After celebrating Thanksgiving, Lifeguard and Thunderbird quit the team. At this point in time, Gambit and Rogue have lost their mutant powers, so they just wanna be “normal” together–they quit, too. And Kitty decides to go back to college.
Is it possible that this hard-to-read series is ending?
Don’t be silly. This is an X-book. You can never have too many of those.
The remaining members (Storm, Bishop, Sage, Wolverine) investigate a murder by a mutant who, unbeknownst to Professor X, is now in the X-Men. The mutant is Jeffrey Garrett, a teleporter, who is actually possessed by a bad guy called Elias Bogan.
Bogan will figure into the mythology of the Hellfire Club. He’s also enslaved another future Rachel Summers. But I just don’t care enough to get into more detail than that.
When the X-Treme team arrive at X-Mansion and see how militant the X-Men have become, they challenge the developments. In particular, they challenge Emma Frost.
That’s the “schism” in the name of this arc.
When the team arrives at what is now called X-Corp, they are greeted by a bunch of minor mutants that are introduced during this arc. Most aren’t seen again, except for Rubbermaid. Rubbermaid is basically Mr. Fantastic, and she messes with Bishop…
It turns out that a mutant named Elias Bogan has psychic powers and has been manipulating Emma (and others) into becoming even more aggressive than they already were. (I thought the team in this book were supposed to be the X-Treme team?!?)
As a result of the airing of the philosophical differences between Storm’s team and the mutants working for Professor X’s “X-Corp,” Cannonball decides to join up with the X-Treme team.
We are also introduced to Vange Whedon, a militant mutant-rights advocate. She can turn into a dragon.
It helps her break Bishop and Sage out of police custody.