Weapon X #20 is the middle chapter of "Countdown to Zero", and I'm not going to spend much time on it.  To be honest, the main point worth making about this story is that it's yet another example of Marvel's policy of completely uninformative covers.  Not only does the cover have nothing to do with the plot, but it's a pin-up of a character who doesn't even appear in this storyline.

Marrow's Gene Nation are still committing acts of terrorism, and Agent Zero is sent to do something about it.  Rather surprisingly, and in the worst example of dodgy plotting the book has seen in quite some time, Gene Nation simply give him a choice - go after Maverick to stop Grand Central Station from being bombed, or stay and fight.

Just a thought, but since you outnumber him seven to one, have you considered simply attacking him?  That might work out for you.

It's also rather annoying to see that any degree of moral ambiguity in Gene Nation's position is completely out of the window this issue.  Marrow is straight back to being an out-and-out villain.  While last issue's attacks were unequivocally described as attacks on Weapon X offices (and therefore arguably legitimate targets), Gene Nation is now going around killing humans for no apparent reason other than terror.  Aside from the fact that it's much less interesting than last issue's version, it also looks distinctly like the story is being revised in progress to make it more simplistic.

Next issue is apparently going to tie up the Agent Zero/Maverick subplot.  Half the planet has already worked out that Agent Zero is obviously the original Maverick, so the real question is who the new Maverick is.  Unfortunately, this storyline has rather lost momentum because so little has been done with Agent Zero over the course of the storyline to date - he's disappeared for months at a time.  Failure to juggle subplots effectively has been a major problem with this book, come to think of it.

Disappointing, and sliding back into the bad old days when Tieri's characters shifted motivation with every issue.

Rating: C

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