Comic Info
Comic Name: X-Men: Schism/X-Men: Regenesis
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Jason Aaron/Kieron Gillen
Artist: Carlos Pacheco/Frank Cho/Daniel Acuna/Alan Davis/Adam Kubert/Billy Tan
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2011
X-Men: Schism #3
Reprints X-Men: Schism #1-5 and X-Men: Regenesis #1 (September 2011-December 2011). The X-Men attempts to make peace between humans and mutants fail when Kid Omega attacks the summit. With the world rising to fight mutants, Sentinels become the first line of defense and a young genius named Kade Kilgore is behind them. When Kade forces an attack on Utopia, the divide between Cyclops and Wolverine is ripped open forcing the X-Men to choose sides.
Written by Jason Aaron (with X-Men: Regenesis #1 written by Kieron Gillen), X-Men: Schism was the X-Men’s big relaunch and attempt to stir the series that had grown stagnant during the X-Men’s stay in San Francisco. The series was met with so-so reviews and helped spin off the new Uncanny X-Men (Volume 2) and Wolverine and the X-Men.
To me, X-Men: Schism is too little, too late. I’m a pretty devote X-Men reader. I read the old X-Men, I read the Uncanny X-Men, I read the new X-Men relaunch, Grant Morrison’s reimagining, and I even hung with them during the abysmal Chuck Austen period. Brubaker showed hoped with his Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire storyline, but once it got to San Francisco, it really got stupid. I faded off and picking up this series up I can see why.
X-Men: Regenesis #1
It isn’t that Schism is awful, but it is too full of itself. It tries to be funny at points (and fails) and it tries to be overly dramatic and that doesn’t work either. It is so ridiculous if a Sentinel is bearing down on Utopia that Cyclops and Wolverine would get in a fight over Jean Grey. I don’t care how long the history is between the characters, but they also would act for the good of the team at the end. Maybe the mutants do deserve to be wiped off the map if they behave like childish brats in the face of crisis.
I know that the set-up is supposed to be odd that Wolverine is about the students, and Cyclops is supposed to be about the team, but I still don’t believe it. Wolverine always believed in the survival of the fittest and what hurts you will make you stronger while Cyclops has been all about the school. I don’t see that flipping…no matter what has gone on between them and how their lives changed. Wolverine and the X-Men is definitely the more interesting title in the spin-offs, but I’m still not very interested.
X-Men: Schism is a pretty weak title. The events in the story do have lasting effects so fans of the series probably should pick it up to understand what has occurred. The X-Men are always changing so I have to always have faith that something good will come of radical changes. The ending of the Uncanny X-Men title is kind of upsetting, but knowing Marvel, it will return to its original numbering soon enough.
