Broken Frontier

Told as a journal entry on Kitty’s first assignment at Professor X’s School for Gifted Youngsters, Wolverine takes Kitty under duress to find a powerful mutant that has shown up in West Virginia. What secrets lay in wait for them in this small remote community?

Fred Van Lente writes an all ages story here, but does take the kid’s gloves off. At its heart, the X-Men mythos has always been about the civil rights movement and Lente does not ignore that in the first outing of Wolverine’s kid friendly title.

Think about that for a second. All ages friendly Wolverine. Seems like an oxymoron, but from the solicits and this debut issue, it seems that this book is as much about Kitty Pryde as it is everyone’s favorite clawed mutant. Telling the story through a journal entry is an inspired move as it will allow girls, who dare to pick up a Wolverine title, to identify with Kitty.

The dynamic between the title character and Kitty is established right off the bat. Even though they do not hit off right away, you know that they will be friends in the end. It is just the way the book feels, especially given all the nods to future continuity (read: Kitty’s got her eye on the big Russian kid).

Lente also does a good job of introducing all the major players and their powers in this first issue. It is unintrusive enough not to overly annoy the aging fanboy, but detailed enough so newbies can join in the fun right away. The writer has a knack for writing fun, safe stories that are informative and meaningful.

Di Vito did his journey man work with CrossGen on titles like First and Scion, but he got to show his chops on the incredibly fun World War Hulk: X-Men last year. There he showed that he could handle the X-Men’s iconic look and requisite action with the best of them. Here, he is not quite as clean. The action is still exciting and conveyed in a logical manner. The panel layouts are as fun as the story itself.

I have to wonder why they just didn’t call the book Kitty Pryde: First Class. I guess Marvel thinks they will just trick the boys into reading the girly book. It will be interesting to see how successful the title is and if the target girl audience will buy or if it will remain in the hands of tomorrow’s burgeoning fanboy.