Review: Wolverine And The X-Men #3 By Jason Aaron And Chris Bachalo

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Wolverine and the X-Men #3

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Chris Bachalo, Duncan Rouleau, Matteo Scalera, Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, Victor Olazaba, and Jason Keith

 

The short of it:

The Jean Grey Institute was built on a Krakoa and now everything is going to hell! Wolverine and company do everything they can to try and save the school and all of the kids, but it all boils down to Quentin Quire…if only any of the students knew who he was! Kid Gladiator shows how awesome he can be, and then Quentin reminds us why he’s Kid Omega. When all is said is done the day is saved and there’s a Morrison-esque new member on the team, while Wolverine gives the Hellfire Kids the means to deliver a classic Daffy Duck “Well this means war”…which they say with a bang in the form of a classic character making their return!

 

 

What I liked:

  • I liked the conversation between Logan and Captain America to start the issue, because really, I can’t understand how he’d plan to keep Quentin Quire a secret, so the fact that he doesn’t works.
  • Also, the fact that Idie thinks she caused the Schism and none of the kids have heard of Quentin is just great.
  • Kid Gladiator is in the running for my favorite new character of 2011.
  • Quentin versus Krakoa happens in a way that actually reignites my faith in Jason Aaron. Seriously, he pulls a move here that I’d expect from Grant Morrison, and it works amazingly. This book is going to be all kinds of big time crazy awesome, I can tell.
  • Best Daredevil cameo ever.
  • The Chris Bachalo pages look as awesome as you’d expect, and really, there are few artists who can convey a controlled chaos quite like he can.

 

What I didn’t like:

  • Still hate the Hellfire Kids. A lot.
  • Broo and Idie you can tell are intended to be cute, but really, they’re obnoxious. I miss Gillen writing Idie, she had depth then, now she’s just a talking head that spouts off stupid comments.
  • Even when I enjoy how an issue looks, I hate armies of inkers. I mean, obviously they do their job well as its far easier to tell differences in the pencillers (Rouleau and Scalera are pretty obvious to spot) than it is the inks.
  • Speaking of, the non-Bachalo pages are really unremarkable. I’m not impressed.

 

Final thoughts:

I was sold after the first issue, wary after the second, and now back on board with number three. I really hope the book stabilizes and doesn’t leave me wondering every few issues if I want to keep at it, because really, I just dropped Avengers and New Avengers and I don’t need to go through that again anytime soon.

 

It’s been a few years since I read through Morrison’s New X-Men last, but I don’t remember liking Quentin Quire. At all. He annoyed the piss out of me, and I think he was just too obviously going to be a bad guy, and it may have been the Kick, but I remember filing his name away in “who gives a damn” after he lost. So really, fresh look at the character here and it’s kind of like a new beginning for him. He’s obnoxious in a way where I’m not immediately hoping to see him get shuffled into limbo. Him quickly becoming ‘old news’ was a nice little twist to get his character in line for the issue. He’s definitely a highlight to this issue.

 

The new characters are getting pushes in every direction. Broo feels like he could be a fun character but seems doomed to suffer being stuck with the version of Idie that has taken root in this book. She went from incredibly deep to talking head bland in one crossover. Kid Gladiator, on the other hand, is made out of all kinds of awesome.

 

I’m not quite sure how to feel about the Bamf’s. There’s comedic value, but I need to know what the hell they are before too many more issues pass. Otherwise I’ll just go insane wondering why there’s an army of naked mini Nightcrawler clones running around pulling pranks.

 

I expect good things to come out of Kitty and Bobby, it’s a fresh pairing for mainstream continuity, and really both characters could use it. Kitty has been more or less reserved for Colossus for decades, including the time he was dead, and Bobby…Bobby needs some love. Both in and out of character, Iceman is always on my list of underutilized characters.

 

The Hellfire Kids are easily the worst villains ever. I mean, yes, I guess me hating them means there’s success there, but I hate them for the wrong reasons. I don’t hate them for what they’ve done to the heroes, I hate them for being petulant little brats that seem more designed for the wow factor of the X-men’s arch-enemies being eight year olds than to be scary because they’re kids. Given Wolverine’s stance on kids currently there could be a lot of mileage out of the bad guys being exactly who he wants to save, but instead they’re being handled like mini-adults.

 

Overall: 8/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.