X-Men Red

X-Men Red
Cover to X-Men Red #1, art by Travis Charest
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Publication date	(vol. 1) February–December 2018[1] (vol. 2) April 2022– present
No. of issues	(vol. 1) 11 (vol. 2) 15 (as of September 2023)
Main character(s)	See below
Creative team
Written by	(vol. 1) Tom Taylor (vol. 2) Al Ewing
Artist(s)	(vol. 1) Mahmud Asrar (vol. 2) Stefano Caselli

X-Men Red is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring characters from X-Men stories.

The first series was an eleven-issue comic book series published by Marvel Comics in monthly installments between February and December 2018. It was written by Tom Taylor and illustrated by Mahmud A. Asrar. The book followed a new team of X-Men led by Jean Grey following her return in Phoenix Resurrection.

The second series featured the conflicting mutant factions on the terraformed Mars, renamed as Planet Arakko.

X-Men Red is part of the X-Men franchise and a sister book to X-Men Gold and X-Men Blue, which began ten months earlier. It follows events from the December 2017 miniseries Phoenix Resurrection: The Return of Jean Grey written by Matthew Rosenberg and illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu.^[2] The series was promoted as part of Marvel's Fresh Start, a full company relaunch of publications.^[3] The first issue, released February 7, 2018, was written by Tom Taylor and illustrated by Mahmud Asrar. It was available in ten different variant covers.^[4] Taylor's initial plans for the series did not involve any crossovers with other comic series.^[5]

Jean Grey, a character recently resurrected after being dead for over a decade, assembles a new team with the intent to create a mutant nation.^[6] Her initial allies are Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Honey Badger, Gentle, Trinary, and Namor.^[5][7] They use Atlantis as their headquarters.^[8] After she attempts to convince the UN to recognize the mutant race as a nation with full human rights, Jean is framed for murder of an English congresswoman who is psychically murdered by a resurfaced Cassandra Nova, who uses this to alienate Jean in the public eye and label her a fugitive. Jean's team is thereby forced to act in secret as she continues in her goal to "heal the world".

An annual was published in May 2018 to detail the events between Phoenix Resurrection and X-Men Red #1.^[5]

As part of the X-Men relaunch post-House of X, a second volume of the title written by Al Ewing was published under the banner Destiny of X and is a successor to Ewing's S.W.O.R.D. series.^[9]

These characters are credited as main cast in the respective comics.

X-Men Red was formed by Abigail Brand for control and to police planet Arakko.

Brotherhood of Arakko was formed by Storm as an opposition to X-Men Red and they fought against Genesis' army during the Genesis War.

Great Ring of Arakko is the governing body of planet Arakko.

Prior to publication, the series generated interest for starring Grey, a character who was killed nearly 15 years earlier in New X-Men #150.^[8][10][11]

According to review aggregator Comic Book Roundup, the debut issue received an average score of 8.2 out of 10 based on 33 critical reviews.^[12]

In a review for Newsarama, David Pepose praised the plot of the book for its focus on the coexistence of humans and mutants, which he said was the main premise of the X-Men franchise.^[13] IGN reviewer Jesse Shedeen agreed, saying the "franchise has a bad habit of ... losing sight of the mutant metaphor and its allegorical power", but was glad X-Men Red makes it a primary focus.^[14]

Although they found Asrar's art to be flawed but adequate, both of them liked Taylor's portrayal of Grey and her supporting cast.^[13][14] Pepose specifically liked that Grey was a leader instead of a symbol, love interest, or target.^[13]

• Official site