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Wolverine & The X-Men Is The New Justice League International

It really twigged this week. But it's been there for ages. It was probably the recruiting for a new professor in this week's Wolverine & The X-Men that did it…

…with all manner of candidates…

,,,as well as the behaviour of a certain new White Queen.

But this behaviour more than any other made me realise where I'd read it before.

I was a Marvel zombie you see. Not my fault, that's how I was raised. Marvel UK used to publish Stan and Jack X-Men, Thor and FF in weekly black and white comics in thew newsagent, those were my first exposures to American superheroes. And I loved them. And when the newsagents got actual American comics in, they were only Marvel ones. I only saw my first DC comic when I found a comic shop, and by then I knew to dismiss them.

But one title caught my eye, got me reading, and opened the possibilities of a very different superhero universe. And that was the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire Justice League, later to be Justice League International. Not so much a comic, it was a sitcomic. Funny, clever,m a mix of comedy and pathos, it got me, and grabbed me and made me want to find more. Sadly no other DC superhero comic could match it, though I did then try out this other comic called Sandman…

And this is what Wolverine & The X-Men could do. It's a very easy entry comic for new readers into the whole Marvel Universe. And yes, as much as the comedy above, there is the pathos…

…and scenes even more disturbing, to break up the lightness.

And for those still enraged by the last issue and the fate of a certain member of the Brood, something to cling onto in hope. Click here for your Wolverine & The X-Men spoiler of the week. It's a nice spoiler though. Ish…

This could so easily have been a retread of early New Mutants, or of the Morrison/Quitely New X-Men. But it seems to be taking more of its inspiration from JLI. Do we have One Punch, a proper Toad/Husk date and the X-Men School Of Antarctica to come?

Just, and no disrespect to the man, please don't put Dan Jurgens on this book. I can't go through that again.

It's not the only Marvel comic in disguise. AVX Consequences, now in its fourth issue this week, is meant to show the aftermath of the Avengers Vs X-Men event. Not only is it a much better comic, but it's also the continuation far more of Uncanny X-Men, also by Kieron Gillen. Which, given the final issues were rather lacking, reduced to showing points of view of the X-Men character in the AVX crossover, is a far better cap for his run on the book. The fourth issue gives us callbacks to the Hope/Namor scenes that we loved so much…

The introspection of Colossus, a man ripped apart by supernatural forces…

While still giving us some strong foreshadowing for Brian Bendis and Steve McNiven's All New X-Men.

Comics in disguise!

Comics courtesy of Orbital Comics, London. Who are hosting a Nick Spencer signing of Bedlam #1 today, as well as a gallery of Bedlam original art from Riley Rossmo and a Hallowe'en party tonight…

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