Wolverine and the X-Men #31 pg 11 (Aaron story and Bradshaw art) - Husk and Toad tragic love story

From the pages of The Hellfire Saga part 1, in Wolverine and the X-Men #31 comes this page of Jason Aaron’s story and Nick Bradshaw’s art (Nick did the full 5 part Hellfire Saga series interior art for issues #31 - #35 in 2013, and lots of the covers for this 42 issue run).

The story thus far, is the X-Men had a schism, Cyclops stayed on the West Coast to train young mutants for battle, while Wolverine broke off to protect the young mutants and provide them an education back at the Xavier Institute, now called The Jean Grey School. One of the students, Broo (a mutant Brood) was shot and turned feral, Idie (aka OYA) went undercover to the Hellfire Academy to find out who turned her friend Broo. This new Hellfire Academy ended up taking a few of the young mutants and faculty to their institute. Among them, were former Jean Grey School faculty members Husk (Paige Guthrie) and Toad (Mortimer Toynbee). This issue is the orientation issue for the new students, showing them all the new villain faculty and absurd lessons to learn to be truly evil; led by the new Hellfire Headmaster and Black King, Kade Kilgore.

This page showcases how Husk has really become fed up with what was good and beautiful from her life at the Jean Grey School where her relationship blossomed with the unsightly Toad (back in issue #9 and ultimately came to a close by issue #41). Toad, the once villain, now turned do-gooder, leading a good and honest life with the X-Men. While Husk, being emotionally unstable, would tear off her skin and reveal a new version of herself. She became addicted to it and eventually her once conventionally beautiful form became cracked, flaky and broken. She feels akin to Toad’s grotesque appearance and they form a romantic bond.
Eventually she goes through a process where Toad keeps tearing her outer forms away to reveal her true self, peeling away all her “ugly” husks. But by doing this, it is understood that a secondary mutation has taken affect and as she peels away her husks, it not only changes her body but her mentality and her personality shifts. She ultimately forgets about her relationship and bond with Toad. This is starting to surface here, seen on the page.

On this page, it shows Toad talking with Husk about what his new faculty role will be here at this Academy, she picks at her broken, flaky skin and brutally reminds him that all he is good for is to clean up and be unseen. Hands him a mop and blows him off. Their sad love story was really well done over the few years in this series, it starts out unique and beautiful, but slowly gets picked apart and eventually ends tragically. As they both brought great light to each other’s life, she ironically and unintentionally confirms what everyone expected that she would one day wake up and see him for the ugly thing that he truly was and leave him. At the end, she is in tears as she remembers the good they had and how she ultimately treated him. She is now able to appear unblemished on the outside, beautiful with clear skin, but now is broken on the inside after what she did to her now lost love, Toad.