As the X-Men celebrate Northstar's nuptials to Kyle Jinadu, they make the startling discovery that their bodies have been infected with dangerous nanobombs courtesy of Hatchitech. The technology company's CEO Susan Hatchi offers the X-Men two choices, they can either do her bidding or be blown to smithereens. Decisions, decisions.
Astonishing X-Men: Weaponized collects issues #52-56 of Astonishing X-Men written by Marjorie Liu, as well as its first annual.
Picking up right after the events of the preceding trade paperback, Weaponized continues the arc of Susan Hatchi's manipulations of the X-Men. She's apparently set her sights on acquiring the island nation of Madripoor and is keen on using the X-Men to help her do it. It's a great story actually, so much so that Brian Michael Bendis decided to plagiarize parts of it in All-New X-Men. Susan Hatchi proves to be a devastatingly powerful enemy for the team and her machinations place them in intense life-or-death situations. A standout moment features the X-Men buried under rubble, with only Cecilia Reyes' forcefield protecting them from the crushing death that awaits them.
Marjorie Liu's keen understanding of her characters proves to be a major selling point for this collection. Their personalities, motivations, and powers are well defined, making them all the more accessible to the readers. Warbird continues to be a source of humour and is easily one of the best characters present. Even still, Karma and Northstar remain at the forefront of Liu's narrative. She's still very much interested in exploring Northstar's relationship with Kyle and handles the danger of mutant-human romance quite well. With Karma, she makes the character extremely relatable and makes some rather interesting revelations about her past. The downside to this is that Liu references past events that many readers may be unaware of.
While Liu's characters may be accessible, the narrative isn't always. Beyond Karma's past, Liu leaves the reader without context for many situations. The glaring issue here being Madripoor. While the nation should be well-known to long-time X-Men fans, newer readers will likely find its place in the story quite puzzling. The other issue with Weaponized is its art. Once again, Mike Perkins provides sloppy work that does a disservice to Liu's plot. David Baldeon, who takes care of the art for Astonishing X-Men Annual #1, would have been a much better choice. Finally, there is a slight misstep on Marvel's part in terms of how they collected Liu's run on Astonishing X-Men. They split up the Susan Hatchi arc into two volumes (Northstar and Weaponized) when they should have collected the entire arc in one larger trade paperback.
If you can get past the messy art, Marjorie Liu's Astonishing X-Men will leave you impressed. The attention she gives to D-list characters is admirable and she creates a story for them that develops them quite well. Astonishing X-Men: Weaponized is a character-driven collection that is unrelenting in its intensity and action. If you love underdogs, then this is the right trade paperback for you.
Rating: A-
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