Marvel’s X-Men: Schism series begins tomorrow touted as the “X-Men event of the decade.” That’s a bold claim considering recent X-events like House of M, Messiah Complex and Second Coming, but as the title suggests Schism does promise to divide the mutant community and shake up the X-Men’s current status quo. The publication of the X-line will also be altered by the on-page effects of Schism as a new volume of Uncanny X-Men along with a new book titled Wolverine and the X-Men will spin out of this series. In preparation for the debut of Schism, Marvel shipped a weekly, four issue Prelude to Schism miniseries by Paul Jenkins throughout June.

Spoilers for Prelude to Schism will follow along with a lot of speculation about what will drive the X-Men apart this Summer.

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It’s impossible to detach myself from my fandom and the fact that I really wanted X-Men: First Class to be a good movie. Despite X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, I believe there’s still hope for Fox’s current X-franchise and First Class went a long way toward confirming that. It’s by no means perfect and there are elements that hurt it, but ultimately I liked it. I had gotten increasingly more anxious/excited to see the movie leading into this weekend and while my initial reaction was full of very mixed feelings, I can say with certainty it’s worth seeing.

Spoilers ahead.

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In anticipation of next month’s release of the X-Men: First Class film, Marvel is producing a set of “X-Men: Evolutions” variants on its May titles. This follows a month of “Thor Goes Hollywood” covers on books in April coinciding with the God of Thunder’s big screen debut and is part of a long line of variants timed with the release of movies featuring Marvel characters. The X-Men’s evolution themed covers feature individual characters highlighting design and costume changes they’ve undergone during their publication history.

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I’ve been very quiet about the upcoming X-Men: First Class film, but the last few weeks have brought such a flurry of activity I think it’s time to weigh in. The official trailer for the movie hit yesterday on the “X-Men Movies” Facebook page, and multiple sets of photos (some legitimate, some not, and some selected by director Matthew Vaughn himself) were released in the weeks prior. If you visit this site at all regularly, you’ve seen that I’m a huge fan of all things X-Men. I focus primarily on the source material in the monthly comics, but over the years I’ve enjoyed the cartoons and films that have been part of the franchise over the years. I’m very forgiving of the changes to characters and continuity, so long as they serve to make a better story. Unfortunately, the films have declined with each iteration, and like many I’m hoping for First Class to change that trend.

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X-Men #6 (Volume 3) arrived in late December concluding the Curse of the Mutants (X-Men versus Vampires) storyline, and this is a good point to discuss the new series by Victor Gischler and Paco Medina. I fell far behind in reading this series as it published and I had to catch up on nearly every issue today. Apparently, I didn’t even make it all the way through issue #2 when it first shipped! I’ve been a huge X-Men fan most of my life and have been reading for decades. Falling behind like that says a lot about this book and my feelings regarding it.

Spoilers ahead.

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