Wolverine First Class #8 - Marvel

To me, this book has definitely taken over the place I had in my heart for X-Men First Class. I'm really enjoying these early adventures of Logan's and Cat's. They have a special chemistry together that we haven't seen in quite a while. But we get a little bit of that from Cat over in Exiles. Even though she is a different Cat. And it's Creed instead of Logan. Anyways, I thought Fred Van Lente did a good job with this story. And I enjoyed the pencillings of Steven Cummings. This was one of the first times that our duo traveled to Russia. On this encounter they come face to face with the Soviet Super-soldiers. They're trying to save Peter, but what they don't know is that he's actually working with the Soviets, his own people after all, to try to avert a disaster that may take place because of a decaying Nuclear plant. But, in order to do so, he's going to need Cat's help, which is why she was abducted. And then of course Logan comes along, guns blazing and in full berserker mode. He doesn't stop to ask questions, he just lashes out at the perceived target. But what apparently none of them understand is that this was actually a testing facility, by the Soviet government, in which they were trying to create more mutants, and thereby more Super-soldiers. They did have one success, but it was so powerful that it's decided on it's own to take the plant, and everything around it, down for the persecutions that the mutants have suffered by it. It calls itself the Collective. Basically, it absorbs other mutants into it creating a very powerful, multi-talented, single being. And it ends up absorbing Logan and Cat. However Cat, because of her strong emotional ties to Peter, and her overwhelming feelings and worry for him . . . she ends up taking over control of the collective and uses it's powers to defuse the situation and then un-collect the mutants. I thought it was a pretty decent book. Like I said it's good to see these 2 strong characters together again as they were earlier in their careers. It's an excellent substitute for the now defunct X-Men First Class.