Spider-Man & The X-Men

Spider-Man and the X-Men #1-6

by Elliott Kalan, Marco Failla (Illustrator), R.B. Silva (Artist)

Meet the Jean Grey School’s new guidance counselor: Spider-Man! He’s supposed to be secretly investigating the suspicion that one of the students is a traitorous mole. But now Spidey’s got his hands full with a very special student class — and a maniacal merger of the X-Men’s rogues’ gallery with his own! Sauron and Stegron the Dinosaur Man team up to take over Staten Island! Chameleon and Mojo cast Spidey and the X-kids in a live death match against the Sinister Sixty-Six! And Deathbird teams the Brood with the Symbiotes! But as Spidey faces the Beast in a no-holds-barred science fair, someone at the school discovers his secret identity! All betrayals, deceptions and misunderstandings fall into place as the mole is revealed — but will Spidey and his students survive to learn the truth?

Collects: Spider-Man & The X-Men (2014) #1-6.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Spider Man, Superheroes, Comic Book

141 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 7, 2015

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, but forgettable.



I don't know why I didn't like it more, but there was just something missing. It had quite a few good jokes, a pretty cool plot, and there wasn't anything wrong with the art. I don't...shrugs
Sorry, I can't put my finger on why it didn't work a bit better for me.



The basic story is that Logan wanted Spidey to come in and find a traitor. He figured without Peter having any attachments to the kids, he might be able to get a clearer view of who was willing to sell the X-men out.



Of course, Professor Spider-man now has a class of dysfunctional weirdos that he's responsible for, and since he's kind of a dysfunctional weirdo himself...
Feelings + Emotions = BONDING!



So, yeah. It's worth reading, but don't expect anything Amazing.<---Heh

[iain · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was just a stop gap for me.

My kindle doesn’t do colour so it would have been much better in colour I think 🤔

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was clearly supposed to be a fun romp with lots of jokes... and it was. Unfortunately, for me, the fun was diluted somewhat by the fact that the jokes clearly took priority over the characters' personalities.

I mean, since when have the X-Men all hated Spider-Man? They've teamed-up hundreds of times and usually got on pretty well. Now, in this book, they can't stand him... purely for the sake of the gags.

A lot of people might put this down to nit-picking but it really stopped me connecting with the story.

I won't say I didn't enjoy this book at all, and the artwork was quite nice, but I'm not mourning the fact that this isn't an ongoing title.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a pretty bad crossover that offers nothing of substance. It is packed with a lot of misplaced humour and unneeded cameos which hope to mask the flaws. Despite the fast pace, it never feels like it's actually moving due to the lack of engaging dialogue. Overall, it's a huge chore to get through and misses any potential that these iconic characters have as a team.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

In all honesty, I thought this sounded like a dumb idea. Or, to be more accurate, like a pointless cash grab. Actually, it's weirdly pretty good. In a way, it's a sort of sequel to Wolverine and the X-Men, another series that sounded kind of awful to me but ended up being great. No, this isn't quite as good as Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, but it has some of the same characters and some of the same spirit. It's a silly, kind of goofy book, and I really like all of the characters that have big parts in this book. And I really appreciated seeing more of some of my favorite students.

But it was really, really annoying that Kalan wrote the veteran X-Men so far out of character. Storm, Rachel, and Beast all have decent sized parts, and none of them act like themselves. Storm is incredibly bitchy to Spidey because... I really have no idea. Rachel totally hates him and is obsessed with invading his mind because... I don't know why. And Beast is just a petty jerk. Kalan didn't need to write these characters this way for his story, so I have no earthly idea why he did. To make Spider-Man look better? He really didn't need to. Or maybe he just doesn't understand their characters. It really dragged down a book that's otherwise fun.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect to enjoy this story as much as I did but it had everything I could have asked for. It was funny, there was adventure, and the students were diverse and interesting. I looked forward to each issue and was kind of disappointed when it was done. This story was so colourful - literally. The art was fantastic and added to the fun.

[The Fizza · Rating 1 out of 5]

NEGATIVE STARS - The X-Men are my favorite team & Spidy's my favorite hero so once again I picked up a crossover only to find that I wish I hadn't... This book was just a bunch of missed opportunities and bad jokes. And not like Spider-Man bad jokes, where you snicker but only because it's cheesey dad humor... Nope. There will be no laughing in this book, no smiling... only the tears of innocent characters who have been grossly abused and misused.

Okay... this book may not deserve this one star like "The Arms Of The Octopus" did, because the concept was essentially decent and it used a bunch of my favorite (and forgotten) Young X-Men, though Rockslide without Anole was weird. The problem with this book however was the writing - It was terrible. I mean just awful. Really really awful!!

Like "Dark Knight Strikes Again" awful (so yeah, that's pretty much the bottom of the barrel).

I usually spend a little time on the plot but I'm really not sure there was one. The gist of the story, which you find out on basically the first page, is that Wolverine/Logan (who I think was 'dead' at this point) asked Spidy to substitute teach at the Jean Grey School while trying to Holmes out who, of the students he was asked to work with, might be a mole.

Why Logan would ask Spider-Man when there are literally hundreds of actual mutants out there, many of them better qualified for this mission, is something even Nick Fury couldn't have figured out.

So with that shoddy MacGuffin in place we then follow Spidy, Ernst, Martha, Hellion, Rockslide, Shark-Girl, Glob & Eye Boy as they bumble around and fight all sorts of X-villains. I suspect that the PTB wanted this to be sort of a sequel to Jason Aaron & Chris Bachalo's Wolverine and the X-Men but it turned to to be more of an ethereally (pale isn't enough) imitation of that excellent series.

Though this book had soooo much potential, which really makes me even more frustrated by it's scribe's lackluster performance, Mr Kalan either has no ideas who any of these characters are (which is hard when you put such a exploited character like Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the mix) or he just didn't give a $%!# about this book.

At this point I often take a moment and mention the artist(s), or try to, in these reviews but while R.B. Silva (or Rubens Bernardino da Silva) did his usual excellent job on Part 4 of this story, not having ever found Marco Failla's work to fit with my aesthetics I cannot speak to the artist which dominates a majority of this book. Except that maybe I was thankful to see Diogo Saito step-in to show us how Failla's art might sparkle if fleshed out (as seen in Part 6). On the plus side Nick Bradshaw, Ian Herring & Stacey Lee did some great covers/pin-ups.

With the step-up in art on the last chapter we also do see a step-up in writing bringing what originally seemed a poor man's (Super)Breakfast Club, from the level of the Marvel Adventures Gone Rogue to almost passable.... unfortunately this isn't "hand grenades," so almost doesn't really count for much.

While such a surprising step it was, that the wrap-up for the story almost seemed as if was crafted by a different creative team - so significant were the changes, the addition of 'after school special' moments (in this farce of an X-Men book) was a step in the right direction for what, at it's core, was a book about learning to be an adult. Something many past super school books never seem to realize, but sadly it was too little-too late.

I would not recommend this book for anyone over the age of 6 to read... and for goodness sake someone please give Mr Kalan a copy of Aristotle's Poetics and maybe Stephen King's On Writing. Also a stack of Spider-Man & New X-Men: Academy X comics to read, before letting them pen another Spider-Man or Young X-Men book wouldn't hurt.

Now, if you'll excuse me the bird cage is in need of new paper and I have just the thing for it - THIS BOOK!

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun and entertaining read. Great artwork. Really liked the coloring. I would have given it 4 stars, but after issue 3 it had some bumps on the road, got too much with the Venomized-bird and its gang of venoms. The mojo issue was not good.. got a bit bored.

What was good was the beginning with Sauron. So fun to read and had a few laughs too. I actually didn't expect to like it because of the "students" kids x-men, whatever they are.. I don't like them, except Rockslide maybe (that's his name right?) I liked him on All-New X-Men if I remember correctly, the arc with the Cyttorak and Juggernaut? That one. he was fun to read. For everyone else, I couldn't give a damn, but, after this read though.. I changed my mind. They're fun to read.

Spidey as Spider-Man was spot-on. Your good ol' friendly neighborhood, with his one-liners, sarcasm and bad luck. So, if you like Spidey, I'm sure you'll like at least half of this volume, and then it pick right up at the end.

[P.B. Flower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still feeling from the barrage of characters

Ok so the humor in this was slightly over the top, but I enjoyed it.
And the creature feature list is super long, making the graphics a visual treat as I love weird creatures.
Now off to the next book ...

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

hunh. Is this a kiddie title or is it just inept and inane? Methinks the later.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here's a ringing endorsement: better than I thought it'd be! I'm usually wary of non-comics writers dipping their toes into the medium (Kalan was head writer of the Daily Show for years), but I was pleasantly surprised by this. Kalan does a wonderful job of mixing ideas/villains/themes from Spider-Man's world with the X-Men world, and manages to make a bunch of D-list X-Men lovable in the process.

Where Kalan really shines is his Spider-Man dialogue. I guess years of writing jokes and desk pieces translates well to Spidey's quipping, nonstop stream of consciousness, and Kalan nails it as well as almost any Spider-Man writer I can think of.

All of those positives said, the book just tends to drag a little bit. Even though the ideas are good, they plod along a little too much, largely due to just how much dialogue there is here. Most panels are crammed full of it, and it slows everything down too much to really ever build momentum. I think with some cuts, this could've been a lightning-quick, witty read with a ton of heart. As it stands, it's a little overstuffed.

Still, I enjoyed it for the most part. I'd say definitely give it a read on Marvel Unlimited or something. And here's hoping to see more from Kalan in the future!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually expected this book to be pretty poor. I'd never heard of any of the creative team, but given my predisposition to buy pretty much any Spider-Man comic that Marvel put out, I bought it anyway, especially since it was just a six issue series, and I was really blown away with how much fun I had with it.

Granted, some of the older X-Men are pretty out of character. Storm spends six issues shouting at Spider-Man, Rachel Grey wants to invade his mind, and Beast is basically a juvenile bully, but honestly, it's so hilarious that I gave up caring and chalked it all up to 'Wolverine died so everyone's a bit cranky'.

The plot involves Spidey taking a class of kids including Hellion, Rockslide, Ernst, No-Girl, Shark Girl, and Eye Boy under his wing after Wolverine sent him a note saying that he thought one of them was a mole. As Spidey tries to uncover who it is, they run afoul of Stegron, Sauron, Mojo, the Chameleon, the Brood, the Shi'ar, and more, and it's all done with a load of tongue in cheek jokes and wisecracks. There's an abundance of dialogue, but most of it lands really well, and Elliot Kalan is very respectful of the continuity that he's dealing with here, especially since the X-Men's lives are often so chaotic different books contradict each other - not so here. It all comes together in a nice ending that rounds off all the plot points and left a big smile on my face.

The artwork by Marco Failla is zany but not too out of this world, so it comes off cartoonish to go with the tone of the story but not so much that you discount the book, and there's a fill-in by the always excellent R. B. Silva halfway through that's a treat for the eyes.

Yeah, Spider-Man and the X-Men probably won't win any awards this year, but for a good fun time, you're in the right place.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, o gibi aleatório que não tem pé na continuidade atual, não faz parte de um evento, não é um clássico - Marvel, né? -, não é leitura culta, é só o Homem-Aranha e o time C dos X-men em altas aventuras e grandes confusões.
Muitos anos atrás, alguém achou que deixar o Wolverine de diretor de uma escola para crianças e adolescentes era uma boa ideia - esse alguém, suponho, nunca leu um único gibi com um baixinho canadense invocado que não seja o Pigmeu -, depois da morte do Wolverine - que gibi ruim -, nosso Amigão da Vizinhança favorito recebe a incumbência de descobrir um possível traidor na classe especial dos estudantes da Escola Santa Jean Grey da Ressurreição; a classe é composta do time C dos X-men: Guri-Olho, Satânico, Rockslide, Guria-Tubarão, Glob, Ernst e Não-Guria.
Claro, as aulas do Homem-Aranha envolvem raptos pela dupla dinâmica Stegron e Sauron, raptos pela dupla televisa Camaleão e Mojo, raptos pela dupla Ninhada e Simbionte, e um último rapto pelo Sr Sinistro que, como não nasceu em Goiás, não tem direito a montar uma dupla sertaneja com outro vilão.
A história é muito bobinha, poder, responsabilidade, aquela papagaiada do Homem-Aranha de sempre, mas tem três coisas muito divertidas: a primeira, o Homem Aranha sempre é retratada como um cara piadista, meio imaturo, especialmente junto a personagens como o Capitão América ou o Homem de Ferro, junto a uma turma de adolescentes superpoderosos, ele é o tio do pavê - todo mundo tem esse tio, se tu não tem, deve ser tu-, fato que muda totalmente a dinâmica do grupo e deixa o gibi bem divertido; a segunda, o já clássico painel em que o Aranha pergunta pro Sauron porque transformar as pessoas em dinossauros, se, com a tecnologia em questão, ele pode curar o câncer e o Sauron respondendo que o que ele quer é transformar pessoas em dinossauros e foda-se o câncer, parece justo; a terceira, todo mundo sabe, os X-men são a primeira franquia de super-heróis globalizados, tem comunista russo, canadense agressivo, deusas africana, esquisito alemão e por aí vai, volta e meia, eles largam alguma palavra no idioma nativo, nessa edição, a Guria-Tubarão, personagem brasileiro que não desiste nunca, fala lambisgoia e caraca ao longo da edição.
Eu vivi para ver lambisgoia no meio de um gibi da Marvel.
Lambisgoia.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

With Wolverine (temporarily) dead, the X-line needed a new school-based book to replace Wolverine & The X-Men — one that revisited some of the existing students and made with the funny. Spider-Man & The X-Men is that (short-lived) book.

And, it gets the funny right. There's stuff that makes you laugh. It also makes delightful use of some of the funniest Jason Aaron students, such as Shark Girl and Eye Boy.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man & The X-Men just isn't that interesting. It's horribly shallow, with the team randomly fighting different Spider-Man and X-Men villains throughout the volume for no particularly good reason and with no particular repercussions. At times, this comic was so shallow that I wondered if it were intentionally a juvenile. More often, I was just bored.

I also seriously wonder about this volume's canonicity. Oh, it was clearly intended to be canon, but I'm not convinced anything will ever refer to this comic again.

[Vikas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I enjoyed my time with this little forway of Spider-Man into the X-men universe. This was funny with diverse characters and the students were interesting. There were a lot of jokes and a lot of adventure. Many different X-men and Spidey villains show up and then it's all a very nice fun time for me. Another Spidey adventure in the bag so let's go on and then Keep on Reading.

I have always loved comics, and I have I can. I love comics to bits, may the comics never leave my side. I loved reading this and love reading more, you should also read what you love and hope always to love them. Even though I grew up reading local Indian comics like Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, or even Manoj Comics, now's the time to catch up on international and classic comics and Graphic novels. I am on my quest to read as many comics as I just want to Keep on Reading.

[Villain E · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. This reads like an old-school monthly series; one or two-issue adventures with a through story carrying the series. Spider-Man takes a position as a teacher at the Jean Grey school. One of my petpeeves with the X-Books lately is that new writers make up new students and the old ones get pushed to the back. So I was glad that this creative team used existing characters: Glob Herman, Hellion, Ernst, No Girl, Shark Girl, Rockslide and Eye Boy. Together they have some over-the-top adventures with combined teams of Spidey and X-Men baddies, like Sauron teaming with Stegron. This isn't brilliant or epic, but it's a lot of fun, and I wish the series had kept going.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn't bad. A little sillier than I thought it would be, but I didn't go into this expecting Watchmen either. A good, entertaining read but nothing impactful. I will admit though, some of the jokes were pretty funny.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet with a few rare X-Men getting a chance to shine but a bit too predictable and straightforward.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming little story about power, responsibility, and—somewhat surprisingly—loving your enemies.

[Henrik Emilsson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Detta var ett lågvattenmärke för både Spider-Man som X-Men. Dålig handling, tråkiga teckningar, och de unga mutanterna var de minst karismatiska någonsin.

[Jamie Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute and fun with a few great moments that's hurt a little by the characters being a bit off and continuity being a bit loose. Probably worth it for the Sauron/Stegron bits alone.

[Joshua Stover · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a little while now I have wanted a comic book run where Peter Parker is inducted into Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted... a potential what-if that explored his budding relationships with other members of the X-Men both between classes and battles against villains from both sides within the streets of New York. Thus, when I saw the cover of this collection, I thought my prayers had been answered. Unfortunately, this tale is a little off from what I anticipated or necessarily wanted, but did an adequate job at generating a cohesive story.

Rather than being enrolled as a pupil, Spider-Man is an instructor tasked with teaching a group of mutant rejects in the newly ordained Jean Grey School for Higher Learning whilst trying to find a mole within the student body at the request of the newly deceased Wolverine. It's a classic tale of misfits and rejects being whipped into shape by an eccentric mentor much akin to a 'Stand and Deliver' situation, with the students ultimately refining their talents and finding purpose at the conclusion of the series.

I find that this comic collection can be overly reliant on Spider-Man's quips and a little cumbersome in general. I can understand Spidey throwing out joke after joke rapid-fire mode as it's his shtick, but when EVERYONE does it then I could see how some people could get worn out with reading this. This book is like the Robin Williams of Spider-Man stories, in which the audience is oversaturated with jokes and only every tenth one is actually funny. I have to point out though that this was the story which birthed the meme in which the one dinosaur humanoid (Sauron) wishes to turn people into mere dinosaurs over curing cancer, which did make me laugh. Anyone that understands that reference can therefore see the potential that this story has to offer...

...But really, this comic is pretty basic in terms of how conventionality of the art medium has been over the years. The villains are campy and rather stupid by nature, the heroes are one-dimensional and a little forgettable, and the story IS direct but lacks a lot of originality. A bunch of wacky and disjointed adventures ensue in which the webslinger and his new disciples battle a gauntlet of enemies from both respective properties. This type of comic run has the same schlock and energy of any cheesy Saturday morning superhero cartoon, boiling down to very similar tenets and such. This type of quality can certainly come across as charming at times but can also be derivative or borderline irritating at others.

Ultimately it was a fun romp but nothing too novel or essential. Still, if you have an afternoon to kill then I think it would be a fine choice.

[John Galluzzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crossovers are generally fun, as they bring together not only heroes but villains in interesting ways. In this book, we have not a true Spider-Man/X-Men mash-up, as Spidey, while interacting with a handful of original X-Men, is paired with the X-Kids. There are inherent disadvantages in Beast taking on a Spidey villain and vice versa

Working in Jean Grey's school as an itinerant professor, Spidey spends most of his time with the kids in the field, fighting bad guys and unintentionally baptizing them by fire. Secretly, he's been charged by the now-dead Wolverine with finding a mole within the Kids' ranks, for whom he knows not. One of the kids is a double agent for an as-yet unknown villain.

There's a tight arc to the books collected in this volume, with plenty of twists, turns and cameo appearances (including from the X-Babies). My only slight misapprehension with this book has to do with the naming of the X-Kids. While I don't pretend to know who came up with the characters on the team, it seems like naming X-heroes, or maybe just superheroes in general, can be somewhat lazy. Take a superpower and place "boy" or "girl" after it. In this case we have Eye Boy, Shark Girl and No-Girl. Rockslide is an excellent name (I believe) and Helion has great potential, and both show creativity. (OK, considering her circumstance, No-Girl is a pretty cool name, too, but you get my drift).

Altogether, it's a fun journey.

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't impressed after the first issue, as Spider-Man becomes a visiting teacher at the X-Men school to look for a mole in a class of troublemakers. I had heard of maybe one of the characters in this class (I'm not up on my X-Men in general, and students even less so), so didn't have very much invested in them. That changed as the issues go by - Spider-Man is a horrible professor, and the kids end up in lots of over-the-top absurd situations and do seem to learn a lot and cohere because of (and in spite of) Parker's guidance. The humor is a little heavy-handed on occasion (way too many jokes at the expense of Staten Island), but the exasperation of everyone around Spidey is funny, and there's a lot of very good action throughout. Beast gets a chance to shine, but otherwise it's almost exclusively about the students and, to a lesser extent, Spider-Man. There are lots of twists and turns, although the central mystery is never really the actual center of the story. The art is good to very good, and it's got a strong overall message and mixture of action, and humor (with a little teenage drama, but not too much). Considering I went into this knowing nothing about it, I found myself pleasantly surprised.

[Alex E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine's friendship with Spider-Man was weird, funny, and kind of awesome. There's was a definite contrast there that just really worked in more ways than one. So it makes sense that he leaves a note for his friend Spider-Man, that in the event of his death, to root out a mole in the new class of X-Men, because he is an outsider and doesn't have any per-conceived notions of the students that the other X-Men would/do have.

At first, I wasn't really digging this book. It just felt a bit contrived, and the students that Spider-Man takes on for his class were all characters that can feel "one-note" sometimes. So it took me a while to get into this. But I will admit, after a while - Elliot Kalan hits his stride with the story and manages to make the characters likable enough that the reader gets emotional invested into the students themselves. I mean, after a while, you are in the same mindset as spidey thinking - ok then... who is the mole? And the crazy part is that you don't really want it to be any of the kids.

This was a fun story that really made you care for characters like No-Girl and Hellion and Rockslide, and sometimes, that's a win in itself.

[TAB · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think Elliott Kalan is one of the funniest people alive and The Flop House is my go to for feel good podcast listening, but this comic goes to show that context is everything!

Sure I grew up with X-Men on TV and in videogames, but never the comics and never any Spiderman or any other Marvel comic for that matter. So I bought this comic and went into reading it on the strength of the author alone and that unfortunately was far from enough.

It finally clicked at least about halfway through what was a slog for me, that wait, this is all supposed to be pretty satirical, but as I don't know any of these villains or their gimmicks or the tropes, then all I have to go off of is what's on the page.

And by the end I had come to like the comic a bit more for the young characters actually, but I think that is kinda missing the point. So basically if you're a Spiderman or X-Men fan, absolutely check this out, but if you're a noob like me, maybe just go listen to a comic book movie episode of The Flop House.

[Nate]

A quippy and goofy book that serves as a sort of sequel to the Wolverine and the X-Men series. Logan’s dead, and before he died he asked Spider-Man to uncover which of the Jean Grey School’s students is a mole. Spidey takes on teaching a class of seven students, much to the chagrin of Storm and the other staff. Shenanigans ensue from day one.

I actually enjoyed this. The plot sounds gimmicky on paper, but the whole thing ends up being a manic read with heart. I love the students and Spidey is frequently hilarious. A few negatives prevent it from being great though. There’s a lot of text on every page, which often stalls the flow; by the fifth issue, things we’re getting a little tedious. Also, Storm, Beast, and Rachel Grey act uncharacteristically mean, though they thankfully have a minor role in the book. Finally, Kalan (a former Daily Show writer) seems to have problems with continuity; I don't think he's aware that Peter used to be a teacher. Overall though, this is a fun book that doesn't take itself too seriously.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you don't read Spider-Man or X-Men comics, this is a fun little nothing adventure series with all-age dad jokes and a plot that a five year could follow, as Spider-Man does a favor for his dead friend Wolverine and goes to the Jean Grey School to figure out which student is a mole.

There are four issues full of characters behaving unlike they do in any other books, in order to create stale punchlines for children. This is a totally valid writing technique, and if this was supposed to be an all-ages, out-of-continuity books, I'd probably give it three stars. If the author was deliberately leaning into this direction, it should have been funnier and even more clearly out of continuity. As part of the ongoing Spider-Man and/or X-Men stories, this is awful.

When they finally get to the reveal of who the mole is and who they're working for, it's incredibly stupid and meaningless, and has no effect on any story going forward. This is a completely skippable story. I wish I'd skipped it.

[Indy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Revisiting this underrated series makes it more of a travesty that it never became an ongoing. The superhero equivalent of Charlie Brown, Spider-man, is tasked it with teaching a class of the lowest-ranking D-list mutant teenagers as a guest professor following Wolverine's death. All of his students have the weirdest and lamest powers, but Spidey is there as a favor to dead buddy Wolverine to sus out a mole on the team.

It isn't consequential, and most of the issues don't matter, but as an escapist adventure of the week type of old-school comic, this is everything you could ask for and more. Dinosaurs, aliens, monsters, learning to find the hero in everyone and give people a chance? Hell yeah. It's full of deep-cut Spider-man and X-men jokes. The juvenile sense of humor suits Spidey perfectly.

[Tyler Zamora · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I started reading this, I expected a story that was so much different than what I ended up with. First off, there are barely staple X-Men in this series, which feels like false advertisement. The only X-Men that really make solid appearances are Storm and Beast. That was a huge let down. I also wasn’t crazy about how annoying they make Storm. I feel like that is not a good reflection of her character (as I know her), but maybe it reflects her character at the time in Marvel when this series was released. She is head of the school now, so I guess that would make her more strait laced, but still. And now that I got my main complaint out of the way, I can say this book does get some things right.

One thing is the villains. I love all the fun rogues that are used for this comic. It was great to see Mister Sinister, Sauron, and Mojo cause chaos. I also felt like the dynamic of Peter Parker as a professor was a fun twist. The camaraderie between him and his students was admirable and it’s clear the writers spent a lot of time on them. Their unit is the heart of the series. I enjoyed their adventures with Peter, but that does not merit the series being called Spider-Man and the X-Men, just saying.

Another thing this book got right was amazing artwork by Failla and Silva. Spider-Man is on point and you can tell they enjoyed their creative freedom while drawing the new student mutants. Everything is super colorful and everything has its own space, which is nice. I hate when comics feel too scrunched or all text, so that ratio was on point. Overall it was a fun ride, but didn’t quite meet my own expectations, which I guess is part of my problem. I just wasn’t wowed like I thought I’d be by a Spider-Man/X-Men team up. It’s not bad, just different.