Jason Aaron’s run on ‘Wolverine And The X-Men’ is coming to a close and this issue gives a conclusion to his run that’s worth reading. The story arc has come full circle and there are plenty of loose ends open for going forward and just enough that come to a close in order to give us a satisfying end cap to the series. In the last issue, we had Toad’s tale wrap up and also expanded for what’s to come. In this one? We see a focus on Wolverine, Idie, and Quentin Quire. We see a few other students get their moments as well, but it’s clear that Quire had a large enough character change that they wanted it to shine for where they plan to take him in the future.
While we did see a lot of the students graduate, the story was told through two viewpoints. The first was Quentin Quire in the present and how he ended up evolving over the course of the series. The other was that of the future Wolverine with a grown up Idie.
In the present we see Quentin Quire hating the fact that he’s going to be stuck here for another year and hating the fact that he’s not trying to burn the institution to the ground. During the graduation sequence we get Quentin’s interactions with Idie, Captain America, fellow students, and even Logan. What stands out here is how he actually responds to getting a diploma, both the day of and the day after. Speaking of the day after, we get a great sequence with Doop saving the day that fans of this underused character are going to love. It’s been great to see Quire evolve into a character you can almost start to like. Hopefully the reboot will keep him on the path to being enjoyable.
The future run is Idie and Logan going around the Jean Grey School and turning off the lights. While nostalgia kicks in, Idie gets called away to help the current generation of X-Men and we get a few references to both the past, what hasn’t happened yet, and the events of ‘Battle of the Atom’. Of course the school can’t close down without the Phoenix powered Quire showing up. While he and Logan throw some barbs back and forth, it’s clearly from a long evolved friendship at this point that we see starting to be formed in the series itself. Of course Quire has to have the last laugh and lets Logan know that he just accepted a slew of new students from the Future Foundation who were overbooked so that the school couldn’t close quite yet.
Everything good must come to an end but that time isn’t for the Jean Grey School quite yet. It is for the series as next month launches the reboot of this title. Hopefully it’s able to live up to the high writing that has caused this to be one of the best ongoing X-Men series in years.
WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #42
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Nick Bradshaw
