Wolverine and the X-Men #18 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, I'm trying to get past my hatred of the kiddie Hellfire Club, since it appears that Aaron can't go half an issue without bringing them into play somehow.  The problem is that he doesn't make it easy, since he insists on using them to introduce events that seem completely unrealistic.

The main focus of this series for a while has been characters acting oddly, though we're never actually been given reasons for this abnormal behavior.  This issue provides two examples of the problem.  First, we learn that the kiddie Hellfire Club has created a robot to act as a local pastor in order to get Idie to embrace her dark side.  Although this concept could be intriguing, Aaron fails to make it anything other than confusing.  He never explains what the kiddies would gain from forcing Idie to act rebelliously, other than causing some temporary problems at the school.  But, most importantly, he doesn't just have Idie act rebelliously; she actually seems to be exhibiting signs of telepathic manipulation.  For example, "realizing" that she was going to go to Hell "thanks" to the pastor wouldn't really be sufficient reason for her to start laughing maniacally in class while observing a fight between Glob Herman and Quentin Quire.  This moment doesn't have anything to do with Idie embracing her "bad" side; it's really just Idie acting oddly.  As such, since I'm pretty sure the robot couldn't exert telepathic control over Idie, it requires some other explanation, one that Aaron doesn't provide.  Second, Paige also seems to be losing her mind in this issue and, once again, we're not really given a reason that makes sense.  She also seems to be being telepathically manipulated, given her spacy stares and sudden rages.  But, once again, we're told that it has something to do with something else, namely her power fluctuations; however we've never really been told why her powers have been fluctuating in the first place.  Given that everyone seems to know that they're fluctuating, you'd think that Beast would've run a few tests by this point.  At any rate, I'm left hoping that Aaron is building a plot that will eventually reveal that someone has actually been telepathically manipulating the faculty and students at the School behind the scenes, since at least these sub-plots would make sense.  As it stands now, it all just seems incredibly random.

The only part of this issue that felt organic was Broo's sub-plot.  His heatbreak over Idie dancing with Quentin was palpable and his death at the end of the issue is something I'm really hoping against hope doesn't stick.  Broo has been the highlight of this series for me, mostly because he's been the only character whose motivations have felt real and relatable.  If we lose him, it'll not only be sad to see such a genuine character killed at such a low moment, with such disappointment in his heart, but it will also make it hard for me to justify continuing to get this series.  Since most of the plots and sub-plots have felt as disjointed as the Idie and Paige ones described above, the loss of the consistently great Broo moments will render this book almost unreadable, I fear, particularly if Aaron is going to continue to insist on using the kiddie Hellfire Club as his catch-all villains.