X-Men Red : the depth of pain and possibility

[sungila]

18954386_marvel-teases-jean-greys-x-men-red_9434c176_m.jpg

"For the space that engrosses the deject, the excluded, is never one, nor homogeneous, nor totalizable, but essentially divisible, fold-able, and catastrophic. A deviser of territories, languages, works, the deject never stops demarcating his universe whose fluid confines- for they are constituted of a non-object, the abject- constantly question his solidity and impel him to start afresh. A tireless builder, the deject is in short a stray. He is on a journey, during the night, the end of which keeps receding.”
― Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection

Team Red is a cast of mutants who have died and/or experienced great trauma and/or have identities/powers that manifest as expressions (adaptations) of deeply personal pain. This all interests me greatly. This is the very crux of what it means to be and to become MUTANT.

X marks the spot. But often that X is unseeable and unexpressable. But it does 'speak'. And we see Nightcrawler physically looking like he actually is. And JEAN! And Laura! It’s very exciting.

How does trauma and pain live with and in a person? How does this relationship change a person, mutate and isolate an individual? What is reinacarnation? What is life after death? What is death in life? What does it mean to survive, having not survived? What happens to Icarus when he washes ashore remembering only that he did fly but that his flight was a push by a desperate father?

How do the physical body, special ability and super power represented by these individuals reflect an open wound or indelible voiceless hurt in the psyche?

I'm excited by the concept of the team headquarters being underwater. In the ocean (the origin of life) but also the restive restorative grave. It's the place where the burning falling self plummets and is quenched, but it is also the place from which that self re-emerges new. It is both the underworld and the womb.

Any thoughts from others about these ideas, potentials and the team itself? Tom Taylor has experience writing about the ocean. Namor is an old favorite of his and his presence on the team as provider of sanctuary and elder mutant (a sort of point of earthly origin to counterpoint the unearthly other) is wonderful.

I've stayed away from X-Books a long time. And while Nightcrawler's solicited beard troubles me (I just don't like it) - I am excited about this series. It has all the reason to succeed realistically too, given the backing of the industry.

We have characters here who have strange relationships with themselves. Each feel deeply what only they can feel, they have entirely singular emotional vocabularies (which we all do) – how will they interact? Who is a threat to such a team and who does such a team champion?

X-Men Red could be something very important and triumphant for modern day X-Books. A corporate sponsored time-fused event that actually accomplishes depth before it splashes into it’s own wispy cloud of streamable inconsequence.

[Sundowhn]

I'm excited about this book. Early interviews indicate this may be something different, and the line needs that, in my opinion.

The X-Men franchise once took chances in the stories they told. They were fictional mirrors to the world's discord. Not only did they tackle mindless bigotry at a time where so many were still wishing it hushed, but they rubbed a reader's face in it, daring them to miss the comparisons. They used the kinds of characters that no one else would -- a black female lead, one rejected by DC for being too weird, a Russian, when the Americas were in the midst of a Cold War with the country. They explored the coming of age of a woman's passion with Jean and the Phoenix force. They had one of the first, if not the first lesbian couple in comics with Mystique and Destiny. Excalibur explored alcoholism and domestic violence and the right of a woman to choose not to be defined by the people in her life.

I mean really, this was amazing stuff!

The franchise lost that, somewhere along the way, perhaps in the wake of commercial non-comic success, I don't know.

I have hope that maybe this is the book, the team and the time to bring some of that back.

[ariwl1]

It's interesting to consider. To be an X-Man is to have gone through some s***, but the gathered group here all have had some real rough turns on the superhero/mutant journey. If the book can address that but still find something good to hope for (which has been some fans' hope with Jean returning) it could be an inspirational tale.

[Knives]

Sincerely death and pain are practically part of the description of the work of heroes. Unfortunately death and resurrection in comics also lost most of the time the weight and meaning they once had since this occurs very much nowadays. The case of Jean is a little different she already died and was brought back before but different from other characters her last death lasted several years. In a way a new generation of readers have never read about her other than flashbacks or versions of another timeline / reality.

When Jean died the world she lived was quite different because life is so it continues the same applies to her friends. They literally went through hell to survive extinction twice and lost friends in the process but the situation of the mutants did not change. Despite all the sacrifices including Jean the mutants continue to be hated and feared and the people which she was more closest have taken very different paths or died.

And that's the scariest part anyone would be shocked and honestly find it strange Jean leading team so fast. Normally it would take months for someone to deal with it and if I was one of Jean's friends would not leave her side for nothing. Even so here we are a team where the people next to her are mostly unknown to her why? I just hope Marvel has good explanations.

For me the most attractive part of Red according to the previens and interviews is that Jean intends to fight against the status quo and this will have consequences. Actually this is the reaction expected after a healing period after all if I discovered after more than 10 years of my death that everything I fought for and died would still be the same would have difficulties accepting it. It seems that Jean wants to do something with this team for the cause of the X-mens besides saving mutants and protecting a school and is what expect since the end of AvX a new status quo for the X-mens.

https://thechicocomicspage.com/2017/...rar-interview/

I want to see Jean's reaction to this world, the deaths of Scott and Xavier (though he is back), the war with the Avengers and the Inhumans, about Magneto so close to the X-mens and obviously want to see her interacting with her friends .

[Master of Sound]

I am most looking forward to Jean's response to the death of Scott, to the fact Emma became a villain again and that her murderer is having his own team of X-Men now.

Regarding the team set-up, I do like Namor and Laura being back on a team book. I like that at least one of the former NXM era kids (Gentle) is getting time to shine and do not mind Kurt being there as well.

However,...

Kurt being on 2 team books I do not like. There are so much characters without a book they are cast of, his membership of Gold should get filled by another X-Man.

Trinity, sigh, another new kid on the block. They should have used another kid from the NXM era, preferably Surge, Mercury or Dust.

I do not care for another Wolverine chick on the team.

[CuteClops]

I'll wait to see Jean's reaction to Scott.

So if it's just another chapter of 'Everybody Hates Scott', I'll drop it.

[phoenixzero23]

I'll wait to see Jean's reaction to Scott.

So if it's just another chapter of 'Everybody Hates Scott', I'll drop it.

I'm curious about it too.
Scott changed so much since jean last saw him. regardless if it they are or not in a romantic relationship, he is a very important person in her life.

[ariwl1]

If Jean could understand Xavier, then she could understand Scott. I don't think she agrees with a lot of the turns each one took, but I think she could at least see their perspective.

[sungila]

I'm excited about this book. Early interviews indicate this may be something different, and the line needs that, in my opinion.

The X-Men franchise once took chances in the stories they told. They were fictional mirrors to the world's discord. Not only did they tackle mindless bigotry at a time where so many were still wishing it hushed, but they rubbed a reader's face in it, daring them to miss the comparisons. They used the kinds of characters that no one else would -- a black female lead, one rejected by DC for being too weird, a Russian, when the Americas were in the midst of a Cold War with the country. They explored the coming of age of a woman's passion with Jean and the Phoenix force. They had one of the first, if not the first lesbian couple in comics with Mystique and Destiny. Excalibur explored alcoholism and domestic violence and the right of a woman to choose not to be defined by the people in her life.

I mean really, this was amazing stuff!

The franchise lost that, somewhere along the way, perhaps in the wake of commercial non-comic success, I don't know.

I have hope that maybe this is the book, the team and the time to bring some of that back.

It's ME really, not the franchise, after spending time away I (personally) get that things won't/can't and truly ARE NOT WHAT THEY ONCE WERE. Nor, could they be. YES, the X-Men had a dangerous and revolutionary outsider appeal for decades that many mainstream comics lacked. It influenced everything and continues to (in its own way). While much has changed, Mutants remain and so does the world they inhabit (as well any number of infinite multiverses).

And those multiverses include US! Generations of individuals who come together at the X from so many spaces, places, times and varying point of departure. So without going into it all too much (which is impossible for me) - I too am hopeful that Red and Jean's resurrection may mark a sort of new high point in the X-Men that truly invests in those incendiary and incredibly sustaining origins by breathing new life into coals.

(Makes me think of Claremont's solo Nightcrawler haunting the pages of that last solo run talking with ghosts and feeling like he's got no soul.) Maybe having Heaven's Gates closed and a team headed by a leader who isn't looking for an way out is just what Kurt and the X-Men need...and all us X-People.

It's interesting to consider. To be an X-Man is to have gone through some s***, but the gathered group here all have had some real rough turns on the superhero/mutant journey. If the book can address that but still find something good to hope for (which has been some fans' hope with Jean returning) it could be an inspirational tale.

Inspirational would be nice. Way way back in the Mutant Massacre things felt so bleak, but with a purpose. Around House of M bleak become bland. Then things never really recovered fully. It's like that was this huge cataclysmic event (in and out of comics, thinking about the company lines and steps toward redefining mainstream comics in a digital, streaming, made for the screen scene) - and all things X have been slogging through the aftermath sort of shell shocked and senseless.

It's be nice to get a series that openly invites hope from it's readers and invests in the sort of storytelling that inspires its reader's to feel more than 'hated and feared' - sure that's human, but it's useless if it doesn't matter because it's too much work to care...um. Yes. Inspirational in a good way would be awesome. Jean is a great leader for such a hope.

Sincerely death and pain are practically part of the description of the work of heroes. Unfortunately death and resurrection in comics also lost most of the time the weight and meaning they once had since this occurs very much nowadays. The case of Jean is a little different she already died and was brought back before but different from other characters her last death lasted several years. In a way a new generation of readers have never read about her other than flashbacks or versions of another timeline / reality.

When Jean died the world she lived was quite different because life is so it continues the same applies to her friends. They literally went through hell to survive extinction twice and lost friends in the process but the situation of the mutants did not change. Despite all the sacrifices including Jean the mutants continue to be hated and feared and the people which she was more closest have taken very different paths or died.

And that's the scariest part anyone would be shocked and honestly find it strange Jean leading team so fast. Normally it would take months for someone to deal with it and if I was one of Jean's friends would not leave her side for nothing. Even so here we are a team where the people next to her are mostly unknown to her why? I just hope Marvel has good explanations.

For me the most attractive part of Red according to the previens and interviews is that Jean intends to fight against the status quo and this will have consequences. Actually this is the reaction expected after a healing period after all if I discovered after more than 10 years of my death that everything I fought for and died would still be the same would have difficulties accepting it. It seems that Jean wants to do something with this team for the cause of the X-mens besides saving mutants and protecting a school and is what expect since the end of AvX a new status quo for the X-mens.

https://thechicocomicspage.com/2017/...rar-interview/

I want to see Jean's reaction to this world, the deaths of Scott and Xavier (though he is back), the war with the Avengers and the Inhumans, about Magneto so close to the X-mens and obviously want to see her interacting with her friends .

THIS IS A GREAT POST KNIVES! Thank you for focusing the conversation back on Jean (Red) and that 'fight against the status quo'. I'm not entirely sure how to define the 'status quo' but it does seem to be there. This sort of stating of ideas and issues rather than actually doing anything about them or with the sentiments that state and claim "change" and "protest". Not just in X-Books but media-wide. It's not enough to show Jean and point and go "see there she is, doesn't she look tough and 'different' than last time?" Hopefully her team and this run will take some risks and surprise us beyond obvious sentiments and salable politics.

I am most looking forward to Jean's response to the death of Scott, to the fact Emma became a villain again and that her murderer is having his own team of X-Men now.

Regarding the team set-up, I do like Namor and Laura being back on a team book. I like that at least one of the former NXM era kids (Gentle) is getting time to shine and do not mind Kurt being there as well.

However,...

Kurt being on 2 team books I do not like. There are so much characters without a book they are cast of, his membership of Gold should get filled by another X-Man.

Trinity, sigh, another new kid on the block. They should have used another kid from the NXM era, preferably Surge, Mercury or Dust.

I do not care for another Wolverine chick on the team.

I wasn't too excited about Gentle or the entire team concept until reading interviews that explained potentials rather than reasons. Gentle is a perfect example of a character with unrealized potential. Having Gambit there is like this outside statement from the main office. It's sort of cool to that it isn't veiled and came so late in the process. Here's this YES from the offices that ensures (we will support this title).

That's good.

I don't know how I really feel about Jean and Scott from this point forward. There was/is Emma and his own saga that actually, I sort of hope Jean won't have to deal with anymore. She doesn't need to be the martyr, the ex, the Gwen Stacy or whatever anymore...I hope...and she doesn't need to NOT be those THINGS either. To me it's potentially a trap to link a major part of her return (at least early on) to Scott. I'm a Cyclops fan. And I mean that for him too!

I'll wait to see Jean's reaction to Scott.

So if it's just another chapter of 'Everybody Hates Scott', I'll drop it.

I don't dig the hate Scott sentiment and feel like without his development through Schism into Bendis' run there wouldn't be much X in the X-Men. I'm hoping he returns as a strong presence in the X-Books. Dammit, somebody has to be angry and unsatisfied in a grounded way. Used to be Logan. Scott earned that by now. No Xavier! No 'team'...or like John Lennon once said 'NO BEATLES'

Sorta, always been a kind of wish for me that mutants would escape the confinement of the X for Xavier or X for X gene containers. Scott is the only character I can think of who truly challenges the standing cerebro seek and find and assimilate concept that troubles me about the X-Men legacy. I hope he's back soon in a steadfast way and Mystique! Another character that has earned a right to challenge the in cannon hypocrisies.

In so many ways Scott makes me think of post-Beatles John Lennon (in the very best of ways).

[WhiteQueenEmmaFrost]

It's interesting to consider. To be an X-Man is to have gone through some s***, but the gathered group here all have had some real rough turns on the superhero/mutant journey. If the book can address that but still find something good to hope for (which has been some fans' hope with Jean returning) it could be an inspirational tale.

I was kind of "meh" about this book, but having an explanation like this really really helps put things into perspective and I wish more writers put that kind of thought into teams like that.

[Knives]

THIS IS A GREAT POST KNIVES! Thank you for focusing the conversation back on Jean (Red) and that 'fight against the status quo'. I'm not entirely sure how to define the 'status quo' but it does seem to be there. This sort of stating of ideas and issues rather than actually doing anything about them or with the sentiments that state and claim "change" and "protest". Not just in X-Books but media-wide. It's not enough to show Jean and point and go "see there she is, doesn't she look tough and 'different' than last time?" Hopefully her team and this run will take some risks and surprise us beyond obvious sentiments and salable politics.

Well we fans had to wait years for Jean's return.

Obviously I'm euphoric and happy about it.

I know it's dangerous to put expectations too much high however can not avoid this. I expect something uncanny and astonishing .