By: Jason Aaron (writer); Nick Bradshaw (pencils); Walden Wong, Norman Lee, and Nick Bradshaw (inks), Justin Ponsor (colorist)
The Story: As Logan and Quire try to make their getaway from a space casino, Broo tries to reason with his would-be assassin, and the X-Men try to remove a malignant growth in Kitty’s body.
The Review: Back in this series’ first issue, Jason Aaron introduced us to our villain and his motivations in a pretty straightforward fashion; he had the villain walk up to Logan and introduce himself and his motivations. Now, this is a fairly standard trope in all genre works, but many reviewers considered this to be distracting, and cited it as the only negative aspect of the first issue. It seems that Aaron learned from that mistake however, and this time around we have a much better explanation for our villain monologue.
It turns out that our bad guy, the hulking alien intent on killing Broo, is Xanto Starblood, a Professor at the University of Rigel-3 and a zoo-terrorist. Being a scholar, he’s happy to engage in a debate about his guiding principles, and he even requests a critique of his own work. You’ve gotta love this; at once, it allows him to explain his motivations and give credence to those motivation at the same time. As Starblood explains, he believes that Broo’s friendly disposition is a step too far for evolution, and the leap he represents could well shake the balance of life in the universe. The only solution, as he sees it, is to exterminate Broo and his genetic stock before it’s too late.
The other story threads in this issue—the casino robbery and the battle in Kitty’s belly—are kind of on autopilot at this point, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not entertaining. Aaron manages to make each panel interesting by filling it with great characterization and clever dialogue. Whether it’s Quire honing his Psychic powers (“Psychic Shotgun. Suck it, alien pinheads.”) or Kid Gladiator reacting to being turned into a Brood (“I demand that you leave me like this! Kid Gladiator looks unbelievably awesome!”), Aaron makes it look as though his masterful handle on the characters is effortless.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews | Tagged: Bamfs, Broo, Brood, Comic Book Reviews, Jason Aaron, Jim Middleton, Justin Ponsor, Kid Gladiator, Kid Omega, Kitty Pryde, Krakoa, Logan, Marvel Comics, Nick Bradshaw, Norman le, Reviews, Walden Wong, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review, Wolverine, Wolverine & the X-Men #7, Wolverine & the X-Men #7 review, Wolverine and the X-Men, Xanto Starblood | 2 Comments »