X-Men Legacy: Divided He Stands by carey, Eaton, Romita Jr., Tan, Land, Peterson and Deodato

Professor X, or Professor Xavier, has guided and led the X-Men from their first inception, when they were just students at his school. But his legacy and that of his friend and foe. Eric Lensherr, known as Magneto, has shaped the legacy of mutant-kind all over the world.

Magneto's daughter, Magda, the Scarlet Witch, had decreed "No More Mutants" at the end of "House of M", and the world is still adjusting to the fact that most of the world's mutants are gone, returned to being nothing more than plain old humans. But the birth of the first mutant born since the day when the world changed due to the Scarlet Witch's wish caused a storm in the formerly mutant world. Everyone wanted the child, and X-Men took charge of the baby, entrusting the child to Cable. But Bishop was sent to kill the baby, and when Cable teleported away with the baby, the shot intended for it hit Professor X in the head. Moments later, his body disappeared.

He was rescued by another group of mutants, but they have mixed beliefs on whether Xavier's influence on the mutants was for good or ill. Half of them want to let him die, or to kill him, while the other half believe he should be saved. But with the bullet having destroyed half of his cerebellum, does he really have a chance to be saved? And how much of the previous Charles Xavier would survive with so much of his brain destroyed?

As the mutants who want to save him struggle to repair the damage done to his brain, Professor X must also battle from within. Battle to save his mind and memory, but also his outlook on humans and mutants. Can he continue to believe that mutants and humans should strive to co-exist when many humans have never been content to do so? And not all mutants want to co-exist with humans, either! Some of them feel that they are better than humans, and are therefore entitled to rule over those with no mutant powers.

But as Charles struggles with his demons and angels, he must also confront the past, a past which may be very different than what he actually remembers. Could he have been the product of some sort of genetic experiment by his own father?

You'd think that alot of this book would be static, since most of it occurs inside the mind of Charles Xavier. But, there you'd be wrong. In fact, the parts inside Xavier's mind are written with much more dynamisim and action than that which occurs outside, at least while Xavier stuggles to heal himself and pull his mind back together.

We get to see flashbacks showing how Professor X set up his school, and the arguments between him and Magneto, and him and Moira McTaggart, his former lover. But as the X-Men struggle to reach him, Professor X manages to recover and go on a road trip of his own, looking for clues to his past, goaded by the remains of his sister's consciousness that still lies within his body.

It's an interesting, if occasionally confusing book. Since I haven't read the Messiah CompleX books, I had no idea what was going on at first or who the group was that stole/rescued his body. Many of them were unfamilliar to me, as they probably will be if you read this divorced from the earlier book. I wouldn't have paid money for it, but it's a competent book, just not very suited to standing on its own, even with the explanation given at the start of the book.