Written by Brian Wood
Illustrated by Roland Boschi and Mark Brooks– DEBUT ISSUE BY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR BRIAN WOOD (DMZ, Demo, DV8, Northlanders)
– It’s Wolverine versus Kid Omega for dominance of the Jean Grey School.
– Wolverine will discover that the hardest prison to escape can be his own mind.
Remember when Wolverine was cool? Me neither.
Lets talk about this and more, after the jump.
(Note: this is not discussed at all after the jump, although “more” certainly is.)
I think, mathematically speaking, it is rather hard to imagine any major comic book company designing a book specifically for one person. The odds of that are probably 100 to 1, against. They might design it for an audience, or a specific interest group, but never a specific individual. To do otherwise seems next to impossible, because no matter how hard one could conceivably try, concocting that perfect mix of a creative team to a character that could be classified as a book for any one person alone.
That’s why, all things considered, Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega — or, as it shall be referred to from here on out, the Kid Omega mini — seems like an anomaly. It is an anomaly because, truthfully, this book seems like it was specifically designed for me. That is both a very self centered and narcissistic thought, and it changes the review from what could conceivably be written as an unbiased thought piece into an editorial about the nature of the comic, because now the entire piece takes objectivity to the forefront and treats it as an everyday occurrence (which, for all intents and purposes, shouldn’t happen in a review). However, that doesn’t stop it from effectively being true: from the skeleton of thought that gave birth to this book (put Brian Wood on an X-Book) to the eventual execution (Brian Wood writing a story in the Wolverine and the X-Men side of Regenesis in which he clashes with Kid Omega via two different artists and planes of reality), this book is basically as close to what I want to see in a stand alone X-Book as conceivably possible.
Brian Wood’s return to Marvel after a decade of creator-owned work is a very warm welcome. While mostly known now for his own properties, the brief stint Wood had on Generation X was quite good, albeit cut short far too quickly. Since then, Wood proved he could still handle a property he did not create with appropriate brevity with the DV8 mini of 2010, and to have him on a book starring Wolverine, Armor and Kid Omega is quite an exciting concept. You would imagine that if anyone could tell a competent story in conjunction with Jason Aaron’s bombastic first arc of the new Westchester status quo, it would certainly be Wood.
For those familiar with works of Wood’s past, the title effectively sings hymns of what came before it: the dystopian setting of DMZ, the dense urban wasteland of Channel Zero, the Asian culture adoration of Supermarket, the youth of Demo and New York Four/Five, and even elements of the punk mindset from Pounded. This Kid Omega book, in its own weird way, is like a massive jam session of everything Wood has ever done well in his creator owned career thrown in a blender and given super powers. It is effectively a Wood fan dream come true: without compromising a single inch of what made his other work compelling, Wood transitions slightly into the world of company-owned properties with aplomb. While Wood has other company-owned work at the moment with his Supernatural comic from DC, this is the book that actually feels like some kind of spiritual successor to his current legacy, and a fitting addition to his body of work.
Of course, it is not just Wood alone who makes the title what it is. Between the two artists, the book becomes its own unique beast visually. Roland Boschi and inker Dan Brown handles the “real world” segments at Westchester, focusing on Kid Omega and his devious plan to mess with Wolverine, while Mark Brooks and a bevvy of inkers (Andrew Currie, Jay Leisten, Norman Lee and Ronda Pattison) handles the world that Wolverine and Armor become trapped in via Omega’s meddling. Each team owns their individual sections of the book in a way that really gives the book its own distinct vision; Boschi’s character design and Brown’s inks perfectly encapsulates the humorous undertones of Quire’s weak physique in comparison to his powerful abilities (a trait that was somewhat lost the few times Quire showed up post-Morrison), while Brooks’ and co. environmental design and costume choice create a vivid and rich world for the characters to suddenly find themselves lost in. It’s like Blade Runner dragged through mud, and it is wonderful. The interesting thing to note is that, despite four different inkers working on the title with Brooks, a singular vision emerges; often times with multiple inkers working on one artist’s pencils, you can end up with a muddy or sometimes odd looking book, but the team with Brooks collaborates quite well to the extent that the differences aren’t apparent to the naked eye on a first read.
Continued belowWhat ultimately makes the book stand out, however, is its strong character focus. The book is essentially Quire’s stage, and between Wood, Boschi and Brown that stage is wonderfully set for what I can only assume is going to have quite an interesting parallel in relation to Jason Aaron’s work in the “main” title. Aaron’s book seems less interested in developing characters on an individual level so much as it seems like the place for world building in order to help set the stage for bigger things. Its inherent formula does not seem conducive to the individual so much as it is a place for the grand. On the other hand, here we have a Kid Omega mini to lay to rest a loose plot thread from Schism, working on the tenuous relationship between wary headmaster and wanton psychopath, with Armor kicked in the mix for good measure (because it is high time she appears outside of Astonishing). With Wood’s proven ability to deliver poignant character pieces and Boschi, Brooks and more’s clear and visceral artistic component, the Kid Omega mini is an infinitely exciting prospect, and the first issue does not disappoint in the slightest.
Of course, there is one slight caveat to all of it: Wood’s Kid Omega vs. Aaron’s. Wood regresses the character a bit from his anarchistic Durden-esque mayhem addiction to the more stereotypical high school kid who just discovered an Abbie Hoffman book for the first time, or just really connected with A Catcher In The Rye. It’s not something that distracts too much, but it is rather noticeable when Omega’s opening sequence features him walking down a hallway and portraying the cliche outsider. To an extent, its actually fairly humorous, and somewhat shows off Quire’s excessively cynical and regressive mantra, but never the less. While the characterization right off the bat doesn’t seem to exactly mesh with Aaron’s current depiction of the purple haired deviant, the basic elements are all there: a dubious little bastard prone to mischief who still might have a possible shot at redemption or rehabilitation — if Wolverine doesn’t kill him first, of course. (It almost sounds like a sitcom.)
I suppose the inherent issue when purchasing comics today lies in a matter of personal value. For a book to find a place in any of our collections there needs to be some amount of conceivable worth to it; as finicky discerning readers on various forms of a budget, one needs to find the aspects that stand out in order to justify the purchase of a comic that — truth be told — might end up buried in a longbox. However, as is illustrated by just this first issue alone, the Kid Omega mini (or, as it is actually called, Wolverine and the X-Men: Alpha and Omega) is a book fully worth owning for both the neophyte and the savant; a great addition to the new X-Status quo.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
