There are few, if any, comics fans who don’t know the name Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, as he has quickly become one of the most popular characters within Marvel’s ever-growing catalog despite being a fairly new addition to the established universe. His Weapon X rival deserves that same level of fame and recognition.
While Deadpool is regarded as a humorous antihero with a heart of gold, he was originally a legitimate villain upon his debut in New Mutants #98 by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. In that issue, Deadpool is hired to kill Cable and anyone else who gets in his way, and he puts in the maximum effort to accomplish that villainous task without pausing for even a moment to consider the morality of the situation. Wade Wilson was originally a human mercenary who underwent extreme experimentation conducted by Weapon X to become a mutate after learning that he was dying of cancer. When he got his new powers, Deadpool initially used them strictly for profit as one of the greatest mercenaries in the world and didn’t care who he was hired to kill so long as he was well paid. Overtime, however, Deadpool’s character was adapted to match his growing popularity, making him more relatable and adjusting his missions and motivations to give fans a better reason to root for him–something that should also be done for another victim of Weapon X experimentation: Garrison Kane.
In X-Force #2 by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza, readers are introduced to Garrison Kane who makes his debut fighting Deadpool in a bout that cements them as bitter rivals. As Kane’s backstory becomes more fleshed out throughout the continuation of his storyline stemming from this issue, readers learn that Kane was actually a member of Cable’s unit of soldiers from the 40th Century known as Six Pack before traveling back in time to the present day. In the 40th Century, Kane was fighting alongside Cable and the other of the Six Pack when they were attacked by Stryfe–the evil clone of Cable–which resulted in Kane losing all of his limbs and Cable being thrown back in time. After suffering that major injury and traveling through the timestream himself, Kane found himself right next to pre-Deadpool Wade Wilson in a Weapon X facility where he was given cybernetic limbs that granted him incredible killing capability which he tried to use against Deadpool in his debut issue.
While Garrison Kane broke away from Weapon X following the procedure and even reunited with Cable as an ally, Kane eventually went back to working for Weapon X and even became the organization’s in-house hitman after upgrading his robotic limbs (made of liquid metal) to copy the powers of every other superhero in the Marvel Universe. While Kane seemingly died in Weapon X #12 by Frank Tieri and Georges Jeanty, he could easily be brought back either through the rebirth program on Krakoa or by way of a simple retcon and return to his former glory as a Deadpool villain and as a powerful representative of the Weapon X Program–something that has been criminally underutilized in recent X-Men stories.
It is true that Wolverine’s conflict with Weapon X has grown tiresome over the years, but he isn’t the only character who has had their life irreparably altered by the villainous organization, and Garrison Kane could pioneer a new phase of Weapon X stories that don’t rely on Wolverine. Regardless of whether or not Kane will be given a second chance in Marvel Comics to bring Weapon X into a new era and take the lead on all-new stories in interesting and brutal ways, Kane has already earned his place as one of the coolest characters ever to come out of the Weapon X Program, and he unarguably deserves the same fame as Deadpool.
