X-Men Red #5 continues to do what this series has done so well already, only even more-so. Read Full Review

Tom Taylor, Mahmud Asrar, and Rain Beredo let loose a creative whirlwind in X-MEN RED #5 that harkens back to classic X-Men comics. Asrar and Beredo step up their artistic game from previous issues and Taylor brings the series back to its original purpose: the travesties of mutant persecution. X-MEN RED #5 is the best issue in the series since its introductory issue and is definitely worth a read if the slogan "Mutant as a Metaphor" piques your interest. Read Full Review

This book continues to be challenging and different and in good ways. The art is great and the story and character development keep me interested in seeing where this story goes. Read Full Review

X-Men Red #5 is a heavier issue, but it carries its serious subject matter well. The writing and art work together to maintain a well-balanced tone with moments of excitement and levity to keep it from being too dower an experience. This one earns a strong recommendation. Give it a read. Read Full Review

A great chapter that ends on an impactful bit of dialogue that will resonate with many. Read Full Review

    Art was fantastic in this issue as it has been through most of this series, and Tom Taylor is always careful to give readers something in every issue. Even when you want more to happen in an issue, he makes, sure enough, happens to satisfy people. The pacing did feel like an issue here because I thought we might finally see Jean and her team discover Cassandra Nova to be their adversary, but again enough happened for that to be ok. But I would really like to see everything come together in the next issue or two.  Read Full Review

X-Men: Red is not the X-Book to sleep on if you are looking for a story that changes the game. This is a team that has learned from experience, and working towards peace without falling to what would be predictable for those who don't know HOW to take action. Read Full Review

There is a lot to relate to and respect in this comic, although all of the social commentary in the world will never distract from Nightcrawler's epic goatee. Read Full Review

This issue marks Mahmud Asrars last issue with the series, yielding way for the absolutely electric Carmen Carnero. Watch for the sharpest book in the X-Universe to leap into the stratosphere next month. Read Full Review

Namor🧜🏼‍♂️🖤

Welcome to the Oblivion Bar where the first round is on me and the pretzels are free! Be warned: like the pickled eggs at the bar, this issue is going to get SPOILED rotten.

Ok, so this always comes off sounding bad.... and sometimes it can be... but this was a REALLY quick read. I’m going with 6 minutes max. That said, it was fantastic. The basic layout of the issue was set up with huge splash pages of art filled with old school X-men vibes. Taylor is hitting home run after home run with this book and anyone interested in an X-book really needs to add this to their pull list.

Let’s start with a quick overview of Red. So, Jean is forming her team together and their new base of operations is with Namor underwater. Casandra Nova has created nanotechnology that places nanite sentinels in the brains of humans and mutants alike to cause fear and hate towards all mutants. As awful as this is to say, it’s genius. She’s artificially spreading hate around the globe. Well, X-Red as figured this out and created suits that will keep them safe from the nanotech while they go out and attempt to put a stop to this once and for all.

This issue opens with Cassandra Nova getting the Polish President to sign a law basically making mutants public enemy number 1. He then sends the government to track down all mutants on his soil and round them up. We then jump to the man who shot and killed that little girl who was a mutant in issue 4 who was with Gambit. He’s in the hospital being treated.

Gambit breaks into the hospital to not only figure things out, but maybe to get some vengeance too. It’s not stated since he is unable to go through with any course of action because Jean and X-Red appear there waiting in the room. Jean linked her mind with Trinary and went into that man’s mind and found one of Casandra Nova’s nanobots. Together, Jean and Trinary were able to use both their abilities to basically turn off the nanobots in his brain. After doing so, the man crumbles realizing what he did. He never wanted to hurt anyone but the nano-sentinel forced feelings and actions into him that he would never have done normally.

Nightcrawler teleports them all out of there with Gambit, who I guess will also be joining the team, to a freshly painted new Sentinel-X with rainbows and pots of gold. This is basically a hollowed out Sentinel that X-Red is using to fly around as a team. The team loads up in Sentinel-X and heads to the borders of Poland to protect a large group of mutants trying to leave the country.

Taylor does a great job of showing a team of heroes working together. He’s been great at this for a long time now. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at Injustice. Some writers have a difficult time incorporating multiple heroes in a story... but not Taylormade! He shows Trinary using Sentinel-X as s shield, Jean stopping bullets with her mind, Nightcrawler teleporting Wolverine and Honey Badger in for combat, Gentle “Hulking” out to protect mutants, and Namor throwing around his diplomacy in order to save these mutant civilians. This shouldn’t be overlooked. It is hard to give everyone in a team book a job to do during a fight. It’s hard to give value to all characters throughout the story. Taylor does a fantastic job with that, which ultimately leads us to another reason why this is by far the best X-book out right now.

Since the battle was taking place on the ocean border, Namor basically tells the Polish government to back off while he gives these mutant civilians free passage through his oceans. He threatens them by saying if they don’t allow them to leave with him now, he will not let Poland fly over or use his waters ever again. Needless to say, the Polish government backs off allowing the people to leave. As the mutant civilians leave, Jean basically Vulcan mind melts the Polish humans and mutants together so the humans can feel and understand what their actions are truly doing.

Jeans logic is to use truth to fight hate. It was an interesting strategy to implement and I’m interested to see where that strategy will lead as we go through the series. If you knew how hurtful your jokes were that you said to your friends sometimes, would you continue to poke at them? If you could truly feel how much you hurt them, would you continue to hurt them? It’s an interesting theory that I hope Taylor continues to play with.

Jean is a leader. She may be THEE leader the X-books have been searching for all along. To me, this book is a “Fresh” look at the X-men that’s not confusing, straightforward, and easy to follow. Pick it up and add this to your pull.



If you like what you heard, love talking all types of comics, and are interested in joining a comic chat group, hit me up at dispatchdcu@gmail.com or @dispatchdcu on twitter. Catch you all later! Peace more

Gambit's story dove-tails into the main narrative with a meaty "just like we planned it" click. From there, the team acts to oppose the first Cassandra-directed national-level oppression of mutants. I hope Jean reviews her team's effectiveness soon. Her telepathy and Namor's Atlantean infrastructure are real assets for operating on this scale. A team of stabby bamf-y explode-y mutants charging at panicky soldiers, not so much. In this issue, things work out on the Baltic coast, but the outcome was way more touch-and-go than it needed to be.

Though I'm raising nerdy debate points about the overall effectiveness of the Red mission, don't doubt that I'm grateful to see a team tackling hatred on a global scale. Red seems to reach for the higher potential of an X-book in a way that Blue and Gold don't even acknowledge as a possibility. Sure, it all comes down to foiling world-dominating or genocidal bad guys, but why not dress it up with some interesting ideas while we're at it?
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I'm liking these series, and it helps that Jean is one of my all time favorite characters, but I could use a bit more subtlety on references to current world politics and a faster pace. For a monthly series taking so long to setup the villain and the main conflict might kill the hype people had for this, myself included, or force people to trade wait and risk killing the series.

wow! so all this time, all these years I've never been a fan of any X-title. None. And all it took was to get Tom Taylor on board and I'm really liking it! The art isn't bad, but isn't great either. With Laura and Gabby here I had to give it a try, and... this is really good!

Tom Taylor is wanted for passing fan fiction off as the genuine article, if you see this man, please contact authorities.

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MKW69 - Jun 13, 2018

Go to the goddman doctor.

The-MJP - Aug 7, 2018

@mkw69 you know, you can ingnore an opion you don't like, or explain why you think it's good

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So far this book has not demonstrated a reason fo exist. It feels redundant and irrelevant, with its generic mutant persectution storyline. It scores some point as its heart is in the right place as a plea against prejudice. It even sets a major showdown in currently right wing Poland as a place which goes all out to persecute mutants with its army.
But there is no character development. It’s six issues and we still don’t know what it feels like for Jean Grey to be back from the dead. The new mutants, Trinary, are boring. Thor Storm is tacky and the presence of Namor is jarring, especially in his save the day final appearance at the end of the book.
I guess further character development for Jean is being postponed till after Extermination. By the way, the one page preview of Extermination is the best part of the book.
Not a fan of Asrar’s sketchy art either. more

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MKW69 - Jun 13, 2018

Shut up!

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Blah.

Someone should explain to Tom Taylor how Nightcrawler's powers work. It's a strain for Nightcrawler to teleport someone in addition to himself and he would never port four people at once. Also, he never teleports somewhere he can't see unless the situation is dire. These are the sorts of things an editor should catch. This book has four of them.

Jean says "We're going to have their backs." Why does Jean speak like a millennial? Here's a tip. When the characters of a story all speak like the writer, it means the writer is not doing his job.

Apparently all the Polish military needs is for their political leaders to start issuing crazy orders and they immediately start shooting civilians. When the X-Men confront them they actually allow the army to fire at the mutants for a moment before Jean remembers that she's a powerful telepath. She then mind zaps everyone except the general. First of all, a general would never personally oversee a mass killing, that's what Colonels are for. Second, tactically speaking, if you were going to mind control a group quickly and in the heat of battle, keeping in mind your own limitations, it seems like you should start with the officers. This is why Storm should be leading this group.

Speaking of tactical mistakes, Tom Taylor singles out Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in a clumsy allusion to the real life aversion these countries have for muslim refugees. But at the same time he makes it clear that the political leaders are being mind controlled by Cassandra Nova, which would effectively absolve them of any moral responsibility. Taylor actually manages to neutralize his own virtue signaling, which would pretty impressive if he had done it intentionally.

On the plus side, Honey Badger didn't do anything stupid in this issue. more

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MKW69 - Jun 13, 2018

SHUT UP YOU MORON! It's not a analogy to muslim refugess. but to political opposition on Central Europe nations! Do your goddamn research.

SomeDummy - Jun 13, 2018

lol look at this mad special education alumni telling people to research.

The-MJP - Aug 7, 2018

@MKW69 @Ellrick guys, you're both terrible

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Just shit

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MKW69 - Jul 1, 2018

You are.

Super17 - Jul 1, 2018

Shut the fuck up wuss

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