X-Men Red #1 Spoilers and Review

[Hizashi]

A bit puzzled by the ‘positive’ reviews. I honestly don’t see this being much different from Gold, apart from Jean’s pep talk (and it’s so nice to see that Jean is taking pointers from Medusa on addressing the UN). And are we in 2018 or 1962? Who the hell walks up to people and gets their cooperation with a speech of ‘let’s hold hands and be friends’?

And unless there’s something more going on off panel, I can’t see him wanting to capitulate to her request that easily. Namor (and T’challa) always struck me as being their own men. There always needs to be a bit more incentive. Even Namor was going to do so for the greater good, he sure as hell wouldn’t be rah-rah about it. He’d be much more cool.

I am not a fan of Taylor. But all of this just comes across as forced and not at all organic. I will be very curious to see how sales pan out over the next six issues or months.

You’ve articulated some of my concerns, but I still want to read it so I can form a more concrete opinion.

[Mia]

Jean is just that good. They just couldn't say no to her.

Well then she should change her name to 'Mary Sue'.

[PhoenixStudies]

Well then she should change her name to 'Mary Sue'.

That should be her middle name, Jean Mary Sue Grey.

[nandes]

I liked it a lot. I'm ready to convert to Jeansus Christ's church. Yas teach us all how to be better queen!

[Cloudman]

Another X-book for me to ignore, unfortunately. The art was exceptional - Asrar now does Immonen better than Immonen, and his use of facial expression has come a long way since his work on ANXM - but the whole exploding head thing has been done a thousand times before, and the team line-up didn't grab me. The mutant/minority metaphor feels more strained than ever, to the point where I actually felt more sympathetic to the UK ambassador than I did to Jean - mutants aren't a nation, and there's absolutely no reason why any legitimate nation state would humour the idea of a recognised nationality just for mutants. If we're to take the 'Mutant = Minority' metaphor as read, that would mean that Jean is advocating a form of soft ethno-nationalism. X-Men writers are going to have to find a way to either adapt the metaphor to something more appropriate, or to come up with a new ethos for the X-Men going forward. I'd favour the latter as I can't imagine any of the current talent managing the former, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

I'll also point out that it's pretty hilarious that Taylor thinks Turkey and Pakistan (both fiercely nationalist, non-secular, and certainly racist by western standards) would be more willing to accept the idea of a nation within a nation than the UK, which is composed of 4 nations and has no shortage of people of foreign origin, some of whom have been here for generations. Seems like Taylor has a pretty rose-tinted view of some countries, and a rather ungenerous view of others.

[Havok83]

Reading how wonderful Jean was written, the premise, setup, beautiful art, great introduction to status quo, etc....saddens me that this isnt an Uncanny relaunch

[lurkerforyears]

I think many good mutants should disagree completely with Jean

Sabra is an Israeli. that is her nation, not being a mutant. Mutantkind isn't a nation.
The same goes for the Collective man and China, or special agents who are British mutants like Micromax or Pete Wisdom.

This plan will end up in mutants being accused of not being real Americans, being a fifth column, and being traitors who don't identify with the country they were born in.

[maxhilary]

I'll also point out that it's pretty hilarious that Taylor thinks Turkey and Pakistan (both fiercely nationalist, non-secular, and certainly racist by western standards) would be more willing to accept the idea of a nation within a nation than the UK, which is composed of 4 nations and has no shortage of people of foreign origin, some of whom have been here for generations. Seems like Taylor has a pretty rose-tinted view of some countries, and a rather ungenerous view of others.

But wasn't that particular scene about gathering the finest minds in the world or whatever? Like scientists, artists etc. I don't think that part had anything to do with the UN plan, she hadn't even come up with the idea yet.

[FUBAR007]

You are missing the point.

Sigh. Right back at you.

America was not strictly British.

I never said it was. I said the dominant political and cultural norms of America derived from the British.

The Constitution isn't written in Dutch or based on Spanish political norms, and Native American tribes didn't get a whole lot of say in the organization of the American political system.

The Revolution that created the entity called the United States wasn't fought against the French crown in colonial Louisiana.

There were Native Americans that were here and had their own culture. There were French (Louisiana, Illinois), Spanish (Florida, what is now Texas, New Mexico, parts of California), Russia (Alaska), Dutch (New York was once New Amsterdam until the British captured it), and even Sweden (New Sweden was in the Delaware, New Jersey area and was captured by the Dutch) influences. It was only after hundreds of years and wars between the Native Americans, British, French, Spanish, and Dutch settlers that the British settlers ultimately were ascendent.

So a nation can be founded under the guiding principles of the X-men just as America was founded under the guiding principles of the British settlers. However, that process of assimilation takes hundreds of years so the fact it is not here yet for Jean doesn't really mean anything. The issue would ultimately be whether like the British settlers, can Jean fashion a nation out of all the other influences and how long that process takes as again for the British it took hundreds of years and they had to defeat the French, Spanish and Native Americans before they could then exert their influence. And then once they did that, they ultimately decided they were no longer British but American.

If you need a history of this read the below that details the history of all the different groups of people in what became the United States. These people did not all have the same beliefs.

I am more than aware of the colonial history of the United States, thank you. One of my degrees is in History, and I've been studying this stuff since, in all likelihood, before you were born.

The political-geographic entity that became the United States didn't begin in French Louisiana, New Spain, Alaska, or among the American Indian tribes. It began with the 13 British colonies on the east coast. It was not an equal participation project. By the time of the Revolution, the other European groups had long since come under British rule and thus British cultural influence, and the bulk of the residents of the 13 colonies were of British descent. The peoples and territories to the west were added later, predominantly through conquest. Did elements of their cultures end up added to the American "mix"? Yes. Are the defining political and cultural traits of the United States equal parts British, German, Spanish, Cherokee, Igbo, Russian, Swedish, et al? No.

Getting back to your attempt to analogize with Jean's "mutant nation" project, Jean, thus far, hasn't claimed a piece of territory. She hasn't conquered Genosha. She hasn't established Utopia off the coast of San Francisco. She hasn't tried to carve off a piece of the U.S. and declare an independent mutant homeland. As such, your analogy to America does not hold.

[Harpsikord]

A bit puzzled by the ‘positive’ reviews. I honestly don’t see this being much different from Gold, apart from Jean’s pep talk (and it’s so nice to see that Jean is taking pointers from Medusa on addressing the UN). And are we in 2018 or 1962? Who the hell walks up to people and gets their cooperation with a speech of ‘let’s hold hands and be friends’?

And unless there’s something more going on off panel, I can’t see him wanting to capitulate to her request that easily. Namor (and T’challa) always struck me as being their own men. There always needs to be a bit more incentive. Even Namor was going to do so for the greater good, he sure as hell wouldn’t be rah-rah about it. He’d be much more cool.

I am not a fan of Taylor. But all of this just comes across as forced and not at all organic. I will be very curious to see how sales pan out over the next six issues or months.

I think the difference here is just that you aren't a fan of Taylor's writing.

I also think that some people coming into this book had some unrealistic expectations. Criticisms of the writing and the art are totally valid, but this is so much better than what we've been given in Gold, and demanding that Jean just get right on with reconnecting with the people close to her seems a little bit unfair. 'Where's Storm,' 'where's Cable,' 'where's Rachel,' and etc. seem really out of place here. They could have spent some time here having Jean do the reconnection bit but we're in an era of comic books where people complain about and rightfully hate when things are too decompressed; this issue was anything but decompressed. We saw Jean as a hero, formulating her idea, capitalizing on it, forming the core of her team, and that was all just in one issue. When was the last time that SO MUCH stuff happened in one issue?

If they had spent time on getting Jean to reconnect with people other than Kurt then this issue wouldn't have gotten so much stuff done like it had, and as masterfully as it had. I understand that people want to see Jean connect with the people that she cares about but we didn't really have TIME for it. We will in the future, and we know that some of them won't agree with her as stated in the solicitation for issue three, so just give it time. And not only that we know that Jean will be appearing in places other than this book; she's showing up in the upcoming arc of Cable to reconnect with her son and potentially meet her grand-daughter for the first time. She's a part of whatever it is that Cheung is a part of coming up, and is front and center when it comes to the X-Men. Rachel and Nate and Ororo didn't have a place here and that's fine. We'll see those reunions eventually. Jean has only officially been back for, quite literally in real time, one week. Come on, folks.

I also think that some people are taking the politics at face value a little too much. This is comic books, and it's not like Tom Taylor is Charles Soule (who is a real lawyer and able to deal with real legal issues better than someone who ISN'T a lawyer). He did his best to have Jean state her case and did so pretty damn well. This is also just issue one, and I'm sure that we'll see more of Jean's dream in the future, as the series goes on.

[Heroine Addict]

Just got done reading this, and think it was the splash page of her floating above the world & "sensing" the palpable, universal discord, where it officially had me. Felt it was a beautiful, memorable moment, and SO Jean. I was pretty impressed overall, and found it a uniquely stylistic presentation, both visually & in its narrative. Many fans had already called the antagonist reveal, but I still got hooked throughout, am really into it, & eagerly anticipating the neXt installment. Jean Grey is back, baby, and I'm GREATLY lookin' forward to see where this goes.

[Cloudman]

But wasn't that particular scene about gathering the finest minds in the world or whatever? Like scientists, artists etc. I don't think that part had anything to do with the UN plan, she hadn't even come up with the idea yet.

Read it again, and you're right. My mistake. Still a bit strange to have the UK as the only objection mentioned when it's quite clear numerous other countries would object too, though.

[Fantasy Free Me]

WTF at the lady's head blowing up. Wasn't expecting something like that for Red's first issue.

In general really liking it, and specially having Cassandra as the villain.

[Harpsikord]

Read it again, and you're right. My mistake. Still a bit strange to have the UK as the only objection mentioned when it's quite clear numerous other countries would object too, though.

This was really just set up for the Cassandra Nova reveal, especially when it was revealed that the ambassador seemed to start being convinced but then had a total 180 mentality switch.

[ariwl1]

That we can see, only two nations officially backed Jean (the fantasy ones), so I think it's still pretty grounded.