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Weapon X #15 is the prologue to
"Defection", in which - as the solicitations helpfully made
clear some time ago - Chamber defects from the X-Men and joins
Weapon X. I appreciate that strictly speaking that
doesn't actually happen in this issue either, but when you
have a storyline called "Defection" and the ending is Chamber
being offered a job with Weapon X, I imagine most people can
draw their own conclusions.
Chamber was brought into the X-Men roster
under Joe Casey and has been completely ignored ever since he
left. So it's not entirely surprising that he's being
shunted off into a satellite book where the writer actually
wants to use him. What's a little more odd, in 2003, is
for Chamber's departure from the X-Men to be taking place in a
different comic altogether. Didn't we put a stop to this
kind of thing a few years back?
In fact, this issue is basically an X-Men
story in all but name. It consists of Chamber sulking in
a bar, and the X-Men trying to reign him in when he starts
picking fights. And that's pretty much it. In
fairness, it doubles as an introduction to the character for
the benefit of Weapon X characters, so it has some
leeway to repeat itself.
As is the way of Frank Tieri characters,
Chamber is way off into the realms of melodramatic
overreaction. He's upset about Paige and Warren's
relationship (perhaps because he has strong views on silly
soap opera plots), and so he's taken to being depressed and
picking fights with strangers. The basic idea is sound
enough, but the execution is a little over the top. That
said, Chamber and his teammates do seem rather more in
character here than they do in their own book.
Of course, the plot requires the X-Men to
dump Chamber in jail after they've finished with him, which is
completely out of character wit their behavour in their own
title and runs completely against a major plot element of
X-Treme X-Men (which makes great play of the fact that the
X-Men police themselves to the point of circumventing the
legal system entirely and shielding mutants from the police).
It's necessary for the plot, but that's not entirely an answer
to the point.
On balance, this isn't too bad, to be
honest. I'd take it over Uncanny X-Men's
rendition of the same characters.
Rating: B
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