I picked this comic up on a whim, mostly because I've been enjoying the latest story in Uncanny X-Men (the Breakworld follow-up), and the upcoming Schism story sounds like it has potential. And what greater Marvel tradition than having two heroes duke it out, as Schism will apparently do with Cyclops and Wolverine?
I didn't even notice until I got home that this was the final part of a four-issue mini-series. Oh well, I thought, the handy first-page synopsis will explain what's going on.
Wrong.
Here's what I got from this issue: some kind of terrible, armageddon-style menace is closing in on the X-Men and their island home of Utopia. I have no idea what kind of menace it is, or why the heroes spend the entire issue standing around talking abut it, or when Wolverine suddenly became a fan of the power of positive thinking.
You really get the sense that Marvel is just cashing in on the upcoming "event," because nothing happens here. A lot of talking, a few flashbacks that explain nothing - it's all just running in place.
Even the art by Clay Mann, Jay Leisten and Seth Mann seems lackluster. It's not bad - the main problem is the story by Paul Jenkins, which gives the artists little to work with other than talking heads.
The result of all this is that I now feel uncertain about Schism - if this is what it's all about, it might not be worth the effort.
Grade: C
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