X-Men Red #18 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
X-MEN RED vol 2 #18
“The Mended Land”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Yildiray Çinar
Colour artist: Federico Blee
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. A group shot of the cast, for the final issue.
PAGES 2-3. Genesis raises Arakko Prime from the sea to fight Kaorak.
“Autumn Island.” In other words, what’s left of the Autumn Lands now that most of it has got up and walked across the planet. The rebels shown in page 2 panel 2 include Kobak, Khora, Zsen and Sunspot, as well as a bunch of background characters.
“Nine left, eight, seven.” When we left Jon Ironfire last issue, he was singlehandedly fighting his way through the White Sword’s champions – already reduced from 100 to 99 by his own departure. Evidently he’s been doing well.
Genesis is carrying both the Annihilation Staff and Purity (the sword); she still has Sobunar by her side, even though we’ve repeatedly been told that he wasn’t entirely thrilled with some of her choices. Storm challenged Genesis to “raise your island and fight” at the end of the last issue, and she takes up the challenge.
Arakko Prime is the part of Arakko that was the original counterpart of Krakoa on Earth – in other words, Arakko the island, rather than Arakko the planet. The narrator calls it “the living island”, mirroring how Krakoa was billed back in Giant-Size X-Men #1.
PAGE 4. Recap and credits. Obviously, the title “The Mended Land” alludes to the repeated description of Arakko as a “Broken Land” in this series.
PAGE 5. Apocalypse & co inside Kaorak.
We saw Apocalypse, Vulcan, Sunfire and Orc joining forces to magically animate Kaorak last issue; evidently this exercise requires their continuing support. The narrator is clearly most interested in Apocalypse, described as “he whose name was relevation” – presumably referring to the alternate name for the Book of Revelation.
Storm is derided by Genesis as a “queen of commoners” and “degrader of Arakko” because the effect of her leadership was, in Genesis’ view, to move Arakko away from its proper martial culture.
PAGES 6-7. Storm and Genesis fight.
Annihilation forces Storm to miss when she tries to strike it with lightning, and Storm strikes Genesis instead – causing her to drop Purity, which instantly returns to its rightful owner the White Sword. At first glance this looks like Annihilation’s intervention has backfired, but it may be trying to get shot of Genesis and make its pitch to Storm, as happens later.
Genesis has had the White Sword since issue #13. She hasn’t literally been holding it the whole time since then – she’s wearing it on her back in issue #15 and at the end of the previous issue. But in both of those scenes she’s still exercising control over it. The suggestion seems to be that the sword would always have jumped back to its master if she hadn’t been making a continual effort to stop it from doing so, and the lightning strike distracted her from doing that.
PAGE 8. Jon and the White Sword start to fight.
The White Sword remains completely under the influence of Genesis/Annihilation, as he has been since issue #12.
Jon alleges that Genesis’ only cause is “her own empty glory”. That’s basically what Annihilation says later in the issue. Ostensibly Genesis’ cause is the restoration of traditional Arakko values, but we established in issue #16 that only Death actually seemed to literally believe in this, and he switched sides on realising that everyone else was just paying lip service to it.
PAGE 9. Ora Serrata tries to erase Sunspot.
Ora’s power is supposed to be that she can make anyone vanish from existence just by looking at the – one of those powers that’s almost impossible to actually use in practice in a story, unless you’ve got an expendable crowd member lying around. The solution here is for her to try it on Sunspot and get blinded by his energy. Note that Khora is using her powers to supercharge him.
PAGES 10-11. Jon defeats the White Sword.
We get a thematic segue between scenes with the blindness motif. Obviously, this scene is set up with Jon as the sole survivor of the One Hundred claiming the Sword for himself, whether he likes it or not.
PAGE 12. Fisher King transfers Xilo to Ora Serrata.
It’s not entirely clear whether Ora Serrata is telling the rebels to surrender or telling both sides to stand down, not that it really matters. Of course, there’s a reference here to the trope of the law being blind (though it’s also largely irrelevant in war zones where the legal system can’t function).
Xilo, the living repository of Arakko’s history, was badly damaged in the Judgment Day crossover, and Fisher King has been serving as a host for him since issue #14. We don’t see it here, but Xilo has consumed the left side of Fisher King’s body, so parting with Xilo is going to kill him – this is what Zsen is discovering and reacting to in the final panel.
PAGES 13-14. Genesis downs Storm.
Genesis makes the argument that Storm is not a true omega mutant because there are limits on what she’s prepared to do. She then gives us a survival-of-the-fittest philosophy which is basically what Apocalypse used to claim in the 80s and 90s.
PAGE 15. Data page: Annihilation tries to persuade Storm to become its new host. We should probably be cautious of taking any of this at face value, since obviously Annihilation is saying what she thinks Storm wants to hear. The subtext seems to be that Genesis is ultimately conservative – not just culturally but in the sense that she would rather consolidate and hold what she has, as we saw last issue. Storm has more ambitions to chance the world, and Annihilation sees more potential in there for even greater destruction.
PAGE 16. Storm destroys the Annihilation Staff.
Genesis is freed from Annihilation’s influence, in other words. Annihilation was remade into a staff at the end of “X of Swords”, supposedly to be a bit more controllable in that form. But apparently the resulting form was also rather more fragile; presumably Annihilation was working quite hard from the outset to stop Genesis (or Apocalypse) from just chucking it in a furnace.
Lactuca describes Annihilation as simply “removed”, and it’s certainly possible that Storm has simply freed Annihilation (whatever it actually is) from the physical object in which it was contained.
Lactuca also characterises this as Storm winning a “debate”, presumably on the view that she’s proved the superiority of her world view in the process.
PAGES 17-18. The aftermath: Ora Serrata.
Before we get to that, we have a single panel of an exhausted Jon Ironfire after winning his fight. We’ll find out in the next scene that he’s actually waiting for the White Sword to heal, and passed up the opportunity to kill him.
Lycaon refuses to accept Genesis’ defeat and is promptly vaporised by the merged “Xilora”, who declares Storm to have won a challenge in accordance with Arakko law. This time, her appeals to Arakko law meet with a rather broader assent, possibly because Genesis has actually been defeated, and possibly because her Xilo aspect is also making an appeal to tradition and history.
Syzya confirms to Sunspot that she knew
We can also see Death from the Horsemen, Lodus Logos and Sevyr Blackmore in the background on page 17, and the Prince of Power and Blackjack O’Hara on page 19.
PAGE 19. Jon reconciles with the White Sword.
PAGES 20-22. Apocalypse watches the islands embrace.
Apocalypse’s speech includes a callback to his speech about mutantkind coming together on Krakoa in House of X #5: “For centuries, I have fostered war and conflict, all in the hopes of mutantdom finally asserting dominance over this world. Now look at you… look at all of you… You have finally become what I intended you to be. I could not be more proud.”
Apparently, Apocalypse is staying on Arakko for now. We’re reminded that Isca is still off guarding her mountains, and that the Spire Vile – mentioned during the war issues – is out there too. Orc has apparently brought a whole bunch of demons through from Amenth to form their own community.
Genesis, meanwhile, is “exiled” with her two remaining horsemen to the Orchis base on Phobos, where she’s apparently killed everyone. Note that she’s still holding a staff – apparently the damaged Annihilation staff – and her face seems scarred. The line “The Brotherhood does” is a callback to the end of issue #1. (“Who defends the broken land?” “The Brotherhood does.”)
The Nightcrawler corpse in the background is the Nightcrawler who died saving Arakko in Way of X #5, and was immediately resurrected on Krakoa. Orchis found his body and have had it in their possession since X-Men #6.
PAGE 23. Trailers. This is the final issue of X-Men Red, but the story continues into Resurrection of Magneto. You won’t be shocked to hear that the Krakoan reads RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO.
> Ora’s power is supposed to be that she can make anyone vanish from existence just by looking at the – one…
“at them”, I think
> Syzya confirms to Sunspot that she knew
Sentence cuts off without finishing the thought.
> The Nightcrawler corpse in the background is the Nightcrawler who died saving Arakko in Way of X #5, and was immediately resurrected on Krakoa. Orchis found his body and have had it in their possession since X-Men #6.
Shouldn’t the Nightcrawler corpse be bald and burned, rather than looking like normal Nightcrawler?
Can someone please explain to me what the point of creating Kaorak was? The problem was that every time someone tried to destroy the staff, Annihilation commanded them to miss. Storm’s solution to that problem this issue was to keep Annihilation talking long enough to destroy the staff. It’s not clear how a living island was supposed to help. It seemed to be there just to provide a cool visual, give Apocalypse and the others something to do and provide some sort of payoff for Sunfire’s quest.
Interesting clarification on the data page- it WAS Genesis’s need to have her survival-of-the-fittest- beliefs validated that drew Annihilation to Earth. That wasn’t complete clear before.
Re: Annihilation being “removed”- Annihilation explained that it wasn’t native to Amenth but from “the lands beyond”. Presumably the Adversary is also from “the lands beyond” and that’s why Storm sensed the connection between them. So destroying the staff merely sent Annihilation back to “the lands beyond”. According to the solicits, Storm will accompany both of them in her quest to resurrect Magneto in the Resurrection of Magneto.
Re: Jon Ironfire not killing White Sword- in the Sins of Sinister timeline, Jon felt guilty about killing someone unnecessarily because he didn’t trust Storm. Presumably, in the Sins of Sinister timeline, he killed White Sword and Storm destroyed the staff shortly afterward.
Note that they banished Death as well as Genesis even though Death switched sides.
It seems like a lot of plots were cut from the ending. For starters, in issue 16, Zsen painted something for Kobb that she said she hoped was useful in her fight. And then Kobb disappeared from the plot. Maybe she was with Nova, who got poisoned in the same issue and also disappeared from the plot after last issue. Also in issue 15, it was hinted Tarn had a way of surviving his death. And that’s not even mentioned older plots like what the Fisher King did with Abigail Brand. Maybe some of these will be addressed in Resurrection of Magneto but I doubt all will be.
@Michael: I figure Kaorak was there to counter Nemesis’s “big gun,” Arakko Prime. In the end, Kaorak provides Arakko a way to heal from its separation from Krakoa.
Some great moments this issue: “Miss,” the big embrace, Sunspot countering Ora Serrata’s power… I will miss this series so much. I could read another story of two of Arakko and how it heals from war. Al Ewing crafted a standout series l, one that deserves to find new fans in the aftermarket. He wrote a great Storm, made the Arakki usable characters, and infused X-Men Red with clever ideas and heart. I can’t wait to read Resurrection of Magneto.
“Apocalypse watches the islands embrace”
Apocalypse: Now.. kiss.
Sunfire: That’s it, I’m out.
—
Otherwise.. yeah, there were some things that felt cut short, but overall really fun.
Oh, Immortal Thor #4 was referencing “miss” in *this* issue.
What a leap of faith, making a reference one month in advance and not putting a footnote! And worth it.
@Michael
“Note that they banished Death as well as Genesis even though Death switched sides.”
No, I can see only Famine and War (with her face weakly inflamed, after it had been extinguished by Storm in issue 16) next to Genesis in the last page.
@ K
Yes, in Immortal Thor 4 Storm says she is getting tired of those who tell her to miss, but Immortal Thor 5 clearly places the events before Storm’s entry into battle during X-Men Red 14, in which she was said to have been diverted by other events (the red cape she wears is Thor’s).
I don’t recall if there had been other occasions previously where Storm had missed the mark with her lightning bolts….
Al Ewing can be an engaging writer, and it was a good enough premise to have a book about the adventures of Storm in a strange new land.
But boy, did this book fail to work for me. It might as well be titled “The Mary Sue and Marty Stu Show” far as I am concerned. Sound, Fury, and that is it.
@Midnighter- you’re right about Death, my bad.
Annihilation DID order Storm to miss in X-Men Red 13.
@Luis Dantas: Pretty much, yeah. The faux-Klingons are so one-dimensional, thinly-drawn and trite that they just sucked the life right out of the book.
Al Ewing’s writing of Storm fascinates me. It’s superficially anti-monarchist, but I get the impression that he doesn’t really think about why kings are bad, it’s just a part of his overall beliefs that he hasn’t really examined. His Storm reads as a deeply hypocritical person who condemns kings while behaving as a king in every moment.
It’s always interesting to see this kind of unexamined assumption in a writer’s belief system, but I’m surprised to see it from Al Ewing. So much of his work is political in a well-thought-out way, working to bridge his politics with their inherent contradictions in the superhero genre. It’s a disappointing low point in his writing.
@Ceries
Quite. Between that and how many dangling plots and characters are present, I wonder if this book was cut short – or maybe Al Ewing is just not well adapted to the rigors of writing for a multi-title franchise that periodically cancels and renews its catalog.
@Luis Dantas: Ewing was talking about the Genesis War being the back half of his run even before Sins of Sinister. This wasn’t a Leah Williams situation where the axe dropped between one issue and the next.
@Luis
The impression I’m getting is that both Red and Immortal were meant to be 24/25 issue series (not counting their Sins of Sinister replacements), but they’ve been cut short at 18 plus a four-issue wrapup mini each, which (besides the lost two/three issues) has implications for how things are structured.
@Diana- we know that a book called New X-Men was cancelled but we don’t know who was supposed to be writing. For all we know, it was a Ewing book.
Was NXM actually canceled? I know they’re late on the “more information,” but I didn’t read that they had given it the axe.
I do think this is a Leah Williams situation though — RoM is definitely been giving me ToM vibes now that one book wrapped up in a hurry and the writer is going to be writing an event book picking up on the plot.
@Michael: If I recall correctly, New X-Men was a tease for a post-Krakoa book. The reveal has been delayed, but I haven’t heard anything about it being cancelled.
As for RoM, it doesn’t seem to be related to Arakko/Genesis at all: previews and solicits so far have revealed the antagonist, and that the story mostly takes place in the afterlife. I don’t think Red fans are going to find their closure there.
@Diana- it was never clear whether New X-Men was supposed to be a post-Krakoa book or a book taking place during the last throes of the Krakoan age. It was announced before Breevort took over but hasn’t been mentioned since.
As for RoM, it’s been said that Craig of Nasa and Annihilation will both appear in it. It’s possible that they’re the ONLY characters from X-Men Red appearing in it (besides Storm and Magneto) or it’s possible that others are appearing.
@Michael: Fothox/Rotpox are scheduled to end in May or June 2024; any title meant for “the last throes of the Krakoan age” would have had to get started either this month or January.
Since all other books are winding down around the same time, including Percy’s runs on X-Force and Wolverine, the most likely scenario is that the Krakoa era ends with the finale issue Gillen teased (my guess? Uncanny #700), and New X-Men will be the flagship book for the new Brevoort-led line.
@Michael
“Storm’s solution to that problem this issue was to keep Annihilation talking long enough to destroy the staff. It’s not clear how a living island was supposed to help.”
I don’t think Storm’s solution was something she planned so much as just seizing an opportunity as it fell in front of her. So Kaorak’s summoning wasn’t done to abet it.
“It seems like a lot of plots were cut from the ending. For starters, in issue 16, Zsen painted something for Kobb that she said she hoped was useful in her fight.”
I don’t think this scene necessarily needs any follow-up. The point is Zsen using her power — which she previously considered pointless because it was useless in a fight — in a valuable way, for a completely different kind of fight.
[…] RED #18. (Annotations here.) The final issue, although part of the plot feeds into Resurrection of Magneto. Still, this is the […]
Whatever the “New X-Men” book was supposed to be, I suspect that this is a provisional name instead of a final one. It is generic and probably useful as an internal reminder that it would be a post-Krakoa book.
Besides, I don’t expect that Marvel wants to launch a book by that name right now. It would be a suggestion that the other books are less significant or even obsolete.
@Luis- I think “New X-Men” became the upcoming Weapon X-Men series:
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/scoop-marvel-to-launch-weapon-x-men-series-in-march-2024/
It’s a series about a group of alternate reality Wolverines.
I read Lactuca’s “the debate is decided” words on pg 16 as referring back to the challenge between Storm and Genesis that occurred back in issue #13, the one that Lactuca interrupted by teleporting Storm and friends away from the site.
I want to note that “Apocalypse” is not simply some arbitrary “alternate name” for the Book of Revelation: rather, “apocalypse” is the Greek word that means “revelation”. Literally, “out of hiding”.