Warning: spoilers ahead for Power Pack #4!
Wolverine admits starting his own mutant school was a mistake. In a recent issue of Marvel’s Power Pack, Wolverine plans to take on a Fantastic Four villain to help the young super-team regain their powers. During a planning session with them, he reveals more than fans may initially think.
It is well-known that Wolverine has a violent history. He is the kind of hero that gets called in to fight when dirty work needs doing or a large, dangerous foe needs to be taken down. He isn’t the guy typically called in to help kids. Nonetheless, kids are one of Wolverine’s soft spots at this point in his life. They haven’t always been and even when they began to be, he didn’t necessarily handle an advising role very well. Now, he seems to have accepted that he is better in some roles than others.
Power Pack #4, written by Ryan North with art by Nico Leon, features Wolverine. The Power Pack calls him in after their mentor issues go south and the Wizard steals their powers. As a result, they call in Wolverine to help them and end the issue by working with him on a plan to fix everything. In the middle of it, Wolverine says, “I got no business advisin’ children” and quite frankly – he’s right. Every time he has been in a mentor or advising role of students, it hasn’t quite worked out – especially not long-term.
Wolverine does have a weakness for kids and he is a great guy to have in their corner. However, the more responsibility he takes in this arena, the worse things tend to get or the more he seems to not understand. He definitely tries to do a good job, but things just don’t seem to work out well. At one point in the comics – Wolverine Origins – Wolverine served as a kind of mentor, in the worst way. This led to the torture of Frank Simpson until he became Nuke – a mindless killing machine – back in Vietnam. Later, during the events of Schism, Wolverine disagreed with Cyclops on what was best for young mutants, resulting in him starting his own mutant school. He re-opened the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters under a new name: the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning. He believed young mutants would be better off learning instead of being treated like soldiers. He took half the kids from Utopia with him. The school would find itself full of infestations, moved to Limbo, moved to New York, renamed, and eventually destroyed.
The school didn’t work out, but neither do Wolverine’s attempts at one-on-one mentoring. Normally, Wolverine is the one pushing others away. Regardless of who is pushing who, Wolverine is right – he doesn’t do a great job of advising kids. When it comes to protection or enemy defeating, he’s the guy for the job. This is most likely why he hasn’t stepped up on Krakoa in any young mutant leadership roles and jumps directly into dangerous missions instead. He’s better at handling those kinds of tasks. Perhaps the Power Pack can give Wolverine a more fitting role when it comes to kids – protecting and fighting.
