When it comes to the X-Men, most see them as another group of superheroes wearing colorful costumes with superpowers. But at heart, the X-Men always saw themselves as civil rights activists, fighting to promote peace between humans and mutants.
However, despite this, it seemed that the X-Men didn't seem to actually, well...do any of that. But in 2018, one of the original five X-Men, a Ms. Jean Grey (formerly Marvel Girl and Phoenix) decided to change that. She needed to assemble a new team of X-Men for her cause. This team would be known as X-Men Red.
X-Men Red was a short-lived title, lasting only 11 issues, and one annual. But still, it was a fun title, so I thought I'd show it some love here. Let's look at X-Men Red #1!
The cover is a Travis Charest piece, and it's neat. It's a basic cover, just showing Jean Grey in a field of white surrounded by energy discharge. But it stands out as the white cover forces the eye on Jean Grey herself. I also admit, I do like the costume Jean has here. It alludes to her famous 90s costume, but is more armored and has a better color scheme. I also like that she's in a pose you normally don't see superheroes, especially female ones, on covers. Makes it more unique.
"The Hate Machine - Part 1: Heal the World"
Writer: Tom Taylor
Penciler: Mahmud Asrar
Inker: Mahmud Asrar
Colorist: Ive Svorcina
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editors: Mark Paniccia, Christina Harrington
Editor-in-Chief: C.B. Cebulski
The story begins with a young girl being telepathically woken up. There's a mob coming, and they're after her. She has to run. Make like Christopher Cross and run like the wind!
The girl trips and falls on the ground. The mob closes in on her, and she screams that she is not a mutant. She notices her own mother is among the mob, pulling a gun on her and saying she's an abomination. The mob fires at her, and it seems the kid's last meal is going to be hot lead.
Well, not if Jean Grey has anything to say about it. The First X-Woman stops the bullets with her telekinesis, and she's backed up by Nightcrawler and the Laura Kinney Wolverine. Kurt teleports the young girl away. Unfortunately, it seems his aim is a bit off.
“Nice work, Kurt. She's shark food." Naw not really, she's fine. She's in Jean's X-Men team's new headquarters. And the little girl gets a full view of them.
Meet Jean Grey's new X-Men team: Jean, Nightcrawler, Wolverine II, Honey Badger, Gentle, Trinary, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. I do like this roster. More on that later. The girl is at Searebro, a facility 3,000 feet below the Earth's surface. We then go to Roosevelt Island in New York City, a couple of months earlier. A pair of carjackers make off with a woman's car...with her baby still inside. The baby is crying, much to the carjackers' annoyance. It's only going to get worse for them as the crying turns into supersonic screaming a la Banshee or Siryn's mutant abilities. The screaming grows more powerful, blowing out windows in nearby buildings.
Wolverine and her little "sister" Honey Badger are on the case, and Laura is able to quiet the child with a gentle hand over the mouth. However, the baby has one extra trick.
Huh. Kid is a future opera star. His performances would bring the house down.
Jean and Kurt arrive, and she's able to telepathically calm the baby. His name is Toby, and he's a mutant. However, unlike most mutants who tend to manifest their mutations in their teenage years, Toby's powers have manifested early. She returns the boy to her mother, and Jean has made arrangements with Hank McCoy to get a special dampener device made for him. ...you think he'd have made one for Rogue back in the day to help with her powers!
Jean warns that there will be public fallout over this, but she'll be keeping an eye on them. And if they need somewhere to stay for safety reasons, Wolverine and Honey Badger lives nearby, and their apartment is a safe place. And true to Jean's prediction, we see a pair of talking heads debate the baby, one of them insisting the baby is a ticking time bomb about to destroy humanity at any moment. It's here that we see Jean floating over the city, her mind tuned into the town.
She can hear the thoughts of the people below. She has never heard the world so angry and divided. She doesn't know how to help here. But she will learn, as she does want to help. So, she comes up with a plan.
She travels around the world and gathers up some of the greatest minds on Earth. Not just scientists, but also artists. When she has them gathered, she explains to this group that she wants to borrow their minds. She uses her telepathy to enter these thinkers' minds. What is she looking for? An idea.
Later, she summons Kurt to a cliffside. She explains that she found the idea she was looking for. And she wants to change the world. But that won't be easy. You see, she's had a bit of a revelation. To her, the root of the hate of mutants is simply because...mutants are the living embodiment of change. And people fear change. Jean wants to ease that fear, show that change is nothing to be afraid of. And she needs a team for that. And she wants Kurt on it.
Why does she want Kurt on her new X-Men team? Well, besides the fact that she's known him for years and practically considers him family. Kurt has been known as the soul of the X-Men, and this team will need that. Kurt is all too happy to join up. Who's the next person she needs for her team? Well, she'll find him under the sea.
Yup, Namor the Sub-Mariner, Marvel's "first mutant". In-universe, there are mutants that predate Namor, like Apocalypse and Selene. But that's another story. Namor points out that he's a king, and he doesn't have a lot of time to play superhero. But that's the point. Jean needs a nation backing her up, and Namor has Atlantis. We then shift scenes to the United Nations.
Jean speaks about how mutants need to have a voice due to there being places where it's perfectly legal to detain or even kill anyone who is even suspected of being a mutant. The ambassador to the UK points out something: Mutants don't have a nation. Not yet, ambassador. Wait until Jonathan Hickman takes over the X-Line. Jean answers that since people like to speak about mutants as a massive group, so mutants need to speak as a group.
She also points out something else: Jean Grey is a known telepath. And one of the most powerful telepaths in the world. What's to stop her from using said power to force people into recognizing a mutant nation? Jean points out that as powerful as she is, she would have even needed to be in the area to do that. She's doing this as a sign of trust. She wants to show that human-mutant peace is possible. Her words seem to have an effect, as Wakanda and Atlantis both stand and recognize the mutant nation.
Later, the UK Ambassador approaches Jean Grey to talk. She assures Jean that the UK will vote for the mutant nation. It still has some standing, and voting against mutantkind would not help that. But, she puts out a warning.
The ambassador warns that you should not mess with the status quo...because it will fight back. Jean realizes there's something up with the ambassador's mind...like there's someone else in it. And then the ambassador's mind gets blown. Quite literally.
Whoever was in the woman's head did it to frame Jean, making it look like she deliberately murdered the ambassador simply for kicks. Namor, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler get Jean out. So, who was the one who caused the frame-up?
Meet Cassandra Nova. She first appeared in New X-Men #114 (July 2001), created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. Nova is a "mummudrai", a parasitic life form composed of psionic energy. She originally had no body, but created one and tried to kill Professor X in the womb. Yes, you read that right. I did not make that up. Grant Morrison's X-Men stuff can be pretty weird.
I really liked this comic. One of my favorite things about it is the roster. It feels unique, despite having stalwart members like Jean and Nightcrawler. It makes sense that Tom Taylor would bring over Wolverine II and Honey Badger as he was writing Wolverine's book back when Laura was the lead. It's neat to see Jean take up a leadership role.
I also liked that the focus was on actually trying to create human-mutant peace, like with Jean addressing the United Nations about the mutant issue. I do like that it touches on the politicking the X-Men would have to do to achieve their goal.
The only real complaint I have is that it doesn't quite feel like a first issue should to me. It does feel like we're in the middle of this team's adventures and not really seeing how they started.
No comments:
Post a Comment