Barry Windsor-Smith was one of Marvel Comics’ most popular creators. Part of his popularity was due to his style. His comics neither looked nor read like other comic books. It is important to clarify that Windsor-Smith’s style was not exclusively defined by her artwork. Windsor-Smith approached storytelling very differently from the standard Marvel house style approach.
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The average age of comic book readers in the 1960s was seven. Marvel, as well as many other comic book publishers, had a “show and tell” storytelling style. Captions often describe the drawing in the panel. This redundancy made sense to young, inexperienced readers. But by 1991, readers became older and hopefully better readers.
Marvel Comics Presents 76, page 4, panel 3. Scans provided by author. © 2026 Marvel.
Marvel Comics Presents 76, page 4, panel 4. Scans provided by author. © 2026 Marvel.
The 1980s saw the rise of creators who realized that comics were an art form and not inherently limited to young readers. These creators challenge misconceptions about comics for children with complex, sophisticated works mouse, watchman, The Dark Knight ReturnsAnd love and rockets. The growth of storytelling as an art form means that creators like Barry Windsor-Smith can use a variety of techniques to engage and challenge their readers.
The ability to create disturbing horror in comics doesn’t come easy. This kind of storytelling leads to progress. weapon x Above and beyond Windsor-Smith’s extraordinary artwork.
One of the more obvious storytelling options weapon x There is a lack of narrative titles. Without literal explanation, readers must pay close attention to Smith’s artwork in each panel weapon xStory of. This one option dramatically changes the reading experience. It gives great importance to the artwork. The story cannot be understood just by reading the words. The art of each panel provides important information. To understand what is happening, the reader must interpret the images and character dialogue. This was a radical departure from most Marvel comics of the 1991s. These types of studies require time, attention, and thought to process what we see and how it fits with other panels. It also creates an experience where the reader’s knowledge is just like Logan’s—limited. We don’t always know what’s going on. We often relate 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. Scans provided by author. © 2026 Marvel.
The complexity of this style of storytelling can only be achieved when the creative team is working perfectly together. This is difficult to achieve in collaborations like film, television, and the Marvel method. But this 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 because they share the same mind. Windsor-Smith’s storytelling shifted the specific narrative responsibility of the text onto the imagination, thereby subverting the typical comic book reading experience. The result is an unusual reading experience, especially for a Marvel comic book.
Marvel Comics Presents 77, cover. © 2026 Marvel.
words that exist weapon x consists mostly of spoken dialogue between the Professor, Dr. Cornelius, and Hines. Often these characters are not in the panels, even if their words are. a lot of weapon x Weapon X’s feature panels are under surveillance. On top of these images are dialogue from off-panel characters. Windsor-Smith uses color to indicate which character is speaking. Windsor-Smith also cuts this dialogue into smaller pieces, so that the dialogue sometimes overlaps other dialogue, as if the speakers are talking excitedly to each other. The placement of word balloons does not always follow the left-to-right, top-to-bottom arrangement of Western reading conventions. This creates a disturbing effect and when combined with the visuals creates a narrative experience that challenges the reader to stay put and accept that what Logan is experiencing is horrifying and that we do not know what is happening. It’s disturbing and compliments the tone of the story. There is no answer for most of this story. Even the main characters sometimes seem unsure of what’s going on, who’s ultimately behind the experiment, and whether they should be doing what they’re doing. Look at that last sentence and try to think of another Marvel comic with this much uncertainty and moral ambiguity.
“…It’s not made clear,” Windsor-Smith adds, “…where they get all these explanatory thought balloons from. If you don’t pick up on any of the action on the page, you won’t be able to pick it up.”
“The storytelling is very traditional,” he said. “It’s exactly what I usually do. But the attitude is un-Marvel. I don’t like the ‘reveal all’ thing that Marvel has been doing for 25 years.” (comics scene 18, April 1991, p. 24)
eight page installments of marvel comics presents As opposed to the 20–22 pages of standard Marvel comic books of the time. Windsor-Smith creates concise, effective chapters that move the story forward and often move in time from one chapter to the next. The amount of time between chapters is not always clear. This increases Logan’s suffering further as it makes it feel like the experiment goes on forever. And it feels like we only see the highlights weapon xExperiment-X is just the tip of the iceberg.
Marvel Comics Presents 84, page 10. Scan provided by author. © 2026 Marvel.
The treatment of Logan’s character is another bold choice. He spends most of the story drunk. Chapters pass without any expression of character agency. Trauma and drugs put him in a zombie-like state, becoming a supporting character in his own origin story.
Helpless.
comics scene The magazine summed it up, “Wolverine’s true character is not displayed much.” (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 the early chapters is another example of storytelling that is not typical of Marvel Comics of 1991 or today. Windsor-Smith uses this technique to establish several sets of characters before they all come together. He also kills time. The panels jump back and forth in time. Dreams, memories, programming…it’s not always clear what we’re seeing and how we should interpret it. At one point, Weapon X kills its users, only for them to be revealed alive and well in a later chapter. It was later revealed that Weapon X was misled into believing that he had killed them as part of the program’s mental manipulation. But the reading experience is somewhat confusing because it feels as if time is not unfolding in a natural, linear manner. All of this creates a similar feeling or feeling to what Logan is experiencing—what is really happening? what is real? It all serves to create a memorable text that invites re-reading.
The only similar Marvel comic I can compare to is Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz Electra: The Killer-Another story that involves unconventional storytelling techniques that seem to reflect the distorted perception of its characters.
Marvel Comics Presents 73, page 5.
According to an interview with Barry Windsor-Smith, he produced several of weapon x Chapters out of order. The effect of this is that the chapters vary from linear cliffhanger stories to set pieces and scenes that change the pace and tone of the story. This approach was chosen because that was how Windsor-Smith wanted to work on the story.
It is a bit difficult to describe. It’s been such a winding process that I’ve put this thing together. Now this is a tough story, but the way it started was kind of, let’s say, unidirectional. There are some stories that are typed in eight pages. They start on page one and end on page eight. And two-thirds into the series the action started happening so fast, and it was basically out of my control. I just do what the characters want to do naturally because I don’t like all this real forced character stuff. So I let it go. And then it became a soap opera where suddenly there’s a cliffhanger, and then there’s another cliffhanger. Like I say, none of this is planned. I did what felt natural. (amazing hero 188, February 1991, p. 32)
This approach compliments the story. weapon x The slasher is a mix between body horror and psychological thriller. by creating chapters of weapon x It feels like there are incomplete pieces with bits of information missing, making the story unsettling. The audience struggles to fit some of the pieces together and it forces the audience to consider some details that push the darkness far more than one might expect from a superhero story. Like Logan, readers are never on firm ground. The more story we get, the less certain any of this seems.
Marvel Comics Presents 80, page 4. Scans provided by author.
In several chapters, they test Weapon X. The team then analyzes the results and what to do next to perfect their killing machine. Upgrades are often shown in the next chapter while the audience is left to imagine the time and process that Logan has gone through. These upgrades often mean greater control over Weapon X’s body and agency. They keep erasing or destroying his mind. Per the professor’s request, he is catatonic when “shut down” in some chapters. The duration of Experiment-X has not been disclosed. It feels like it exists outside the real world. Inside the facility, the lack of day and night further destroys the integrity of time and rhythm of a person’s life. How long is Logan drugged and experimented on? What kind of torture and drugs destroy one’s identity? What will he remember if he ever regains autonomy? Great horror stories often allude to the worst horror stories rather than showing them. The horror is set up but the execution happens in the dark recesses of the audience’s mind. The way Windsor-Smith tells the story weapon xViewers will have to fill in information based on the content shown. This is a brilliant use of storytelling and closure. It becomes like a disturbing story weapon x Unforgettable because a part of it occurs in the mind of every reader. The ability to create disturbing horror in comics doesn’t come easy. This kind of storytelling leads to progress. 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 Bloomsbury Publishing.
