After a very unexpected, but amazing first issue, we have here issue two, with lots of fun and explosions.

Issue two really focuses on Iceman over everything else. This is something that made it so easy to sell to me. I love Bobby as a character, and we never get to see him used much. He shoots ice and that’s really as far as his power has been displayed. Jason Aaron really convinced me that Bobby Drake can really be one of the best X-Men.

This issue is action packed but also lays down some character work for Bobby Drake. The entire issue is actually really well written, and paced well. Another big player of this issue are the new Hellfire Club. The kids come directly from the Schism event, where I didn’t really care for them, but here they seem to be getting fleshed out a bit more and really do seem like a plausible threat to the X-Men.

I don’t think Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo have worked together before this, but they really do seem to complement each other really well. Bachalo is great when it comes to the big action pieces, which is pretty much the entire issue, and has shown he can do quieter scenes just as well. I especially love his design for Iceman. His artwork is very stylized and may take some getting used to, and I did have to step back from the page and look at the bigger picture picture to make out certain things in the book, however. While I’m a big fan of his work, I also had a hard time being able to tell what some of the smaller panels in some pages were.

Wolverine & the X-Men is something fresh and very welcome for someone like me, who reads a lot of different X-Men titles. It stands out from Uncanny and the X-Men proper titles. I want to read more already, and I can’t wait to see where Jason Aaron has taken this book in a year or so. This is really recommended for X-Men fans and new readers, alike.