Wolverine and the X-Men #19 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Aaron covers A LOT of ground in this issue, so let's get cracking!

I was thrilled to see Storm join the School.  I actually feel like she's going to add the gravitas that this team has needed for a while.  In fact, if you look at the faculty side of the roster, you'v now got a team consisting of Wolverine, Beast, Iceman, Storm, Kitty Pryde, and Rachel Grey.  We're talking an old-school team.  We're talking about a team where Rachel is the newest character...and she's 30 years old!  I definitely want Aaron to continue to focus on the students, because I enjoy them, but I also really want to see this team engage in some serious battles.  Aaron has kept the tone of this series light and I enjoy that.  But, this team is just asking to settle some old-school grudges.

Unfortunately, Aaron insists on focusing on the Kiddie Hellfire Club instead.  I just don't know what to say about this plot.  He's getting Bendisesque in his insistence on using characters that everyone hates.  I haven't read a single review where people like this device, but here they are again.  I mean, thankfully, it looks like this carnival coming to town is actually going to go after them (or at least the young Frankenstein), so maybe I can hope against hope that they'll all wind up dead.  Of course, the fact that I'm wishing for the death of children should tell you something about how I feel about this plot.

Aaron also focuses on Broo here.  Although it doesn't look good, I'm glad to see that all hope isn't lost.  However, I thought the most interesting aspect of this story was Iceman's conversation with Idie, where she tells him that the faculty is failing in its attempt to convince the kids that the world can be changed for the better.  I've actually felt like Aaron has portrayed the faculty as fairly negligent when it comes to the students.  No one comforted Broo after his moment of violence in issue #7 and no one knew that Idie was going to some sort of crazed church that made her act oddly.  (In fact, her odd behavior is suddenly forgotten here, seemingly having served its purpose as a plot device by getting Broo to investigate the church.)  At some point, someone is going to have to stop complaining about the constant threats facing the School and actually start providing some sort of guidance to these kids.  Hopefully Storm will fill that role.