Schism starts off with one theme common in the X-books: Humans hate and fear mutants. Cyclops and Wolverine head off to ask the world to stop the proliferation of various Sentinel programs. Now if you’ve forgotten what Sentinels are, they are big ole’ purple and magenta robots whose speciality is to hunt down and eliminate mutants. In a world where mutants are feared, these Sentinels throughout various countries act as deterrents to mutants the same as nukes do to humans. In the middle of Cyclops’ speech it is of course interrupted by none other than Quentin Quire who I haven’t seen since the Grant Morrison days of the New X-men during the ‘Riot at Xavier’s’ storyline. I actually hated the little turd with a passion but he serves a purpose here, throwing the world into panic against mutants with his antics.
The Schism story so far is decent, though after the reveal on the last page I’m skeptical about where it may be going. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you reach the end. I’m sure by the midway point we’ll see the X-men start to fracture between Wolverine and Cyclops and we will have seen plenty of Sentinel bashing throughout. I’m interested to see how they handle the Hellfire Club in the series and its new leader which is the part I find so ridiculous.
Wolverine had to have been my favorite character in the issue, blowing off a group of students at the beginning of the issue because he’s so exhausted. You would be too if you were on the Avengers and several X-Teams! By the end though he has bought a gift for one of the students he blew off and joins her in eating some ice cream. Cheesy? A little bit, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Overall I give the first issue of Schism a 3 out of 5 bears.
They have me interested to read the next issue, I love sentinels and I never seem to tire of the art of Carlos Pacheco. The points I took away are because of this ludicrous story point involving a young little fell named Kilgore, but maybe more will be revealed in the next issue pertaining to him.
Grizzly Bomb 