Marvel Comics Presents #83
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeMarvel Comics Presents #83 carries the penultimate chapter of Barry Windsor-Smith's 'Weapon X' arc — the serial that, across issues #72–84, laid down the definitive account of how Logan's skeleton was laced with adamantium inside a covert Canadian government program, reshaping Wolverine's mythology for every story that followed. This chapter delivers one of the arc's most viscerally charged moments: a near-mindless, burning Logan surviving the Professor's exhaust-pit death trap and turning it back on his tormentor, a sequence that crystallizes Windsor-Smith's deliberate inversion of the slasher-film formula — here the monster is the protagonist and the scientists are the prey. The issue also advances the 'Life During War Time' Firestar serial, in which Spiral fatally wounds Bart Jones, a story beat that pushes Angelica Jones toward a desperate moral crossroads involving Freedom Force. As a node in the broader anthology, the issue also showcases the format's creative range: alongside Windsor-Smith's horror-inflected lead strip sit a Hawkeye short by Fabian Nicieza and a Human Torch story plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko, reflecting Marvel Comics Presents' role as a proving ground for both marquee talent and genre experimentation.
In "Weapon-X: Chapter Eleven," Barry Windsor-Smith delivers a stark, intense chapter of the series with his signature stark art and storytelling. As the Professor sets a deadly trap, Logan's fractured mind battles through fire and memory, leading to a brutal confrontation in the control room. The issue’s raw, visceral style and tightly wound narrative make it a standout in the Weapon-X saga, with Barry Windsor-Smith handling every aspect of the interior art and inks, and Jim Novak providing the letters.
In "Weapon-X: Chapter Eleven," Logan, still reeling from his fragmented memories, confronts Hines in a final, fiery clash—only to be betrayed by the Professor, who sets a trap that consumes them both. As flames engulf the facility, a wounded and disoriented Logan fights his way through the wreckage, his mind clawing back toward clarity, until he reaches the control room and faces the man who shaped him.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 11 grades ▾
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Barry Windsor-Smith conceived 'Weapon X' entirely on his own initiative, drawing the first chapters without any editorial commission before bringing them to MCP editor Terry Kavanagh; the project nearly became a hardcover graphic novel instead, as editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and direct-sales manager Carol Kalish felt the pages were too polished for a newsstand anthology — only Kavanagh's pushback kept it in the serial format, with a collected reprint planned for afterward. Windsor-Smith assembled the chapters largely out of sequence, which accounts for subtle stylistic shifts across installments and the deliberately fragmented, horror-film pacing that made the arc feel unlike any contemporaneous Marvel title. X-Men editorial, led by Bob Harras, monitored the story anxiously, fearing readers would read 'the Professor' as Professor X; at Chris Claremont's request, Windsor-Smith added an unseen superior director to preserve Claremont's option of eventually linking Apocalypse to the program, a compromise Windsor-Smith publicly acknowledged as somewhat awkward for the plot.
Trivia · 8 facts
- The lead story is Chapter 11 of Barry Windsor-Smith's 13-chapter 'Weapon X' arc (MCP #72–84, 1991), with Windsor-Smith credited as sole writer, penciler, inker, colorist, and co-letterer — a nearly solo creative achievement across the entire arc.
- In this chapter, the Professor lures Logan into the adamantium reactor's exhaust pit using Carol Hines as bait, triggers a thermal purge expecting to kill him, and watches Logan survive with charred flesh and retaliating with lethal force — the decisive turning point of the arc.
- The second story, 'Life During War Time Part 2: Things Fall Apart,' written by Marie Javins and Marcus McLaurin with art by Dwayne Turner, features the first appearances of supporting characters Malcolm, Cross, and Fitch, and depicts Spiral stabbing Bart Jones (Firestar's father) in a confrontation with Freedom Force.
- The third story, 'The Distance,' scripts by Fabian Nicieza with art by John Stanisci, stars Hawkeye and introduces minor supporting character Carmen 'The Rocker' Jakarter, who dies within the issue.
- The fourth story, 'The Matchstick and the Moth,' features the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) in a tale plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko with Erik Larsen on script and inks — a reunion of two significant Marvel artists in an anthology short; the character Moth makes her first and only appearance (dying within the story).
- The cover is by Barry Windsor-Smith; the back cover is by Dave Hoover. Editor Terry Kavanagh and assistant editor Mark Powers oversaw the issue under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.
- The Weapon X chapter from this issue has been reprinted internationally multiple times, including in the 1993 Marvel Weapon X collected edition, a 1992 Swedish Mega Marvel volume, a 2014 German Hachette collection, a 2017 Spanish Panini edition, and the 2022 Wolverine: Weapon X Gallery Edition.
- Hugh Jackman's costume and headgear as Weapon X in the film X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) were based directly on Barry Windsor-Smith's visual designs from the MCP #72–84 arc, confirming the serial's lasting influence on screen adaptations of the character.
Cast · 14 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Grandes Heróis Marvel #35 (1992), X-Marvel #24 (1992), Top BD #26 (1992), Mega Marvel #4/1992 (1992), Weapon X #[nn] (1993), Mega Marvel #5 (4/1994) (1994), Weapon-X #[nn] (1994), Marvel Special #2 (1994), Wolverine: Weapon X #[nn] (2001), Best of Wolverine #1 (2004), Wolverine: Weapon X #[nn] (2007), Wolverine Weapon X #[nn] (2009), Wolverine Omnibus #1 (2009), Marvel Gold : Wolverine - Arme X #[nn] (2012), Marvel Série II #9 (2012), Wolverine: The Adamantium Collection #[nn] (2013), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #11 (2014), Marvel. Официальная коллекция комиксов #45 (2015), 100% Marvel HC. Lobezno: Arma X #[nn] (2017), X-Men Origins: Firestar #[nn] (2017), Wolverine: Weapon X Gallery Edition #[nn] (2022), Wolverine Weapon X #[nn] (2022), Wolverine: Vapen X #[nn] (2023), Hawkeye Epic Collection #3 (2025)
Key issues in Marvel Comics Presents
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.