After his falling-out with Cyclops, Wolverine leaves Utopia and re-establishes a learning facility for young mutants in Westchester, New York where the former Xavier's School of Gifted used to be. With the help of his co-head Kitty Pryde and the architectural designs and construction that Hank McCoy had put in place, Wolverine's Jean Grey School of Higher Learning had officially opened its doors in the previous two issues, and two professionals from the New York educational inspection came over to see if the mutant school in question is qualified for a license. The entire process of evaluation had been grueling so far with Kitty and Logan unable to win over the inspectors as they are taken to the somewhat odd and questionable places and teaching practices of the school. It certainly didn't help matters when the self-proclaimed new Black King of the Hellfire Club crashes the party; some twelve-year-old billionaire twerp named Kade Kilgore who has an ax to grind with the X-Men and is more than dead serious in making sure the school never stays open.
With a grandiose show of theatric buffoonery yet also unmistakable villainous competence, Kade had mechanical Frankenstein zombies attack the students whilst the faculty are preoccupied with trying to appease the sentient genetic grandchild of the mutant island Krakoa who is now basically the school's lawn. Hank was relieved that the seismic and lava activity aren't his fault but the rest of the teachers don't really share that relief, particularly when the infrastructure of their school had just collapsed. Meanwhile, certain students such as the mutant Brood alien nicknamed Broo, and the uncomfortably cheery Idie get a handful of action as they try to fight off the Frankenstein zombies. Kid Gladiator joins the fun, much to his bodyguard Warbird's dismay. In the midst of the chaos, rebel Quentin Quire prefers to admire from afar in the confines of his detention room and was only forced to get involved because he hated, JUST HATED, the fact that none of the students recognize his infamy and work during the Schism storyline ages ago. To remedy that, he decided to confront Krakoa by himself. And it was surprisingly insightful of him to relate to the poor creature:
Maybe it wasn't so surprising. After all, Wolverine approached Quentin as someone willing to help him become a better person, and I think Quentin has shown a level of compassion for Krakoa because he had been at the receiving end of that once, even if he would never admit it to himself or aloud with other people. The best part of it all was that he did convince Krakoa to fight alongside them and become an X-Man, and Wolverine also agreed they could use a sentient lawn to guard the school. Quentin, ever cool, didn't even take credit for that, leaving Rachel wondering if the boy is starting to change for the best. I like the overall tonality and humor of this series so far!
Wolverine, cleverly enough, decided to get back at Kade Kilgore by suing him to pay for the damages he inflicted on their school. He hired Daredevil Matt Murdoch as the legal representative for this case, and the look of indignation in Kade's face is worth it!
In the fourth issue, we have Wolverine contemplating on how to balance his career as a teacher and as an Uncanny Avenger while Bobby Drake finds out what happened to his old friend Warren Worthington after their last encounter with Apocalypse. Essentially, Warren is broken mentally and totally believes he is a real celestial being that can bring back the dead---which isn't really far-off, actually. Bobby was a little pissed that Logan didn't tell him sooner and then decided he will take responsibility of Warren--and by that he meant making Warren one of the students for the school. I guess Bobby's a legal guardian now. That should keep him occupied since, after all, Kitty refuses to talk to him about their sudden kiss in the second issue. It's not like she doesn't have problems of her own, however, because this issue ends with the fuckity reputation that she's somehow PREGNANT. Yet another Kilgore agenda? I mean, he did have the means to create a Krakoa island and turned those NY Edu-inspectors into monsters, so he probably can knock up Kitty via genetic experiment. Oh, Jesus fuck, the new Hellfire Club is composed of brats and they even got Sabretooth on the payroll.
The most striking thing about this issue had to be the appearance of a young Apocalypse (now named Genesis) who is unaware of his lineage and is bothered by the fact that the cyborg Deathlok who has clairvoyance refused to tell him his future during a class presentation when he was okay revealing the other students' percentage for troubling life choices. Genesis later confronts him and tries to get some truth from him but Deathlok simply tells him that it was all up to him to make his future come true or not. Afterwards, Deathlok questions Wolverine's choice of bringing up the kid into the fold. Hey, this is the same guy who also took Quentin Quire under his wing, so it doesn't shock me one bit that Logan would be as lenient to an Apocalypse version especially when it's just a confused kid trying to find his place in the world.
Oh, Logan. It's so nice to see him in a more positive role such as nurturing children. He's still the badass who stabs people awesomely, but he knows it's time he becomes more than that. At this point he only wishes he can make it all work out for the best; the school, the questionable quality of character of a few of his students, and the upcoming battles he and his friends will have to face soon.
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
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