| X-Men: Schism | |
|---|---|
 Cyclops andWolverine fighting on the cover ofX-Men: Schism #4 (September 2011) Art byAlan Davis,Mark Farmer andJavier Rodriguez | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | July 2011 |
| No. of issues | 1-5 |
| Main character(s) | X-Men Hellfire Club Quentin Quire Sentinel |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Jason Aaron |
| Artist(s) | Carlos Pacheco Frank Cho Daniel Acuña Alan Davis Adam Kubert |
| Collected editions | |
| X-Men: Schism | ISBN 9780785156888 |
"X-Men: Schism" is a 2011crossovercomic book storyline published byMarvel Comics featuring theX-Men, consisting of a five-issueminiseries written byJason Aaron and illustrated byCarlos Pacheco (issue #1),Frank Cho (issue #2),Daniel Acuña (issue #3),Alan Davis (issue #4) andAdam Kubert (issue #5).
The storyline was preceded by a four-issue prologue miniseries by writerPaul Jenkins and artistsRoberto De La Torre (issue #1),Andrea Mutti (issue #2),Will Conrad (issue #3) andClay Mann (issue #4), and two tie-in issues of theGeneration Hope comic book, written byKieron Gillen and illustrated byTim Seeley. A one-shot comic book, "X-Men: Regenesis", written by Gillen and illustrated byBilly Tan, served as an epilogue to the storyline.
"Schism" was first announced by senior editorNick Lowe at a press call on March 4, 2011.[1] The event deals with a series of strong disagreements betweenCyclops andWolverine over decisions taken throughout the storyline, leading to a schism between the X-Men. "Schism" brought big repercussions towards the X-Men franchise, including the end (and later relaunching) of long-runningUncanny X-Men comic book and a "definite split" among the X-Men, leading to a new status quo presented in theX-Men: Regenesis storyline, which establishes both sides of the schism.[2]
After Cyclops delivers a speech to the United Nations asking for allSentinel programmers around the world to be decommissioned, the UN Building is attacked twice; once telepathically byQuentin Quire, and then by a small troop of Sentinels. The party responsible for this is 12-year-old prodigyKade Kilgore, who had infiltratedUtopia to release Quire and used the time while the UN was being attacked to kill his father and usurp his position as CEO; as a result for these actions, theHellfire Club welcomes him as their new Black King.[3]
As a result of the attack on the UN, several countries begin to mobilize their Sentinels; however, the Sentinels start attacking everyone, not onlymutants. Cyclops sends most of the X-Men around the world to fight the Sentinels; meanwhile,Emma Frost,Namor,Magneto,Iceman andColossus take the young mutants to the opening of the Mutant History Museum, in San Francisco. Wolverine is displeased when Cyclops decides not to deliver Quire to the authorities for his doings.[4]
Kilgore and the new Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, composed exclusively by youngsters of considerable wealth and power, lead an assault on the Museum of Mutant History, using Badoon Brain Slugs to take down the X-Men at the museum. As Cyclops and Wolverine both manage to telepathically contact 14-year-oldOya, who was present at the museum, and she asks them what to do, Wolverine tells her to get out, while Cyclops tells her to "do what she has to do". She ends up killing the Hellfire Club soldiers and saving the X-Men and the civilians in the building, making Wolverine become even more displeased with Cyclops for not ordering Oya not to kill.[5]
However, the new Hellfire Club activates a special giant Sentinel, sent towards Utopia. With most of the X-Men far from Utopia and part of the team being in the med-lab, young mutant messiahHope Summers and other teenage mutants volunteer to join Cyclops in the fight against the super Sentinel. Wolverine is opposed to the idea of putting children on the front lines against the Sentinel; when Cyclops insists that everyone who wants to fight should fight, Wolverine gets a detonator and threatens to blow up Utopia in order to make the youngsters run away from the island and destroy the super Sentinel. Cyclops and Wolverine's frustration with each other come to a head when Cyclops brings upJean Grey saying that she never loved Wolverine and was always frightened of him. Wolverine replies "And if she were here right now, who do you think she would be more frightened of?" The two fight each other in a rage while being attacked by the sentinel, with Wolverine appearing to gain the upper hand.[6]
Eventually, the super Sentinel threat forces them to stop fighting each other and join Hope and the other young mutants in the battle against the Sentinel, and the Sentinel is finally taken down. But the ideological differences between Cyclops and Wolverine reaches a breaking point, and Wolverine decide to leave Utopia and bring along whoever wants to come with him. He promises not to intervene with what Cylcops is doing in Utopia here as long as he promises to do the same.[7] Both men eventually start recruiting their teammates; some members of the X-Men leave with Wolverine to Star fresh in Westchester, while part of the team stays in Utopia with Cyclops.[8]
May 2011
June 2011
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
| Title | Material collected | Published date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|
| X-Men: Prelude to Schism | X-Men: Prelude to Schism #1-4 | September 2011 | 978-0785156895 |
| X-Men: Schism | X-Men: Schism #1-5,X-Men: Regenesis #1 | July 2012 | 978-0785156888 |
| Generation Hope: Schism | Generation Hope #6-12 | January 2012 | 978-0785152422 |
