Warning: spoilers for Heroes Reborn: Weapon X & Final Flight #1 ahead!
The horror that Wolverine underwent in the Weapon X program in Marvel Comics has been well documented for some time now, but a new comic from the Heroes Reborn event re-contextualizes the notorious operation all together. Weapon X was an effort to transform mutants into super soldiers, surgically enhancing them through brutal methods often without their consent. In Wolverine's case, Weapon X gave him an adamantium skeleton and claws to create him as the perfect killing machine. While he was able to escape Weapon X's facility, Wolverine still carries the physical and psychological scars of the experience with him.
It is not surprising that Heroes Reborn is tackling Weapon X through a new lens, given how the event has re-envisioned many parts of the Marvel Universe already. Taking place in an alternate reality where the Avengers never existed, the United States are represented by a group called the Squadron Supreme of America. Led by Hyperion, Marvel's version of Superman, the Squadron Supreme launched a brutal attack on Canada, leaving much of the country a desolate wasteland. Heroes Reborn: Weapon X & Final Flight #1 follows Wolverine and the rest of the Canadian team, Alpha Flight, as they battle the Squadron Supreme one last time (written by Ed Brisson, art by Roland Boschi, colors by Chris O'Halloran, letters by VC's Cory Petit). In the issue, Wolverine is shown voluntarily going through Weapon X procedures with Professor Thorton, whereupon he reveals that Thorton gave him his powers for the purpose of defeating the Squadron Supreme.
A crucial difference the Weapon X of Heroes Reborn and that of the regular Marvel timeline is that here, it is not something that Wolverine was forced to undergo against his will. In fact, the issue shows that he had been a willing participant in it as a means to finally defeat his enemies. While regular Wolverine was created to become the perfect killing machine, the Heroes Reborn version of his character chooses to step into the program in order to defend his home. Instead of being something that is an attack on Wolverine's bodily autonomy and sense of security, the Weapon X program of Heroes Reborn is an ultimate expression of it.
The effects of Weapon X on Wolverine's psyche are especially grave given the fact that unlike his other foes, he physically cannot "defeat" the harm done to him as a means to overcome it. That is, although Wolverine initially killed his way out of Weapon X, the lingering pain and trauma from the experience is something that cannot be resolved through violence. This is why the difference in his experience with Weapon X in Heroes Reborn is so significant, because it provides the conditions for Wolverine to heal a wound that he has struggled with for decades. He may find comfort in the fact that, though he had not chosen to be transformed in the regular timeline, another version of himself did for the sake of the greater good.
This change to Wolverine's character in Heroes Reborn offers the opportunity for his normal self to heal from the trauma he had previously experienced in the program, if he is later able to remember the event. Though Heroes Reborn is still taking place in a separate reality, there is still the chance that regular Wolverine could remember some of the events of Heroes Reborn later down the line. Superhero comics are notoriously fluid on this front, and if Wolverine were able to someday find peace from this fact, then it would settle one of his greatest problems.