Good Comics, like other great literary works, can be read and understood on two planes: a literal one and a metaphorical/metaphysical one. Take the Bible: You can read it literally and get some great superhero action, or metaphorically and learn to, you know, love people or whatever. And while people’s interpretation of the Bible can too often be short sighted and hypocritical, X-Men Red #5 suffers no such fate. There’s a lot to think about and sort through, AND You can THOROUGHLY enjoy it simply on a surface level, yelling “oh shit!” every few seconds as something else blows up or gets knocked down.
X-Men Red #5 – the issue, yes, but the whole series – is enjoyable without pandering, thoughtful without being pretentious or overbearing, with surprises that are genuine and, even in the midst of destruction, filled with seeds of hope.
This is damn good work.
Biblical, even.
Oh shit
There are a lot of folks moving about, so I think it’s helpful to remember who’s here and what their powers are:
- Magento (aka my bestie): Omega level Metal mover
- Nightcrawler: faithful, tailed, debonair transporter
- Idyll: tongue-less Omega-level seer. Never wrong.
- Sobunar of the Depths: Omega level master of water and it’s fauna
- Lactuca: Omega level transporter
- Abigail Brand: Mutant traitor to Orchis; SWORD Station commander; polyglot with some pyrokinesis tossed in
- Cable: Future son of Summers; telekinesis and lots of cool toys; also, bodyslide by 1!
- Isca the Unbeaten: Omega level winner…at any and all costs
- Xilo: Omega amalgamation of insects, carrying the memories of Arakko and the ability to shape the land
- Ora Serrata: Omega unblinking Eye of the Law, eraser of Gods (and others) from existence
- Lodus Logos: Omega artist poet whose words yield metals.
- Uranos the Undying, grandfather of Thanos, who’s just like his grandson…only, uh, much worse.
- Finally, note Sunspot is on-world and Storm is on Earth.
Trust me, knowing who does what helps in the end.
We begin X-men Red #5 with Cable briefing the Arakkii about the Eternal threat (double entendre for the mutants – threats are all eternal): the Eternals are going to attack mutants on Earth; knowing the nature of the Martian mutants, the Eternals will show no mercy to keep them coming from helping their-bound compatriots.
Unfortunately, our mutant friends have only enough time for exposition and a prediction, via Idyll, translated by Ora: “An empty heart beats the hardest, an empty hand deals the impossible blow, and the stalemate ends with victory’s loss”.
Just as Cable begins to discuss strategy, Uranos shows up. Free from his cage (The Eternals have him locked up for…reasons), he’s been granted an hour to do his worst.
And his worst is pretty damn bad.
How bad you ask?
So bad that Isca cuts off Idyll’s head immediately, signaling the battle is already lost.
Over the past few issues, we delved into the nature of her powers – whether she had any agency in her decision to pick sides; whether her power was *only* picking side or if it had a residual effect on the outcome. We don’t really get clarity on that here, but Nightcrawler, taking no chances, immediately transports her away from the fight.
Even though “fight” might be stretching things a bit.
Annihilation might be more apt.
(Of note: there’s a running narration, boxed in black, counting down from Uranos’ arrival, and counting up until his hour of freedom is up. This mechanism is effective at not just detailing how powerful an attack is (by measuring how quickly the attacker is put down), but also gives chronological order to an issue that could be unwieldy. The narration around the counter feels story-like, as if it’s being told by a sage. The gravitas of the tone could feel haughty and unnecessary, but here, with the stakes as high as the body count, feels precedent and necessary.)
Oh, shit…
When introducing an enemy, it’s common to see them placed against an opponent whose power the audience understands. This enemy will usually take down this opponent quickly, giving the reader a base understanding of just how powerful this threat is.
So to see Uranos punch out Ora, a being that’s erased Gods from existence; to see him go toe to toe with Legion and come back 35 seconds later with barely a scratch; to see him take 3+ minutes of a Uber powerful light gun and shake it off like it was a slap – yes, we get it. He’s incredibly powerful.
Was there a better way to deal with this threat? Of course! I’m sure with a few minutes of thought and planning, a strategy could have nullified the threat in a few minutes (i.e. teleport him over a supernova). But the sight of our crew throwing everything including the kitchen sink at him – and watching the sink bounce off of him – is still something to behold.
And of beholding: Stephano Caselli is doing great work here, especially and specifically on faces. Rage, pain, fear, exhaustion – all communicated exceptionally on page.
Especially the last page, but we’ll get to that in due time.
While we’re mainly focused on Uranos and the council, we see the rest of the world under siege as well. The artist commune is under attack by some metallic mass; port Prometheus from an armada, with Nova alone (“alone”) to protect the evacuating populace; a self replicating machine army attacks a settlement at Argyre Planitia, a settlement protected by the Brotherhood (and its newest member, Wrongslide).This was a well-planned and coordinated attack. So well coordinated, in fact, that you have to wonder how they knew where to strike? Was it machine Moria feeding the Eternals intel? Isca? Brand?
No matter. Death rains down on Arakko, resulting in, at best, stalemates and ,more commonly, slaughters. Remember, many of the more warlike and powerful Arakkii fled the planet, seeking excitement in parts of the cosmos that weren’t as peaceful.
The people were not ready for war. Or so it seems.
OH SHIT!
Uranos made short work of the entire council, save Lactuca who was sealing a breach in space and Soubunar who fought the traitor Isca in the sea.
We’d seen the cover previews with Magneto’s crumpled helmet cast aside. And yet to see him impaled so violently was shocking. To know that he gave up his immortality to serve at the seat of loss meant this, well, loss was real.
Permanent.
In 20 minutes – 20 minutes! – he killed the council. He uses the next 40 minutes to wipe out 98% of life in a 50 mile radius.
To see a group of mutants get wiped out before we really understand their culture is frustrating; that “mutants who look different” are used as cannon fodder yet again is maybe a bit disrespectful. But I’ll give Al Ewing grace here: If nothing else, he knows how to subvert expectations.
And god did he ever subvert mine.
Xilo used his remaining power to hide Locus, Ora, and, to my shock and glee in the last page, Magneto, with a hole in his heart (“an empty heart beats hardest!”), held together by…the iron in his blood? Pieces of Xilo? Magic gained from the seat of Loss? Who the hell knows?
Who the hell cares? It looks amazing. Gangster. Hard. Fire. All the words.
This is good comics folks.
Arakki counci’s Dawn seats traditionally take the lead in war: but with one member dead (Idyll) and the other a traitor (Isca), the burden falls to Magneto to lead the people to victory. And of that victory: Isca sits at the seat of Victory, so a prediction of “Victory’s loss” seems precedent, no?
In any case, the Hour of Magneto is upon us, and I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens next.
Thoughts:
- The Fisher king, sitting alone in the dark, noting “night has fallen”. You’d think I’d be smarter than to fall for an overt implication, but still – The Fisher King is on the night council, isn’t he?
- Xilo’s made up of millions of bugs, each holding a piece of the communal memory of Arakko. So as over 85% of his mass is eradicated, so goes 85% of their history. This absolutely needs to be delved in once Judgment Day is over. A people without a history is lost and it’ll be interesting to see how that loss is compensated for.
- Losing Idyll means there’s an open seat on the council.
- Nova needs a therapist.
- Where’s Vulcan?
- Of Isca, as I said in our slack: “The question is if she’s compelled or if she can be compelled. If her powers are passive and predictive and simply reflect what’s going to happen, or if they’re active & acute, affecting the outcome”
- I’m pretty sure Uranos and David just had a conversation, not a fight.
- Magneto held Uranos off for about 6 minutes, before exhaustion or lack of focus opened him up to the knock-out blow. Considering Uranos bodied a 50 mile radius in 40 minutes, that’s damn impressive. We Stan a king with stamina.
- Cable with a big gun will never not be funny
- The Hour of Magneto is the hardest title I’ve ever heard.
- My guess? Much the same way this had a timer, we’ll have one next issue, counting down until Magneto’s ability to hold himself together is done. Or! Not! I don’t care if I’m right! This stuff is good!
- X-Men Red: we thought the red was code for the red planet, but with all of these deaths, it looks to be code for blood, too.
A proud New Orleanian living in the District of Columbia, Jude Jones is a professional thinker, amateur photographer, burgeoning runner and lover of Black culture, love and life. Magneto and Cyclops (and Killmonger) were right.
Find more of Jude’s writing here.
