Wolverine: First Class #16 Review: Hating Disco… With Dessert

Hey, everyone, jrpbsp here… This is my last review for the week *whew*. Ending with a bang, here is the ‘Wolverine: First Class’ review. Hope you enjoy it.

Wolverine: First Class #16 cover Wolverine: First Class #16 (preview | thread)
Writer: Peter David
Artist: Gurihiru

SPOILERS BELOW…

RECAP: The issue starts with Dazzler going back to her room after a show with her manager Kathleen. She is excited to be playing a huge halftime gig for the Mega Bowl. When she gets to her room, however, she sees ‘DIE” scrawled on the wall.

Alison goes to Professor Xavier for help and he assigns Wolverine to be her bodyguard. Logan is not thrilled with the assignment, since he is not a fan of her singing or disco. He suggests using Kitty as a buffer.

Pryde is naturally thrilled by this, it is a chance to meet a star and be back stage at a major concert. She tells her friend Terry, aka Siryn, who gets the Professor to let her come along as well.

Kitty is understandably annoyed that her friend has honed in on her fun and becomes jealous when they find out, on the bus to the show, that one of Dazzler’s backup singers is too sick for the concert. Terry tries out for the part and is hired on the spot.

At the concert, Kitty is forced to play spotter in the rigging while Wolverine handles the crowd and Siryn and Dazzler are in the spotlight. But Pryde plays her part even spotting a suspicious looking guy in the crowd. She tells Terry to use her power and the extra noise overloads Alison’s mutant light show and blinds the audience.

Wolverine and Kitty confront the man who ends up only having a video camera and not a gun. The concert over, Kitty tries to save face by accusing Dazzler’s manager of being behind the threat. She is distracted when the real threat, Kathleen’s boyfriend, walks up and hits Dazzler with a pie. Which he explains was the original threat, not ‘DIE”.

The issue ends with Wolverine revealing that even though Kitty was not paying attention, he was aware of the man the whole time and knew he was not a threat. Logan allowed the man to pie her because he hates disco.

MY TAKE: This issue was cute and entertaining although I did not like it quite as much as the last issue. Mostly this is because of the very simple plot and the lack of Wolverine and Kitty interaction. The series is best when you see Wolverine and Kitty together and most of their screen time here is with other people.

Although the plot is extremely basic, it does provide several fun and amusing moments. My favorite was Wolverine and Kitty confronting the man video taping the show. But most of the interaction between Wolverine and Dazzler was humorous as well.

Kitty felt very real in this story. Her teenage excitement and jealously was nice to see. So often she was treated as an adult, even when she was a young teen. I am glad she is allowed to actually be a kid in this series.

Wolverine, on the other hand, did not seem like himself. Although he is undoubtedly cultured, I have never seen him to be much of a music critic and his unrelenting disco-bashing did not feel normal. While I personally agree that disco is awful, it felt tacked on. Especially since, in canon terms, Dazzler joins the X-Men not too long after these events and no tension is ever shown between the two of them. It is an admittedly minor point but I have never liked comics that are meant to be in continuity and then ignore history.

I really do wish they would drop out most of the guest stars and get back to focusing on the Wolverine and Kitty dynamic. We barely see them together at all in this story and I believe that does hurt the overall quality. The best issues in the series are ones with a strong Logan and Kitty interactions.

But the issue is still very good and that is something I rarely can say for an all ages comic. While David is still finding his style a bit, he comes up with some very good ideas. The ‘die’ and ‘pie’ mix up alone is nearly worth the price of the comic.

In the end you have a fun issue that manages to be entertaining despite a generally childish feel. I do hope we get more focus on Wolverine and Kitty together rather then have them doing parallel stories in the same comic. While both of them are great characters, the best part of the series is seeing them handling the problems as a pair.

Thanks for reading my review for Wolverine Files. I will be keeping to this format for the most part but please keep the comments coming and I will see everyone again next time.

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