Posted on: August 17th, 2011 REVIEW: X-Men: Schism #3 of 5
Kids. Kids. Kids…kids. As far as oppositions go, they’re the worst. Right? I mean, you can’t really fight them. If they’re good, you can’t help but being in awe of them. Creepy kids are really unsettling. Plus, it’s evil in a cute little package.
On the flip side, kids as allies sort of suck too. You can’t really expect too much out of them. You don’t know if they’re mature enough to mentally handle the situation. You want to protect them. They can be annoying. It’s just sticky business no matter what side you’re on.
So the X-Men have been dealing with this since they started. They’re based out of a school. Mutants are facing continuous backlash and when big problems strike, they always end up digging their recruits out of the kiddie pool.
X-Men: Schism is just like that. It just makes the bad guys young. And creepy. And good at being evil. Children trying to take over the world. Sonsabitches.
So the mutants are on their island and they just want to be accepted. Scott and Logan go to an arms control conference to cut back on the Sentinels every country has. Then an uninvited guest comes threatening the world and all the countries suddenly activate their Sentinels. Meanwhile, it would seem that all of this has been orchestrated by a twelve year old with the help of his prepubescent buddies. Now he’s running the Hellfire Club and is well on his way to world domination.
I’ve really enjoyed this mini. Wolverine under Jason Aaron is genuinely one of my favorite characters. He’s not just a drunk, he’s not just a violent loon, he’s not just a father figure, he’s not just a jerk. Aaron always gives him dimension but always manages to make him a badass. It’s the same story with Emma Frost. He writes a delightfully bitchy Emma Frost.
I’ve already gone over the genius that is the use of children in story-telling. On one side, you have the new recruits at the school; one the other, you’ve got parent-murdering young’ns trying to take over the world. In this week’s issue #3, we see that the evil kids are actually winning. (Which basically affirms all my suspicions of where the true threat lies in regards to the end of the world: rich kids.)
My complaint with the art is that it’s different. Not in the sense of unique; the artists are different from issue to issue. It’s good stuff. Issue #3 is great stuff under the talents of Daniel Acuña. I just like consistency. That’s my own hangup and should not be reflected upon the quality of the book. Unless it bothers you too; in which case, I warned you about that shit.
At some point, X-Men stories just feel like they’re on a loop of segregation, integration, fear, fighting, death, regrouping, and hope. In essence, Schism isn’t really changing that loop yet. But the characterizations are phenomenal. It’s witty, it questions your moral grounds and it’s pretty dark subject matter. Sounds like a Jason Aaron book.
One Response to “REVIEW: X-Men: Schism #3 of 5”
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GIANT KILLER SQUID » Blog Archive » REVIEW: Uncanny X-Men #544 Says:
October 19th, 2011 at 8:24 pm[...] and people are picking sides. Now, let’s say that you didn’t read Schism (even though I told you to and you totally should). And let’s say you didn’t read the Regenesis One Shot from last [...]