I’ve mentioned before how I really like Jason Aaron and
that makes it all the more disappointing that the volume 7 of Wolverine and the X-men is probably the
lowest point of the entire series. It’s a shame because for a while Wolverine and the X-men was the best
X-men title at Marvel. With X-men: Schism
in 2011 Aaron was spearheading the line and thanks in part to his efforts and
the efforts of many other writers it was an exciting time to be reading X-men
comics. That was true for almost a year. By the time the Avengers vs. X-men comic around, Wolverine and the X-men along with all the other X-men titles were
pulled into a companywide event. The stories radically shifted focus but Aaron
was still able to write interesting stories, despite the Marvel Universe’s new
direction.
It wasn’t all bad though. Since the series written by
Aaron wasn’t the only one affected it still remained the most enjoyable and
consistent X-men comic. When I reviewed volumes 5 and 6, my enjoyment was based
on the return to form following the interruptions Avengers fighting X-men and
nobody being really satisfied with the event. The downside to those volumes is
that you could easily sense that Aaron and his team of artist were working hard
to rebuild the momentum the series had lost during the event. It’s great that
they were doing so but it also made those volumes feel like they were laying
the ground work and everybody was holding back a little. At the time I
hypothesized that the series was building towards a big storyline which was
meant to pay-off on all the subplots that were building since the first issue.
The other serious shortcoming of this storyline is the
lack of consistency in tone. Aaron did a lot of work making sure this story
feels big and important but during the story itself he undermines his own
storytelling ambition with misplaced and unnecessary levity. While reading I
got repeated mixed signals as to what kind of comic I was reading. The
dichotomy between the funny moments and the supposedly serious character drama
was distracted and instead of working together both elements were competing
against each other.
It’s actually a little surprising that Aaron’s struggles
with tone as he’s usually pretty skilled at taking a ridiculous idea or an odd
situation and examining them seriously. His run writing solo Wolverine stories
is a good example of this. In this story there is a character whose mutant
power is essentially throwing his boogers around. It’s an idiotic concept but
Aaron subverts your expectations by turning him into a fierce competitor to the
young X-men, rather than having him be the loser of the Hellfire Academy. He
never takes the idea seriously enough though and it’s just one long, extended
gag that lasts for a few issues too many. It doesn’t work with the kind of
story Aaron is trying to tell with these issues. At least the kind of story I
think he’s trying to tell. Wolverine and
the X-men has been a quirky series from the start but it’s always had heart
and Aaron’s done an admirable job balancing his stories with an acceptable and
enjoyable dose of humour. With this story, the humour takes the forefront on a
story that realistically should have had probably the least amount of humour
than any of the previous storylines.
Even though this is my least favourite storyline of the
series (yes, even less enjoyable than the Avengers
vs. X-men tie-in issues) Aaron still writes good moments and Nick Bradshaw
continues to impress on art. With this volume Nick Bradshaw has cemented his
position as the series’ signature artist. He’s often one of the most memorable
artists of Wolverine and the X-men in
part because he can include an impressive amount of detail in each page while still
maintaining strong narrative compositions and the art of each individual panel
also remains clear. His art is a little more cartoony than I usually like it to
be. He’s like a cartoony Art Adams except he can actually meet deadlines. It’s
a pretty versatile style though and it works well for different kinds of
stories. While the tone of these issues is inconsistent to the point of ruining
the story the art works for the serious scenes the humorous ones. It also works
for the action-heavy final issues.
Another artist filled in for the first issue collected in this volume.
The always good Pasqual Ferry uses an interesting style compared to a lot of
his other work. I wouldn’t want an entire series in this style but for a single
issue story it works well.
I was expecting something better for the penultimate
volume of Wolverine and the X-men.
Especially considering that volume 5 and 6, while good, were noticeably
structured as building arcs. It’s annoying that the big storyline is one where
the new Hellfire Club opens up their own mutant school and kidnap students from
the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. The problem with the Hellfire Club is
that they had the potential to be really interesting. It’s surprising that
Aaron was able to maintain a relatively high level of potential threat in these
characters. For most of the series they were working primarily in the
background, pulling the strings. Having them in centre stage for this story
should have been most satisfying. Instead, by focusing on them as the main
villains, as opposed to the puppet masters, the reader is forced to admit that
the Hellfire Club is nothing but a bunch of insanely rich twelve year olds who
are fooling around and trying to piss off Wolverine. They’re not threatening,
they’re annoying. Learning of their master plan made them look pretty lame and
it kind of gives the rest of the series a new perspective. I’ve really hoping
that the final volumes gives us more storytelling bang per page as I would love
for the series to end with the same kind of energy and storytelling wonderment
of the first dozen of issues. 
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