Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #29

| May 15, 2013 | Comics | 3 Comments

Writer:  Jason Aaron
Artist:  Ramon Perez
Colorists:  Laura Martin
Letterer:  VC’s Joe Caramagna

Wolverine and the X-Men has been an odd book for me.  I enjoyed it when it initially launched, but lately the stories haven’t been that interesting to me.  I wonder if last year’s event Avengers vs. X-Men derailed things.  The book was in such a groove and then had to tie into that crossover.  I was not a fan of the “Murder Circus” story arc, and I wasn’t crazy about Wolverine’s brother, Dog Logan.

Issue 29 takes a leap in the future, as we get to see The Jean Grey School For Higher Learning, 25 years from now.  Have things changed for the students and staff?  Let’s find out shall we?

What I Liked

Future-inspired stories can be a mixed bag.  Marvel seems to be going overboard with time travel.  The biggest example of this is the original X-Men from the past coming to the present in All-New X-Men.  This issue isn’t so much time travel as it is taking a peek into the future.

Wolverine and Beast find some belongings of Dog Logan, specifically a lockbox that cannot be opened.  This prompts Wolverine to have the students bury a time capsule, which we see recovered 25 years later.  What I loved is all the potential this possible future showed.  There were a lot of references that could be seen as threads to this summer’s X-Men crossover event “Battle of the Atom”.  Future students/staff either displayed or referenced are Professor Xorn, Carmen Drake (who can turn to ice like Iceman, but appears to be phasing through a wall ala Kitty Pryde), Warren Worthington IV, Kubrick Quire, Charlene Xavier, Rose Logan, and Summer Grey.  We already know some of these characters will be traveling from the past to the present in “Battle of the Atom”.  Plus it’s been said that “Battle of the Atom” was originally Jason Aaron’s brainchild.  Methinks seeds have been planted.

I also loved the jabs that Aaron takes at Wolverine and his curious habit of trying to change history through time traveling.  We’re already seeing this play out in Age of Ultron.  Eye-Man (not Eye-Boy anymore) makes sure to remind Wolverine that he is a repeated time code offender.

What I Didn’t Like

The only complaint I had was we didn’t get to see what happened to all the students in the future.  The only one we see is Eye-Boy/Man.  What are the fates of Quentin Quire, Genesis, and Idie?  I know Wolverine’s name is in the title of the book, but it would be nice to have more individual stories with the students.  We still don’t know what happened to Broo from the time he lunged at Idie at the end of one issue, to being Idie’s pet once they land in the Savage Land.

Summary

We get a small taste of what the future holds for Wolverine and the X-Men.  Again, like previous issues, it focuses too much on Wolverine and not his students.  That is what I enjoyed about Generation X back in the day.  They didn’t focus on Banshee or White Queen as much as what the students went through learning to cope with being mutants and learning to control their abilities.

What I enjoyed the most was wondering how this will tie into “Battle of the Atom”.

This review is written in partnership with Pop Culture Network.  They can be found at their website http://www.popculturenetwork.com/

#ComicBookChronicles @CBChron founder. Editor-in-Chief of @thekliqnation. Comic book reviewer, podcaster #RABBLERABBLE

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  • Rkduke

    Is it me, or Kubrick Quire sounds like Quentin (Kid Omega) and Kubark (Kid Gladiator) had a kid?

    Kid, kid, kid(8) Or maybe I’m just hallucinating because they’re my OTP.

    • LOL I was about to say, that pregnancy would be interesting to witness

  • Chance_X74

    Coming upon this months later, I have to say that issues like this annoy
    me and I find that I just can not get into them. Why? Because there I
    nothing to invest in as they will quickly be rendered irrelevant,
    obsolete, or inconsequential.

    You made a point of bringing up the past X-Men being brought into the present. As I write this, we currently have not only that factor but also the future X-Men having come to the present to set their future right, time issues abound from Age of Ultron, and the Hulk having gone back to the past.

    That’s four simultaneous time/out-of-time events. Who’s to say what action fixes what? Bottom line is, there is minimal chance what this issue presents to us is even relevant merely three months later. I thought they were obsessed before…