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By Jason Bourgeois
Can I write about something not involed in reboots? No? How about something not by DC? Please? Ok, thanks. This month, I need to get back to my roots, and see what's going on at Marvel. In fact, it's time to look in on the X-Men, because the teams, they are a-changing.
Unless you've been living under a rock, or too busy reading DC, you are probably well aware that Marvel is shaking up their mutant corner by splitting them up. This isn't the first time such a thing has happened. With so many books, you need some reason to make there be three different X-Men books, for example.
But this is the first time that things have gone this far. The closest thing to it is from the late 80s with the original X-Factor book running around posing as mutant hunters to protect and save new mutants from real threats. But even that pales in comparrison.
This is a story that has literally been brewing for years. A lot of little threads stretching back to the era of Avengers Disassembled can be traced from this event in the X-Men's lives. In brief, things have gotten dark for the X-Men, and mutants in general. Their numbers have been dwindled down to around 200 mutants in total across the globe. This has put the entire race on its back foot, constantly in danger from threats that now seek to finish the job and end the mutant race once and for all.
Amidst all of this, Cyclops has found his role as a leader and spokesperson for all of mutancy, and has done what Xavier nor Magneto could ever manage to do; unite almost the entire mutant race. There are holdouts, but for the most part, mutants are presenting a united front. Simply because they have to. Strength in numbers and whatnot.
This has led Scott to make some questionable decisions, but understandable in the grander scheme of things. He's no longer fighting for coexistence, he's fighting for survival. Under such trying times, one can definitely understand how Cyclops could be making decisions that are decidedly more Magneto like, although nowhere near the genocidal scope of Magnus. But still, a black ops team of mutants that no one knows about, specifically for the purpose of murder, can be seen as not the nicest decision to make.
All of this had to come to a head, and it did so in the miniseries Schism, setting the stage for the upcoming Regenesis of the X-Men universe. And quite frankly, I think it was pulled off magnificently.
A new Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club came together and engineered events so as various countries would reactivate their Sentinel programs once mutants were seen as a dangerous threat, in a classic misunderstanding. But there was no talking their way out of this one. The X-Men spread themselves across the world to take care of these ancient, failing robots, before they did more harm than good. What should have been seen as mutants stopping a threat instead came across as Homo Superior living up to their name and invading sovereign countries and dictating policy by taking out weapons.
Both sides of that view are understandable, and that is the key. You know why the X-Men did what they did, and why the world reacted the way it did. That makes no one to be the 'bad guy' and works great for moralistic grey areas that are fun to explore.
Things get even worse though, when the Hellfire Club attacks a mutant history exhibit to strike at the few X-Men still in town to try and show that they're not afraid of all these threats across the world. Things go from bad to worse, and one of the newest charges on the island haven of Utopia, an already disturbed young girl with beliefs that she and mutants are monsters, does the unthinkable but the necessary act of burning the Hellfire Club goons to death in order to stop them. She becomes a murderer, losing a vital piece of herself, but for the right reasons.
This is what finally causes the Schism. This, of all things. Cyclops is doing what he sees as necessary, but Wolverine, who has always had an interest in raising and protecting the children, as noted in his taking of various mutants under his wing like Shadowcat and Jubilee, does not take this well. He sees it as their job to protect these kids, and do the dirty jobs so they don't have to.
When one last Sentinel is sent against Utopia itself, no longer protected by an army of mutants since they are spread across the world to clean up the earlier mess, all that is there is Cyclops, Wolverine, and many of the children. You can see where this is going. Cyclops is more than willing to use any and every soldier, regarding of age, to stop the threat. Wolverine wants the kids to stay back, and let him do all the work, sacrificing himself and the island to stop the Sentinel.
Scott is against blowing up Utopia and running away. All that will do is show their enemies that they can be pushed back, beaten, and serve to embolden them even further for more attacks. The children are willing to fight, and that is enough for Scott, but with everything going on, Wolverine wants them to not have to witness any more death than they have to, and take it all upon himself.
The brilliant thing here is, both positions are defensible. Both sides make sense. Scott is right that they can't be shown to run. They HAVE to stand and fight. But Logan is right as well. Utopia is JUST a rock. They can find a new haven. Scott is right that they are fighting for survival, and it is all hands on deck. And Logan is right because he can hopefully stop this with a minimal loss of life; his and his alone.
Things get said that can't be taken back, the ghost of Jean Grey is evoked to twist the knife in the back of both of these old friends, and eventually, the day is saved, thanks to everyone pitching in. So, Scott was right, but so was Logan because of the ultimate cost over this whole affair.
And so, Logan decides to leave, reopening the school in Westchester as the Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters, and taking half the X-Men with him, and most of the kids to become the students.
And this all works. Everyone is right, no one is wrong, and they still have to go their seperate ways, for now. Things can be patched up down the road, but the parting of ways makes perfect sense, without seeming irredeemable. And the justifications for who goes and who stays all pretty much work, although there are a few that make their decisions 'for the lulz' in whichever way they feel like going. But aside from those more vague reasons, for the most part, yes. This all works.
This whole thing has been built up very well for years, very deliberately, and they have put a lot of thought into pulling it off and making it work. And somehow, in this day and age, with a seemingly impossible magic trick or juggling act of a story, they did it.
We are left with one mutant running a school to train and protect the upcoming generation, and another with a decidedly different philosophy on his island nation fighting for the survival of mutantkind. This is a brilliant way to bring back the sort of rivalry that Xavier and Magneto had, and I never expected Cyclops to be the Magneto figure in this scenario. And somehow, they make it seem right, to me.
I am less pleased with restarting Uncanny X-Men from #1, but that seems to be the thing to do these days. And if there was ever a time to do it, this does actually make some level of sense. Things really do seem to be changing forever, or however long forever is in comics.
This schism has reinvigorated the titles, giving each one a clear direction, a clear theme, and seperated the casts up quite a bit to make things easier to know who is wear. It has breathed new life into the franchise, life they haven't seen in some time.
I have not been this excited about where the various X-Books are going, and have not enjoyed an event this much in a long time. There have been highlights here and there, but the last year or so, and things looking up for the future, has made this one amazing time to be an X-Men fan. Now is a great time to be reading, and if you've been missing some old friends, now is a great time to jump back into the merry world of Marvel's mutants.
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