Weapon X is another book that finds itself with a month to kill between storylines, and so, even though last issue ended with a cliffhanger, we take a break from the ongoing plot to find out what ex-director Malcolm Colcord has been up to.

Actually, this doesn't work too badly in terms of pacing.  Never hurts to make the readers wait a bit longer, as long as you give them something else in the meantime.  And, in keeping with the very variable quality of this comic, Tieri follows up a story which was a bit of a mess with one that's genuinely pretty good.

The idea is pretty simple - after escaping the Weapon X Project, the Director and his hypnotised sidekick Madison Jeffries are dumped by Aurora (who races off in an awkwardly written scene that makes me wonder whether she's being excised from the plot under an editorial mandate to make her available for Alpha Flight).  The Director spirals into alcoholic decline before having a complete mental breakdown and beginning a "recovery" that actually involves him having delusional conversations with a hallucinatory Wolverine.

It's not exactly original, but Tieri plays it rather well for deadpan comedy.  Rather than just setting up in his new base and resuming supervillainy, Colcord muddles by as a hopeless lunatic, who only gets anything done at all because Jeffries does his best to carry out instructions.  There's a rather good scene where Colcord finally manages to get back in touch with his superiors from the Weapon X Project, only to be politely informed that he was crap at the job, and would he mind awfully not bothering them again?

One of the best issues in a while.

Rating: B+

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