Wolverine and the X-Men 41, Marvel Knights X-Men 4

Wolverine and the X-Men 41
Aaron (w) and Larraz and Nauck (a) and Milla (c)

After his switch from X-School janitor to Hellfire Academy janitor and given his shady past, the teachers at the Jean Grey school decide it's best to part with Toad. He regrets his involvement with the Hellfire Academy as he's come to like his job with the Jean Grey School but he ultimately accepts his fate. As he leaves, Husk apologizes for not remembering him and for going crazy recently but asks to meet him after work for coffee to try to understand what she felt for him. Instead, he intercedes in a breakout by the Hellfire Academy kids currently studying at the Jean Grey School. He's not out to stop them, though, he's out for a second chance. Max Frankenstein wants him to prove it and he pounces on Manuel Enduque and the two leave him for the X-Men to find, with Toad claiming he has to leave while he still remembers what it's like not to be a toad. He and Frankenstein leave on jetpacks.

An almost interesting end to Toad's story with the Jean Grey School but the ultimate problem remains that Toad was something of a joke to start the book and was slowly to become a big part of the mythos but I don't think he ever really got there. In that way, his heartfelt departure from the school and his impassioned plea to Manuel explaining why he needs to leave (while he beats him up) kind of fall a little flat. It's hard when a big emotional issue doesn't have enough of a background on it. Aaron's done a lot to try to make Toad a worthwhile character for his part in this book, particularly seen in retrospect after this issue, but, at the end of the day, it's still just Toad and the audience still doesn't really have a connection to him so this issue, instead of feeling bittersweet, feels somewhat unnecessary and distracting. As ever, I can't speak for everyone but I honestly feel like this series could have ended (as it will next issue before its reboot with Jason Latour at the helm) without addressing Toad and I'd not have been surprised when he just wasn't there next time.

Marvel Knights X-Men 4
Revel (w and a) and C. Peter (c)

After fighting some of their demons, with Wolverine facing down the slew of his enemies borne out of Rogue's memories and Rogue fighting Carol Danvers back in the days when Rogue was busy stealing her memories and powers borne out of Wolverine's memories, everyone starts to get things settled. Kitty starts to learn from Krystal about the history of this town, which mostly revolved around her corrupt sheriff-uncle using her powers to cut his way into the horrible cult at the top of the hill, profiting on drug sales and torturing a mutant. When Krystal tried to break the mutant out, the cult shot him in the ensuing chase. She (accidentally) used her persuasive powers to convince them that mutants were better than them and that that cult's days were numbered. So the cult rededicated itself to worshipping mutants and trying to appease mutants before the last days of mankind. Now everything is going crazy and Darla has teamed up with the cult and they've come across a reconciled Rogue and Wolverine, who Darla wants dead.

Things start to clear up a bit with this town and some of the history comes out. More importantly, we get to see a little bit of where everyone's loyalties lie, which has been a mystery throughout and now it's pretty well revealed. The twists are reasonably good ones and it's a neat little portrait of a small and horrible town dealing with mutants. It can also kind of serve to highlight just how tortured the X-Men are, what with their memories floating into reality, and raining chaos on the town. Brahm Revel's art continues to really drive the book and it works perfectly in tandem with Cris Peter's colors to look unlike anything else on the shelves right now. I think the story probably holds up alright as a limited series even without the impressive art, which is a nice little bonus for this series and one that I'm not totally sure can be applied as much to MARVEL KNIGHTS SPIDER-MAN, but the art really sets this one a step above. In truth, I think I still like MK SPIDER-MAN more because Marco Rudy's art real appealed to me and struck me but I think this one may be a more complete series.