How would you describe a perfect day? Perfect — like “good,” like “ok,” like “no good,” like “very bad” — is subjective: an appreciation based on a range of experiences. Perfect, reasonably, might look vastly different among different peoples. And yet, so many different people hold on to the idea of objective perfection — the…
Floating dead-center in the eye of the Mutant Kaiju Kaorak (a not so subtle re-arranging of Krakoa), Storm floats, irises electric blue, electricity teeming from her hands, threatening Genesis with the good time of a fight. This is as audacious as it is silly: this manifestation of mutant cooperation, teeming for a fist fight where…
The pain is always there, just over the horizon like the sun at dusk, patiently waiting, if not teasing the inevitable full of its punishing power. Talk to a survivor of trauma, internal or external. They’ll tell you. The brightness of that pain — the intensity, the heat — can be like sitting in the…
It’s the power of nothing versus the hordes of Genesis & Annihilation in X-Men Red #15 written by Al Ewing, art by Yildiray Cinar, colors by Federico Blee, and letters by Ariana Maher. Think about your first memory: the clarity, the circumstances, the people. Do you smile when you think of it? Recoil in embarrassment…
Civil war rages on Arakko as news of the new Mutant Massacre reaches the red planet in X-Men Red #14, written by Al Ewing, drawn by Yildiray Çinar, colored by Federico Blee and lettered by Ariana Maher. A year ago, under circumstances best left for another story, I played my first game of chess. I…
Geneis and her fancy staff bring havoc to the Great Ring in X-Men Red #13 by Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni, Federico Blee, and Ariana Maher. “Your father has three dead friends. All three of them used. Your father didn’t. Your father, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, is alive.” Thus concluded the one and only talk…
Genesis is here as White Sword sends an emissary to Arakko in X-Men Red #12 written by Al Ewing, art by Jacopo Camagni, colors by Federico Blee and letters by Arianna Maher. “It’s all connected” Whether or not you believe The Wire was the best show in television history (spoiler: it was, is, and will…
The feelings of exhaustion, oscillating to exasperation and back again; the anger, masking sadness; the wounds that I keep seeing over and over and over again. I was tempted to say I was tired, but that is a lie. I am not tired. I am traumatized. And I am not alone. Comics are many things,…
An invocation, an invitation “Our father; who art in heaven Hollowed be thy name” An appreciation, an ask of giving “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done On earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our trespasses As we forgive those who trespass against us” The…
The Sins Of Sinister continue bearing fruit in Storm And The Brotherhood Of Mutants #2 by Al Ewing, Andrea Di Vito, Jim Charalampidis, Rachelle Rosenberg and Ariana Maher. Expectations are a (pick your curse word), aren’t they? More than just a way to ensure disappointment, they color how we view people. View experiences. View art. …
Storm vs Vulcan. It all comes down to this. Al Ewing, Stefano Caselli, Jacopo Camagni, Federico Blee and Ariana Maher deliver X-Men Red #10. Writing reviews of individual issues can sometimes feel like the writing equivalent of Groundhog Day: You’re praising (or parcing) the same things in every issue. Writers have their styles, their preferences…
Everything dies. Everything ends. This is not a bad thing. The problem isn’t ending; the problem lies in not planning for the eventuality of the inevitable. Nothing defines great art more than its ending. A last line, a final note – that defines all that came before it. Think of a television show that meanders…
So, a confession: I saw a total of one (1) season of Game of Thrones. The first season. I never finished it. This, apparently, is a good thing, as I never got disappointed by the last few seasons. Everything I know about the series, the lexicon that stretches from “Winter is Coming” to “Dracarys,” picked…
The Red Planet bleeds as Arakko forges a new path in Al Ewing & Madibek Musabekov’s X-Men: Red #7. In my father’s study, perched above rolls of processed film and terabytes of photo files, a black and white picture of Miles Davis surveys the workspace. In it Miles, clad in an open-chest white jacket, surveys…
Planet Arakko chose peace over war. Now war has chosen them. The monstrous arsenal of the Eternals is on the march. The Arakkii must defend their broken land according to the ancient laws … but against an enemy even older than they are, can the old ways win? Or is a new Arakko about to…