The Gist of It: This exciting, action packed issue opens with Kurt tied to a stake and... burning! And for some reason it didn't occur to him to bamf! out of that. Of course, as it turns out, it was all just one crazy dream and he wakes up to the lovely sound of Scott's voice. There's the usual "get ready for school!" rush that I'm sure the place has most days; Kitty phases through the wall, Evan skateboards down the hall for no real reason, Rogue's taking forever to get ready, and Kurt just bamf!s downstairs. Wheee. They talk about code names and the like, Jean shows up, everybody leaves, leaving Scott all.. well, there's a word for it, but I can't think of it at the moment.

And so, at school (at precisely 8:25 AM, no less), Kurt and Evan talk about their lack of popularity and go to English (or an English-like) class, where they get an assignment to write a paper over what they can be at home that they feel they can't be at school. Naturally, Kurt gets all weird about this, because he's not too fond of his blueness and dreams of insane lynch mobs.

Cut to: The Danger Room (at precisely 3:37... PM, no less). The X-Kiddies are all doing one of those little scenarios, where the goal is to get past this little force field and rescue the magical vial of grape juice. In the background, Rogue and Scott are taking out the defenses, while Evan sticks himself in the crossfire and Kitty does... nothing that appears useful. Kurt (still image inducey) and Jean work on saving the grape juice, which Kurt ends up doing and ends the misison. Scott gives the Prof a little report on the team, and says thatKurt's more agile in his natural form... which doesn't really make that much sense. I mean, essentially, Kurt is exactly the same in that form as he is in his natural form, he just looks different to the world. He's still got the tail and the... two toes and... stuff. Oh well! The Prof leads the kiddies out for dinner, while Jean and Scott have... a moment. It's cute. Damn it, I actually like Scott/Jean in the comic. Moving on!

Later (they give no specific time this time.... How dare they), Kurt's in his room staring at a mostly blank sheet of paper, trying to think of something to write for his essay. Kitty comes in asking to borrow his history book, he's all "Okay" and she's all "You don't sleep all image inducery do you?" and he's all "Haha, 'course not!" and they say goodnight. Exciting!! Action packed! Anywho, he turned the image inducer off and goes to sleep. In his dream, he is KURT! Popular Man! And then suddenly his image inducer turns off and he's naked blue furry man. We get an ass-shot, everybody laughs, and he tries to run and hide. He wakes up, turns the image inducer back on, and stares at the ceiling.

Later, in the Yoga Room (at exactly 7:32 AM), the kiddies are being taught yoga by Ororo and Logan. They are doing tree pose... I remember doing tree pose in yoga class! Anyway, despite the easiness of tree pose, Kurt falls out of it. Because he is not centered. Well, not really, he just... falls out of tree pose. Abd so, he has a talk with the Prof, who knows abouthis nightmares, and... they.... talk.

Anyway, it turns out that everybody left for school without Kitty and Kurt, so they're stuck walking. Kurt gripes, Kitty's all "It's okay. Did you finish your essay?" "No" "*goes on about... stuff... and pays no attention to the pseudo-thugs behind them until Kurt tells her to run*". The thugs call them "freshman", to which Kitty, through the body of one of the bad guys, says "He's a sophomore!". Oh my. Just when the fun's about to begin, Kurt turns into his blue form and they all run of screaming.

Kitty calls Kurt her hero, Kurt's all... sensitive about his "ugliness", and so Kitty's all "*says nice stuff and* Blue is my favorite color." Kurt goes to class, listens to some dude flirt with a blue-haired chick, and suddenly gets... inspired! So, he jots down his essay very quickly and turns it in.

Back at the Institute, Ororo, Logan gossip about the kiddies to the Prof. Tsk tsk. And then, again at the school, the teacher calls Kurt back to her classroom to talk to him, because she's concerned that he may be depressed or something, since all he wrote on his paper was "BLUE." Scott pops up to talk to Kurt, and all is well with the... talking and the blueness. The end.

BH Moments: None. At all. Not even a stupid cameo in the background. The closest thing to "villains" we even get in this issue is just that group of pseudo-thugs.

Characterization: Kurt characterization up the wazoo! Too bad I don't really care about his characterization that much :D I mean, his self-esteem outcome is really just the same as the result of Professor X and Storm's touchy-feely pep talk in the first episode of Season 1.

My Opinion: I liked this one a lot more than Issue 3. Even Kitty's tolerable in this (well, that's because there's no Lance. I like her when Lance is gonnnnne), even though she seems to be pretty.. vapid. Of course, that's just Udon's fault for the way they draw her. Seriously! Look at the scene where Kurt says "Kitty, run"! Her facial expression is all "Duuuuuh *giggle*" Oh well. At least they didn't give her those huge anime eyes that always make characters look like soulless, abnormally large-headed shells of human beings.

Anyway, Kitty's apparent vapidness aside, this was a pretty good issue overall. Except at the end. When Kurt wrote "Blue" on his English Comp paper, all I could think of was that horrible "I'm blue, da bee dee , da bee daa" song that I had to listen to 500 times in dance class because we were supposed to choreograph to it. Yeah... but that's beside the point!

Rating (out of 5): 3. It was a pretty decent read (Odd, how I didn't like the last issue because of Todd's whininess, but this one has even more whininess and I don't mind it at all...)

Art Rating (out of 5): 3. After all, it's still Udon.

BH Babble:

: O.O;;
: That's it. I'm officially traumatized for life.
: My eyes! They burn!
: How could they do that to us?!
: Huh? Did I miss somethin'?
: Yeah. Blue Boy in the buff. Man, if I wanted to see that stuff, I'd look at furry porn.
: Thanks for the mental image, buddy.