Ditch the Kids, Jason Aaron.
The schism between Cyclops and Wolverine really starts to take shape this issue, but distracting from that is the development of Jason Aaron's new Hellfire Club which feels completely out of place in this story. This results in a story that feels at odds with itself. Part of it is an intelligent and believable handling of the X-Men's situation in the world while the other part involves a completely ridiculous and unbelievable new team of villains.
As he did for the most part last issue, Aaron continues to make good use of Sentinels. Nations of the world try to deploy their stockpiles of Sentinels in a show of force against mutants, and things do not go as planned for them. What follows is a well done sequence of scenes showing Cyclops coordinating the X-Men on a global scale against the Sentinels. This really shows off the X-Men as an effective and professional fighting force.
Cyclops and Wolverine are still on the same page by the end of this issue, but what drives them apart becomes far more clear. It revolves around Quentin Quire, and it does make some sense. Cyclops' stance is very tactical and less than cooperative with the outside world. Wolverine, who has become more cooperative with the outside world as an Avenger, has a stance that's more visceral and righteous. The only thing that really reads strange about this scene is how nonthreatening Quire comes off, but perhaps I am just more used to seeing him portrayed as a more powerful threat.
Idie seems like she is being positioned to be the latest young female X-Man to be taken under Wolverine's wing. While it is pretty understandable why Wolverine would single her out, I have to admit to now getting a little tired of how "sidekick of the week" this kind of thing is beginning to get with Wolverine.
None of the minor criticisms I've mentioned really hurt the story, though. No, what hurts the story is what hurt last issue. Plus some. Seriously, what exactly is Jason Aaron's thing with evil children? Did he not get this out of his system with Kid Blackheart? That character at least fit perfectly well into Aaron's Ghost Rider run, which also featured concepts like nuns with guns. This is an X-Men story, though. I was very concerned last issue when Aaron introduced Kade Kilgore, a stock evil kid character, and had him installed as the new Black King of the Hellfire Club. I thought that alone stood a strong chance of dragging this whole story down. Well, it is actually worse. Kade has friends. He has a whole evil little playgroup of other evil children. What does this have to do with the X-Men or even mutants in general? I don't see it. It is a goofy concept trying to share space in a story where Aaron is trying to treat everything else with seriousness and intelligence. I'm sorry, but this is just stupid.
Even worse is how you could probably cut Kade and friends out of this story without having much impact on it. All you would really have to do is tweak how Quentin Quire gets loose, which could be done a dozen ways. That is it. Kade and his Hellfire Kiddie Club really don't matter much to the story thus far. The things that have happened don't need that "evil manipulator pulling strings in the background" schtick to happen. Aaron is shoving these kinds into a story where they really seem to have no place.
Oh, and some random aliens show up for a scene. Yeah. Aliens fit into this story about as well as you would expect, meaning not at all.
Frank Cho takes over the art chores this issue, and he does a pretty good job with everything except for Cyclops. Yes, I get that Cyclops' nickname is Slim. That doesn't mean he's anorexic, Mr. Cho. For the love of god, someone give Scott a sandwich.
There is nothing quite so frustrating as seeing how there is actually a good story there but the writer isn't quite telling it. That is almost the case with X-Men: Schism. Jason Aaron has a good story here. Quentin Quire stirs up anti-mutant hysteria, leading to the global proliferation of Sentinels and Cyclops and Wolverine disagreeing on how to handle it. That's a great story. But why am I also reading a story where evil children conspire with aliens and take over the Hellfire Club? That is not a good story or a relevant story. It's an anchor Aaron has dropped into Schism, and it is dragging things down fast.
