Assault on Weapon Plus

• Writer - Grant Morrison
• Penciler - Chris Bachalo
• Inker - Tim Townsend
• Colorist - Chris Chuckry
• Lettering - Virtual Calligraphy
• Lettering - Rus Wooton
• Ass't Editor - Annie Thornton
• Editor - Mike Marts
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

The Flesh

Summary

  Scott follows Fantomex down a street frozen in time. They see AIM soldiers battling a monster, which Fantomex says is a World Police car-cop, an Artificial Evolution experiment with a whale's brain under the hood of a truck. He escaped The World a few months ago, but generations have passed since then. Fantomex mocks Scott about facing Weapon XV with just "some lumbering 'martial arts' and a commanding voice" and hopes he'll wait for his moment. He asks why Scott's there, and he says he wants to look out for Logan in case Fantomex lied just to get his help. It took a long time for Logan to regain his dignity after what Weapon X did to him, and he's nobody's pawn now. He asks why Fantomex just doesn't tell him the truth about his past; Fantomex says that might kill him.

  The World was created to breed super-soldiers in the imminent war between man and mutant. The human species is dying, and their only hope is in cybernetics to exterminate all mutants. The residents of The World were told there was nothing outside except solid rock. He finds a floor tile and pries it up, finding a roll of paper with the manifesto he left there. His name is Charlie Cluster 7, and he was told mutant monsters would kill all his friends, but they made him too smart to believe that. Scott thought Fantomex was French; he just likes the accent.

  Logan has been scouting and reports everyone's dead, and Weapon XV is probably where the smoke is. He wonders what made him so mad to destroy his home; Fantomex says he saw it for what it was, a factory farm.

  Weapon X and Weapon XIII will be like dinosaurs to him; Logan wants to be the tyrannosaurus. He asks about the AIM guy he told them not to leave alone.

  That guy seals himself in the control room and twists a knob; in The World the air gets thinner, Scott throws up, and time starts again. A car-cop attacks; Fantomex shoots the control chip behind the mid-brain, destroying it. Logan regrets getting Scott into this.

  Weapon XV appears in full body-armor, announcing he's broken The World. He asks if they're real. Fantomex says he grew up here, and they're relatives, maybe. Weapon XV says that's gibberish, and with the old rules gone, only he's left to make new ones. Fantomex sees they're doomed; the portal that is Weapon XV's face lights up; electricity crackles. Logan says these big, bad, mutant-killing machines are all the same and lunges; Scott asks the collapsed Fantomex to say something isn't "urrk." Weapon XV starts to solve Logan's attack like a math problem; Logan's claws are unable to get through his armor, and he easily electrocutes him. Fantomex recovers; luckily, he keeps his nervous system outside his body. He points; EVA teleports to the control room and takes out the AIM guy but then reports the dials are jammed.

  Scott asks what happens if Weapon XV gets loose; Fantomex says it'll be like Genosha (iss. 115). Scott realizes it's his moment and grabs a steel pipe. He whales on Weapon XV, who just hits him back, knocking him down.

  Weapon XV hesitates, saying there must be more than this. He guesses there's more outside The World and blasts upward, bursting through the dome and into the night sky.

  Fantomex is pleased; like all the super-soldiers, Weapon XV has a failsafe in case he ever broke loose. EVA senses the homing signal which will jerk him back to the kennel. No one's been able to find Weapon Plus's nerve center; now they know why: Weapon XV reaches an orbiting space station.

Summary

  Cover name was changed to "New X-Men" for Issues 114 - 156.