‘X-Men Red by Al Ewing’ Vol. 3 lives up to the hype

This series has finally broken free of all the events, and it’s ready to bring all the things together.

October 18, 2023

X-Men Red seems to be a favorite among a decent chunk of X-Men fans, and this might be the first volume where I actually agree with them. Across 28 issues (11 SW.O.R.D., three Storm and the Brotherhood of Mutants, 13 Red, one Heralds of Apoocalypse), Ewing and a small army of artists have mostly struggled to juggle too many plot lines, characters, and events. Finally, after a couple years, it culminates in a way that makes the book worth reading, even if I’m not quite sure the road here was worth it.

The thing this volume got the most right was finally bringing in something that feels like an actual threat in Genesis. In hindsight, it’s the obvious move, and was the natural point for this series to climax with, but it still feels long overdue, and was definitely stalled due to Judgment Day and Sins of Sinister. In one corner, we had Brand being mostly incompetent, taking up narrative space as the antagonist, generally extraneous. In the other, we have Genesis, who immediately feels like a real threat to what has been built throughout X-Men Red. While some of the developments to Arakki culture seem fudged, Genesis appearing feels like an actual confrontation of those themes and philosophies, where Brand has just been an X-Force also-ran.

There are still problems there, mind you. Genesis is as one-dimensional as they come—definitely more so than Brand—, and so far, really only exists to flesh out ~Å~ and make him more sympathetic. In effect though, this just makes the reading order for X-Men Red even more convoluted, which I’m sure some people are excited for, but just annoys me. Now I have another reason to pretend X of Swords is important? Oh, and thanks for bringing Coven Akkaba into this too, Ewing, definitely needed to be reminded of Excalibur.

Excusing that tangent—these issues didn’t give Genesis (let alone her children) any more depth than X of Swords did, and she seems to really only exist as a wall for Storm to eventually zap. Which isn’t really so much of a problem, when the only reason they exist is to be mean to our heroes. Pretty fun setup though!

Speaking of Storm, I know people seem to really like Ewing’s depiction, but I find her incredibly sterile here, and it’s probably my biggest problem with the series. I understand treating her as the Goddess and Regent that she is is tempting, but the way she always pulls off the w grates on me. On one hand it feels like Ewing is simping for a fictional character, on the other it feels like he’s bowing to stans, and either way, it’s as far from artful as I can imagine.

And sure, there’s the possibility that this is all setting Ororo up for a beautiful fall—and that’ll be fun, if it happens—but the road here has been boring and frustrating in an outdated feminist kind of way.

All of that said, wowie was issue #13 a banger. The kind of issue I’ll be considering as one of my favorites of the year in a couple months.

Naturally, some caveats come with this. One is that it feels like Ewing held the reins a little too tight on this one. It’s maybe because he didn’t know who would be drawing it and so paced it extra conservatively, but panel count tops out at six, but averages out to four, which is pretty crazy low, though it aids in the issue feeling so tense.

I’m not familiar with Jacopo Camagni’s work outside here, but it is impressive how well he does in this issue, given the lack of real action. Lots of threats of action, and long, long, conversations, but between the low panel count and his art’s expressiveness, it still is able to read dynamically and intensely. The panel layouts seem like they could be a little more inventive or dynamic themselves, but whattayagonnado when the whole issue takes place around a big—admittedly cool looking—table?

In totality though, it really was the kind of issue that made me look at the whole volume more fondly, and maybe the whole series, if it holds this quality the rest of the way.