#weapon zero

Weapon Zero / Silver Surfer #01 Cover

Original Art

Art by Marc Silvestri And Matt Banning

Image Comics / Top Cow / Marvel Comics (1996)

From Heritage Auctions...

Lilith

-Real name: Lilith

-A.k.a.:-

-Publisher: Top Cow

-Type: Alien

-Afilliations: Batai, Weapon Zero

Ah, a more familiar Wildstorm property. Gen13 was a loosely-organized (at best) group of five superpowered teenagers who were experimented on to release their genetic potential for superpowers. Discovering that the experimenters were bad guys, they ran away and were fugitives for a while. By this point, though, they're no longer being actively sought by law enforcement and can go out in public, if not in costume. They have an adult mentor, Lynch, who does not appear in this story.

"Bootleg" was a spinoff of the main book to tell self-contained stories by different artists and writers who wanted a shot at the characters.

"Little Girl Lost" story and art by Louise and Walter Simonson

This story's a crossover with Weapon Zero, a comic book which was at that point being scripted by Walter Simonson. Basic premise is that the alien T'srri have been abducting humans and combining them with T'srri genetic material in hopes of creating an invasion force. Our protagonists are a small group of abductees who have managed to escape.

At the start of the story, Weapon Zero are in Los Angeles looking for Jamie, one of their members who has disappeared. Physically and mentally "youngest" member of the team, Valaria (who's actually from Pompeii just before Vesuvius exploded) gets distracted and wanders off with her dog Janus.

As it happens, there's a premiere of the latest Arnold Schwarzenegger film going on, Valaria gets confuzzled by the crowds and special effects, and has to be pulled from in front of a speeding car. Her rescuer turns out to be Grunge, as he and his teammates are in town to see the movie.

Valaria's too innocent to lie, but not savvy enough to explain coherently, so Gen13 is largely thinking her an imaginative little girl. Only Roxy takes her absolutely seriously.

One of Weapon Zero's enemies, Erisha, calls down a killer robot to get rid of Valaria (carefully avoiding being seen herself.) The teen heroes show off their abilities and easily destroy it.

Gen13 tries to help Valaria find her team, while Janus advises she ditch them, but soon, a second killer robot shows up. This one's programmed with counters to Gen13's powers, and Valaria is forced to reveal her own alternate identity as Leviathan.

This transformation allows Weapon Zero to track her down, and the Colonel (their leader) admits he "owes you kids one" before teleporting his team away. Gen13 returns to their original movie-watching plan.

This is a nice "done in one" story that gives us a taste of both teams (though mostly Valaria) but doesn't affect the plot of either series. The Simonson art is nifty and the action scenes are fun. I don't feel an urgent need to go out and collect Weapon Zero, but it gave me a nostalgic buzz for Gen13. As a crossover story, it did everything it needed to.