Wolverine’s school has been having problems since day 1. Either from his split with Scott and the entire Phoenix saga, troublesome students, or the Hellfire Club trying to bring them down nothing has been going right. Logan is by no means ready to throw in the towel though and because he’s the best at what he does, and now it’s time to become the best teacher that he can be. With a few problem children in tow, he’s decided that he’s going to have them learn some responsibility the same way that he did and that’s by roughing it. Roughing it Wolverine style though is of course going to be a little different and his class trip involves taking some students to the Savage Land.

I’m going to preface this from now on that I hate the Savage Land. Don’t get me wrong. I get it. I get the draw and why they want it to work and it boils down to a single word: Dinosaurs. Hell even Wolverine says it while he’s getting the class ready “Nothing brings people together like the threat of being eaten by dinosaurs.”

So really I do get it. Dinosaurs are awesome. Who doesn’t want to see people fighting or running from giant reptiles who should no longer be roaming the Earth. The problem is though the story lines that involve the Savage Land have never worked for me. What DID work for me though was the amount of animals and dinosaurs that just fit into the backgrounds of so many images that you almost didn’t even realize they were there unless you were looking for them. Countless well done subtle details throughout the entire issue made it a visual splendor that I loved to look through.

The entire concept of the mission is to be a team building exercise and about five minutes after letting his students loose he seems that the idea was a bad one. No one wants to work together and the only person who wants to take charge is the only person that no one will even remotely listen to, Quentin. The entire dialogue of the students is either fighting with one another or monologuing why their lives are horrible. Teenage angst at it’s best though it felt out of place while they were on the run from or fighting dinosaurs.

While the students are arguing we see Wolverine following them around and realizing he might have set his problem children up for failure. Fortunately there is a problem that came up which should fix Wolverine’s plan. When he gets attacked at the end of this issue it will probably prompt his student’s to come together and save him. Yes in The Savage Land Wolverine’s older brother (and one of my least favorite characters) named Dog attacks him with a plan to take him down for good. Dog is one of those mysterious people from Wolverine’s past that is supposedly his brother depending on which origin story we’re going by this year.

Either way we have the X-students in the Savage Land and Wolverine fighting (and probably soon to be captured by) his most boring still living enemy.

Not a good week for Wolverine and the X-Men my friends. Not at all.

Writer: Jason Aaron
Cover Artist: Ramon Perez