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.