Wolverine: First Class- From Russia with Love! by Van Lente, Henry, Espin and Cummings

This book collects six stories involving Wolverine and either Kitty Pride or some other child hero or heroes. The first story takes place when Kitty had only shortly joined the X-Men. Wolverine appears to have kidnapped her and taken her to Canada to join up with Alpha Flight.

Professor X doesn't know why Wolverine has done this, but he can't allow Wolvie to kidnap Kitty, so he sends the rest of the X-Men after the two of them. And in addition, Wolverine has taken the X-Men's jet, so they are going to have quite a hard time catching up to him.

But Kitty hasn't been kidnapped, and Wolverine hasn't run away. He's going back to deal with a problem he once encountered with the members of Alpha Flight- Soldiers who had been covered in Adamantium, much like Wolverine. Unfortunately for them, the metal was poisonous to them, and was slowly killing them, so they went on a rampage to take revenge on the people who had done this to them.

The only person whose powers could help them is Kitty, because her phasing powers could get the medicines they need directly into their bloodstream... will they be in time?

In the second story, All the X-Men are going to a dinner and show with Dr. McTaggart, but Wolverine has other plans. He's staying home to watch his favorite sport: hockey! So what if he has to watch Kitty, Ilyana Rasputin, Siryn and Amp? He doesn't care as long as he gets to watch his game in peace. He tells the kids that if they do anything to make him miss the game, he'll turn them into "girl-kabobs", which Siryn thinks is a joke. Kitty tells her, "No, no he's not... he's serious."

The girls check out the danger room and accidentally set off the robots there, which attack them. Siryn attempts to turn off the room when she realizes it's not a toy, but only pauses it for a minute. The girls go to Kitty's room to play "Spin the Bottle- Truth or Dare!" while the robots look for targets to attack. They settle on Wolverine while the girls go postal when Amp sets off a conflict between Kitty and Siryn over the boy they both want- Colossus. But she only does it because she thinks no boy would like her, with her mutant features.

The Third story has Kitty and Colossus being kidnapped to Russia by the Russian Superheroes, and Wolverine tags along for the ride, trying to rescue them. The problem is that the Russians were trying to make more mutants, and thus, more superheroes, for themselves. They thought that by exposing pregnant mothers and others to radiation would garner them a crop of mutants to work for the Fatherland. But a breakdown in the nuclear reactor powering the experiment created instead one gestalt mutant with no love for what the Russians did to it.

But when both Kitty and Colossus are sucked into the growing gestalt, will they become part of Super-Soviet and go on a rampage, or can they somehow defuse the threat?

A short story called "Kitty's Dream" is a two-pager where Kitty dreams about falling into a subterranean kingdom where their leader wants them only to work and won't let them dance. She retrieves their mix tapes for them and they are happy. But was it really a dream? Or is Wolverine just playing with her?

Then, Wolverine returns to Canada to deal with the Wendigo that he originally fought with both with and against the Hulk. But can he and his friends, and the other members of Alpha Flight, subdue and deal with a creature of such infinite rage? Or will they also fall victim to the beast?

The last story teams Wolverine up with the Power Pack to fight a dinosaur-like beast called Sauron. One of his powers is to hypnotize his opponents so they fight on his side. When he hypnotizes the entire Power Pack, Wolverine is going to have to figure out how to deal with them without killing or injuring them, and then deal with Sauron! But in the end, he might have help with that.

This was a great collection of stories, showing how Wolverine isn't so bad as he's usually painted. Yeah, he's a crusty guy on the outside, but on the inside, he's capable of great tenderness and caring towards those younger and less hardened than he is. I loved all the stories in this volume, and I thought the best and funniest was "Kitty's Dream". The creatures in her Dream are Outcasts, and their leader is Mole Man.

This series of stories shows a gentler, kinder Wolverine, and we learn a possible reason for his rages and general bad temper- possible adamantium poisoning. Which may be why he works so hard to save the other soldiers poisoned by Adamantium. It was great to see Logan working with so many different groups- the Soviet Heroes, Alpha-Flight, Power Pack, and the young mutants under his care, because too many stories treat Wolverine more like an angry beast than a man, and it's nice to see his other side.

If you're tired of "Wolverine as barely human bundle of rage" stories, this collection is the antidote, showing Wolverine as having a heart and a sense of humor. You won't have to wonder why so many young women enjoy working with him, and why so many people enjoy the character- not only for his "Kick-ass" characteristics. Recommnded highly.