Broken Frontier

When Cyclops and Wolverine split, sides have to be chosen. Thankfully, one of the sides we get to see is emotional.

Kieron Gillen is tasked with breaking up the X-Men. While Schism may have shown the arguments and fights leading up to the metaphorical divorce, Regenesis is the full-on splitting of the assets. Much like divorce, the two parties on average may end up amicable, and at best, friends. This is the rather peaceful division of friends that comes with such an event, and naturally, everyone wants certain people on their side, even if they may think they were right or wrong.

Gillen has decided to intersperse the real-world situations and dialogues for the metaphorical battle of egos, with the heroes depicted as warring tribes supporting either Cyclops or Wolverine in a caveman battle. While the battle starts out one man on one man, it eventually grows to where both sides have their armies. Like a divorce or a disagreement, the reader doesn't exactly know which side to fall on, as neither are presented right or wrong, just differing. Unlike Marvel's Civil War, in which the pro-registration side was largely demonized, this is an amicable split; one wants the children of the atom to be protected and educated, and the other sees them as a race that needs to stand up for an eventual fight. It's much like a mom who wants to see her child get a good education in school, while dad wants him to stand up to bullies. Surprisingly, Wolverine and Cyclops are on the opposite sides than expected; Wolverine's the loner who fought his way through life for decades, while Cyclops is one of the original students of Professor X's dream.

While many characters get pages devoted to their turns (a few of which were reprinted in the same-day release of Generation Hope), the book smartly focuses on those who will likely be integral to the future or dalliance along the divisional lines. Two pages are devoted to twelve mutants, all rather easy deciders or otherwise non-issues. Only one, Quentin Quire, seems to be poised for a major focus, given his upcoming miniseries with Wolverine by Brian Wood.

Chris Bachalo's cover is great, and gets all the characters down while indicating the true heart of the story. Billy Tan does well with the interior work, swapping styles from the narrative caveman fight sequences to the real dialogue of the issue. A focus on discussions with dozens of characters should have dozens of facial expression, but beyond a few standout responses, everyone has the same closed-mouth, serious look.

X-Men: Regenesis stands out as one of the rare post-event one-shots that's actually not only integral to the future of the franchise (or at least sets up the lineups for Wolverine and the X-Men and Uncanny X-Men), but tells a decent story where the only fists thrown are metaphorical ones.