Wolverine and the X-Men #1 – Review

By: Jason Latour (writer), Mahmud Asrar (artist), Israel Silva (color artist)

The Story: As the bard hath wrote: high school never ends…

The Review: It’s very strange to see a new Wolverine and the X-Men #1 so soon, but this is what we find ourselves confronted with. Jason Aaron’s post-Schism story for Wolverine and his school was a highly unique one, and one that occupied a very special place in Marvel’s lineup. Now that Jason Latour and Mahmud Asrar have taken over, the question on many minds is how much of the title’s charm was WatXM and how much was Aaron’s sensibility.

Well, to get right to it, it’s certainly not a repeat of Aaron’s work. Latour’s WatXM has a different feel, which might upset fans of the previous volume, but it’s not at all the reversal that the New 52 JLI was. Indeed, as we predicted last week, this could have very easily have been Wolverine and the X-Men #43.

The story picks up right from where we left off, with the solicit even assuring us that this is summer term. Our focus character is Quentin Quire, newly graduated and beginning his new job as a teaching assistant, though who he’s assisting is never made particularly clear. Quire’s always been a foil for Wolverine and, similarly, it’s interesting to see his individual brand of rebelliousness forced into a position of authority. The problem is that, unlike Logan, Quire isn’t dedicated enough to this new stage in his life to sell it in a first issue. He’d probably give up on it if it weren’t for his girlfriend, Idie.

Wolverine and the X-Men #39 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), Pepe Larraz (artist), Matt Milla with Pete Pantazis (color artists)

The Story: You know that awkward feeling when you run into an ex unexpectedly? It’s like that, but with more killer robots.

The Review: After an excellent start last issue, Jason Aaron drops us straight into the heart of an entirely different sort of story. Gone is the breakneck momentum that defined WatXM #38 and Amazing X-Men #1, and in their place is an impressively cinematic tale that, quite appropriately, is about the Jean Grey School as much as any of the characters.

Half the story follows Wolverine as his mission to shut down S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Sentinel hanger is interrupted by Cyclops, lured there by Mystique. Though Aaron’s title has felt somewhat crowded out of the grand scheme of the X-Family by Brian Michael Bendis’ work, this issue promptly reminds you why Marvel trusted him to split the X-Men in the first place. The tension between Scott and Logan is palpable, yet Aaron wisely avoids putting the two at each other’s throats again. Instead, Aaron gives us a slightly awkward team-up, as tense as it is familiar. The script plays with what’s important to each man and provides some impressive spectacle despite its clear focus on interpersonal drama. Aaron even calls in the events of the other X-Books, cleverly contrasting the troubles Cyclops has had with his powers since Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men #1 with the loss of Logan’s healing factor in Paul Cornell’s Wolverine.

Wolverine and the X-Men #38 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), Pepe Larraz (artist), Matt Milla (color artist)

The Story: Maria Hill proves she has no appreciation for anything awesome in comics, forcing Wolverine to turn to Carlos Danger.

The Review: I’ll say this for Jason Aaron, he’s very good at writing beginnings. And so, in the vein of Wolverine and the X-Men #1, this issue sets the stage for what seems to be the next and final season of this title.

This book is only twenty-pages long, but it feels massive. While some of that may be the psychological effect of having a preview attached to the back, it’s hard to deny that Aaron gets mileage out of this issue. Wolverine and his staff now know that S.H.I.E.L.D. has Sentinels and they are not pleased, but Maria Hill isn’t exactly pleased with their part in Battle of the Atom, either. While critics of Wolverine and the X-Men might point to the jokey tone of the series, not incorrectly, Aaron does a well above average job of channeling his trademark humor into the drama of the scene and, in fact, the entire issue.

Amid this backdrop, Broo takes a pair of new students on a tour of the Jean Grey School. It’s hardly the first time that Aaron has used this device, but it’s easily one of the best. The school definitely feels different since the last time we saw it. It feels like the start of a new semester. Honestly, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense when that would have happened, but it’s just what the book has needed.

Wolverine and the X-Men #28 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (Writer), Ramon Pérez (Artist), Laura Martin, Matt Milla (Colorist)

The Story: As it turns out, the students of the Jean Grey School for higher learning are not so impressed with Dog and his class as Wolverine comes around to show them what kind of man he is.

The Review: Well, as it turns out, the conclusion here is much stronger than the actual story we got here. Could it be because of the fact that Jason Aaron used more character analysis here rather than mindless action? Could it also be because it delivers a somewhat satisfying conclusion to a storyline that had its share of small ups and crushing downs?

The answer for both these questions would be a resounding yes. Here, we get a higher focus on the real stars of this book: the students. As pretty much of the action in this arc had been focused on Wolverine, his brother and the students, it is much more interesting to see the students interact with each other in stressful situation, to see them evolve and adapt. Close to every students get a single moment, be it Broo that shows he still has some kind of intelligence under all that new savagery, or Eye-Boy who shows just what kind of stuff he can do with eye powers (even though that particular moment was almost ruined by the thought bubbles. No, I will never let that go.) By focusing on the way that the students become a bit more united, it makes the ending a little bit stronger as a result.

Wolverine and the X-Men #27 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (Writer), Ramon Pérez (Artist), Laura Martin, Matt Milla (Colorist)

The Story: The children of the Jean Grey School of higher learning have to survive against time-displaced cavemen, cowboys and robots.

The Review: Just when I thought the series could begin to get back on track, Jason Aaron goes and writes this issue. The craziness and the focus on the kids seemed to be back on track, but the kind of craziness he brings here is not particularly of the same quality as when this started.

Now, before going into the nasty stuff, there are actually some nice bits here and there, particularly the parts where we see some of the individual students partake in a conversation with Wolverine, where he show them just why he has chosen some of them for this class. Those are some of the better scenes of the book where we can actually see some characterization and some development that might make this book a bit more tolerable. However, there are still some major problems here.

Wolverine and the X-Men #25 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (Writer), Ramòn Pérez (Artists), Laura Martin (Colorist)

The Story: Wolverine decides to teach the students of the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning all about survival in one the harshest place of the Marvel universe: the Savage Lands.

The Review: I do believe this is a step in the right direction for this series. For something that started with full of energy, style and humor, it is a little bit painful to see just how it all faltered. The faults can be traced down to many things, like an overly long tie-in story with AvX focusing on other characters that were not part of the cast, the vast retooling of said cast among many others. Still, this issue is a step in the right direction for many reasons.

One of them would be the tighter focus on the actual cast of the book, with people like Idie, Quentin Quire, Wolverine, Genesis and Broo being brought back front and center. This works much better, since most of them have been there since the inception (Genesis being the exception), allowing us to see just how they have evolved and changed thanks to the many happenings at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning. Much of their sass and personalities are shown fully, which makes for a much more interesting comics than the latest arc focusing on some smaller or rather boring characters.