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WOLVERINE:
FIRST CLASS #6
cover by
Salvador Espin |
By Tim Stevens
The last game of the Stanley Cup has arrived. A whole season comes down to this.
Wolverine, the consummate Canadian, skips a trip into the city to take in the championship of hockey. But then—tragedy strikes.
Magneto? The Brotherhood of Mutants?
Sentinels?
No, something far more insidious: slumber party chaperone duty.
So it goes for Wolverine in the pages of WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS #6, due out August 27.
"He's the chaperone by accident," writer Fred Van Lente explains. "Wolverine loves his hockey so he stays behind to watch the game and ends up with
Kitty Pryde,
Siryn,
Colossus' sister Illyana, and Amp, the girl he and Kitty rescued in WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS #1, under his wing."
However, the feral Canuck, ever adaptive, meets the challenge head on. To make it through a night of chaperoning, he arms himself with, according to Van Lente, "Hockey. Frosty beverages. Trail mix. Hockey. The remote in close proximity. Hockey."
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Preview art by
Salvador Espin |
Additionally, he imparts the ladies with some words of warning:
"He's told the ladies in no uncertain terms that if they interrupt his game for any reason at any time he will turn the lot of them into 'girl-kabobs,'" elaborates Van Lente. "And we certainly all know what Wolvie is capable of..."
Taking Logan at face value, the girls look elsewhere for entertainment. Where does a mutant turn for fun during a sleepover? Why, the Danger Room, of course! The result? The "unleashing of robot versions of the
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants onto the X-Mansion," according to the scribe.
Beyond the robots, though, the majority of the action leans more towards average slumber party activities and expectations. Fans will be able to identify well-represented archetypes with the "bad girl just out to have fun" in Siryn, the lovelorn Kitty Pryde trying to convince the others that they should call their crushes, the youngest, Illyana, holding out hope for a pony, and, of course, Amp as the young lady trying to avoid being "blasted by robots that look like the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, since her empathic projection
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Preview art by
Salvador Espin |
powers don't work on robots." Hmm…perhaps that last one might veer a bit outside "average."
The biggest event of the evening, as always happens at sleepovers, revolves around games of truth. Drawing on his time "at girl scout camp in my previous life, when I was a 12 year old girl" for inspiration, Van Lente has the pals engage in a game called "Spin the Secrets," in which "you sit in a circle with your friends, spin a bottle, then go into the closet with that person. She has to tell you her darkest secrets. At the end of it, you write down all the secrets and pieces of paper and people have to guess which secret is [whose]."
Inevitably, some secrets that probably should have gone unshared will be revealed. In this case, the big one involves Illyana's brother Colossus and pits Siryn against Kitty. As Van Lente points out, given Illyana's age, she wants nothing to do with the state of affairs, preferring activities like "combing her doll's hair and hosting a teddy bear tea party." Still, she finds herself stuck in the middle, a situation that the author teases, "might just see her manifesting [her mutant powers] for the first time."
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Preview art by
Salvador Espin |
With all this going on in WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS #6, it comes as no surprise that Van Lente utters the phrase "And hilarity ensues…" several times when discussing the story.
Enjoy the ensuing hilarity on August 27 when WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS #6, from Van Lente and artist Salvador Espin, hits the shelves. And check out the first issue of the classic KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE limited series on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
