Spider-Man and the X-Men #01
Writer: Elliott Kalan
Artist: Marco Failla
Colorist: Ian Herring
Publisher: Marvel
If Spider-Man, Charles Xavier, and The Breakfast Club had a sick, web covered mutie lovechild; this would be it. I truly didn’t know what to expect going into this comic and let me just say: it’s better than expected.
Picking up in the wake (too soon?) of Wolverine’s death, Spider-Man has found himself included in the furry berserker’s last will and testament, only in the odd capacity of helming one of Wolverine’s less violent roles: instructor at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Keep in mind that Spidey is not a mutant, and is met with come contempt by some of the institution’s local Homo Superiors. This is understandable considering some of the bad blood between mutants and Avengers after the whole Avengers vs. X-Men shenanigans (which also pointed out how many Avengers and mutants I was not aware of), but come on! The past is the past, amirite?
Regardless, Spidey owns up to his responsibilities as declared by Wolvie and takes charge of the class of trouble students but with one caveat: one of the students in the class is an agent working against the X-Academy, and it’s up to Spidey to out who the evildoer is before he/she undoes the school from within. This of course, comes in the form of working with “X-randos” such as Shark Girl, Ernst, No-Girl, Glob, and more! Oh, and there’s a field trip but if you know Spidey, it goes anything but swimmingly (particularly do to interruption by Stegron and Sauron, of all people; seriously).
For a first issue, Spider-Man the X-Men does very little to establish itself for me and try to make itself memorable; yeah, Spidey’s in charge of an “X-class”, but they spend less time on the nature and importance of that in order to expedite the story along and throw him and the class into their first ordeal. It’s not that I’m necessarily complaining about this, I just felt that it was a shortfall that could’ve been better handled to let the story feel a little more organic and give readers a chance to vest themselves more in this cast. It also doesn’t help that Kalan immediately reveals Wolverine’s hand in wanting Spidey to out a member of the class as a traitor. All too convenient that all the suspects are gathered in the same place but hey, comics right?
That aside, Kalan and Failla do a pretty decent job of setting up for what could be a great Spidey/X-Men serial, and more importantly this puts Spidey in 1-degree of connection with Ice Man and Firestar, meaning that Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends could become a very real possibility, and canonical within the Marvel-616 (at this time the staff at CTG would like to state our condolences for the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends of Earth-1983). If that’s what this series amounts to, in addition to some witty banter, than that’s not too bad a thing at all.
Artist: Marco Failla
Colorist: Ian Herring
Publisher: Marvel
If Spider-Man, Charles Xavier, and The Breakfast Club had a sick, web covered mutie lovechild; this would be it. I truly didn’t know what to expect going into this comic and let me just say: it’s better than expected.
Picking up in the wake (too soon?) of Wolverine’s death, Spider-Man has found himself included in the furry berserker’s last will and testament, only in the odd capacity of helming one of Wolverine’s less violent roles: instructor at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. Keep in mind that Spidey is not a mutant, and is met with come contempt by some of the institution’s local Homo Superiors. This is understandable considering some of the bad blood between mutants and Avengers after the whole Avengers vs. X-Men shenanigans (which also pointed out how many Avengers and mutants I was not aware of), but come on! The past is the past, amirite?
Regardless, Spidey owns up to his responsibilities as declared by Wolvie and takes charge of the class of trouble students but with one caveat: one of the students in the class is an agent working against the X-Academy, and it’s up to Spidey to out who the evildoer is before he/she undoes the school from within. This of course, comes in the form of working with “X-randos” such as Shark Girl, Ernst, No-Girl, Glob, and more! Oh, and there’s a field trip but if you know Spidey, it goes anything but swimmingly (particularly do to interruption by Stegron and Sauron, of all people; seriously).
For a first issue, Spider-Man the X-Men does very little to establish itself for me and try to make itself memorable; yeah, Spidey’s in charge of an “X-class”, but they spend less time on the nature and importance of that in order to expedite the story along and throw him and the class into their first ordeal. It’s not that I’m necessarily complaining about this, I just felt that it was a shortfall that could’ve been better handled to let the story feel a little more organic and give readers a chance to vest themselves more in this cast. It also doesn’t help that Kalan immediately reveals Wolverine’s hand in wanting Spidey to out a member of the class as a traitor. All too convenient that all the suspects are gathered in the same place but hey, comics right?
That aside, Kalan and Failla do a pretty decent job of setting up for what could be a great Spidey/X-Men serial, and more importantly this puts Spidey in 1-degree of connection with Ice Man and Firestar, meaning that Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends could become a very real possibility, and canonical within the Marvel-616 (at this time the staff at CTG would like to state our condolences for the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends of Earth-1983). If that’s what this series amounts to, in addition to some witty banter, than that’s not too bad a thing at all.
A Look Inside
