Chris Bacalo is Robin Williams. You either love him or you hate him and there is no middle ground to be found. Personally, I love him and have enjoyed his work in this issue tremendously. Kudos to him for his pencils and his coloring, which are vibrant, dynamic and everything this cast of characters are – namely, wild.

Wolverine & The X-Men is Grant Morrison’s New X-Men meets Fables with a dash of Generation X. Let Slim Summers and Emma be the superhero team because to me the X-Men have always been about the school. Jason Aaron hits all the notes in this first issue by taking us on a tour of the new Jean Grey School with the New York State Board of Education, clipboards in hand and disapproving glances abound. Humor is the primary tone in this issue, leaving the moping and rage back on Utopia and giving us the greatest feeling of optimism the X-Men have had since they were playing baseball wearing Weezer t-shirts. The story lays a lot of groundwork for upcoming plots and sub-plots (Hellfire Club’s vow of destruction, hundreds of Nightcrawlers lurking around, Quire’s Occupy-Westchester movement, etc) but moves at a fun pace instead of slogging through build-up and monologues. Aaron’s use of dialogue is conservative and on-point throughout as he introduces his unique cast of characters and their new roles. I hope future issues will begin to provide more insight into the characters views on the new status quo, but have no problem with the first issue being more whimsical.The bonus material at the end had me audibly chuckling (I would love to take Prof. leBeau’s classes).

So, school is in session and it is a brand new year filled with high hopes. I haven’t been this excited for an X-title…well, ever. It is a pleasure to now be enrolled in Headmaster Logan’s new institute and I would recommend sitting in on some classes for $3.99 a month. That’s way cheaper than college courses, kids!