Monday, December 7, 2015

Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron issues #5-6


You know what, it feels pretty great to end my X-Men Comics Diet this year with a rather entertaining title like Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men. I've read three other MARVEL NOW! titles before this so I know what will happen later on to a lot of the characters present in this series' roster which actually helps me to curb my enthusiasm and expectations. It doesn't lessen my enjoyment for WAXM, however. In fact, knowing that bad things will happen someday down the road has helped me appreciate what is there before it gets hurled into space or smashed into smithereens (sometimes this happens not only on a figurative level). Four issues in and Aaron's deft grasp with humor and suspenseful moments still tickle me in a special way. Where else could I find a storyline concerning a bunch of mutant students being miniaturized into small particles so they can pass through someone's body for a lesson in Biology class? Who else can accomplish such an absurd yet still education feat but Hank McCoy? What other title could include Toad as the school janitor and just leave it at that? All of these amusing things can only be found and be written so compellingly in Wolverine and the X-Men. 

For issues #5-6 of the series, stuff happens that are both comedic and suspenseful:

  • Like that Doctor Who episode from its eighth season with Peter Capaldi entitled Into Dalek, Beast turns his students (Quentin, Idie, Broo, Kid Gladiator, and Genesis) into microscopic entities so they can enter/violate Toad's body structure. This is to make the learning experience very, very and I mean VERY interactive for the students. Quentin gets to vandalize organs while Kid Gladiator is defeated by white blood cells (but don't mention that to him because it makes him really angry). Idie was astounded that the mutant body can be so beautiful--in spite the fact that mutants are evil incarnates which Idie profusely believes about herself (poor kid). Broo was the only one who enjoyed the interactive lesson, naturally.
  • Kitty Pryde, as we have seen last issue, was preggers. She's been hiding for two days but that doesn't fly past the faculty because she is teaching ethics after all so being absent from her own class is simply not good form. Eventually, she does come out of the room and Hank puts her under a thorough check-up only to discover that she was somehow infected by Brood, microscopic invaders who are trying to shut down her body from within. Well, fuck. Good thing Hank's earlier lesson in Biology came in handy. So Rachel Grey, Iceman, Warbird and Kid Gladiator team up to fight the Brood because natural antibodies just ain't gonna cut it.
  • Meanwhile, some aliens started trespassing inside the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, most likely to get the young Broo. The alien in question has detected them in advance so he stayed behind so he can help protect Kitty but Kitty was not having any of it and tried to fight her way through it. She got defeated and now Broo is in danger. Inside Kitty, Kid Gladiator was turned into a Brood specimen, making his bodyguard Warbird's job really difficult for her (again).
  • Quentin Quire was not a part of this rescue mission because Logan has snatched him away earlier to join him in the outer space where they hope to dupe a casino as they earn lots of money using Q's telepathy to cheat. Look, the pubescent Hellfire Club had wrecked the school and before any legal proceedings can happen that could give them financial gain to have the damages repaired, they need to get money somewhere else because they are, in Aaron's own words in his summary for the issues, "flat out broke". But the two got caught before they could leave and a fight ensues.

This title is DA BOMB. So far, this GIF summarizes how I react every time I read an issue. While midway, I'll be laughing my ass off---the next I'll be so shocked about the sudden turn of events that I forgot what I was even laughing about in the first place.


RECOMMENDED: 8/10

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