Wolverine 8, Wolverine and the X-Men 34

Wolverine 8
Cornell (w) and A. Davis and M. Farmer (a) and Hollingsworth (c)

Wolverine is in Wakanda, being beat up by Black Panther, as he tries to figure out if Panther has been taken over by the virus. Wolverine's plan, somehow, is to try to make Panther angry because that will tell the strike team whether or not he's been taken over (??). This is his for real plan, one that backfires almost IMMEDIATELY because Panther ends up guessing the game and making Wolverine angry in like, two seconds flat, because that's not that hard to do. He's the best there is at what he does and what he does is get really angry really fast. Anyway, Panther's no dummy so he hasn't been taken over but he has to pretend everything's fine and under control so he has to let Wolverine's team sneak out his prisoner, the last person out there who can control viruses, the Host. There's some talk about Wolverine vulnerability making him overcompensate and some talk about Storm and Black Panther and that's pretty much EVERYTHING.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this Wolverine book is trying its darndest to win me over. Me specifically. Is that crazy? Yes. Almost definitely. But Wolverine just went to talk to Black Panther who's easily in my list of top five favorite heroes and who Wolverine doesn't interact with particularly often and the next issue's cover features Wolverine fighting Batroc ze Lepair (sorry, Batroc the Leaper, for non-French speaking readers) who I don't think Wolverine has EVER come across (if you know a time when they did cross PLEASE TELL ME) and who I absolutely love. I'm likely not alone in my love for these characters but really, they both rank SO HIGH for me. On the other hand, I'm still having some trouble processing this book (making Panther angry was the BEST PLAN HE COULD COME UP WITH? And he didn't think Panther would be able to get around that?) and I still find this book, well, just boring. I don't know what it is. Something about this writing just seems slow to me and I'm having trouble getting around that. Maybe it's Wolverine. There are some really great Wolverine stories out there but there are often two modes of Wolverine: introspective samurai or hacky-slashy anger man. Stories tend to run out on him after too many. That's why (despite this post) I think he's pretty well-suited for teams. He interacts interestingly with others and it pulls some of the drama off of him or gives him a different type of drama. Like I said, that's not always the case; there are plenty of great Wolverine stories out there. But I don't think he tends to flourish in his solo books (that said, really looking forward to Kieron Gillen's take on Wolverine Origins 2).

Wolverine and the X-Men 34
Aaron (w) and Bradshaw and Wong (a) and L. Martin (c)

The X-Men have found the Hellfire Academy and are attacking it with everything they've got (including their Krakoa and an incredibly powerful Bobby operating what seems to be a giant ice samurai). Meanwhile, in the school, the teachers (the ones who haven't left already) are trying to fight back and the students are aligning themselves in the fight with their chosen factions. Kade Kilgore has found himself practically abandoned by the other members of the Hellfire Club, who have already marked this situation as a waste of time and resources. The real blow to Kade, though, comes at the very end of the book, as no one helps him when Broo attacks and, after he gets free and deems his efforts actually a success, he finds himself about to be shot in the back by the other two males in the Hellfire Club.

I usually find myself not enjoying the full-out fight scene issues as much as the build-up issues (not always the case, a good fight scene issue is still pretty great and it's usually satisfying to see the end of a big arc) but that's not the case here. I've not been the biggest fan of this series, particularly of late, but a fight scene issue tends to pull focus away from weaker writing moments or weird character bits. That's not entirely what we find here, as there are still plenty of strange, not-for-me humor bits (a bit with Doop defeating Lady Mondo by showing her home videos he produces out of nowhere stands out). By and large, though, the book works better for me here because it's not focusing its time on the goofier things it's been doing lately and it feels less like a book trying to fit all audiences and more like one that knows its target. Not sure if that says good things about this series overall but it's at least nice to not be mad at an issue.