One of the big problems with modern superhero comics is
that titles are often interrupted, almost on an annual basis, with the latest
crossover event. For the uninitiated, crossovers are the summer blockbusters of
comic books. The stories are often the product of a company’s top writer, top
artists, top colourist, top everything else and it’s usually a pretty addition
to any of the contributor’s body of work. Crossovers often involve a company’s
most famous and beloved characters fighting one other and to be quite honest,
few of them even work as a sustained narrative and even less of those are any
good. One exemplary exception to this is Final
Crisis but that’s a blog post for another time. The biggest problem I have
with crossovers is that they take far too much space for what they’re worth.
For stories that are one dimensional, they sure find a way to seep into every
other comic on the stands making those comics, even the very good ones, nothing
but a dreary mess.
This is relevant to Jason Aaron’s tenure on Wolverine and the X-men because after
the first 8 issues that introduced us to the school and the casts, Marvel
editors deemed it necessary to give us ten
tie-in issues to their Avengers vs. X-men
crossover. That’s ridiculous! It’s even more ridiculous when you consider that
the crossover itself is only twelve issues long. I’ve read Avengers vs. X-men and I can’t say it’s a comic I’d like to read
more of if I didn’t have to so when it’s invading the very same comic that
brought me so much joy, I start to worry.
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| Who's fighting who and for what reason? Find out in another comic! |
As expected the third and fourth volumes of Wolverine and the X-men wasn’t as good
as the first two. Not only did I have to suffer somebody else’s story invading
the great little comic Aaron’s given us, but it’s not even given to me in a
coherent way. The crossover is mostly just one on one fights between a member
of the Avengers and someone of the X-men. Most of the AVX pages in Wolverine
and the X-men are composed of static images of different fight scenes. There’s
nearly no narrative element other than the caption boxes Aaron inserts to try
and give it some weight and meaning. What saves these issues is that Aaron
keeps the story rolling by intercutting these mandatory AVX scenes with what’s happening at the Jean Grey School for Higher
Learning. The momentum is cut by half but things are still happening. The fact
remains that in order to fully understand and enjoy the AVX portions (if that’s
even possible), you would have to read both titles concurrently or, at the very
least, read AVX first.
Aaron and his team of artists actually make some
worthwhile comics. The art is good all around but it’s not as great a quality
as it was in the earlier volumes. Bachalo’s art looks rushed in some parts of
volume 3 and Bradshaw doesn’t contribute any issues to volume 4. Jorge Molina
steps in on art duties and he gets the job done. Hi style is nowhere as
detailed or energetic as Bachalo or Bradshaw but the characters are all
recognizable. I’m not a big fan of his style though and his characters often
look stiff. It was nice to have at least one issue drawn by one of the regular
artists on the title. Issue #17 is drawn by Mike Allred and that’s always a
treat especially because the issue featured Doop, a character he co-created
with Peter Milligan in the pages of X-force.
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| A very fun issue. Doop is such a stud. |
Despite the fact that Avengers
vs. X-men got in the way, volumes 3 and 4 of Wolverine and the X-men are good comics. Some long time questions are
answered (what does Doop do, exactly?) and Aaron gives us a good look at the
challenges of being a teacher a school for mutants (quasi mental breakdowns and
all). We also get some nice character development for the villains he
introduced in X-men: Schism, the new
Hellfire Club. Warbird, an alien bodyguard from the Shi’ar Empire, also gets to
have a spotlight issue amidst the superhero fights scenes of AVX. I have to admit, the fact that
Aaron is able to juggle his shared universe responsibilities by featuring bits
of the storyline from AVX as well as
continuing to write the most entertaining superhero books on the stand is an
impressive feat. It’s too bad he had to write about AVX at all. Here’s hoping the next volume tightens up the focus on
the Jean Grey school and captures the magic of the first eight issues.
