This week, X-Men: Red #18 marks not just the end of one of Marvel’s best ongoing titles, but also the last stand of the Genesis War. Choreographing this story across three battlegrounds are Al Ewing, Yildiray Çinar, Federico Blee, VC’s Ariana Maher, and Jordan D. White. As this beloved title comes to a close, the question on all our minds has been how this team is going to stick the landing, and if the Fall of X also meant the fall of Planet Arakko.
The question at the core of X-Men: Red has been, “can a marginalized community beset by war, trauma, and oppression for centuries flourish in peacetime, if given the chance?” Storm and her Brotherhood have made a strong case to their fellow Arakki that this change is worth the growing pains. Genesis, the former matriarch of Arakko disagrees, and the war arc that followed put the entire planet’s opportunity to pursue peace in jeopardy. It all comes down to three fights: a people divided against themselves, lovers in a battle to the death, and a showdown of the avatars of Life and Annihilation.
As -:A:- says early on in the issue, this closing match is “a battle of life against life… to decide what life means.” The most intimate conflict in this issue is between Jon Ironfire and Blue. Jon served as one of the White Sword’s One Hundred, and the two were seemingly lovers in the time of Okkara. Since meeting Jon in the Sins of Sinister timeline, audiences have known that his greatest regret was a mistake he made in the Genesis War by not trusting Storm. To my heartwarming relief, Ironfire chose differently this time, and in the wake of this fight life means a reunion with his beloved.
The most populous battleground is on the coastline of the Autumn Island, as Ora Serrata and Lycaon marshal Genesis’ armies against Sunspot, Syzya, Zsen, Khora, Fisher King, Death, and Ororo’s remaining rebel fighters. Sunspot in particular has been on the backfoot during the Fall of X, but here he and Khora deliver a decisive blow to the enemy by blinding Ora Serrata, essentially disarming her of her discorporating gaze. This fight is the most deadly, and rages on briefly even after the war has been completed. Lycaon and Fisher King are lost, Xilo and Ora are reborn as one, and Syzya charges Sunspot with the lesson that life means being left behind, carrying on in the wake of death.
Credit: Marvel Comics
The matchup we’ve all been waiting for, the one that truly decides the fate of Planet Arakko, is between Genesis and Storm. Astride their brawling island kaiju, each woman puts her all into finishing this fight: Genesis relies on typical plant-power tactics as well as manipulating the fungal microbes in her opponent’s body, while Ororo Monroe beckons ice, pressure, and lightning. After Genesis’ fatal blow to her internal microbiome, Storm makes one last grasp for the Annihilation Staff. A minimalist abstract two-page spread depicts Ororo’s final temptation from Annihilation, but she destroys the staff–their conduit into reality–instead. Lactuca witnesses the victory, and later Storm muses with -:A:- and his revelation: life is those left of the old and new collaborating in this newly mended land of opportunity.
Çinar and Blee certainly had their work cut out for them in this issue. Tearful arguments, crowded battle scenes, and boxing islands the size of skyscrapers are just a few of the things this tight-packed finale asks of them, and they deliver. Further still, these two artists bring the issue to a close with an air of serenity and hope, even as they tack on one last horrific tease of Genesis from a throne of vine-strewn corpses. Also, is that a Nightcrawler clone back there?
I’ll be honest, I can’t point to any significant flaws in this issue. It’s a well-executed finale all around. Storm may have had more dynamic feats in the last two issues, but they can’t compete with the dramatic weight of her destroying the Annihilation Staff, freeing Arakko after centuries of its insidious presence. I was sad to hear that Sobunar dove into a sort of self-imposed exile in the depths, but it was not a flaw, I’m just gonna miss the cute axolotl guy. All that to say, I’m pressed to find any actual failings in X-Men Red #18.
X-Men: Red #18 is a fond farewell to one of our favorite X-Men books in the last couple of years. It’s packed with action and heart, capping off this Arakki epic while still leaving so much room to explore on the red planet. Hopefully, their rest is restorative but also quick because Storm and her fellow Arakki are some of the biggest assets to the fight for mutantkind as the Fall of X shifts to Fall of the House of X/Rise of the Powers of X. The people of Arakko do not fear a life that ends, and there is no fear in how this book ends either: only hope.
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