X-Men Red #9 - Review/Spoilers

[JB]

We open with a data page, a letter from Xavier to the QC about Vulcan. It had originally been decided that Gabriel be moved to a place of tertiary importance in the resurrection queue due to his increasingly unstable behavior. However due to Magneto's death, Brand has pushed for the return of Vulcan to make up for the Omega shortfall. Xavier believes he can perform "telepathic surgery" on him to address his mental state. Ewing gives us a laugh when Xavier writers, "I would never alter a mutant's mind or memories - that would be the ultimate mental violation. I simply will not do it under any circumstances. (Barring cases of absolute necessity, of course.)" Hahahaha, good one.

We get the preview pages where they attempt to resurrect Vulcan while Xavier is trying out this telepathic surgery, Alex questions the trust in Xavier and sure enough it all goes to crap when Vulcan, on fire and naked, busts out of the egg having snatched his mind from Xavier's grasp.

We're now in the present, the diplomatic zone. Vulcan asks Deathbird about his son (yikes, he knows) and she responds that he's somewhere safe, away from him. Vulcan calls himself Emperor, questioning young Xandra's place on the throne. Gladiator tells him his days of Emperor were stricken from the official memory. Nova is annoyed that the Krakoans brought him back to begin with, and Frenzy explains that he had survived the Fault, what were they supposed to do with him? Nova says they should have fired him out of a cannon. They continue to exchange words and Vulcan absorbs Gladiator's energy, rerouting the electrical impulses from his enlarged prefrontal cortex, turning Gladiator thin and frail. Gladiator falls. Vulcan laughs.

Nova says Vulcan is hereby charged with crimes against sentient life under the Pan-Worlds Treaty (bless his heart.) He orders Vulcan to surrender but Vulcan mocks him as the "galaxy's last good cowboy" and absorbs his energy as well. Nova falls. Frenzy gets a punch in before she's blasted into a wall.

Mentallo and Brand are watching this play out on monitors and Brand mentions how she would have liked Frenzy in her inner circle, but Frenzy has morals and what not. Mentallo not so much, and he enjoys his inner circle paycheck. He says Frenzy cares about suckers and Brand mentions how she herself cares about everybody in the Sol System. "Somebody's got to. Somebody's got to care enough to be the bad guy." They watch as Vulcan blasts Paibok, possibly severing his arm.

Wiz-Kid is in the ship waiting around the World Farm, kinda bored, until two Progenitors (?) appear and identify his ship as a threat and announce that they will "end threat." Inside, Cable instructs the team to knock Orbis off-balance, and Thunderbird and Zsen attack his tendons. Cable shoots Orbis in the chest with his blaster and Orbis falls. He's not much of a fighter. Orbis' head detaches from his useless armored body and he awakens the three aliens that were in stasis (the ones that experimented on Vulcan way back when.) One of them targets Manifold and seems to take control of him, seemingly using Eden to open a portal. Cable tells Thunderbird to get his knife ready, as I guess beings are about to flood in through the portal? We shall see.

Back to the Diplomatic Zone battle. Vulcan is energetically suffocating Frenzy. Nova flies at him and gets kicked into a wall. Interestingly, Xandra looks quite bored, at one point with one leg up on the throne, and checking her nails at another point.

Deathbird tells Vulcan that it's not too late to stop this and she promises that this is not what he wants. Vulcan says he will never bend to the throne. He turns to Xandra and blasts her. Watching on the monitors, Mentallo asks Brand if he can look away as watching Xandra being burned alive is too much, but she denies his request. She says they have to look at what they do, that's the price they pay for... she pauses, eyes going wide. She finishes her sentence with, "Oh no." Deathbird is smiling and Vulcan is shocked.

"Wonderful things, Shi'ar image inducers. They even do the voices. Xandra couldn't make it, Vulcan."





Yooooo! Vulcan threatens to burn Sunspot alive for this but 'Berto is all, "Will you? We both eat solar energy, remember." Try me, bro. "Find out which of us is hotter." Vulcan pauses then calls Berto a distraction from killing Xandra. He says if she's not here, he knows where to find her and flies off through the ceiling. Deathbird coyly reminds Roberto that Vulcan would have incinerated him but his bluff worked and besides, he's better looking than Vulcan and it's the moral victory that's important.

Vulcan arrives at the Autumn Palace, landing hard on the ground. He enters, lighting up everything around him, saying he can feel "Xandra Throne-Stealer" scratching at his mind. But then he stops mid sentence...

Vulcan: "You. I've been dreaming of this moment - this fight - since before I died."

The Goddess: "Really?"

[Jackraow21]

Another solid issue. Can’t wait for issue #10 and the battles that await!

22AA2621-6D05-4DB9-87F0-B0F132B102EB.jpg

“That’s right, John… better get your knife ready.”

Loving Ewing’s smartass Cable.

[Alex_Of_X]

Bless you, Jbenito!

And bless Ewing\Caselli for HOTberto~! Shiver me timbers, that's a hot splash

[OG Storm]

I am looking forward to all the fighting and Storm vs Vulcan is going to be epic.

[JB]

Bless you, Jbenito!

And bless Ewing\Caselli for HOTberto~! Shiver me timbers, that's a hot splash

My pleasure! It's so cool that him sitting on the throne is a callback to that cover we saw waaaaay back when.

So would I be correct in guessing that Storm knew of his plan and was making sure Xandra was secured at the Palace? Vulcan feels her presence so I assume she's there, and it would make sense that that's what Storm was doing when Frenzy last issue said she's unavailable to attend the meeting.

The fight is going to be legendary.

[Steroid]

Another fantastic issue from Ewing and I loved every bit of that Sunspot reveal.

[Taurean Sun]

We open with a data page, a letter from Xavier to the QC about Vulcan. It had originally been decided that Gabriel be moved to a place of tertiary importance in the resurrection queue due to his increasingly unstable behavior. However due to Magneto's death, Brand has pushed for the return of Vulcan to make up for the Omega shortfall. Xavier believes he can perform "telepathic surgery" on him to address his mental state. Ewing gives us a laugh when Xavier writers, "I would never alter a mutant's mind or memories - that would be the ultimate mental violation. I simply will not do it under any circumstances. (Barring cases of absolute necessity, of course.)" Hahahaha, good one.

We get the preview pages where they attempt to resurrect Vulcan while Xavier is trying out this telepathic surgery, Alex questions the trust in Xavier and sure enough it all goes to crap when Vulcan, on fire and naked, busts out of the egg having snatched his mind from Xavier's grasp.

We're now in the present, the diplomatic zone. Vulcan asks Deathbird about his son (yikes, he knows) and she responds that he's somewhere safe, away from him. Vulcan calls himself Emperor, questioning young Xandra's place on the throne. Gladiator tells him his days of Emperor were stricken from the official memory. Nova is annoyed that the Krakoans brought him back to begin with, and Frenzy explains that he had survived the Fault, what were they supposed to do with him? Nova says they should have fired him out of a cannon. They continue to exchange words and Vulcan absorbs Gladiator's energy, rerouting the electrical impulses from his enlarged prefrontal cortex, turning Gladiator thin and frail. Gladiator falls. Vulcan laughs.

Nova says Vulcan is hereby charged with crimes against sentient life under the Pan-Worlds Treaty (bless his heart.) He orders Vulcan to surrender but Vulcan mocks him as the "galaxy's last good cowboy" and absorbs his energy as well. Nova falls. Frenzy gets a punch in before she's blasted into a wall.

Mentallo and Brand are watching this play out on monitors and Brand mentions how she would have liked Frenzy in her inner circle, but Frenzy has morals and what not. Mentallo not so much, and he enjoys his inner circle paycheck. He says Frenzy cares about suckers and Brand mentions how she herself cares about everybody in the Sol System. "Somebody's got to. Somebody's got to care enough to be the bad guy." They watch as Vulcan blasts Paibok, possibly severing his arm.

Wiz-Kid is in the ship waiting around the World Farm, kinda bored, until two Progenitors (?) appear and identify his ship as a threat and announce that they will "end threat." Inside, Cable instructs the team to knock Orbis off-balance, and Thunderbird and Zsen attack his tendons. Cable shoots Orbis in the chest with his blaster and Orbis falls. He's not much of a fighter. Orbis' head detaches from his useless armored body and he awakens the three aliens that were in stasis (the ones that experimented on Vulcan way back when.) One of them targets Manifold and seems to take control of him, seemingly using Eden to open a portal. Cable tells Thunderbird to get his knife ready, as I guess beings are about to flood in through the portal? We shall see.

Back to the Diplomatic Zone battle. Vulcan is energetically suffocating Frenzy. Nova flies at him and gets kicked into a wall. Interestingly, Xandra looks quite bored, at one point with one leg up on the throne, and checking her nails at another point.

Deathbird tells Vulcan that it's not too late to stop this and she promises that this is not what he wants. Vulcan says he will never bend to the throne. He turns to Xandra and blasts her. Watching on the monitors, Mentallo asks Brand if he can look away as watching Xandra being burned alive is too much, but she denies his request. She says they have to look at what they do, that's the price they pay for... she pauses, eyes going wide. She finishes her sentence with, "Oh no." Deathbird is smiling and Vulcan is shocked.

"Wonderful things, Shi'ar image inducers. They even do the voices. Xandra couldn't make it, Vulcan."





Yooooo! Vulcan threatens to burn Sunspot alive for this but 'Berto is all, "Will you? We both eat solar energy, remember." Try me, bro. "Find out which of us is hotter." Vulcan pauses then calls Berto a distraction from killing Xandra. He says if she's not here, he knows where to find her and flies off through the ceiling. Deathbird coyly reminds Roberto that Vulcan would have incinerated him but his bluff worked and besides, he's better looking than Vulcan and it's the moral victory that's important.

Vulcan arrives at the Autumn Palace, landing hard on the ground. He enters, lighting up everything around him, saying he can feel "Xandra Throne-Stealer" scratching at his mind. But then he stops mid sentence...

Vulcan: "You. I've been dreaming of this moment - this fight - since before I died."

The Goddess: "Really?"

Another excellent issue Al Ewing simply cannot miss. Gave Roberto and vulcan time to shine. Gave big flaws to Abigails ambitious plans. And frankly made me more fond of both her and roberto. 10/10.

[Taurean Sun]

Another excellent issue Al Ewing simply cannot miss. Gave Roberto and vulcan time to shine. Gave big flaws to Abigails ambitious plans. And frankly made me more fond of both her and roberto. 10/10.

[Cyclone_Ablaze]

This ISSUE was FANTASTIC as ALWAYS!! Nice to see Vulcan is back to his senses before he gets his ASS WHOOPED yet again by Storm.

I am looking forward to all the fighting and Storm vs Vulcan is going to be epic.

Yup you know it.

[OWL45]

This is the Roberto that X Men fans missed when he was on the Avengers. Such a good character. Al Ewing kills it every month.

[JB]

Another fantastic issue from Ewing and I loved every bit of that Sunspot reveal.

At one point I was genuinely wondering why Xandra seemed so bored. I did not see that twist coming at all and it was glorious.

Another excellent issue Al Ewing simply cannot miss. Gave Roberto and vulcan time to shine. Gave big flaws to Abigails ambitious plans. And frankly made me more fond of both her and roberto. 10/10.

Agreed. Outstanding issue and I'm glad he gave Vulcan a lot of speaking time. He's not just a maniac looking to burn everything, he's a maniac with something to say. LOL

[Taurean Sun]

At one point I was genuinely wondering why Xandra seemed so bored. I did not see that twist coming at all and it was glorious.



Agreed. Outstanding issue and I'm glad he gave Vulcan a lot of speaking time. He's not just a maniac looking to burn everything, he's a maniac with something to say. LOL

Yeah he was actually thinking things through. And that was very fun to see. Hopefully he takes that energy into the next issue because storm really doesnt play when it comes to kids and he wants to kill a kid. Honestly I am afraid for vulcan if i am being honest.

[Kingdom X]

As per usual this book serves. This was more of a transition issue, but issue 10 is now set up to be an explosive conclusion.

I’m very interested to see where this book goes post SoS. Obviously whatever Fall of X is will be a huge influence, but I’m hoping that with Brand out of the way we can see more of the Voice of Sol elements come into play. Have the galactic politics serve as more of the A plot to Mars’ B plot.

[CoCoBandz]

Storm is there to kick ass and wear crowns...and she's through wearing crowns.

[Krakoa]

Felt like this was the worst issue of this series overall (which like, this is a great series, this would be a top-tier issue of a lot of other series). Compared to the other issues I didn't feel like a ton happened. Roberto's plan reveal was a little underwhelming, I thought it would be a little more exciting than "image inducer" (but the data page was great). We didn't get enough movement in the other plot lines really, definitely the most "filler"y feeling of this series.