kisses Omega Red at one point.
• The Millstone: Sabretooth for the original team. They worked decently together for the most part, but Creed usually contrarily took issue with how things were done and caused trouble in his own pursuit of excitement.
• Money Fetish: Domino's only motivation and interest has been money. Outside of her fling with Warpath, there hasn't been much else to her.
• Morality Pet: Kotik is a literal case with Creed and Omega Red caring for him. Now that she's back, Monet may be one for Creed.
• Mr. Fanservice: Sabretooth is very muscular and has been shirtless many times. In one instance, his shirt gets shot off of him and he spends the next two issues without one.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Monet's famous X-Factor outfit with a plunging neckline makes its return.
• Nominal Hero: With Warpath and Logan gone, all of the current Weapon X-Force team fits here.
• Not So Invincible After All: Logan's Healing Factor has slowed down considerably, and he doesn't appear to be in good shape. Warpath says as Wolverine, he has the best healing factor, but Logan tells him that's not the case anymore. He appears to be dying, with Warpath telling Domino that he doesn't know how long Logan will be with them.
• Old Flame: Monet and Creed. Many assumed they had a Secret Relationship in Uncanny X-Men, but it's ambiguous. Here, Deathstrike follows that thought, calling Monet Creed's ex. Even though he gets defensive at the insinuations, the Ship Tease very heavily implies clear lingering feelings, despite them not seeing each other in a few months to over a year.
• Papa Wolf: When Sabretooth finds Graydon in Hell, he becomes determined to bring him home, going so far as to threaten the devil himself in order to do so.
• Pet the Dog: Sabretooth, when he decides to save Omega Red after it becomes clear his current boss doesn't care about him. Also literally when he and Omega Red adopt Kotik.
• Pig Latin: Domino in issue 24.
  Creed: Always talkin' big. Why don't you just kill just instead of yappin' about it if you're so hot now?
  Domino: Ix-nay on the ill-us kay, dude.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: The cover for issue 27 gives off this vibe, as Creed unravels while Monet tries desperately to hold on to him.
• Status Quo Is God: Sabretooth's inversion gets undone the final issue, resetting him to his former villain status.
• Token Evil Teammate: Yuriko and Creed for the former team.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Sabretooth is inverted, but still violent and kill-happy like his evil self. Azazel notes this is why he's not redeemed. The inversion has changed him but the evil in his soul is still present -and as such he's still a monster damned to Hell.
• Religion of Evil: The Church of Human Potential
• The Reveal:
  • The Foreigner, who'd been trying to recruit Creed, was Mystique the whole time.
  • Monet was mind-controlled into joining Mentallo's cult. Only Mentallo isn't the leader. It's actually a Cyborg William Stryker!
• She's Not My Girlfriend: Creed and Domino when it comes to Monet and Warpath respectively.
• Shipper on Deck: It seems Creed and Monet have three shippers on board.
  • Domino was going to quit the team until she hears from Yuriko that Monet is Creed's ex. Domino gushes and finds it adorable, so she stays to help save her. Later when Creed shyly tries to talk to Monet, Domino ruins the moment to gush loudly at him.
  • After hearing Domino's ramble to Monet about nobody believing Creed's "just a friend" protests, Deadpool promptly asks "So, you two gonna kiss or what?"
  • Finally when Creed and Monet get to have a proper convo, Omega Red listens in with a coy grin on his face.
• Ship Tease: Heavily for Creed x Monet through Everyone Can See It and Domino's Shipper on Deck behavior. Other examples include.
  • Creed's possible flirtation in issue 22 when he claims to know she loves him◊.
  • His sheepishness in issue 23 when he says it's good to see her◊.
  • Their defensiveness when others think they're attracted to each other◊.
  • The aforementioned cover in Please, Don't Leave Me.
  • The giant heart behind them in issue 24◊ which leads into a possible Interrupted Declaration of Love when Omega Red butts-in the next page.
  • His Apologizes a Lot behavior. Everyone is in danger, but it's only Monet he regrets and she's also the only one he's ever apologized to even once -let alone enough times to annoy her.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Domino and Creed. The former is depicted as a party-girl ditz who's sometimes unaware of things going on around her. Creed is written as The Brute, and has trouble hunting, not being able to use keyboards, and Logan commenting on his stupidity a few times. Despite the fact Sabretooth was a Genius Bruiser in the last Weapon X series.
• Undying Loyalty: Omega Red seemed to have it for Victor. He joined the team after Creed saves him, telling his brother that Victor is the only person to help him and make him believe he could be more than a monster.
• Unusual Pets for Unusual People: with Sabretooth, Omega Red and their baby tiger.
• We Were Your Team: The finale qualifies. With Sabretooth regressed to a feral state and roaming the Saskatchewan woods, Weapon X-Force is left with no leader. Subsequently, most of the team has been shown moving on to other adventures.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Kotik was in issues 18-21, with Victor and Omega Red caring for him. However, he's missing issues 22-27.
• Will They or Won't They?: Creed x Monet as soon as the latter joined the book. The final issue doesn't give an answer, as they're separated through unfortunate circumstances Sabretooth is insane and wandering the Saskatchewan woods. Meanwhile, Monet is back in Aspen wondering what happened to him.
• Would Hit a Girl: Sabretooth doesn't hold back in his fight with Laura, and ripped off half her face. But she gave as good as she got.