X-Men: Red vol. 4

WAR HAS COME TO ARAKKO!  On one side is Genesis, the former ruler of the Arakki people, come to reclaim them from what she, and the whispering Annihilation staff, see as the weaknesses they have incurred on their time in this plane.  On the other are Storm and her Brotherhood, determined to show these mutants a better way than endless warfare in service of the idea that only the strong should survive.  Both sides have immensely powerful warriors on them, meaning that this war will not come down to simple brute strength, but who is the most clever amongst them.  Either that, or whoever can get their hands on the trigger that will let a certain Eternal out for an hour to annihilate their opposition.

It can be tricky to capture the scale of a planetary war, but Ewing and artist Yildray Cinar show themselves to be up to the task here.  They’re both very good at switching between the large-scale conflicts between sides, and the smaller person-to-person scenes involving the planning of how to win things.  Even better is that they convey a real sense of struggle between both sides where it never feels like one truly gets the upper hand over the other.  Which leads to a story with some clever twists, interesting uses of powers, and actual personal stakes that feel like they mean something.  You get all this, and further proof of Storm’s all-around badassery.

What you don’t get is a sense of what has changed for the Arakki people.  Ewing has been doing his level best in this series to portray them as a more rounded group that isn’t solely focused on proving their worth through combat.  Genesis’ arrival in the previous volume felt like it was meant to herald a genuine challenge to all that; but, in the end it feels like she was just another villain that needed to be stopped.  Seeing that done in this volume was undoubtedly satisfying.  It’s just that you’re left feeling like the real challenge here was sidestepped.  We’re still left with a good story, but one where you’re left feeling that things could’ve been even better than what we got.