July 31, 2018- WEAPON LOST #4, ASTONISHING X-MEN VOL 2.

Two fun releases from me this week: the conclusion of the Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost miniseries with #4, and the conclusion of my Astonishing X-Men run with Volume 2! So many conclusions! Let's jump to conclusions with Weapon Lost to kick things off...

Art by Matteo Buffagni, colors by Jim Charalampidis, and letters from VCs Cory Petit. Cover art by Giuseppe Camuncoli, cover inked by Roberto Poggi, and cover colored by Federico Blee. Notes after the cover:

So there you have it, the conclusion to Weapon Lost, one of my favorite things I've written for Marvel in a very long time. It's a crime story revolving around a team built by Daredevil and including Inhuman ex-NYPD detective Frank McGee, Misty Knight and language-aficionado mutant Cypher. They're searching for Wolverine's missing body, trying to figure out what the heck's going on with him.

Because this book is part of a larger event, the Hunt for Wolverine, which itself leads into Return of Wolverine from me and Steve McNiven in September, it had to strike a tricky balance. It had to be satisfying in and of itself, and provide a conclusion and clues to the larger story, but it couldn't give away too much. I chose to focus on the characters (at least to some degree) and tell stories with each of them that let them feel like they changed and progressed a bit. That was designed to balance out the fact that there's story left to tell with respect to Wolverine's return.

I think this technique was most successful with Cypher. I spun him as an Internet addict in the story, modeled on ideas of opiate addiction. I think the flaws make the character, most of the time. Perfect is boring, and writing a character that struggles to overcome something... well, it's compelling from page 1.

Very proud of Weapon Lost, and I can't wait to work with Matteo Buffagni again in particular. He did an amazing job on the art.

Next, Astonishing X-Men Vol. 2! This trade represents the second half of my planned 12-issue run revolving around the return of Professor Charles Xavier to life. If you read the story (or even if you didn't), you might know that Xavier came back young, in his thirties, and a bit different, calling himself X in an effort to differentiate himself from his past. He's still the same morally grey character we've seen since the beginning, but perhaps not so focused on some of the same issues he used to want to deal with.

The series continued to have a rotating artist each issue, and this volume has some great examples of X-Men art, including a wonderful Phil Noto issue and a pop-off-the-page installment from ACO in issue 10. They're all amazing, though, and I urge you to check it out if you haven't. More specific notes on the issues can be found back through the writers notes on the site.

Cover below, pick it up here if you like, and next week it's Vader #19 (the start of Fortress Vader) and Daredevil #606, the beginning of a whole new era!