Wolverine and the X-Men #6
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Nick Bradshaw [Pencils]; Walden Wong, Jay Leisten, Norman Lee & Cam Smith [Inks]; and Justin Ponsor & Matt Wilson [Colorists]
The Jean Grey School in financial trouble! Kitty Pryde infested with millions of microscopic Brood! That’s where Wolverine and the X-Men #5 left us, and where #6 picks up at.
In an attempt to solve the school’s financial troubles, Wolverine heads off to an intergalactic casino with genius mutant problem child Quentin Quire, a.k.a. Kid Omega. The plan is to use Quentin Quire’s telepathic and telekinetic abilities to pull off an intergalactic casino con. How space money works on Earth or why they didn’t just do this on an Earth casino, I’m not sure. I do know, however, that this plot allowed Nick Bradshaw to draw the most diverse array of aliens in one place outside of the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars.
Regardless of where the casino is, the opportunity to put Wolverine and Quire in a one-on-one situation and continue to play Quire’s rebellious nature off of uber-badass authority figure Logan carries a ton of possibility for interesting situations, and Jason Aaron doesn’t waste the opportunity. The payoff is great and keeps this the most “fun” of the X-books.
Meanwhile, Kitty’s situation becomes more dire as there are too many Brood inside of her for Beast and his team to handle. To make matters worse, the S.W.O.R.D. Paramedic team is taken out by the mysterious alien guy from the previous issue. Who this guy is remains a mystery, as well as why he keeps regular-sized Brood on a leash and what exactly he has to do with Kitty’s infestation, but he does have sinister intentions for Broo, the Jean Grey School’s Brood student. (By the way, I’m still not sure how he ended up at the school. He was just kind of there when the book started. Anyone want to fill me in?)
Anyways, Aaron keeps this issue fast-paced and ends it with a couple of cliffhangers. The highlight of the issue, at least for me, is hands-down integrating Krakoa in as a sort of external security system for the school. It would be easy to just ignore the living mass of land after the first story arc, but Aaron’s doing a good job of giving everyone face time when it makes sense to. On a final note, I’m not sure why this issue had four inkers and two colorists, but the important thing is that I couldn’t tell otherwise when reading it.
Go ahead and pick this one up, along with issue #5 so you’re not just jumping into the middle of the story.
STORY: 9/10
ART: 9/10
