Wolverine and the X-Men #40

Issue Date: 
March 2014
Story Title: 
untitled
Staff: 

Jason Aaron (writer), Pepe Larraz (artist), Matt Mila (colorist), VC’s Clayton Cowles (letterer), Nick Bradshaw and Laura Martin (cover artists), Tom Brennan (associate editor), Nick Lowe (editor), Axel Alonso (editor-in-chief), Joe Quesada (chief creative officer), Dan Buckley (publisher), Alan Fine (Exec. Publisher)

Brief Description: 

Wolverine and Cyclops have finished fighting Sentinels. Exhausted, they find some beer and argue, with Wolverine explaining why he believes what Cyclops is doing is so dangerous. They do not agree but both drink to Jean. Back at the school, some students confront the Bricklemore twins, who are secretly working for SHIELD, and actually show them all the school. When Josephine is still bent on getting SHIELD to close down the place, her brother Joe takes her out and asks Quentin to take away their memories, even though he loves the school. Quentin complies and the twins leave the school, convinced it is harmless.

Full Summary: 

Several of the students have found out that new students Joseph and Josephine Bricklemore are really SHIELD spies and confront them. Josephine shouts at her brother to kill them, but he tells her to put the gun down with which she is threatening Quentin Quire. Quentin suggests she do that or she’ll wake the X-Men. Does she want to face Beast without his beauty sleep?

Broo is disappointed. He thought Joey was a friend. They shared homework together! Joe is ashamed and asks how they knew. Quentin replies his sister never tried to hit on him, so she had to be an evil spy. Eye-Boy sensed something and Idie adds they wanted to give them a chance, but where does that leave them now? Hungry, Shark-Girl hisses.

It leaves them with holes for faces if they don’t stand down! Josephine retorts. They are agents of SHIELD and this school is in big trouble! They can have this place shut down forever.

Surprisingly, the students reply they want to help. If they want to see the school’s secrets, they can show them. If they want the full tour, they only need to touch the Bamf.

Josephine scoffs but her brother grabs her with one hand and the Bamf with the other. They teleport away and end up in a toilet cubicle. The Bamf flees and Josephine kicks in the door despite Joe’s warning. This leads to the beginning of a punishment Danger Room session.

In another bathroom hundreds of miles away, Wolverine has just finished off a Sentinel. He asks if Cyclops is alive. Sitting next to the remains of another Sentinel, Cyclops thinks so. It hurts too much to be dead. He really needs that to be all of them, he groans. Wolverine helps him up. They really look like hell, he states. Cyclops informs him he always looks like hell. Says the man who wears sunglasses indoors, Logan retorts.

He kicks in the door to another room and rifles the cabinets for any medical supplies. Leaning against the wall bleeding, Cyclops wonders why there aren’t any SHIELD agents coming to arrest them. Logan agrees. Someone was really hoping the Sentinels would take them out and if that didn’t work… Then they were hoping the two of them would kill each other, Cyclops finishes the sentence. Wolverine corrects he was gonna say he’d kill Cyke. He’s the one people want dead, remember?

He’s too tired to kill anyone. Even him. Scott replies. He doesn’t say, Logan replies, grins with a feral demeanor and unsheathes his claws. He turns to Cyclops who becomes wary. However, Logan slices up the wall behind him. Jackpot! he announces. Did he find medical supplies? Scott asks. In a manner of speaking, Wolverine replies looking at the crate of beer.

Elsewhere, the Bamfs have teleported the Bricklemoore twins outside the Jean Grey School, onto the grounds. Joe tells his sister not to move but she steps on a flower bed. The ground begins to rumble and Krakoa tries to eat them. Joe shouts at her to run.

Several Bamfs and places later they are teleported to a classroom where the other kids are expecting them. How do they like the tour so far? Quentin asks. Training her gun on them, Josephine replies it’s been quite informative. The school is even more dangerous than she gave it credit for.

Eye-Boy asks Joe on his opinion. Joe is sorry for betraying them but they owe SHIELD everything. Josephine orders him to shut up.

Idie announces the school is the weirdest, craziest most dangerous place any of them have ever been. Yet here they are showing up for class every day, Evan continues. Still begging for more homework, Broo adds. They’d even learned to like it here a little bit, Trevor admits. If they mean to close it down, they are going to have to go through them, Jia threatens. And if they thought the school was the only thing here that was dangerous, Shark-Girl snarls, then they must not have met the students.

The students attack. Josephine fires. Joe does not. Impatiently, she slaps him. Joseph agrees with his sister and finally acts.

Back in the mountain and after several beers, Cyclops muses they haven’t done this for a long time. Drank beer and bled to death? Logan asks. He’s done that every week for as long as he can remember. He has maybe, Scott agrees. They haven’t. Yeah, well, there’s a good reason for that, ain’t there? Logan points out. Why does he hate him so much? Scott demands. They ain’t got enough beer or blood left for that conversation, Logan retorts grimly. Let’s just drink in peace. After all they’ve been through drinking in peace wouldn’t be such a bad thing. He misses him too, Scott announces, every day. He’s sure he does, Logan shrugs.

Scott assures him Dark Phoenix killed Charles Xavier. That wasn’t him. Sure looked like him, Logan snaps. He wasn’t in his right mind, Scott protests. He hasn‘t been in his right mind for a long time, comes the reply. Lotta people been trying to tell him that.

Scott reminds him when Jean went Dark Phoenix she blew up an entire planet. Yet they all stood beside her and fought for her. But him they want to cast off and dismiss as a villain. He won’t be the Magneto to Logan’s Professor X. He rejects that analogy!

He killed one and teamed up with the other, Logan points out. At this point they are past analogy. And Jean knew who she was and what she did. He isn’t so sure about Scott. You put your people on the path to war you can’t be surprised when one morning you wake up to find your sheets soaked red.

Scott throws his bottle against the wall. He is not who Logan thinks he is. He is not the mutant terrorist SHIELD so wants him to be! He still wants what Xavier wanted but things aren’t as simple as they seemed. Has he made mistakes and have people died because of that? Yes, but he won’t stop fighting for what he believes in. If anything, he’ll fight all the harder! He would have thought Logan would understand that.

Logan agrees. Nobody’s hands are bloodier than his. Was a time it might have been him instead of Cyclops killing Chuck. But he’s known for a long time what kind of life he is leading. The kind that only ends badly. Won’t be no riding off into the sunset at the end of his trail. That’s all right, ‘cause all he cares about is leaving something behind and when he goes down he goes alone. The way Scott is headed when he goes down he’s liable to take all of them along.

He wants to know why Wolverine hates him, Scott asks. Simple, because Scott doesn’t hate himself enough. As someone who’s damn near an expert on the subject: a little self-loathing would do Cyclops some good himself.

He’s not like him, Cyclops replies. He never wanted to be. These days he is too much like him Logan retorts. Too damn headstrong, too damn angry, too damn scary for his own good. He ain’t the man Wolverine used to follow. And they need that man. They need him bad. Let Wolverine be the man Jean was scared of. Scott should be the man she fell in love with. That’s all he’s asking.

Cyclops doesn’t reply, though finally they both clink their bottles and toast to Jean.

Back at the Jean Grey School, both the students and Joe himself are surprised at what he just did, namely stunning his sister. Before their eyes the unconscious, Josephine changes back to her normal form as the MGH wears off.

Broo strictly tells Joe they should both leave and never return. Iara Points out they’ll return to SHIELD and tell them… She breaks off, confused. Tell them what? That depends, Joe replies, on what they will remember when they walk out of here.

Quentin tells him he doesn’t know what he’s asking. He knows exactly! Joe replies. Crying, he asks Quentin to promise him he’ll forget it all. Especially the homework.

Sometime later, the twins, both normal humans again, leave the school. Josephine whines this was a colossal waste of time. She has no idea why Agent Dazzler sent them here. The place is a joke. No one takes anything seriously here. The teachers have no clue what they are doing. Most of the students she’s never even heard of, let alone cares about. No way is that place ever going to be a threat to them. It won’t even last that long.

Joe agrees. He’s glad they are leaving. He won’t miss that place at all. He looks back wistfully. The two of them leave in a cab while Wolverine returns on his motorbike.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine
Broo, Eye-Boy, Genesis II, Kid Gladiator, Kid Omega, Shark-Girl, Sprite III

Cyclops

Joey and Josephine Bricklemoore
Bamfs
Krakoa II

In flashback:
Mystique posing as Dazzler 

Written By: