collects issues 0-8, and part of Point 1 (Watcher Story)
by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato
A murder mystery in nine parts -- who killed the Watcher? He was a hokey character created back in the 60s' and his whole deal was that he watched all things in the universe, never to interfere. The 0th issue gives some background on his race with the context of Sam Alexander, the new Nova of the Marvel Universe. It's a great introduction to Uatu the Watcher with a surprising emotional resonance provided by Nova.
The eight issues show a host of different teams tasked with figuring out who killed Uatu. A police procedural of sorts. There's some headscratchers in there, pairing the Punisher with Dr. Strange, and Emma Frost with the Winter Soldier. A lot of it comes off as playing around with toys in the sandbox. And that's what most of it looks like. Mike Deodato draws pretty much everyone as action figures, and there's only two body types he does: barbie dolls and Ken dolls. Around the middle of it there's a bunch of needless "heroes bickering with each other", but the end result is a shocking -- shocking -- secret revealed about Nick Fury, one of Marvel's oldest characters.
It's a legitimate retcon of the character that sets up interesting new horizons for other characters. While it's like any other crossover event these days, a giant mess of issues that mash together heroes from all corners of the Marvel Universe all to set up a new status quo for everyone, it's this retcon that adds depth to Nick Fury and shines a different light on the character. Not an outstanding event, but it's grounded by this one secret and what it means to his friend, Captain America, when the people around him keep that secret from him. Since it's relatively new, I won't spoil it for people. But if you have a chance to borrow from the library, it doesn't hurt to pick it up. I don't think it needed all 8 issues, and the art isn't amazing. But you could do worse.
Bonus: the (awful) whisper scene that renders Thor unworthy.
If you're curious what he told him... here.
Wolverine: Weapon Xcollects Marvel Comics Presents #72-84
by Barry Windsor-Smith
Just think, this story was originally told in 13 parts! Marvel Comics Presents was an anthology titled that was released every two weeks. I wonder how it read in serial format. Reading it all in one chunk, it's kind of hard to see why it needed so many parts. Add to that just how many times Wolverine's origin has been depicted in other media, and it seems almost superfluous to read this.
Still, this remains the definitive origin for Wolverine and I tried my best to read it that way. The plot itself is nothing new, for anyone familiar with the Fox era of X-Men movies. It's the storytelling that makes it unique. We're given Logan's point of view for only maybe a couple different issues. The bulk of the story is through the dialogue between three people: Dr. Cornelius, the man grafting the Adamantium onto Logan and studying him, his assistant Carol Hines, and the unnamed "Professor," responsible for commanding Logan and practicing his killing. They have this unstoppable killing machine, supposedly at their beck and call but really they're just trying to contain him and stay alive. They're meant to contain him, but really they can't. With some bonus gratuitous Logan booty.
While a key part of X-Men history, Weapon X is not really required reading, especially if you've seen any of the past half-century's worth of Wolverine origin stories.
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