Barry Windsor-Smith was one of the most popular creators at Marvel Comics. Part of his popularity was due to his style. His comics did not look like or read like other comic books. It is important to clarify that Windsor-Smith’s style was not defined exclusively by his artwork. Windsor-Smith approached storytelling very differently than the standard Marvel house style approach.
The average age of comic book readers in the 1960s was seven. The storytelling style of Marvel as well as many other comic book publishers was “show and tell.” Captions often described the drawing in the panel. This redundancy made sense for young, inexperienced readers. But by 1991, readers were older and hopefully better readers.
Marvel Comics Presents 76, page 4, panel 3. Scan provided by the author. © 2026 MARVEL.
Marvel Comics Presents 76, page 4, panel 4. Scan provided by the author. © 2026 MARVEL.
The 1980s saw the rise of creators who felt that comics were an art form and were not inherently limited to young readers. These creators challenged misconceptions about comics being for kids with complex, sophisticated works like Maus, Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and Love and Rockets. The growth of storytelling in the art form meant that creators like Barry Windsor-Smith could use different techniques to engage and challenge their readers.
The ability to create disturbing horror in comics is not easy. This kind of storytelling elevates Weapon X above and beyond Windsor-Smith’s extraordinary artwork.
One of the more obvious storytelling choices in Weapon X is the lack of narrative captions. Without literal explanations, readers must pay close attention to Smith’s artwork in each panel to follow Weapon X’s story. This one choice dramatically changes the reading experience. It places much more value on the artwork. One cannot understand the story only by reading the words. The art in each panel provides critical information. In order to understand what is happening, the reader must interpret the images and the character’s dialogue. This was a radical departure from most Marvel comics of 1991. This kind of reading requires time, attention, and thought in order to process what we see and how it fits with other panels. It also creates an experience where the reader’s knowledge is similar to Logan’s—limited. We do not always know what is happening. We often piece together the story from a subjective, fragmented vantage point. At times, this effect makes Logan’s character more relatable.
Marvel Comics Presents 76, page 4, panel 4. Scan provided by the author. © 2026 MARVEL.
The complexity of this style of storytelling can only be achieved when the creative team is working in complete concert. That is hard to achieve in collaborations like film, television, and the Marvel method. But it is possible when one person is writing and drawing the story at the same time because the artist knows exactly what the writer is trying to say since they share a brain. Windsor-Smith’s storytelling shifted the typical narrative responsibility of text onto the imagery, inverting the usual comic book reading experience. The result is an unusual reading experience, especially for a Marvel comic book.
Marvel Comics Presents 77, cover. © 2026 MARVEL.
The words that do exist in Weapon X are mostly dialogue spoken between the Professor, Dr. Cornelius, and Hines. Often these characters are not in the panel even though their words are. A lot of Weapon X features panels of Weapon X under observation. Juxtaposed on top of these images is dialogue from off-panel characters. Windsor-Smith uses color to designate which character is speaking. Windsor-Smith also cuts this dialogue into smaller pieces, sometimes causing dialogue to overlap other dialogue, as if the speakers are excitedly talking over one another. The placement of the word balloons does not always follow the left-to-right, top-to-bottom arrangement of Western reading conventions. This creates a disorienting effect and when coupled with the visuals makes for a narrative experience that challenges the reader to keep up and to acknowledge that what Logan is experiencing is horrific and that we do not know everything that is happening. It is unsettling and compliments the tone of the story. For most of this story, there are no answers. Even the main characters seem unsure of what is going on at times, who is ultimately behind this experiment, and whether they should be doing what they are doing. Look at that last sentence and try to think of another Marvel comic with that much uncertainty and moral ambiguity.
“…this isn’t spelled out,” Windsor-Smith adds, “…where they’ve got all these explanatory thought balloons. If you don’t pick up from whatever action’s on the page, you’re not going to pick it up.”
“The storytelling is very conventional,” he notes. “It’s just the way I normally do stuff. But the attitude is non-Marvel. I don’t like that ‘reveal everything’ thing that Marvel has been doing for 25 years.” (Comics Scene 18, April 1991, p. 24)
The eight-page installments of Marvel Comics Presents contrasted with the 20-22 pages of the standard Marvel comic books of that time. Windsor-Smith creates lean, effective chapters that advance the story and often jump ahead in time from chapter to chapter. The amount of time between chapters is not always clear. This adds to Logan’s suffering because it makes the experiment feel like it carries on and on. And it feels like we only see the highlights in Weapon X, the tip of the Experiment-X iceberg.
Marvel Comics Presents 84,page 10. Scan provided by the author. © 2026 MARVEL.
The treatment of the character Logan is another bold choice. He spends most of the story drugged out of his mind. Chapters pass without any expression of agency from the character. The trauma and drugs put him in a zombie-like state, a supporting character in his own origin story.
Helpless.
Comics Scene magazine summed it up, “the true character of Wolverine is not much on display.” (Comics Scene 18, April 1991, p. 24)
Marvel Comics Presents 77,page 7, panels 1–2.
Windsor-Smith’s extensive use of cross-cutting in early chapters is another example of storytelling that is not typical of Marvel Comics in 1991 or today. Windsor-Smith uses this technique to establish multiple sets of characters before they all converge. He also cuts through time. Panels jump forward and backward in time. Dreams, memories, programming…it is not always clear what we’re seeing and how we should interpret it. At one point, Weapon X kills his experimenters, only for them to reappear in the subsequent chapter alive and well. It is later revealed that Weapon X was misled to believe that he had killed them as part of the mental manipulation of the program. But the reading experience is somewhat confusing as it seems like time is not unfolding in a natural, linear manner. All of this creates a feeling or sense similar to what Logan is experiencing—what exactly is happening? What is real? It all serves to create a memorable read that invites rereading.
The only similar Marvel comic that I can compare it to is Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz’s Elektra: Assassin—another story that features unconventional storytelling techniques that seem to mirror the distorted perception of its characters.
Marvel Comics Presents 73, page 5.
According to interviews with Barry Windsor-Smith, he created several of the Weapon X chapters out of sequence. The effect is that chapters vary from linear cliffhanger stories to fragments and scenes that change the tempo and tone of the story. This approach was chosen because it is how Windsor-Smith wanted to work on the story.
It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s such a meandering process that I’ve put this thing together with. It’s a tight story now, but the way it started out was, to be kind, let’s say unidirectional. There are some stories in there that are typed eight-pagers. They start on page one and end hard on page eight. And two-thirds of the way through the series the action started to move so fast, and this was basically out of my control. I just do what the characters seem to want to do naturally because I don’t like all of that real forced character stuff. So I just let it run. And it then became a serial in that there’s a cliffhanger suddenly, and then there’s another cliffhanger. Like I say, none of this is planned. I just did what seemed natural. (Amazing Heroes 188, February 1991, p. 32)
This approach compliments the story. Weapon X is a cross between slasher body horror and psychological thriller. By making the chapters of Weapon X feel like incomplete fragments that are missing bits of information, the story is unsettling. The audience struggles to make certain pieces fit together and it forces the audience to contemplate some details that push the darkness further than one would expect a super hero story to go. Like Logan, readers are never on firm ground. The more story we get, the less certain any of it seems.
Marvel Comics Presents 80,page 4. Scan provided by the author.
In several chapters, they test Weapon X. Then the team analyzes the results and what to do next in their quest to perfect their killing machine. The next chapter often features the upgrade while the audience is left to imagine the time and procedure(s) that Logan has undergone. These upgrades often mean greater control over Weapon X’s body and agency. They continue to erase or destroy his mind. In some chapters he is catatonic when “turned off,” as requested by the Professor. The duration of Experiment-X is not revealed. It seems to exist outside of the real world. Inside the facility, the lack of day and night further destroys the integrity of time and rhythm of one’s life. How long is Logan drugged and experimented on? What kind of torture and drugs destroys one’s id? What will he remember if he ever regains autonomy? Great horror stories often imply the worst horror rather than show it. The horror is set up but the execution takes place in the dark recesses of the audience’s minds. The way Windsor-Smith tells the story of Weapon X, the audience must fill in information based on the content that is shown. It is a brilliant use of storytelling and closure. It makes a disturbing story like Weapon X unforgettable because part of it takes place in the mind of each reader. The ability to create disturbing horror in comics is not easy. This kind of storytelling elevates Weapon X above and beyond Windsor-Smith’s extraordinary artwork.
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From Wolverine: Weapon X by Jim Rugg. Copyright © 2026. Available from Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloosmbury Publishing.
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