Wolverine First Class #2 cover

Like X-Men: First Class, Wolverine: First Class is a kids’ friendly or “all ages” title set in the distant past of both X-Men publishing history and continuity.  Wolverine: First Class likely takes place after the events first depicted in Uncanny X-Men #143, which was published in late 1980 or early 1981.  The book teams Wolverine with the newest student at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters and the newest member of the X-Men, Kitty Pryde, for adventures that begin and usually end in a single issue.

Wolverine: First Class #2 (entitled “Surprise!!”) finds Kitty with a dilemma.  She has tickets to a hot, one-show-only concert, but no one in the X-Men is available to driver her and her friends to the concert – except Wolverine, who isn’t cooperating.  A bit of computer hacking later and Kitty discovers a secret about a special day for Wolverine.  What Kitty doesn’t know is that this day is so special that it comes with a visit from Sabertooth.

If you were looking for a comic book to give a ‘tween reader (9-14 years?), you couldn’t go wrong with Wolverine: First Class; in fact, you’d go all the way right with this title.  Writer Fred Van Lente reminds me of Chris Claremont in his ability to write single-issue X-Men stories that offer character interplay and personality right along side a good fight sequence that puts those mutant powers on display.  The art is good (although I wish the coloring didn’t provide the texture and detail that a good ink job once did); Andrea Di Vito is good storyteller, but it’s her excellent graphic design skills that really propel this story.  Van Lente and De Vito make this a Wolverine comic book series that I want to read all the time.

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