Wolverine: First Class, Vol. 4: Ninjas, Gods and Divas

A couple of weeks ago, I was wanting to read something fun. Something light. Only, I'd select a book, head to the bedroom to read it and discover that a Halloween themed story is inside. I don't know about you but a personal rule of mine is that you can't read Halloween comics unless it's October. So I held on to that book and went to find another. Wouldn't you know it, it too had a Halloween time set story inside. I went through this like 4 times before I finally gave up. It was like I was cursed or something.

On Saturday, I went ahead and began reading this book. The debut issue of the X-Men/Power Pack miniseries, which is the Halloween tale, was the last story in this volume. I didn't see it as breaking the rules of I didn't read that story until October 1st. I also didn't expect this series to turn out how it did.

Based on the title of 'First Class', I thought that this was going to be a series of untold origin tales starring everyone's favorite Canadian mutant, Wolverine either before Weapon X or during his time as a member of Alpha Flight. That's kinda how X-Men: First Class turned out. Instead, the majority of the stories are set during the early days of the Uncanny X-Men, when Kitty Pryde was the only adolescent student at Xavier's School for Gifted Students. 

Professor X sees that Kitty Pryde needs to toughen up a bit, least she never make it as an X-Man. Xavier also thinks that the hard travelling Logan needs to lighten up a bit and learn some empathy. Thus a classic team-up is born. Only don't expect these stories to just involve Sprite and Wolverine. There are a ton of cameos representing the mutant race as well as pairings with a slew of superstars from the Marvel Universe.

Together Wolverine and Kitty Pryde take on Red Hand ninjas with Daredevil and Elektra, stop a troll invasion with Thor and go on tour with Dazzler, who recently received a death threat in her private dressing room. Even though Wolverine is known to be very good at doing some very un-nice, he's like a grumpy uncle who always acts like he hates kids, but secretly is a softie to them. 

Peter David wrote the 3 stories collected from Wolverine: First Class. David is one of those writers who can write serious as well as lighthearted and both are equally great. Plus, Peter David puts the fun into everything he touches and from what I read, this book was capital F- U-N!

What about that Halloween story? It was a lot of fun too. When Power Pack came out in the 80s, I wasn't a big fan. I thought it was kinda dumb having kid superheroes. As I've gotten older, I have kinda grown to like them a little more. I see now how a group of 4 kids becoming heroes could expand the imagination of a fellow youngster to dream of becoming something fantastic. Plus, since the whole secret identity thing is out the window because Mom and dad both know, a lot of the implausibles that plague kid superheroes are eliminated.

The Halloween story is mostly a Power Pack adventure. One of the kids dresses up like Wolverine in hopes of winning the local costume contest. Getting separated from his siblings, the preteen Wolvie runs smack dab into Sabertooth while his family meets the real deal X-Man.

That story had great banter and was a perfect way to start off my October themed reads. As for Wolverine: First Class, I'm hooked. I want to know how many total issues were in the series and I want to add it to my wishlist. I kinda feel like I should give 2 ratings. One of the team-ups and and for the holiday special. Good thing both reads were flawless.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.

Marvel Comics Presents #32

Part two of the Excalibur story and we don't have the whole team. That's okay. Writer Michael Higgins (Power Pack) keeps the insanity up with this Shadowcat starring chapter. It appears that the Loonies have placed each team member of Excalibur into a fantasy world that both plays against their fears and insecurities and also sorta negates their special abilities. 

Quite natural to star things off with Shadowcat. Kitty Pryde might not be the team leader. But she's always been the brains of the outfit!

The Black Panther story continues to improve. Last issue, Black Panther received a letter from his mother. It appears to be a forgery or something written under duress. After an altercation with a would-be assassin, T'Challa finally gets his first real lead as to who may be behind his mother's imprisonment. 

The Coldblood story continues to be amazing.

Lastly in our one-and-done story, the mutant Sunfire stars in a story set against an all-new villain with energy powers that can manipulate matter. I've always felt that Sunfire was an underused character. I disliked that he left the X-Men after his initial mission with the team. So I greatly appreciated having him back if only for 8 pages of story. 

4 great chapters. Here's hoping the series is finally going back in the right direction after several very weak issues. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

In the not too distant future, the fate of all sentient life on earth rests in the hands of the X-Men. The sentinels, a group of robotic mutant hunters designed by Bolivar Trask have become the de facto rulers of the planet. Originally design to seek and eradicate all mutant kind, the androids turned on humanity when they finally became sympathetic to the mutant plight.

    Professor X, teamed with former foe Magneto has a plan. He will transfer his consciousness back in time into his younger self in order to prevent Mystique from killing Trask and initiating the Sentinel Program. However, Kitty Pryde has never sent anyone back into time more than a few days and she doesn't believe that Xavier's highly developed brain can stand a 40 year trip through time. Thus, the rapid healing Wolverine is sent back to 1973 in order to reteam Xavier with Magneto in a combined effort to stop the shape-shifting mutant.

 Days of Future Past is based on the 1981 Uncanny X-Men storyline of the same name developed by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. Except for possibly the Dark Phoenix Sage, that time traveling adventure is perhaps the most iconic X-Men tale of all time. I know the cover for Uncanny X-Men #141 surely is the most copied and tributed cover to feature Marvel mutants. Quite a bit of that seminal work is used in this film. But since when has Kitty Pryde had the ability to send people back in time? I've never seen this occur in any X-Men title and I've read my fair share!

  The film is heavy on action and adventure. I saw this film on DVD and unlike Amazing Spider-Man 2, I didn't feel like any of the CGI special effects looked fake. Even it's choreography was quite good. Especially, the character Blink and her ability to create portals in order for mutants to evade the sentinels. It was like watching poetry in motion.

   One aspect that this film got a lot of grief was over some of the casting. While we get the best of both X-Men series in this movie, including the younger and older versions of Professor X and Magneto, along with fan-favorite Wolverine, Storm, and Colossus, many hated the character of Quicksilver. The character, played by Evan Peters was criticized for being too young and immature. But, that kinda was the point of the character and his super-speed abilities were really needed to help speed up a very stagnant part of the movie. Plus, I liked that it's alluded to the Magneto might be Quicksilver's dad as in the comics.

   While I overlooked the casting choices, I did have some issues with plotting. The futuristic parts of Days of Future Past are set some time after the events of X-Men 3. We know this because, in one scene, Wolverine has flashbacks to having killed Jean Grey at that movie's end. So, how come Professor X is alive and in his Patrick Stewart body?  Didn't Jean vaporize him into a billion atoms in X3? I know that it's hinted in X3 that the Professor X took over someone else's body during the chaser scene, But wouldn't he then look different? To the film's fault, it's never explained how he got his new body back.


   There is supposed to be a director's cut of this movie, called the ' Rogue Cut' as a good 20 minutes of the character Rogue played by Anna Paquin was cut out due to time constraints. (The film is almost 2 and a half hours long.) So, maybe Xavier's return along with Magneto regaining his magnetic powers are going to be revealed in that edition on the film. I look forward to it when it drops sometime this summer.

    The ending of this film takes the X-Men franchise into two different directions. The New Class cast is due to appear in a third film, rounding out that trilogy. But I feel that the story of the original X-Men film trilogy's cast isn't over. Since Wolverine was essentially the main character link between both film franchises, hopefully, Hugh Jackman's swan song as Logan will explore just how the timeline has changed. (I hope not to spoil too much but I will say that if like me, you were angered by a certain character's death in X3, then you're going to love the end to this film.)

   Worth Consuming

   Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Mekanix #5

  Kitty Pryde and her classmates have accepted the challenge of Purity, the mutant hate group and prepare for a debate over whether to allow mutants to attend Chicago University. Taking advantage of the situation is an evolved group of Sentinels that can repair themselves using surrounding materials. They can also turn just about anything into a weapon.

There’s just one episode left in this series that for the life of me, I can’t figure out why it’s called ‘Mekanix’ but the story and action has really progressed into something magical. I’m on the edge wondering whose going to live and who’ll perish, especially since these new Sentinels can’t distinguish who’s a mutant and whose not.

Literally, no one is safe!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Mekanix #4

 The mysterious freighter has arrived in Chicago and its ‘crew’ is unleashing hell on the Windy City. The vessel has issued a ‘kill all mutants” directive to its robotic enforcers. However, a flaw in the ship’s programming has deemed all citizens a possible mutant threat and now nobody is safe from its wrath.

Meanwhile, Kitty Pryde is considered the number one suspect in the bombing of the university physics lab. Now she’s got to put a stop to the anti-mutant hate group that’s targeting mutants on campus while shaking off FBI agents who might discover her mutant abilities. But it’s not going to be easy with this new threat stalking Chicago’s streets.

It took a while and I mean a good long while, but this series finally got good. I like Kitty’s angst and her clever methods of throwing the agents tailing her off track was really cool. There’s still an element of soap opera or 90210 in this series but I think with this robotic threat starting to play a major role, some of that’s going to take a back seat ( I hope!) The art’s not all that great but a good story can make up for that and Mekanix is finally living up to it’s potential.

Still, nobody named ‘Mekanix’ in this series!

Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Mekanix #3

  Kitty and her classmates are grilled by the Chicago PD and the FBI as they are considered the number one suspects for the destruction of the physics lab. Meanwhile, Kitty’s got even more problems of her own as she has a serious meltdown with her therapist and her blast-from-the-past former teammate is evicted from her home under suspicion of being a mutant terrorist. (Ironically, the landlord was right, this character is a mutant- she’s just not a terrorist.)

Sure, this seems very much like a soap opera. But this isn’t what makes this issue so good. It’s the mysterious freighter that is making its way to Chicago with one purpose- DESTROY ALL MUTANTS!

 Worth Consuming

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

Mekanix #2

Anti-mutant terrorists have sabotaged an experiment that Kitty Pryde and her physics class have developed. As a result, a massive explosion has wiped out their lab. Thankfully, all parties were able to escape without harm but the rescue efforts threaten to out Kitty as a mutant.

Now, we’re getting somewhere. There’s a lot more action and adventure in this issue. It’s still not winning me completely over but this issue was loads better than the last one.

There are some new players in this series. An old X-Men teammate of Kitty’s has joined the rescue efforts as has another mutant named Shalo, whose family was killed in the destruction of Genoshia. There’s still nobody named or codenamed Mekanix in the series and that’s probably what bothers me the most.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars.

Mekanix #1

Until recently, I had never heard of the comic or character of Mekanix. I probably wouldn’t have even collected this series if it wasn’t for the fact I received 3 issues in a couple of grab bags. I held onto the books in my ‘maybe’ pile and only a few months ago decided to give this miniseries a try after I found the rest of the books online for steep discount.

  Here’s what I learned about Mekanix after reading issue #1. First there isn’t a character named Mekanix, at least not for this series. The girl on the cover is no other than Ms. Kitty Pryde, former X-Man and now a student at a university in Chicago. Her quantum physics class has been deemed a mutant threat to the college, even though Kitty herself has yet to have been outed as a mutant. #2 Kitty’s temper has gotten the best of her lately and she’s now facing mandatory anger management sessions or she’ll be expelled. And #3, the X-Men during the setting of this book don’t ‘exist’ as the mutant nation of Genoshia has been laid waste thanks to the Sentinels. Also, contributing to Kitty’s anger is the fact that her father was killed during the Genoshian invasion.

The book starts off a little slow and it’s a little bit of an oddity for me. Published around 2002-03 this is probably the time period for comics that I know the least about, especially in terms of X-titles. The book ends on a cliffhanger with a literally bang, but alas it’s too late for the excitement to really catch me in its grip. Only my curiosity and desire to learn more about this undiscovered country of comic book history do I feel motivated to give this series another go with issue #2.

Did I mention there’s nobody name Mekanix in this series?  Why is it titled this? This series is starting out a hot mess. To quote Ms. Pryde, “Oy Vey!”

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

 

Kitty Pryde Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #3

With the helicarrier about to crash into the Big Apple and Wolverine’s former sensei in spiritual possession of a SHIELD agent, Kitty Pryde decides to end this madness by entering the SHIELD helicarrier main frame.

The best art of the entire mini-series. Kitt Pryde: Agent of SHIELD is a fun ride. I wish it was longer. Who am I kidding, I wish Pryde was a permanent member of SHIELD and future issues have her using her mutant powers to infiltrate Latveria and Doctor Doom’s castle.

Very fun read. Ideal for fans of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, even though the Colonel doesn’t even appear in this 3-issue mini-series.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 10 out of 10 stars.  

Kitty Pryde, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2

Kitty Pryde literally faces off against a ghost in the machine as the ghost of Wolverine’s old sensei has hatched a plot to turn the Excalibur member into his newest apprentice. To find out the back story, check out the 80’s mini-series Kitty Pryde & Wolverine.

Great action sequences. The art is very good as well. Kudos to a very well scripted second chapter by Larry Hama.

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Kitty Pryde, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1

When SHIELD’s helicarrier refuses to answer to anybody but the mutant Kitty Pryde’s commands, the spy agency not only contacts the Excalibur member, they recruit her!

I’m not sure why the SHIELD operatives know only Kitty Pryde can operate the helicarrier. I’m also not sure why Nick Fury isn’t the head of SHIELD at this point.

Aside from those questions, writer Larry Hama crafted a very interesting tale. (To be fair, why Nick Fury is a no-show isn’t Hama’s fault. But that first complaint of mine is.)

The art is very good and I love the banter between Dum Dum Dugan and Lady Contessa.

Worth Consuming.

Rating 7 out of 10 stars.