Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Dark Reign: The List - Wolverine #1 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
We open with Norman Osborn surveying images connected to the Weapon Plus program:- Weapon I Captain America, Weapon X Wolverine, Weapon XIII Fantomex, Weapon XV Ultimaton and the domed facility called The World where such super-soldiers are created. He wants to know why *he* doesn't own The World.
Now we switch to a sushi bar where Marvel Boy has tracked down Wolverine (because it has the finest selection of Japanese ales and rice wines in the city). He's come to tell him that Osborn has sent H.A.M.M.E.R. agents to seize The World. Norman expected Logan to try to stop him, and had a plan to deal with him - Noh-Varr himself before he quit the Dark Avengers (DAv#5). Wolverine agrees they should go deal with it. Marvel Boy hadn't planned on joining in but Logan insists.
Landing outside the dome Wolverine finds a way in and they immediately run into trouble in the shape of various mutated/cyborged humans and gas leaking from a cannister labelled Weapon XVI ... which turns Logan into a drooling berserker. Noh-Varr is soon on the run from all of them. He realises they're all mind-controlled, and they keep telling him that Allgod will bring him peace even as they try to kill him. Then he runs into a different set of foes - brain-seeking zombies who tell him to "Stand down". He escapes from those through a door which he slams shut behind him ...
... only to be menaced by a gun held by someone we recognise as Fantomex. They start to fight but then the mutants and zombies break in. 1 of the zombies says "We claim your flesh in the name of HAMMER". Jean-Phillipe leaps to the ceiling and grabs hold of a pipe. Noh-Varr similarly escapes using his cockroach-based Spider-Man-like ability to stick to surfaces.
Back with Osborn we find him upset with 1 of his scientists. This guy had turned HAMMER troops into zombies and sent them in to the place. But once inside all their comms went dead and now NO can't tell what's happening.
Fantomex leads the way through a conveniently high-up opening. Noh-Varr introduces himself and says Wolverine told him Fantomex might be here. Jean-Phillipe has never heard of him, despite the time he wrote a message of destruction in the buildings of New York (see the Marvel Boy limited series) - he just assumed he was another X-Man. Marvel Boy is insulted - he's a Kree.
As Fantomex leads them deeper into the complex we learn that all The World's scientists are dead, but now J-P figures the factory itself has become sentient and is continuing to grow 'monsters' like him as its 'immune system'. MB is shocked that no-one is keeping things in check. Fantomex admits maybe *he* should have done something, but he was too busy with his favourite occupation - stealing stuff.
Apparently The World released the mind-controlling Weapon XVI gas as another defence. It latches onto the faith of anyone who believes in any higher being and converts that into believe in itself - Allgod. Luckily Fantomex's nanites make him incapable of believing in anything other than himself. And the Kree have mathematically disproved the existence of any god.
Finally they reach The World's brain - a surprisingly organic structure. Fantomex says they have to persuade The World to shut down Weapon XVI before it escapes the dome and infects the outer world. Marvel Boy says in his travels through the multiverse he's usually found bullets solve everything. So they both shoot the brain.
But the Allgod worshippers aren't cured and aren't happy. Wolverine leads them into battle. Fantomex holds them off and tells Noh-Varr to go kiss the brain. It's newly-born and wants affection. Disgusted Marvel Boy complies ... and the worshippers regain their senses.
But the HAMMER zombies now want to take over The World. So the 3 heroes have to fight them. (And Osborn has his comms back, but now isn't happy with what he sees.) 1 of the Agents plucks something out of The World's brain and tells Osborn he's got it. But Logan chops his arm off. The zombies are all dead and the trio leave, not noticing the severed arm with the brain crawling away.
Fantomex uses a shrink ray he stole from Dr Doom, and carries the dome away in the palm of his hand. Marvel Boy suggests he could reprogram it to do good things. Fantomex clearly has other ideas as he leaves in his flying craft E.V.A.. Logan lets Noh-Varr have *their* plane and goes to hitch a lift from a passing truck. Which runs over the hand with the brain.
Osborn declares the zombie program a waste of time. We see it was called Project Deathlok.
This issue also reprints Jason Aaron's 1st published work from Wo#175 as winner of the Wolverine Writing Contest.