X-Men Red - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com The comics criticism you crave Thu, 14 Dec 2023 12:13:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.1 https://i0.wp.com/comicsxf.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/cropped-orange-favicon-2.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 X-Men Red - COMICSXF https://comicsxf.com 32 32 107498702 X-Men Red #18 concludes the series with promise both met and unfulfilled https://comicsxf.com/2023/12/14/x-men-red-18-concludes-the-series-with-promise-both-met-and-unfulfilled/ Thu, 14 Dec 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47422 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...

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]]> 47422 Apocalypse assembles his Planeteers in X-Men Red #17 https://comicsxf.com/2023/11/08/apocalypse-assembles-his-planeteers-in-x-men-red-17/ Wed, 08 Nov 2023 14:30:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=47078 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...

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]]> 47078 Temptation looms in X-Men Red #16 https://comicsxf.com/2023/10/12/temptation-looms-in-x-men-red-16/ Thu, 12 Oct 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46780 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...

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]]> 46780 The Fisher King leads the charge in X-Men Red #15! https://comicsxf.com/2023/09/14/the-fisher-king-leads-the-charge-in-x-men-red-15/ Thu, 14 Sep 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46573 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...

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]]> 46573 Storm leads the march to war in X-Men Red #14 https://comicsxf.com/2023/08/16/storm-leads-the-march-to-war-in-x-men-red-14/ Wed, 16 Aug 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46278 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...

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]]> 46278 Change and tradition collide in X-Men Red #13 https://comicsxf.com/2023/07/21/change-and-tradition-collide-in-x-men-red-13/ Fri, 21 Jul 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=46037 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...

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]]> 46037 Arakko is caught between a sword & a staff in X-Men Red #12! https://comicsxf.com/2023/06/14/arakko-is-caught-between-a-sword-a-staff-in-x-men-red-12/ Wed, 14 Jun 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45714 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...

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]]> 45714 A Perfect Storm In X-Men Red #11 https://comicsxf.com/2023/05/11/a-perfect-storm-in-x-men-red-11/ Thu, 11 May 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45449 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,...

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]]> 45449 Ascend To Godhood In Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants #3 https://comicsxf.com/2023/04/12/ascend-to-godhood-in-storm-and-the-brotherhood-of-mutants-3/ Wed, 12 Apr 2023 16:51:43 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45209 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...

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]]> 45209 Somehow Sinister Has Returned In Storm And The Brotherhood Of Mutants #2 https://comicsxf.com/2023/03/22/somehow-sinister-has-returned-in-storm-and-the-brotherhood-of-mutants-2/ Wed, 22 Mar 2023 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=45077 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. ...

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]]> 45077 None Of Us Fight Alone In X-Men Red #10 https://comicsxf.com/2023/01/04/none-of-us-fight-alone-in-x-men-red-10/ Wed, 04 Jan 2023 14:30:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=44410 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...

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]]> 44410 Everything Comes Crashing Down In X-Men Red #9 https://comicsxf.com/2022/12/07/everything-comes-crashing-down-in-x-men-red-9/ Wed, 07 Dec 2022 18:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=44111 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...

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]]> 44111 Exposition & Explanation In X-Men Red #8 https://comicsxf.com/2022/11/02/exposition-explanation-in-x-men-red-8/ Wed, 02 Nov 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=43674 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...

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]]> 43674 Seeing The Blue In Green In X-Men: Red #7 https://comicsxf.com/2022/10/05/seeing-the-blue-in-green-in-x-men-red-7/ Wed, 05 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=43288 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...

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]]> 43288 Night Begins to Shine in X-Men Red #6 https://comicsxf.com/2022/09/14/night-begins-to-shine-in-x-men-red-6/ Wed, 14 Sep 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=42885 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...

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]]> 42885 X-Men Red #5 Will Have You Screaming “Oh Shit!” https://comicsxf.com/2022/08/03/x-men-red-5-will-have-you-screaming-oh-shit/ Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=42329 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...

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]]> 42329 X-Men Red #4 Digs Into Immortality & Identity https://comicsxf.com/2022/06/29/x-men-red-4-digs-into-immortality-identity-and-intergalactic-politics/ Wed, 29 Jun 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=41765 The meaning of death, the politics of immortality, and the determination of identity are on the table in X-Men Red #4, written by Al Ewing, drawn by Juann Cabal, Andrés Genolet & Michael Sta. Maria, colored by Federico Blee, and lettered by Ariana Maher. Jude Jones: Man, it feels like we were just here a...

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]]> 41765 MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAT!!! in X-Men Red #3 https://comicsxf.com/2022/06/15/mortal-kombaaaaaaaaat-in-x-men-red-3/ Wed, 15 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=41478 Tarn the Uncaring waged war and torture on Arakko for centuries. He’s the most hated being on Mars … and he sits on their ruling council. Abigail Brand has a plan to remedy that — and reap the rewards. So does Roberto Da Costa. But only one of them can win … and Tarn’s going...

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]]> 41478 A Storm Of Mutant Joy In X-Men Red #2 https://comicsxf.com/2022/05/18/a-storm-of-mutant-joy-in-x-men-red-2/ Wed, 18 May 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=40865 The Red planet sits on the intergalatic chess board, used as a pawn with no regard for its inhabitants. A union, a Brotherhood, in needed to assist it. Al Ewing, Stefano Caselli, Federico Blee and Cory Petit bring the thunder in X-Men Red #2 Jude: Joy has been in short supply. The specter of judicial...

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]]> 40865 Strangers In The Strange Land Of X-Men Red #1 https://comicsxf.com/2022/04/06/strangers-in-the-strange-land-of-x-men-red-1/ Wed, 06 Apr 2022 13:00:00 +0000 https://www.comicsxf.com/?p=39947 Storm is regent of Arakko. Should she be? Al Ewing, Stefano Caselli, Federico Blee and Ariana Maher investigate in X-Men Red #1 Jude Jones: I was all in from the jump. A book, set on the planet we saw (beautifully, artfully, amazingly) terraformed; featuring the culturally rich, oft maligned Arakkii; led by the Queen, err,...

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