Comic Reviews by Walt

Wolverine and the X-Men Magazine #1 cover

Normally, I wouldn’t consider a magazine something worth writing a review over. However, this one struck me as something I definitely would like to write a bit about.

I came across this at a Wal-Mart last weekend, and decided to flip through it, just to see what it contained. Once I saw what it contained (as well as its price), I decided it was worth picking up.

The cover’s nothing too special–although, I have to give it credit for grabbing MY attention (a nice, classic image, there).  This debut issue of the magazine (headlining Wolverine…after all, there IS a movie coming out in a few months) contains no articles–it’s not that sort of magazine. Instead, this is more of a magazine-sized collected-volume.

This contains Wolverine: First Class #1, Incredible Hulk #s 180-181, and X-Men: First Class #1. There’s also a Mini Marvels short by Chris Giarrusso that was probably contained in one of the First Class issues originally.

For a $5.99 cover price, one gets the contents (uninterrupted by ads except between stories) of four comics. The price is a mere penny ($.01) more expensive than the two First Class issues combined, PLUS the two classic Incredible Hulk issues are present (these featured the very first appearance of the Wolverine).

What really struck me as the value here was that where many of Marvel’s comics are now at the $3.99 point for a standard size issue, for only $2 more one has two issues of recent content, plus the two Hulk issues. That the magazine is a first issue and contains the contents of two first issues and a first appearance works very well–no one’s really being plopped in the middle of some story from the get-go here.

As an adult, I enjoyed this. I’d never picked up any of the First Class comics so those were both new to me. I’d also never read the Hulk issues Wolverine first appeared in–I don’t know if I even have any reprints despite 20 years of comic collecting.

I’m looking forward to the next issue, to see what they do–if this is (for awhile) basically a reprint magazine with two recent comics and a couple classics (or even a move to more recent comics), I’ll be quite pleased, and more than willing to lay out the $6 for an issue.

Definitely recommended!

Filed under: Comic Reviews 2009, MARVEL, Wolverine and the X-Men | Tagged: First Class, Incredible Hulk, Incredible Hulk 180, Incredible Hulk 181, Marvel Comics, Wolverine, Wolverine and the X-Men, Wolverine and the X-Men Magazine, Wolverine: First Class, x-men, X-Men: First Class |