Windsor-Smith, Barry - Weapon X, Chapter 8, page 4 (Marvel Comic Presents 79 - June 1991)
Artist: Barry Windsor-Smith (All)
14 Comments - 4,333 Views - 4 Likes
Artwork Details
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DescriptionBarry Windsor-Smith (born 1949) gained international acclaim as the original artist for Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian from 1970 to 1973, where he rapidly evolved a unique, sophisticated and intricate artistic style.His first Marvel assignment was drawing both the cover and interiors for issue #53 of the X-Men (February 1969) . The quality of that issue secured Windsor-Smith further work with Marvel – namely, the art for a number of stories in the horror anthology titles Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness. He would eventually pencil the company’s adaptation of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian character, starting with the 'The Coming Of Conan’ story in Conan the Barbarian #1 (October 1970). His last major accomplishment for Marvel was the serialized Weapon X feature in 'Marvel Comics Presents' #72-84 (1991). Weapon X was his personal conception of the origin of the X-Men character Wolverine. He wrote, drew, inked and colored the entire 120-page story. Set years before Logan would adopt the Wolverine moniker, the series lacks many of the typical comic book character story elements - he never appears in costume, almost all of his trademark personality traits are absent and none of his super-powered acquaintances are shown or even mentioned. What the heck kind of comic book story is that? Well, a great one. The code-name Weapon X was first mentioned in Wolverine’s first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181 (November 1974). It would take some time for the specifics of that program to be revealed, but eventually fans would come to know that Weapon X was part of a larger program called Weapon Plus, a United States super-soldier program created in the 1940’s with the purpose of creating super-soldiers and assassins. While originally intended to create an upper hand for the U.S. in conventional wars, writer Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men in 2002 revealed that Weapon X was the tenth of an entire series of projects under the Program, and the X in "Weapon X" referred not to the letter X, but to the Roman numeral for the number 10. Further, the first project (Weapon I) was actually the super-soldier project that created Captain America. Weapon X would be where the Program branched into the extermination of mutants. It’s at that point that we join our hero, Logan, as he is about to be abducted into Weapon X - a fictional clandestine government genetic research project & facility operated under the Weapon Plus Program through the Canadian Government's Department K (which I am assuming had to do with the fact Logan was a Canadian citizen – or, conversely, like today, when we start to do really bad things we domicile it in a foreign country). The project’s mission was to capture mutants (although they also captured regular human beings), experiment on them to enhance their superpowers and turn them into weapons (as a side note, the project was pretty successful – it produced such characters as Wolverine, Deadpool, Maverick & Sabretooth, among others). The series tells the tale of Logan’s adamantium bonding process (a.k.a. Experiment X) that, in conjunction with his healing ability (his natural mutation), will make him virtually indestructible. He’s also subjected to brainwashing in order to bring out his most basic murderous instincts and transform him into the perfect assassin. The scientists christen their new killing machine "Weapon X". He eventually escapes into the wilderness after going on a murderous rampage at the Weapon X facility. It’s a surreal take on what is done in the name of science and national security that explains the brooding and troubled hero that Wolverine would become – and it is a foundational tale in the Marvel universe. His sporadic participation in the industry notwithstanding, Windsor-Smith would receive numerous awards for his work in the field from the Academy of Comic Book Arts, the British Fantasy Society, the Comic Buyer’s Guide Awards, the Inkpot Awards and the Harvey Awards. Most important among them, though, was his 2008 Eisner Award Hall of Fame induction. Social/Sharing |
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Comments on this Artwork
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Felix Lu 
Member Since 2005
Posted on 10/21/2011
Both pages are spectacular, but especially dig the middle panel on this one. Congrats!!
Andy Robbins
Member Since 2003
Posted on 10/21/2011
Fabulous piece. Makes me jealous (but in a good way)...
Mark Levy
Member Since 2004
Posted on 10/21/2011
Great stuff- agree with Felix - this second panel is killer!
Crees Tyler
Member Since 2008
Posted on 10/21/2011
I can't beleive it !!! That second panel is INSANE ! Congrats my friend.
Peter P
Member Since 2009
Posted on 10/21/2011
Fantastic!! Absolutely love them!! =) Ahh my BWS envy is kicking in haha ;)
Mike W
Member Since 2007
Posted on 10/21/2011
AWESOME score, my friend!!! A great companion to your BWS specialty piece!! Congratulations!!
J L
Member Since 2005
Posted on 10/21/2011
I appreciate the art and story in this series as well. Great pages and even better that you got to add them to your collection. Congrats!!!!
Maria Coppola
Member Since 2011
Posted on 10/22/2011
One of the best story lines ever produced by Marvel. Coupled with absolutely marvelous art by BWS, makes these two recent acquisitions monumental! Bravo!
George H
Member Since 2009
Posted on 11/14/2011
INCREDIBLE addition my friend! That middle panel is one of my favorites from the series. It even inspired my Clay Mann commission.
Raymond Bryan
Member Since 2011
Posted on 12/3/2014
Just reread this story and this is one of my favorite pages! Congrats on having this in your collection! I just love the way the page flows and is inked.
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