By: Jason Aaron (writer), Alan Davis (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Jason Keith (colors), Jared K. Fletcher (letters), Jordan D. White (assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor) & Nick Lowe (editor)
The Story: The Cyclops/Wolverine split finally comes to the forefront and the ultimate danger to the mutants is revealed.
What’s good: Anytime an event has had as much build-up as Schism, it’s nice to finally get to the destination. Seriously, Marvel started teasing this with promotional images of Cyclops’ visor sliced up into Wolverine-sized pieces back in January and in the last month, we’ve gotten images of how the mutants will pick sides in the months to come…..so, it was nice to finally see what they’re fighting about.
I kinda liked the central conflict: Cyclops thinks that every mutant needs to be a warrior whereas Wolverine wants to do the dirty work so that the younger mutants can have a normal life. This has potential to be the updated version of the classic struggle between Xavier and Magneto. And, I really hope that future creators continue the momentum in that direction. To do so, they’ll have to (a) keep Xavier and Magneto on the sidelines and not thrust them back into primary roles and (b) continue with Cyclops’ transformation away from the guy who used to lecture Wolverine on how “X-Men don’t kill!”. For me, that type of longer term plot development is precisely what I want out of my super-hero books, so let’s hope Marvel sticks with it.
Alan Davis is one of those pencilers who I wish could do a monthly book. I thought he started out a little rough in this issue, but by about the 5th page, he was just nailing the scenes. The great thing about Davis is that he’s so gifted that he doesn’t have to resort to tricks to have a visually impressive page. Sometimes I love just watching a master like Davis draw a normal page with plain, old rectangular panels because it is so pretty. I also rarely praise double-page spreads, but the image of Cyclops shooting that Sentinel across the Bay was great. It was visually impressive and a climactic enough moment in the story to justify a double-pager.
What’s not as good: I think we could’ve used a little more explanation of what made this Sentinel so bad-ass that it was going to kill everyone and they had to have the flee vs. stay and fight argument. I get that this was a super-Sentinel and that the X-Men had been scattered around the globe killing Sentinels or are in the sick bay with space slugs on their faces, but when you have Wolverine and Cyclops standing right there, it seems like they could deal with ONE Sentinel.
And, I didn’t love the whole argument that Wolverine and Cyclops were having while the Sentinel kept advancing towards the island. I get that they’re mad at each other, but it still seemed just beyond dumb. And, if they were just SO angry they they couldn’t pay attention, why did they do no damage to each other when they fought? Cyclops’ beams have exploded flesh before, so must have been pulling his punches a little and Wolverine can quickly skewer just about anyone on his claws, yet Cyclops is able to dodge out of the way. I can get that they didn’t want to kill each other, but if they weren’t overcome by murderous rage, you’d have thought they’d kill the Sentinel first and then fight.
I also really feel like I wasted my money on that crappy Prelude to Schism miniseries now…
Conclusion: How much you enjoy this issue is probably going to depend on how hung up you get on the problems. Even though they bugged me, I thought the positives outweighed the negatives and I like seeing a story rounding into shape in an era when Marvel spoils everything with their marketing and solicits. Can you imagine how cool this would have been if it wasn’t spoiled? Then it might have gotten some buzz NOW instead of buzz back in the spring. On the other hand, if the flaws really bug you…..I wouldn’t argue with those wanting to give this a lower score. I’m just so positively disposed towards Alan Davis that it leaves me in a good mood.
Grade: B
– Dean Stell
[Note: If you want to know the difference between Marvel and DC, look at the two books I’ve reviewed in the last 12 hours. Batman #1 was excellent, but shows a fairly complete reboot where nothing but the essentials remains. Marvel on the other hand, generally moves forward at all times. I know that sometimes Marvel heroes return from the dead, but these X-Men have come a long way from Xavier’s mansion whereas Batman is still in the Batcave with the stuffed dinosaur and big penny.]
Grade
Conclusion