Cover: Barry Windsor-Smith

Marvel Comics Presents #73

Mar 1991 · Marvel · 1.25 USD; 1.75 CAD; 0.65 GBP

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★ 1st appearance — Abraham Cornelius

About this Issue

Marvel Comics Presents #73 (March 1991) delivers the opening chapter of Barry Windsor-Smith's 'Weapon X' — the story that, for the first time on the page, showed readers the nightmarish procedure by which Logan had adamantium fused to his skeleton and was transformed into a near-mindless killing machine designated Experiment X. Rather than centering the narrative on Wolverine as a heroic point-of-view character, Windsor-Smith structured the arc around three Weapon X scientists — Dr. Abraham Cornelius, Carol Hines, and the enigmatic figure known only as 'the Professor' (later identified as Truett Hudson) — who make their full comic-book debuts here, giving the horror a chillingly bureaucratic perspective. The issue also introduced the term and concept of 'Experiment X' as a formal project designation, deepening the mythology of a character whose origins had deliberately been kept vague since Incredible Hulk #180. The story's influence extended well beyond the printed page: Windsor-Smith's visual design for the caged, tube-submerged Logan directly shaped Hugh Jackman's Weapon X appearance in the X-Men film franchise.

Contains 4 stories

Weapon-X: Chapter One

8 pp · Superhero

In "Weapon-X: Chapter One," Logan is taken to a secret facility where the Professor and his team begin his transformation. As the experiment unfolds, the subject starts drawing immense amounts of adamantium from the system in ways no one anticipated.

The Bush of Ghosts Part 6: Dance of the Forest

8 pp · Jungle

Sands of Time

8 pp · Historical, Superhero

The Sea Enemy!

8 pp · Superhero

Russian fishermen

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (VF) $5

CGC 9.8 · 230 in census $83

CGC 9.6 · 155 in census $41

CGC 9.4 · 48 in census $32

CGC 9.2 · 41 in census $26

CGC 9.0 · 31 in census $24*

CGC 8.5 · 16 in census $23*

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CGC 8.0 · 10 in census $20

CGC 7.5 · 3 in census $20*

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More listings for this title

VF $4.99 Direct $7 MINT $7.08 FN/VF $7.6 NM- $8 VF+ $10.79 NM $10.99 NM $11.95

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History

The arc's genesis was unconventional: Windsor-Smith, intrigued by the eight-page serial format of Marvel Comics Presents, simply began writing and drawing the first several installments of 'Weapon X' without a formal pitch or Marvel approval, then walked the pages into the office of series editor Terry Kavanagh. Kavanagh immediately wanted to run it, but Marvel's editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and direct-sales manager Carol Kalish argued the work was too polished for a newsstand anthology and pushed to repackage it as a hardcover graphic novel; Kavanagh lobbied successfully to keep it in Marvel Comics Presents first, with a collected edition to follow. A separate editorial complication arose when X-Men editor Bob Harras and writer Chris Claremont — who had long planned to tie Wolverine's adamantium to Apocalypse — demanded changes; as a courtesy, Windsor-Smith added an unseen 'Director' figure above the Professor so Claremont could later make that connection, though Claremont ultimately left the X-books before doing so.

Trivia · 8 facts

Issue contains four distinct stories: 'Weapon X' Chapter 1 (written and drawn by Barry Windsor-Smith), 'The Bush of Ghosts' Part 6: 'Dance of the Forest' starring Shanna the She-Devil (script Gerard Jones, pencils Paul Gulacy), 'Sands of Time' starring The Black Knight (plot Jason Balgobis, script Russell Lyman, art Dave Cockrum), and 'The Sea Enemy!' starring Namor the Sub-Mariner (script Jack Morelli, pencils Jim Mooney).
First full appearance of Dr. Abraham Cornelius: the Weapon X Program's chief scientist who oversees the adamantium-bonding procedure on Logan — he had been mentioned but not fully shown in MCP #72.
First full appearance of Carol Hines: Cornelius's lab partner and data monitor during Logan's transformation, one of the story's three scientist-protagonists.
First full appearance of Truett Hudson, referred to only as 'the Professor' throughout the arc — the cold authority figure directing the Weapon X project, later retroactively revealed to be a cousin of Logan.
The 'Weapon X' arc (MCP #72–84) was later collected multiple times, beginning with a 1993 hardcover; subsequent collections include the 'Best of Wolverine Vol. 1' hardcover (2004) and the 'Wolverine: Weapon X Deluxe Edition' paperback, which also reprints Uncanny X-Men #205 and a Windsor-Smith excerpt from Wolverine #166.
Windsor-Smith served as sole writer, penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer on the Weapon X chapter — an unusually complete auteur control for a Marvel serial of the era.
The 'Sands of Time' Black Knight story features Eobar Garrington (the medieval Black Knight) in flashback alongside King Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin, while the contemporary framing involves Dane Whitman and the horse Valinor.
The 'Weapon X' story arc was adapted for X-Men: The Animated Series, and Windsor-Smith's visual design for the restrained, tube-suspended Logan informed Hugh Jackman's on-screen Weapon X appearance in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016).