Hope For The Future
Hope Summers goes out on the town in San Francisco in an attempt to stop working 24-7 on combat training in Utopia. Things get complicated when she's snatched from a store front by a special forces team. Wolverine, who has spent most of his time ignoring and keeping his distance from Hope, volunteers to go and rescue her. Hope's captor, the Crimson Commando, has no intention of killing Hope, but doesn't mind making her a little less pretty in order to get what he wants. Wolverine, however, doesn't plan on letting that happen.
Written by Kieron Gillen and drawn by Ibraim Roberson, Uncanny X-Men #539 explores the relationship between Wolverine and Hope, whom he's worried he's going to have to kill someday. There is a fair bit of action in this issue, but the story focuses more on how Wolverine is tired of having to take out friends who become too dangerous. An admission of something as powerful as this to Hope Summers is a big step for Wolverine, and he prays that he'll never have to do so. But if Hope's powers do get out of hand, she asks him personally to make sure that he's willing to carry it out.
The writing in this issue was just plain fun. The artwork was a wonderful realistic yet comic book take on the characters, and I did read the entire issue in one fell swoop. The mixture of Gillen's writing and Roberson's artwork was a great match-up, and I hope that Roberson draws the next issue of Uncanny X-Men as well. My only complaint might be that the threat is taken care of in a quick move by Wolverine, but since the story was centered around character development and not things going "boom," it's easily forgiven. It's a great issue and I'm sure X-Men fans will love it.
