X-Men Red #3 The Monster Under Aetna

This book’s thematic exploration of colonialism, politics, and the empathy of leadership continues beautifully in this issue. There’s fodder enough for an academic dissertation, but for the sake of a relatively spoiler-free review I’m only going to focus on one or two threads.

First, we get some new and tremendous insight into Magneto’s character and how very much he has changed since the foundation of Krakoa — especially in regards to humans as a species. After the foundation of The Waiting Room he discovered something about one of his children that rocked him, and his new friendship with The Fisher King is built on those new tectonic plates. 

Secondly, Ewing has built a beautiful metaphor around Vulcan. The mythological Vulcan was a Roman god who was perpetually wounded in the leg. He was a bit like Forge, in that he could invent literally anything, and he made his home under the brittle shell of a volcano. Ewing’s Vulcan is similar in a myriad of ways. This is a man whose true personality, and true power, is masked by a hard shell of ego and idiocy. There’s magma underneath, boiling away, fed from the heart of a force that Brand cannot comprehend. 

And, in her overweening hubris, Brand’s just let it loose. 

Luckily, Storm and Berto are there to keep her checked, if not in mate. 

The next few issues are going to be amazing. 

I cannot say enough good things about Stefano Caselli’s art. His line work positively sings with balanced nuance and power. I love that the women who appear in this story have such different features. That shouldn’t be rare enough a feat to warrant comment, but unfortunately it is in modern comics. Federico Blee and Fernando Sifuentes enrich each line with the perfect tincture of color and shade. This book is as much of a pleasure to look at as it is to read.

This book is a near-perfect mixture of poetry and visual art. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.