Wolverine and the X-Men #31

[flint_marko]

So Idie's joined the Hellfire Academy so she can find out who shot Broo, and Quentin's joined to rescue her.







Later, Quentin meets the "principal" of the school.





I'm really hoping there's more to the story here with Mystique; yes she's a villain, and yes she's been written inconsistently at times, but she's never been this much of a mustache-twirling caricature.  The whole school is basically a parody.

Not to mention the whole purpose of the school is to make people afraid of mutants so more sentinels will be made, and I can't see Mystique supporting something like that.

Comments

[arilou_skiff]

I, OTOH, enjoy it immensely. Yes, it is silly. But silliness has it's place. (also, it gives me X-men: Evolution flashbacks)

[shadowpsykie]

the whole concept of this super villain school is kinda... ugh i don't know. never mind mystique, i mean the parody is kinda annoying. At least hero schools make sense, but "Evil 101" it's like... i mena, the best villains don't see themselves as villains. or if they do thy are not so cliche....

also... when did Idie stop being self loathing and care about someone other than herself and her brooding?

[benuben]

Well, it is run by insane 12 year old.

[icon_uk]

Teaching people to be ruthless and evil actually makes a certain sense if you're encouraging the atmosphere that villains create. And a steady supply of evil mutants who still owe you something makes sense if you're flogging Sentinels on the open market.

Look at the original Hellions, who were basically being taught to be future members of the Hellfire Club Inner Circle (or skilled foot soldiers). The things that Raven raises like the "numb conscience" are actually exactly what the Hellfire Club requires.

[mrstatham]

After a point, wouldn't someone like Mystique just give the fuck up? She NEVER WINS.

Also, yes, they're in Hitler Youth-esque uniforms, Aaron, YOU'RE NOT FUCKING CLEVER. What next, casting Mystique in the role of Ilsa, She-Wolf of the fucking Hellfire Club?

[theflames]

She's doing pretty well in All New X-Men, where she's being written pretty solidly.

Also, villains never win - generally speaking.

[icon_uk]

But the Neo-Nazi look worked so well for the X-Corps thing that she was involved with with Banshee... oh wait, never mind.

[darkknightjrk]

With Mystique, I think there's one of two things happening here:

1. Mystique has her own plans and she's using the Hellfire Academy for it. Maybe she's going to take some of these kids and use them for her own work as we see in All-New?

2. Aaron had another story in mind for her, but they decided that Bendis' current story should take precedent, so she was relegated to a schooling position in the story.

[captainbellman]

A lot of this is Jason Aaron falling back on some of his old, tried-and-tested material. This Mystique is practically the same as the one from "Get Mystique" - an individual dangerously focused on looking after herself, all the time. Not unlike Steven Moffat's awful take on Irene Adler, minus the "Oh, But I'm Nothin' Without My MAN" element.

There's other Aaronisms as well. The whole issue is a callback to Wolverine & the X-Men #1. There's a bunch of obscure characters given a makeover and a new coat of paint, including some he's brought back, like Master Pandemonium and Dog Logan. He even mentions the Orb, above, who he's made his personal chew toy, of sorts, within the MU.

In terms of character, I'm more concerned that Dog Logan seems to take to supervillainous teaching like a duck to fresh water. He spent his life growing up on a farm and hunting animals in a forest, for Bob's sake! What does he know about volcano mazes?

[shingi70]

Not really that well versed in the xmen, but I thought that Mystique was supposed to be morally ambiguous?

[theflames]

Nah, she's a bit of a monster. If you take everything she's done over the years.

Plus, an unpredictable moral compass isn't a *good* trait.

[obsidianwolf]

Mystique like Magneto ping pongs on the scale between antagonist with noble goals to complete monster depending on the writer.

ETA of course unlike Magneto she almost never genuinely reforms or tries to reform. Most her stints as a good guy were forced on her by others.

[ablackraptor]

Sorta. She's a monster, and has been since she took Carol's form so she could brutally kill Carol's then-boyfriend while he thought it was his girlfriend, for no reason but to screw with Carol. She basically works for whoever pays her, but deliberately avoids working for anyone who may wish harm on mutants, and has an occasional soft spot for Rogue, Destiny, and occasionally Nightcrawler.

Or at least, that's the Mystique I read and how I interpret her character. Evidently, Aaron interprets her as a 2-dimensional caricature. But honestly, from what I've read most of his characters are 2D caricatures.

[flint_marko]

She's been written inconsistently.

When written well by people like Chris Claremont or Mike Carey, she's still a villain who's done horrible things, but she's a complex character; she isn't someone who's evil for the sake of being evil. She wants to protect her people, and she loves her daughter Rogue. A good example would be Messiah Complex; Rogue is dying, so Mystique betrays the X-Men and almost sacrifices a baby's life to save her.



Then you have writers like Jason Aaron, who have her teaching a class on how to be evil.

[theflames]

Adaptational attractiveness is a crazy thing.

Quentin is so different to when he was first introduced, physically and mentally speaking.

[icon_uk]

He and Damian Wayne were probably penpals.

Hell, I don't even like Quentin and I'd want to read that correspondance

[darkblade]

Really, we're going to make a joke about fridging and then move on like it wasn't even there? Lampshading does not excuse the problem.

[salinea]

from this book, I always expect the most tasteless jokes.

[trobadora]

Wow, this is just mind-numbingly stupid. So glad I gave up on this title - it's always trying to be funny but missing the mark by several lightyears.

[stolisomancer]

I'm disappointed you didn't show off the cirriculum.

[ablackraptor]

I'm sorry, isn't the point of rule-of-fun books supposed to be that, you know, they're actually fun? Because honestly, I'm just too busy bored or offended by the jokes (oh looky, a joke about women in refrigerators, that's as funny as all the jokes about Jean dying and coming back all the time), rolling my eyes at the serious parts, and annoyed at the characterization of the cast.

Also, who's idea was it to turn the Hellfire Club into what is essentially an evil tree house gang?

[shadowpsykie]

that's as funny as all the jokes about Jean dying and coming back all the time


i actually like the Jean dying and coming back jokes.... i just wished they'd bring her back for real.... (but maybe that is because ia m a Jean fan)

[grazzt]

I actually liked these scans and thought they fit with the tone of the book I've seen so far.

Admittedly, this isn't the best supervillain school of all time. That honour would have to go to the Alan Moore/Bryan Talbot Future Shock "The Wages of Sin".

Favourite lines:

"No! No! NO! You're supposed to raise your hand in a claw-like gesture of defiance as you fall into your own nuclear reactor. You don't just wave!"

"The wages of sin are death, but the hours are great and the perks are fantastic."

Someone should post (or repost) that.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, this book is tied with All-New as my favorite X-book and in my top five as best book Marvel's publishing. This is basically Marvel's Justice League International, IMO.

[thanekos]

An evil textbook on Magneto, of course.

One on Doom, certainly.

But Kraven? That just sounds like it'd be a way too padded case study of obsession with one's archenemy.

(And man, " the Orb and Angar the Screamer " seems like a way too studied insult.. but then, it's Quentin, who wears t-shirts like those.)

[icon_uk]

Kraven could be being used as a case study on the problem and debilitating impact of obsessing.

[md84]

The only reason Mystique is going along with this is so she can backstab her employer later. It's the only reason she ever works for anyone. Maybe she wants to snag one of his Sentinels for her own use.

[northstarfan]

My main impression from this issue has been that Aaron continues to do a shit job writing Husk.

No interest here, hope he keeps his paws off any characters I care about. The notion that he may be in line to write Kurt's resurrection grosses me out.

[kaileighblue]

Meh I love this book. My friend who rarely reads comics loves it too. I like that there are story lives that carry over instead of short arcs. For the most part the artists are great too. And I can't hate them for making comic Azazel more like movie Azazel.

[akodo_rokku]

I hope that someday they reveal why Husk has gone bat shit crazy.

(But still keep her with Toad after it's dealt with, because they're cute.)

Also, I greatly enjoy Quentin's general sass. Trying to be a good guy or not, it would have been out of character for him to NOT call out Mystique and basically everyone there for being losers.