Wolverine & Kitty Pryde #1: Back In Japan Like We Never Left

I’m not the kind of X-reader that lives completely in any era. I love modern X-Men (Krakoa forever), I’m enjoying many things about the current era and I have a deep and abiding love for Chris Claremont’s original time on the X-Men. In short, if it’s x-men, I’ll give it a fair shake. Some of these returns to expand past canon have not always hit the spot for me and I think it’s fair to say readers in general. I’m not naming names, that’s unnecessary so I won’t lie, when one of these type’s of series gets announced I always get a little nervous. In this instance, I needn’t have worried.

The one thing Claremont has always been able to do is find Logan’s voice and this opening chapter is no exception. He is still very much a writer of an older era, the 9 pages of internal Wolverine narrative are definitely evidence of this. However I’m here to argue that this is not a bad thing at all but rather the opposite. Logan’s narrative paints the scene along with the art. There’s a familiarity in tone about his Logan and Wolverine that’s immediately comfortable. His Kitty Pryde is a hot mess of teenage angst, hot off a traumatic and defining moment in her life, but at the same time a vastly capable child soldier who’s new found abilities need to be honed. Something that Logan clearly understands. Along the way we get a fun, teasing Yukio, a suitably austere Mariko and even a really great moment from Carmen Pryde who Claremont deftly uses to remind use that Charles Xavier is the WORST. Ok that’s not exactly accurate because Claremont uses Logan to downplay or even justify some of Charles very questionable choices in the service of what he believes is right.

The rest of the issue is filled with a fun attempted kidnapping and artist Damian Couceiro gets to show off Logan and Kitty foil the attempt in a fun bit of action that has a classic look and feel about it. Overall I think Coucerio aims at capturing the tone of the original series and this is helped by colorist Carlos Lopez’s palette and is successful to a high degree. Kate does get a new costume for the purposes of this series which is a fun little addition to her wardrobe, and at least she didn’t choose it herself. It’s classic Wolverine and Kitty Pryde of the era, there are not any surprises here. Some will grouse that it offers nothing new. My counterpoint is that it offers solid story with excellent character voice and that’s more than enough to be worth the cost of admission. The surprise comes at the end of the book as our heroes find themselves clad in classic Japanese garb facing an unknown enemy leaving us with a cliffhanger ending into issue two.

Between the Alan Davis covers and classic tone that this takes, there’s plenty for lovers of Claremont’s era to enjoy, less so for more modern readers who are looking for things that push boundaries.