Thursday, May 1, 2014

Wolverine and the X-Men #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Huh.  This issue is hard to follow, but it's intentionally so, so I won't hold it against Latour.  He manages to get a lot of intriguing ideas and potential conflicts on the table here; the key to this series' success will be how well he develops them and if he's going to have to rush to get there.  (Paging Dan Slott.)

First, we have this mysterious new Phoenix Corporation, which seems to claim that humanity used to control the Phoenix until Jean Grey essentially stole it for mutantkind.  I'm not sure how controlling the Phoenix fits into its business model or why it drove it seemingly to take over every electronic device on the planet, but, you know, details.  Also, I'm not really sure how humanity managed to control a cosmic force with no one knowing about it, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not supposed to buy that part.  Instead, it all seems like a front from yet another time-traveling figure.  He seems to be connected to the Phoenix and from the same timeline as the future X-Men from "X-Men:  Battle of the Atom," though I'm not 100 percent sure about the latter part, since he also mentions the Askani.  As such, it's possible that he's actually from the future of the future X-Men.  Regardless, he reveals that Quentin is destined to face Evan in battle, though this guy seems to want to use Quentin now to take out Evan, preventing his future.  At least, I think he does.  Hopefully it'll be clearer next issue.

In the meantime, Latour gives us a great scene between Storm and Wolverine, where she essentially accuses him of making everything -- even Jean's legacy -- all about him, and he can't really find a plausible way to deny it.  I'd be very happy if this series spent more time focusing on Storm and Wolverine leading the School, so I'm cautiously optimistic about Storm's increased role in this series so far.  Moreover, the Phoenix Corporation has a lot more staying power than the Kiddie Hellfire Club, particularly since it seems to have taken on the role of Damage Control by way of front company.

*** (three of five stars)

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