The Good

If you are a big fan of the young Hellfire Club and what they have been up to in WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN then you will definitely enjoy reading this latest issue. The comic starts off in the middle of all the action and the focus is on Wolverine and the fact that this young group of evil kids have "finally caught" his attention. In recent issue the students of the Jean Grey School have been gradually leaving the school and joining the Hellfire Club school.

Writer Jason Aaron does a solid job splitting up the story but keeping things organized. There are moments where we are taken to outer space to see what Hank is up to and see whether he has made any progress in curing Broo's condition, and other scenes where Wolverine has gone off to fight the Hellfire Club students, and yet others featuring the Jean Grey School's current team of professors. The issue is organized and is written in a way that is easy to follow. It also feels as if Aaron not only has the individual voices and personalities of these characters down, but he is able to give this big cast of characters their own time on panel -- everyone gets a chance to speak and readers are caught up with everything that has been happening as of late.

Although the pencils fluctuate between different artists and this might bring you out of the story a little bit, the colors and inks keep everything pretty cohesive. The result is generally an overall pretty issue that has vibrant colors which makes this issue easy to read.

The Bad

One of the big questions I had whilst reading through the latest issue is, why? Why would the Hellfire Club go to such lengths to bring the young mutant students into their school? Do they hope simply to get Logan's attention? Or are they trying to eradicate these students by bringing them into the fold first? What is the end game for all of these characters? It seems rather strange to go to such lengths to recruit students to your school when there is a good chance the students are coming in order to sabotage and get to the bottom of things, not because they are choosing to join the HFC school willingly (as in the case of Idie). If the motives of the villains in this story was clearer I think the story would feel more cohesive.

There are several different artists in this issue and while all of them are pretty good, their styles differ a bit so I did feel as if I was taken out of the story. It was not dramatic, but it did happen at times.

One other problem with this issue is that it feels as if the story is sort of at a stalemate. While we've seen these characters do different things and go to different places, they haven't really evolved in the last few issues and it feels like we are in the same place we were as far back as issue #19. It doesn't really feel like there has been a whole lot of progress made in recent issues as far as pushing the story forward. Are the Hellfire Club kids just bad for the sake of being bad, or is their a reason for all this bad behavior?

The Verdict

I can remember when this was a series I would always look forward to reading each month, but lately it (unfortunately) has not really felt that way. Although Aaron clearly has a handle on all of these characters and how they should work together as a team on his book, it doesn't really feel like they have evolved individually or as a team in several issues. The adversaries have been the same throughout (basically since the beginning of the series), but we haven't really seen an explanation for why they do what they do. What is the purpose of creating their own school and recruiting the Jean Grey students? Also, are these characters (the Jean Grey students) so easily manipulated? This issue certainly reads like these characters aren't given very much credit.

This issue was good, but it wasn't the best issue I have read in this series. I think the comic itself is well balanced and Aaron gives each character a little bit of time in the spotlight -- it does not feel overcrowded. Having said that, I think maybe the big cast of characters has prevented the plot of the story from moving forward very quickly, and I hope that the next issue we get closer to the ultimate goal of the Hellfire Club.

This used to be my favorite X book but its seriously been losing steam since the stupid Frankenstein circus arc. One of the main reasons is the art has just been BAD. Its a real shame too especially since it started off so well with Bachalo. I cant wait for a new regular artist.

I decided to drop this just before this issue came out. I liked it pre-AvX when it was about the school and the shenanigans that happened (Bamfs infestation, Wolverine taking Kid Omega into space to cheat at gambling, inspection folks turning into freaks, and even Kitty being pregnant with mini-Brood (and the students shrinking and going into her to save her).

But now, now it's just one problem after another off-campus. I didn't mind the mind-control circus act, seemed like standard X-Men trouble, but the Savage Land story didn't really have a plot or any big development.

So I've switched to All-New X-Men and X-Men to get my Kitty Pryde fix (favorite comic gal ever) and to be put back into the Jean Grey School action.

@babs I think Arron may have dropped a hint in this issue about the return of a certain character a hooded figure is shown with kid omega and the bamf mind image of Azazel. Ref Jason Arrons Wolverine#8 and #7 Nightcrawler

AvX really ruined this series, everything was going so well before that began. I'm really hoping this gets good soon cause it was one of my favorite X-Men books before Marvel Now began.

There were alot of disappointing books this week from the big two...

JLA and Earth 2 were the only decent ones really, which is a shame because like most of you this used to be one of my favorite series, along with red hood but we all know what tynion is doing with that

@noj: bradshaw comes back in august so hopefully he stays on as the main artist again

There isn't a lot I don't agree with in this review. I've finally dropped the title since the Savage Land issue with Dog and how there were robots trying to measure genitals or something like that and I regret whole heartedly for staying on as long as I did. I don't think AvX necessarily ruined this book. I think this book's AvX tie ins were solid in most regards, despite some issues I had. But it gave the book direction and we got some good moments from it and I think that is what helped. After that, we got filler after filler then a random arc that was stupid like the Frankenstein one and I tried the first issue of the Savage Land arc and it wasn't bad. Then it tanked further. I agree with the notion that the characters just haven't developed. I remember hating Quire, but then I grew to like him because of this book. I loved Warbird and now she isn't used for anything but random placements and sex puns. And I still can't get past how terrible I feel that the worst enemy of the X-Men in this book are 9 and 10 year olds. Granted they are....different, I still don't feel right thinking the likes of Rachel, Storm, Wolverine, Ice Man etc are getting duped by a bunch of prepubescent brats. It was one of the worst things in Schism too. I really do feel like Marvel should just cut their losses on this book. I've known a lot of people that have dropped it and I'm not surprised. And I say this as one of the biggest Wolverine fans on the site. Don't bother with a new writer, just end it and put it out of its misery.

this.

Wow... my sentiments exactly! I dropped it long ago. The book tries to appeal us through comedy, most of the moments are missed! The series is trying to make use of new characters and students with interactions by the staff, all of the new characters that are created (along with the few that were created prior: Glob Herman, Quentin Quire, Idie) are transparent and uninteresting, bypassing the well-developed students from the New X-Men series. The book is trying to be the flagship X-Men title, it loses its title because of its crap stories and off-putting art! All in all, the equation speaks for itself! Cancel the book...

@papad1992: And I don't mind the comedy. I liked the comedy of the book originally since it was kind of fresh and different from the soap opera that is the X-verse in Marvel. But Aaron managed to do it while developing characters. Now it's basically how many bad one liners can he throw in an issue.

And that's what I'm talking about... the bad one liners that appear in the crappy stories that have transparent characters that frolic around.

here's hoping Bradshaw's return can save the day