‘Wolverine: First Class’ #18 Review: Multiple Choices
Hey, everyon, jrpbsp here…This is the second review for the week, ‘Wolverine: First Class’. Hope you enjoy it.
Wolverine: First Class #18 (preview)
Writers: Peter David
Art: Francis Portela
SPOILERS BELOW…
RECAP: The issue opens with Kitty contemplating her role in life as a young mutant genius and X-Man. She is interrupted by Jamie Madrox. She kicks him into a fountain before she realizes who it is. Madrox reabsorbs the dupe that was created and explains to Kitty the reason he was there. He is looking for one of his duplicates that ran away.
Meanwhile, Logan is making a sandwich in the kitchen when Madrox walks in saying he is looking for a runaway dupe and needs a place to act as his base for a while. Of course moments later Kitty and her Jamie walk in. The one with Logan outs himself as the duplicate and screams in fear that he is going to be killed.
The real Multiple Man says that the dupe is just a part of him and goes to absorb him but Kitty feels sorry for the second Jaime and phases him out of the room. They make it to the woods with Logan and Madrox in pursuit. The duplicate does not want to involve Kitty so he knocks her out and flees.
Logan offers to take Jamie into the city to hunt himself down and Kitty forces them to take her along. Kitty and Jamie argue in the car about whether the dupe deserves a chance to be free. Multiple Man argues that it is a part of him and he is responsible for the dupe while Kitty says he is a person and has the same right to live as anyone.
The other Jamie, meanwhile, is enjoying his freedom in the park. They arrive in the city and after Logan destroys an illegal movie vendor’s stand, they are back to hunting down the dupe.
The second Madrox gets stopped by a frantic women who asks for his help since he is dressed like a super hero. There is a fire and her little sister is trapped inside. The dupe goes in but gets pinned by a ceiling beam. The others arrive and Kitty saves the girl while Logan rescues the dupe. Outside, the other Jamie is dying and is confronted by Madrox who finally understands his duplicates are real people.
The dying Jamie offers to shake hands and gets absorbed, then they all head back to the mansion. Madrox makes four more duplicates and sends them out into the world to learn and then hopefully come back and share their knowledge with him. He now trusts them to do the right thing.
MY TAKE: This was an extremely good issue, in fact I believe it is the best one since Peter David started writing the series. The characterizations were very good and while the plot was simple it dealt with some very deep and interesting themes. I especially liked the inclusion of Madrox and the ties into the X-Factor series. This issue is essentially a prequel to that book which is also written by PAD, but I do not think you would lose anything if you are not reading X-Factor.
I was highly impressed with the overall theme of knowing and trusting yourself that we see both from Kitty and Jaime’s perspectives. Some of the parts were a little heavy handed but it was still very well done. It is a topic that is difficult to handle well and to do it in a younger focused comic is amazing. Simple moments like seeing the dupe enjoying the park were very effective at driving the point home without getting preachy.
I also need to make a comment on the fun page where Wolverine busts up the movie pirate on the streets. After the leak of the Wolverine movie it is nice to see it being addressed even if in a humorous manner.
About the only complaint I had was that some of the arguments felt a little repetitive and over done and the fire was a bit too convenient a plot device for the ending. But both of those are very minor complaints in what was a very entertaining and even thought provoking issue.
In the end this was a great and well-written issue with strong characters and a deep message. It is especially impressive for an all ages title and it gives me great hope for the rest of the series under PAD. It seems that each of his comics has been better then the previous one. If the trend continues this could end up one of my favorite titles.
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.
It’s funny. While I agree this is the best Peter David issue to date, I didn’t like the illegal movie script/DVD sequence. It felt so out of place and “broke” the reality of the story for me.
That said, I thought Francis Portela’s artwork was superb!
This series, like all the younger aimed, I tend to take as more likely to skirt or break the 4th wall. The sequence was amusing but to me it was just nice to see some from the publishing side of Marvel making a stand. Since the issue was all about making stands for what you believe in, I felt PAD sticking in a little dig at pirating worked.
I rather liked the bootlegger scene, I thought it was a humorous nod. With that said, it was both out of character and out of place. It was just sort of “there”. It felt more like a humorous fullpage public service announcement/ad than a legitimate page in the story. Even so, it was a very fun scene and an excellent issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the sentiment and it was humorous. But as Ace says, it was out of place, and knocked me out of the story.
Well that is true it was kind of out of place but I thought a humorus scene in the midst of that angst worked well to break the tension. There were a lot of heavy ideas in the book for something aimed at kids, it needed at least one scene for them to giggle at.
I almost feel as if the scene would have fit better in a different story. Perhaps there was a need to break up the book with a wee bit of humor, but that particular gag appears and disappears randomly, almost as if it was a separate story to the one occuring in the book. Maybe it would have fit better in an issue about media, or a story in which they were wandering around the streets (for a greater length of time). Again though, despite that, it’s a very amusing scene indeed. And ultimately I feel as if the upsides… Read more »
Oh, and I love that variant cover.
Actually I have been very disappointed in the frame covers. They all look cartoonish and ill fitting like they were sketch drawing that got inked and printed. I would have preferred they looked a bit more detailed and fitting.