A review by Scott Bachmann.
Wolverine and the X-Men #29 “The Jean Grey School of Tomorrow” Review
The X-Mansion is where the X-Men belong.
I haven’t loved all of the Wolverine and the X-Men storylines, but it’s always been a fun read. It’s been worth it just for Quentin Quire and his smart mouth. The punk in utopia saying the emperor has no clothes. The student the teachers hate. We all know that kid, we all knew one growing up. The voice of Anarchy in attempted order. Over the course of almost thirty issues, we’ve seen him grow, but not too much. Like Emma Frost, we see some humanity, but Quire will never admit to it.
This brings us to this issue, a done in one breather between big happenings. If you want a jumping on point, this is it. All the storylines are explained, all the characters introduced, and plotlines reiterated. Why isn’t this a Marvel .1 issue? Most .1 issues are awful, and this one shows how it should be done. Whatever. If you’ve lapsed, or not interested before but Wolvy curious, pick this up. Jason Aaron is charmingly funny, and then brutal with his dire plot twists, and everyone’s voice is distinct and right in character. No simple thing with a cast this huge.
The story is simply a framing device of future Wolvie talking to younger Wolvie via time capsules buried in the dirt. We see modern day Wolverine committing to the school he founded to keep alive Xavier’s dream. He admits he’s terrible at it, but also that the school is what saved his soul, and it’s what the mutants of this world need whether they know it or not.
The kids all throw stuff into a time capsule they bury in the yard (poor Karokoa). Quire throws in his “cyclops was right” t-shirt. (I want one of those! Hey Marvel! Make them!) We jump to the future, and instead of Marvel dystopias (Marvel loves time travel lately) we see a bright future for the school. Multiple campuses, lots of mutants, and X-Men proactively protecting the world. The most useless of the new new new mutants, eye-boy is the X-Man on watch tower duty in a sentinel head. This speaks volumes about how the school made a difference in at least his life, and against those who’d destroy mutants. We get tons of cute references to the future lives of the school mates, and we even see Quire’s shirt, framed on the wall. This is the opposite of days of future past.
Future Wolv finds the time capsule, as it’s 25 year alarm has gone off. He opens it, and we learn a bit about the horror they went through to get to this utopia. He rushes off to steal a time machine to warn his past self about dangers to come and we get lots of references to all the time screwing Marvel’s done and how it’s not allowed any more. In the end, Wolvy just sends his past self a message, “Thanks and good luck bub” because in the end it all worked out. This is the opposite of of the future arriving with dire warnings in EVERY other time travel story. It’s a wonderful change of pace.
The rest is set up for the next storyline, where the reformed Hellfire club starts up their own academy. Why not? It worked out so good for the previous Hellions and head mistress Emma Frost, right? The circle turns.
5/5
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ramon Perez
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterist: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: Ramon Perez & Morry Hollowell
Scott Bachmann writes his own comics and novels over at Scottcomics.com