Wolverine and the X-Men #42 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer); Nick Bradshaw, Pepe Larraz, Ramon Perez, Shawn Crystal, Steve Sanders, Nuno Alves, Tim Townsend, & Chris Bachalo (artists); Matt Milla & Lee Loughridge (color artists)

The Story: It’s graduation day for the Jean Grey School and Quentin Quire is in for a reckoning that’s been building all semester.

The Review: It’s been a long strange road for this series, but it’s finally over.

For this capstone story Jason Aaron returns us to the Jean Grey School of the future from WatXM #29. As the mutants of Earth-616 prepare for graduation, a tired old Logan prepares to shut down the school on Earth-13729.

Aaron, in no uncertain terms, focuses this story around the three most important characters of his run: Logan, Idie Okonkwo, and Quentin Quire. When the Jean Grey School opened, each one of them entered with blood on their hands. The struggle for each has not been to atone for past deeds, but rather to redefine themselves so that they have a future going forward.

Idie definitely gets the short end of the stick in terms of billing, but she’s actually one of the best characters in this issue. Both as her present self and as a confidant X-Man of the future, Idie shows drastic change from the beginning of the series. While I wish this transition had been more of a gradual process than a couple of off-screen leaps, the character that Idie has become is absolutely lovely. Her simple dialogue with Quire and Future Logan is probably some of the best work that Aaron has done with a female character over the whole of the run and makes her relationships with Logan and Quire feel real and substantial.

Meanwhile Quentin is dealing, or perhaps not dealing, with the fact that the Jean Grey School has changed him. Like a less flamboyant Stewie Griffin, he longs for the days when the mere thought of his dastardly plans made the hair stand up on Cyclops, Captain America, and Wolverine’s necks.  What Aaron fails to bring in reality, he certainly provides in humor and heart.

Wolverine and the X-Men #17 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story:  So just what exactly IS Doop’s job at the school, anyway?

The Review:  No  more AvX tie-ins for Wolverine and the X-Men!!!  Is it any surprise that this is the best issue of WatXM in months?  I highly doubt it; with the shackles of AvX gone, Jason Aaron is allowed to go back to his usual craziness and here he gives us the kookiest issue in quite some time.

It’s a done-in-one that spotlights Doop and is drawn by the Allreds.  If that sounds awesome to you, rest assured that it is awesome in every way that you think it is.  It’s been quite a while since I read a Marvel comic that was this freaking funny from cover to cover.  Seriously, Jason Aaron does not let up for one moment with the jokes.  Once the issue gets started, it’s gag after gag after gag, occasionally even simultaneously.  The issue is so utterly ludicrous and some of the jokes are so completely over the top (and even, in one case, kind of twisted…) that it almost feels like WatXM has gone on a Doop fueled fever dream for a month.

Wolverine & the X-Men #11 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Nick Bradshaw (pencils & inks), Walden Wong & Norman Lee (inks), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: Going to the X-Men’s aid, Jean Grey School teachers battle Avengers while Logan and Hope are intercepted by a squad of Shi’ar Death Commandos.

The Review:  Two issues in, it’s become clear – AvX has effectively derailed one of Marvel’s best books, and isn’t that the eternal nightmare for comics readers wary of event tie-ins?

The problem is that focusing on Avengers vs. X-Men forces Aaron to move away from much of what’s made the book a rousing success.  We spend far too much time away from the school and from the students.  Indeed, much as the bit with Genesis was last issue’s best moment, this issue’s bits with Kid Gladiator and Kitty’s class’ reaction to Iceman’s fight with Hulk are the highlights, but these portions are far too brief.

No, instead, the bulk of the issue just features mindless action.  Once again, we get to see Avengers and X-Men punching each other in Wakanda/Tabula Rasa/Wundagore/Savage Land, exchanging dialogue that feels completely phoned in, with heroes reiterating their teams’ basic stances.  Most of these characters fighting have no real beef or connection to one another, so the fights really feel meaningless, while other characters have never even played a role in this book prior to this issue (Red Hulk and Doctor Strange, for instance).  Frankly, this “splitting the teams amidst four locations” has been a point I’ve really hated about AvX, as it’s just led to tie-ins like this one, spinning their wheels by filling pages with random heroes punching each other.  Perhaps it would be more forgivable for readers with less extensive pull-lists, but it’s starting to feel like every damned tie-in is doing these “checking in” action scenes; it was lifeless and tiresome to begin with and at this point, it’s simply irritating.