WEAPON X-MEN #4: MORE EGGS, ANYONE?

This meal satisfies

So, this is one of those comicbooks. I even gave them a name several newsletters ago: Nostalgia Comics. No, I don’t think this a comicbook that will necessarily help the industry -- specifically the mainstream slice of it -- evolve in a way that guarantees healthy survival.

So, yeah… in this instance, I am part of the problem. But, y’know, I just couldn’t resist. Besides, this is my favorite issue of WEAPON X-MEN so far…

I know it’s not technically an Easter egg, but this cover just makes me happy. I didn’t necessarily suggest that it did, but I suppose with an adversary of this… ahem… stature demands a certain type of layout. As it did when I was first introduced to Red Ronin back in my favorite comicbook series as a kid, Avengers…

So let’s dig into this thing a little…

PAGE 2: This one is one of the reasons this is my favorite issue so far… because I got to get a little self-referential here. The safehouse where the team has holed up is, in fact, the same safehouse that was Cable’s home base back during my original Cable run -- with visionary artist and longtime friend, Ladronn -- published waaaayyy back in the late 1990’s.

Ladronn actually designed it back in Cable #48 (written by my predecessor on the series, James Robinson) and I always thought it was so cool.

PAGE 5, PANEL 2: This should be an easy one for all the old timers/Gen X’ers out there, since the story title of this issue, “War-Devil Redux”, is a direct homage to 1980’s Avengers #197 and its title, “Prelude of the War-Devil!”

Red Ronin was created by two legends, writer Doug Moench and artist Herb Trimpe, and first appeared in the Godzilla monthly series that Marvel Comics published in the late 1970’s (which I’ve never really read, to this day). However, it was a licensed book. So when Marvel gave up the license, even the original content that was created specifically for the Marvel series was legally off-limits. But then, somehow -- and I really don’t know how -- we managed to get access to Red Ronin for the Dark Reign: Zodiac mini-series I did (with artist, Nathan Fox) about fifteen years ago.

But when I brought it up to X-editor Tom Brevoort as the adversary (technically speaking) for this issue, he informed me of the licensing situation and that, this time, we couldn’t get away with it. Not with his established name and appearance, anyway. So, still wanting to tell the story, I started making plans and writing things in a manner that allowed us to “get around” the legal issues. The solve was basically suggested by Tom… if we reskinned and renamed Red Ronin, then we could maintain the continuity that it was basically the same giant robot that the Avengers had fought back in the day. So I wrote the entire issue with that in mind. Suddenly, at the very last minute, Tom informed me that Marvel had reached a new agreement with Toho International, Inc. and that Red Ronin -- in its original form -- was back on the table. Obviously I was thrilled, so here we are.

PAGE 8, PANEL 1: Obviously, this is a reference to the gag in the Deadpool movie where Deadpool takes a cab and “recruits” the driver (the curiously named, “Dopinder”) to be his personal chauffeur for a while.

Obviously, we didn’t go so far as to make the driver in the story the actual Dopinder character, but hopefully the subliminal connections give at least a few readers the warm fuzzies.

PAGE 11: Now we get into the real connection with the original Avengers story (told in issues #197-199, for those who’re keeping score). Thanks to Cable’s telepathic abilities that get into the pilot’s mind, and then a cutaway to the psychiatric ward in Bellevue Hospital, where we see a mysterious patient inexplicably enjoying what he’s hearing on the news.

The bit in the top half of the page was also a more specific nod -- visually -- to the sequence in Avengers #198 where we get the backstory on the motivation for the theft Red Ronin in that story…

Hey, it should be obvious by now… I’ll take any opportunity to show some more classic George Pérez artwork.

PAGE 18, PANEL 3: Finally, we put all the pieces of the backstory together, courtesy of O*N*E Agent Lundqvist (who we borrowed from the main X-Men series). Apparently, this “Office of National Emergency” is basically the latest S.H.I.E.L.D. equivalent in the current Marvel Universe, the all-purpose security agency that often shows up to clean up the big messes that superheroes tend to make.

Anyway, Lundqvist fills in the blanks… that O*N*E agent, Matt Cowan, is the younger brother of Earl Cowan, the rogue scientist that originally stole Red Ronin in the Avengers story I absorbed into my bloodstream as a young kid. You can even see that Tom Brevoort added an old school “editor’s note” at the bottom of the panel to compel you to go back and revisit those issues (highly recommended). Seems Matt was bound and determined to “rescue” his older brother from what he considered unjust imprisonment at Bellevue and wanted to use the same methods to do so. So, yeah, it was a family thing.

Speaking of which, the next issue of WEAPON X-MEN -- #5, to be exact -- is as much a “family thing” as you could possibly imagine. Trust me, we’ll have plenty to discuss when the issue hits stores next month. I mean, check out this cover…

Joe Casey

USA