Comic Review: Wolverine and the X-Men #4

Issue: Wolverine and the X-Men #4
Name: Just Another a day in Westchester County
Published: January 2012

Blurb: 

Creators:
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Nick Bradshaw
Colorist: Justin Ponser
Letterer: Rob Steen

Characters:
The Good: Wolverine, Broo, Kitty Pryde, X-Force, Beast, Toad, Iceman, Rachel Grey, Genesis (Son of Apocalypse), Quentin Quire, Idie Okonkwo, Kid Gladiator (Kubark), Angel (Warren), Deathlok, Husk, Doop, Glob, Deadpool, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, Krakoa
The Bad: Apocalypse
The Undecided:

My Thoughts:
This issue starts up with an introduction to some of the stuff Wolverine does when he’s not playing at being a teacher – he’s part of X-Force. They’re a unit that’ll do anything to save the day and apparently they had to do some serious stuff to get through a battle with Apocalypse recently. But in doing so, Angel lost his memories and the son of Apocalypse (Evan/Genesis) was left without knowing who he is. In an attempt to help them both, Wolverine enrolls them in the school so he can keep an eye on them.

Other than that, things seem to have calmed down during the week after opening day. Krakoa’s helping out, the students are getting accustomed to class, and bad boy Quentin Quire is back to doing his bad boy act. Apparently the money issues that Logan was worried about have been solved with the enrollment of Angel and things seem to be settling down. One of the bigger points of this issue is that it shows us a bit of the everyday lives at the school and it’s a good grounding point for the series. These are students and instructors after all and the teacher’s meeting at the beginning gives us insight into how the elder X-Men are doing – Kitty’s worried about a gray hair, Beast is complaining about only getting 3 hours of sleep a week, and they’re all having to deal with kids who aren’t behaving like upstanding students.

With a relatively peaceful week, though, we begin to learn more about the students and when Deathlok shows up as a guest teacher, we also learn about the future potentials of the young mutants. The main action that happens in this issue comes from these future visions that Deathlok provides where we see Idie as leader of the X-Men and Quentin in love with her. Kid Gladiator and Broo are key members of the team as well, but the new student, Genesis, has been revealed as Apocalypse and has killed Deathlok. It’s such a bad vision, it clearly disturbs Deathlok and he refuses to prognosticate on Evan’s future.

The other storyline in the issue revolves around Angel who just arrived at the school. Something’s clearly wrong with him and we soon learn that with his memories gone, he now believes he’s a real angel. So much so that he actually visits a nearby home where a family is burying the pet dog and he tries to raise it from the dead. Iceman is concerned for his friend and since it’s apparent they’ve had a close bond in the past, Wolverine asks him to help Warren out.

With Genesis and Angel safely attending class, Wolverine fantasizes that everything’s gonna be alright as long as there are no more surprises…Of course that’s the queue for things to happen and we see that the pooch Angel tried to help did in fact come back to life and somehow Kitty Pryde has become pregnant – is this another of Iceman’s new powers?

This issue is a bit of a change of pace for the series but I think it works out. I like learning more of the back story of the characters and the introduction of Genesis and Angel can only help flesh out the student-body The art by, Nick Bradshaw, this time, is a bit different than what we’ve had for the first 3 issues, but I like it. The cartoony style has been replaced but what we get here is just as good as it seems there’s more detail to what’s going on. Last issue had 10 artists while this one only has 2, but it looks like so much more is drawn here, so clearly I don’t understand the art process.

What did I learn:

• Not only is Wolverine an Avenger as we found out last issue, but we learn he’s a member of X-Force.
• I never knew Deathlok could predict the future.
• Wolverine’s taken on some steep responsibilities in Angel and Genesis, both of which could prove catastrophic.

I think this was a nice issue that gave us a breather after the crazy events that took pace in the first 3 issues. It also sets up multiple storylines for the series.

My Rating: B

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited and Comixology and currently its in Comixology Unlimited so you can borrow it from there if you subscribe.