Comic Vine Review

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Wolverine & the X-Men #8 - A Little Impossible

4

Sabretooth and the Hellfire Club team up to wreak havoc on Wolverine and the X-Men.

The Good

As you know by now you can't have a proper Wolverine story without Sabretooth popping up eventually; which is exactly the case for WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #8. In the series' latest issue Sabretooth more or less teams up with the Hellfire Club kids, although his incentives are unclear. Chris Bachalo returns to the series as the artist for issue #8, delivering a unique artistic style that definitely compliments the story.

If you're looking for an action packed issue then look no further. Aaron pits Sabretooth and Beast against one another and uses Sabretooth to demonstrate that Beast may actually be more violent, aggressive and more of a loose cannon than Wolverine; but that he keeps all the violent agression in check. Jason Aaron creates a very interesting dynamic between the two characters. You have Sabretooth who wants nothing more than to pull that aggression and anger out of Beast, and then you have Beast who believes that it is his compassion and love for Abigail that propels his reaction. It's definitely very cool.

One of the most interesting moments in the issue, however, was the moment shared between Genesis and Angel. Aaron creates a very interesting parallel between two characters that have one very dark thing in common: both characters were set to be the next Apocalypse in Rick Remender's recent X-Force series and both characters have no recollection of that. Both characters make a mention during a discussion that they are (respectively) trying to " figure out who (they) are." It's a great.

The Bad

As much as I love Chris Bachalo's art style, it can sometimes be a little bit difficult to follow (particularly the action scenes). Don't get me wrong, Bachalo always delivers truly beautiful work, that's not the issue; but it does sometimes look to be all over the place. I think the fact that Aaron jumped around a lot in this issue made it a little bit hard to follow. Only sometimes would the reader know that the events occurred "twenty five minutes from now" and "yesterday" but often we would receive no warning that the scene switched to the present. That got confusing.

The Verdict

I really, really love this book. I really, really love reading about these kids and seeing their interactions with one another. Not only that, but by giving characters like Kitty Pryde and Wolverine responsibility, you get the impression that the characters are aging and maturing a little bit. It's nice to read. This is, overall, a fantastic series -- one of my favorites to come out of Marvel right now. This issue is also a very good jumping on point for new readers.