Have you been reading the new W.M.D. series from Marvel? If you want to avoid spoilers only read half of this article.

This week saw the release of W.M.D. #1 the book featuring Batch H – the Wolverine / Hulk mash up character. I spoke about this on facebook (where I post things I don’t always post on the site – for example I posted that Secret War: Battleworld #3 was the first time a Hulk / Wolverine mash up appeared on a comic book cover) but this new series W.M.D. series gives you a lot to think about.

W.M.D. like many marvel events takes place in two comic series that cross over, Weapon X, The Totally Awesome Hulk and the W.M.D. mini-series all include integral parts of the story-line. The W.M.D. story line started in the last issue of Totally Awesome Hulk, Totally Awesome Hulk #19. I am assuming Marvel didn’t properly advertise this cross-over series which has resulted in a retailer sell out for issue #19 and Marvel has already announced a second printing.
First prints of Totally Awesome Hulk #19 have sold for up to $18 but are currently averaging just above $10. This is a book to be asking your LCS about.

In W.M.D. #1 this week we found out that a character named Franklin Edwards would become the human guinea pig that would be turned into the Hulk / Wolverine mash-up character. Who is Franklin Edwards?

I have not been able to find a Franklin Edwards in the Marvel universe, however, I did find a Frank Edwards that seems to have similar characteristics to the new Franklin character.

Frank Edwards first appeared in two comics that came out the same week in February of 1986. Squadron Supreme #6 and Captain America #314. Frank Edwards is a villain who teams up with Captain America to stop the Squadron Supreme from controlling the US Governments mutant program. This character dies and hasn’t shown up in the MCU since 1986.

Another character named Frank Edwards appears in Paradise X – the Alex Ross Earth X Universe. This was set up as a separate entity to the marvel universe where Alex Ross took all the classic characters and did what he wanted with them*. In Paradise X, Frank Edwards builds a bomb to kill mutants because he wants to kill all mutants.

Is Frank Edwards the same character as Franklin Edwards from the W.M.D. series? I am not sure but there seems to be clear similarities.

Thank you Topher S and Nick B for your help with this article.

*The Earth X Universe was only kind of set up by Alex Ross. Alex Ross did a series for DC where he reimagined the DC universe and its characters. This book was very successful, it was titled Kingdom Come. It was amazing. Wizard World Magazine did an issue where they asked Ross what he would do if he had the same control of the Marvel Universe. This was then taken by Marvel and turned into the Paradise X universe. Ross had minimal involvement but did do some covers for the series. TL:DR – Marvel takes ideas from DC and comic collector magazines.

Happy Speculating
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