Wolverine and the X-Men just finished off a great little story arc that set his focus more on being the new Professor and giving us a better idea of some of his students. It also hinted towards future plot lines by bringing back his brother Dog into the mix. Finally though it was able to tell a story that took place in The Savage Land that I found entertaining as I hate The Savage Land that’s pretty hard to be able to pull off.
Issue #29 is a great jumping in point for new readers, returning readers, and anyone whose been following through on the series.
The issue opens and we get a lot of tribute to what’s come as well as some hints as to what we’re going to be expecting. We open with the current students leaving a time capsule to be opened 25 years from now with Wolverine giving a pretty well written (and clearly written in his voice) speech. It worked and some of the items put into the capsule were very fitting for the characters.
Mixed in with this we see he and the x-Men trying to track down Dog and finally stumbling upon a storage box of his that they are unable to open. Even with Wolverine trying to use his claws to break it open.
After this we flash forward to a future Wolverine who finds the capsule and doesn’t remember it even being planted. In this future some very interesting things are hinted at. On the one hand it looks as if his school is flourishing and doing amazing things. Mix in the fact that it looks as if the X-Men have replaced The Avengers and have grown 10-fold is rather an interesting side point.
The problem is though is that Wolverine thinks he can stop all of this from happening. While things look mostly boy peaceful he asks Eyeboy (who is now apparently an amazingly strong mutant) if it was all worth it? He vaguely mentions a ton of events that all sound like yearly Marvel World Changing Events which could all be some future plots we’re going to see play out on page. Also quite a few interesting mutants are mentioned as both still living or offspring from previous mutants.
He decides he wants to send something back in time to warn it all and entertainingly enough the computer in charge of security where any time travel devices may be know he has tampered with the time line before and actively attempt to stop him.
That doesn’t work and he manages to send back one piece. The key to the chest they had discovered at Dog’s house he couldn’t open. Inside was a toy that they had both played with as children. Touching and potentially foreshadowing to how they will end up interacting in the future.
The book closes with one extremely surprising scene. Idie ties up Broo and leaves with a member of The Hellfire Club. While they’ve been hinting for awhile that this was probably going to happen it seemed heartbreaking after everything else we’ve seen this issue and the fact that Broo was left behind. She’s a character I really hoped would find redemption and while I hope it’s not too late I have a feeling it may end up being through self-sacrifice and being related to Broo.
All in all a series about Wolverine’s X-Men has been handled absolutely fantastically and I’ve been enjoying every page of it.
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Ramon Perez
