Let's Discuss Relationships!
The second part of Prelude to Schism goes over Magneto's history as well as his first meeting with the X-Men. Cyclops and Magneto have some heart-to-heart moments.
The Good
Like the first issue, issue number 2 involves Magneto and Cyclops (instead of Xavier and Cyclops in issue one), and we get a brief introduction to the life of Magneto. We get to see brief moments of Magneto growing up during the rise of the Nazi regime. You start to feel real sympathetic for this character, even though, at times, he's been a real homicidal nutball. There's also an updated take on Magento's first battle with the X-Men. The thing I liked most about it was the muted colors during the flashback scenes. I know it is a bit cliche to use sepia tones/black and white/muted colors for scenes like this, but gosh darnit, I thought it worked real well!
The Bad
While I enjoyed the story, the entire time I just wanted to read Greg Pak's X-Men: Magneto Testament. Don't get me wrong, Paul Jenkins was great on this book, but Greg Pak's book about Magneto's childhood (and only his childhood, it didn't get into his teenage or adult years) is the end-all, be-all story for Magneto's life during the Nazi Regime. I also felt like the format for this issue was exactly the same as the last issue. It feels like I'm reading the first issue completely over again, but replace Xavier with Magneto.
The Verdict
While, overall, I really enjoyed this issue, it felt a little to familiar to me because it was so much like this first issue. It's a lot of flashbacks about Magneto's history and his first meeting with the X-Men, which was pretty cool. The art never really wowed me in this issue, but the writing was very solid. If you're interesting in the upcoming Schism storyline, this will be a great issue to pick up. If you don't care, pass on it. Simple as that.
