X-Men: Red #1
Arakko gains a new order in X-Men: Red #1, by writer Al Ewing, Artist Stefano Caselli, colorist Federico Blee, and letterer Ariana Maher. This book does an impeccable job setting up its story, but it doesn't really feel like it's the sum of its parts.
This one is a bit all over the place, but here's the first- as Storm deals with politics on the Great Ring, Magneto meets the Fisher King and builds a new home. Sunspot is working to build the Red Lagoon, a spaceport bar, but a fracas with Vulcan draws Thunderbird, Brand, and Cable into the mix. Change is coming to Arakko, and Brand suggests to Storm that the planet needs X-Men. Sunspot goes to Magneto to say the same thing, but Storm shows up and has a different idea.
This feels like a strange book. Ewing builds a lot of interesting plots in this first issue, but there's something off. It's been that way since his work on S.W.O.R.D. Ewing is a good writer, but he's just not cut out for the X-Men. There's nothing wrong with this book, per say, but there's a feeling that there's just something off about the way he writes it. It hits all the right spots, but there's no soul to it. It gives itself a reason to exist, but it's all just sort of there.
Hopefully, that will change because there are some glimpses of fire in the book, especially the parts between Thunderbird and Cable. Thunderbird is probably the most entertaining character in the book just because it's so great to have someone actively question anyone with the last name Summers. Ewing writes Vulcan oddly as if he was still the guy from "Rise And Fall Of The Shi'Ar Empire", which doesn't really fit with the character as written elsewhere in the Krakoa era. His Magneto is a stereotype of the character. Storm is kind of lifeless until the last page, questioning herself until she arrives at an answer, and his Sunspot tries to be as entertaining as the Hickman written one but never gets there. This isn't a bad book, and it works as an introduction, but there's nothing spectacular about it, which is a problem with a writer as good as Ewing.
Caselli's art is one of the best parts of the comic, but that goes without saying. His figure work is solid, the book's action looks pretty good, what little there is of it, and his character acting sells the scenes. If there's any problem with the art, it's that it's kind of pedestrian. Arakko is full of mutants that evolved differently from Earth, yet they all look basic. It would have been nice to see him experiment with that. Blee's coloring is good, but it's a little dark in places, which takes a bit away from the art.
X-Men: Red #1 is a good but not great book. It sets out its reason for existing, and the last page reveal is pretty cool, but other than that, Ewing has an unusual feel an X-Men book, almost like he's following the guide, but that's it. Caselli and Blee's art is pretty good, but it could be better. That feels like this book in a nutshell- it's good, but it could be better.
