Well, It's Over. Not Sure What Else to Say.
X-Men: Schism overcomes most of its faults enough to arrive at a decent end for what was also just a decent story event. It's an event that you finish and think to yourself how there were some good parts but overall it could have been a lot better than it was.
This issue largely just goes through the motions of the finale. Due to Marvel's hype, we already know so much about the new status quo that there's very little new information to be found here. We generally already knew which characters take what side. We knew the Sentinel would not destroy Utopia or kill anyone major. We've known from the very start that Cyclops and Wolverine would not reconcile and would split. This issue plays that out without much else to it. While that's not technically a bad thing, it hardly makes for the most exciting or interesting conclusion. You can say that it isn't fair to hold what the hype has done against this issue, but it also has to be said that Jason Aaron could have given us more in this issue to balance out the effect of the hype.
The issue begins where the last left off, specifically with Cyclops and Wolverine brawling. Aaron wisely keeps this short. It started pretty ridiculously last issue and only continued to be ridiculous. It is effective on a visceral level but less so when you actually pay attention to it. Aaron seems to believe that Wolverine's healing factor makes him the Juggernaut or something. It doesn't. If Cyclops blasts him right in the face hard enough to take off half that face, it's time for Wolverine to have a nap if not lose his head. He's not the Terminator, Aaron. He just heals up afterward.
But honestly, much of this issue is fairly solid. The big battle against the Sentinel is handled well as is the fallout afterward between Cyclops and Wolverine. Thankfully, there's not really a similar repeat of the out of place Jean Grey comment from last issue this time. It's not an overdramatic exchange and actually reads true to both characters involved. Both are being stubborn, but it's written with an odd maturity that you don't often see when characters clash in comics.
Unfortunately, this issue also reminds us of the architects of this crisis. You know, Aaron's concept for the Hellfire Club's involvement is actually really good. The Hellfire Club instigates heightened tensions with mutants in order to profit from increased demand for Sentinels. The problem is that this isn't really the Hellfire Club. It's a bunch of evil children that Aaron is infatuated with the idea of and has gone to ridiculous lengths to contrive ways to make they formidable. Why? What is the point of making them children? Seriously, how does this make them more interesting as foes for the X-Men? A Sebastian Shaw-led Hellfire Club would have been far more interesting, because then you have the added factor of it being a mutant -- or mutants -- sacrificing members of their own race for profit. That's far more interesting and relevant than having it randomly come from a bunch of evil children.
From the beginning, I've said that the real deciding factor on Schism will be what characters take what sides and how well writers manage to justify those decisions. This issue doesn't give us much in that regard because of the narrow focus on Cyclops and Wolverine. That narrow focus is a valid story decision, though. I don't hold it against this event. It just needs to be realized that now the other writers have the burden of justifying the casts of their books.
There is something that happens in this issue that feels unjustified, though. Aaron, understandably, seems to have many of the kids leave with Wolverine. That makes sense on a concept level, because Wolverine's the one who s going to set up the school. Schools need kids. However, Aaron drops the ball on making it believable that the kids would go with Wolverine. I know Wolverine's is the one with the "for the children" position, but that doesn't mean the children will side with him. That doesn't automatically mean they will agree with what Wolverine believes it best for them or that they even know what's best for them. They are kids. Making this worse is how Aaron has them seemingly take Cyclops' side earlier in the issue. When the conflict is whether to fight as Cyclops wants to or flee as Wolverine wants to, the kids come out to back Cyclops' play and win. But then so many of them leave with Wolverine. ...What?
X-Men: Schism could have been better. That really is the most accurate thing to say about it. It turned out solid but could have been great. Obvious mistakes were made. The Hellfire Kids were an unnecessary and distracting element that should have been culled from the story in the planning stages. Since the main series kept such a tight focus on Cyclops and Wolverine, there really needed to be more than just Generation Hope tying in and giving us the perspectives of other characters like Storm and Charles Xavier. And there was really no point at all in having every issue illustrated by a different artist.
To sum up, X-Men: Schism is an underwhelming event that isn't bad but is far from being great. Jason Aaron may be a writer rising too quickly at Marvel if he can get away with ideas like the Hellfire Kids without an editor pulling him back. It's a real shame, because if anything. I think this event proves what a good writer Aaron could be if he or an editor was able to hold back those ideas that just jump too far.
