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In the aftermath of Messiah CompleX, Wolverine has one objective: kill Mystique, because she betrayed both the X-Men and mutantkind. Scattered throughout the story is the tale of how Wolverine and Mystique first met in the 1920s.

The story was okay. The time jumps from the 1920s to present-day were okay, but there were a lot of present-day jumps too ("eight hours ago," "two hours later," "six days before," etc), and it was just too much for me. It gave the story a really jerky feel to it. The modern-day story was passable, though nothing earth-shattering; I liked the 1920s story more ( )

So here's how it all happened: I started meeting my bb at Chapters magazine section, because it was central and there were magazines and neither of us had cellphones to make better plans en route and, you know, teens, ha ha. Then I started waiting for her at the Starbucks upstairs because she was working in Sooke and I got to Chapters before she did. Then I started reading illicit copies of the New Yorker and the Economist. (And sometimes I still do, but) then it occurred that pound-for-pound I was much better off reading comics and not buying the $20 Avengers TPB when the magazines, even if I did shell out, would provide twice as much reading for half as much dollaz.

Time passed. I went away to E-town (Europe, not Esquimalt); I came back and got a pointless temp job at the Ministry of Economic Development. There was really no reason to be there, and with Heidi away in J-town (Japan, not . . . Jesquima . . . hm. No), I couldn't even while my lunches away with her, so I decided to just spend all afternoon every day sitting in the Starbucks, beside the sleeping exchange student, flirting with the lovely barista with the soft chin and lip ring who told me I was handsome, and reading free comics, and then it would be SORT of like I had a summer holiday.

And that worked for a while, but then you get through all the promising Marvels and all the Vertigos and all the indie shit and mangas that look short enough to tackle in two hours, and dude, one day there's just nothing left but "Wolverine: Get Mystique." ( )