Wolverine: First Class

[Paul Bourcier]

I've been following WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS from the beginning and have found it a bit annoying in that it could be canonical if you rationalized a few details here and there, but it doesn't quite fit. This week's issue #15 was no exception. The series appears to be at a point between UX 150 and 151. Yet Kitty mentions that she just talked to Jean, and Jean (or the Phoenix Force who people believed to be Jean at the time) died back in UX 137, before Kitty even joined the team! She also notes that she's trying to decide between Sprite and Shadowcat as a name, but Shadowcat didn't even crop up until the KITTY PRYDE AND WOLVERINE mini, which didn't occur until after UX 183, after the New Mutants came along and long after Kitty was a newbie. What gives with this series anyway? Is there indeed a FIRST CLASS universe?

[Jason Doty]

I'm pretty upset with the way the First Class series' have been handled as of late also. We're led to believe they are within continuity and I'm more than willing to overlook topical references, but the mistakes keep getting harder to explain away. I understand the need to make comics accessable to newer readers, but do not understand the apparent need to alienate us older readers. They could have almost picked any name, but Jean?