Spider-Man is set to replace Wolverine in his ongoing team book: Wolverine & The X-Men as the new guidance counselor, i.e. title character.”The Death of Wolverine” continues to change the future of Mutants and Homo Sapiens alike; diverging the webslinger once more from his city patrol, and landing him smack-dab in the middle of the Jean Grey School for Spider-Man & The X-Men this December.

Earlier today, comicbook.com reported why the webhead will be hanging out at the mutant institution later this year:

Given the job as a last request from Wolverine and tasked with a mission so secret, Spider-Man can’t even tell the other people at the School, America’s favorite non-mutant superhero isn’t exactly ingratiating himself into the community at his new place of work.

Peter Parker is no stranger to teaching, having been a bone fide substitute teacher at Midtown High; along with tutoring Young Avengers as Spider-Man during the Registration Act of “Civil War”. However – a non-mutant (no matter how amazing) teaching mutants at a school whose sole purpose is to educate and train the more evolved population – is a little strange, as writer Elliot Kalan acknowledges:

“…the X-Men aren’t very happy with having Spider-Man involved with the school (along with his general troublemaking and wisecracking qualities — Spidey’s an acquired taste for many Marvel characters). He’s not a mutant, and though he may be a friend of the X-Men, he’s not a member of the family. There’s a lot of tension between mutants and an outsider whose true identity they can’t even know for sure. But before Wolverine died he made it clear he wants Spider-Man at the school, and he asked Spider-Man to go on a mission for him. Unfortunately, Logan also wanted the mission kept secret from the other X-Men, so all they see is Wolverine’s crazy pal inserting himself into their business.”

You know Spider-Man (and if you don’t I’m not sure why you’re here… or what Morlun-proof box you have been sequestered in) but perhaps you do not know of X-Students like No-Girl, Eye Boy, Shark Girl, (I swear I’m not making these up) Glob Herman, Rockslide, Hellion, and Ernst. These vividly named mutants make up Peter’s “special class”. Not enough information has released to know if he only interacts with a small part of the Institute, or if he gets to teach an actual class on the side of being a guidance counselor – but with such a wide and strange cast of characters, Spidey’s tenure at the X-Mansion promises to be interesting. Kalan also promised fan-favorites like Storm, Beast, Iceman – not to mention the villains of the first arc: Sauron and Stegron.

Wait… what?

The new title has no announcements as of yet concerning a crossover into “Spider-Verse”; seeming to focus more on Wolverine and what is happening in the Mutant world –  it is unclear if the first storyline takes place before or after the multiverse madness. Additionally there are rumors that this guidance counselor storyline is quite temporary; fueled by speculations that the title may only feature Spider-Man for a single arc before switching to another title character in Wolverine’s absence (à la the “Fallen Son” tie-ins after Captain America was shot in 2007). Whether Parker gets back into the heart of the city immediately after the first three issues, or ends up staying  at the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning for an extended time – we simply will not know until a few more solicitations come out. Speaking of, here is the solicited text for the first issue:

SPIDER-MAN & THE X-MEN #1
ELLIOTT KALAN (W) * MARCO FAILLA (A)
Cover by NICK BRADSHAW
Variant Cover by BENGAL

Meet the Jean Grey Academy’s new guidance counselor: Spider-Man!

• What’s a non-mutant doing at a school for mutants? What secret suspicion has fueled the formation of his special student class? • And because you demanded it! Sauron and Stegron the Dinosaur Man! The villain team 65 million years in the making! You didn’t demand it? Well somebody did.

 Seriously. Sauron and Stegron the Dinosaur Man. There had better be a joke about The Lizard in there somewhere…