As I mentioned in my review of "Cable and X-Force" #8, I accidentally picked up some issues of series that I intended to drop this month, including "Wolverine and the X-Men." However, unlike the "Cable and X-Force" issue, I can't say that I'm happy to have had a chance to visit this corner of the X-Universe one more time. (Actually, it'll be two more times, since I wound up getting issue #30 as well.)
First, the time-travel narrative that exists at the center of this story is bizarre and confusing and not just in the way that such stories are typically bizarre and confusing. The students of the present Jean Grey School for Higher Learning put items into a time capsule to be opened 25 years later. It's an innocuous enough storyline, but one made bizarre from the fact that neither Logan nor Eye-Boy (now Eye-Man) recall doing so when it appears in the future. It implies that something happened that made them forget, but Aaron never actually clarifies that. In fact, Logan seems less interested in finding out the answer to why he didn't remember burying a time capsule than he does with being inexplicably obsessed with altering the past. Unlike the "Age of Ultron," however, Logan doesn't really have all that compelling reason to try to do so. The School has several campuses throughout the world and mutantkind seems to be flourishing. Why risk making it worse? Sure, Logan wants to avoid painful events that happened after the time capsule was buried, but Logan, of all people, should understand that suffering comes with life. Aaron doesn't even have him momentarily consider the repercussions of fooling with the time stream. Instead, Aaron uses this struggle as some sort of heart-warming anecdote to reveal how important to Logan the School really is. (He cares so much about the kids that he's willing to alter the past to save them from heartache!)
This entire sequence actually sums up my objections to this series perfectly. Clear threats and obvious dangers are ignored in favor of schlocky moments that don't feel remotely organic. Why wouldn't future Logan try to discover why he didn't remember burying the time capsule? Why did present Logan take the kids to the Savage Land rather than hunting down the Hellfire Club? In fact, this issue presents yet another example. Why wouldn't present Logan do more to make sure that Idie was OK? After all, the entire schism between the X-Men came because Idie killed people at the opening of the Museum of Mutant History in San Francisco. However, no one has even remotely kept an eye on her. I actually can't remember the last time that a faculty member spoke to her, despite the fact that, on top of everything, her best friend was nearly killed. Apparently, Logan's too busy burying time capsules and giving embarrassing speeches to notice a girl burying her Bible and abandoning her friends.
In the end, it's all more emotional schlock and no character development. I'm going to be very happy to be done with this series.
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