X-Men Red #5 Review

Writer: Tom Taylor / Artist: Mahmud Asrar / Marvel Comics The best fiction mirrors reality. I’m sure that’s not an original thought but nothing immediately popped up when I Google’d it, so let’s pretend I made it up. X-Men: Red #5 was brought to our eyes this week. Tom Taylor’s story captures a potent tension felt across the globe. Jean Grey, dead for about as long as I’ve read comics, returns to a world in metaphysical turmoil. Animus and hate permeates the minds of the public, but she has a plan. Jean quickly learns the tide of hate is not halted without blood. The bigoted, Omega-Level telepath, Cassandra Nova is figuratively and literally infecting the minds of citizens and world leaders. Simmering anxiety burns into violent outrage. Sometimes the News is Ugly The themes seething through this comic are haunting. The X-Men dealing with anti-mutant propaganda is nothing new; in fact it’s their bread and butter. There’s a difference, though, between reading vague parallels with different civil rights movements and seeing terminology eerily similar to that used by people today. An interviewed man on cable news justifying a cold blooded murder of a minority was almost as disturbing as hearing Nova in my head persuading a president to oppress citizens in the name of “protecting [the] people”. The comic further echos the frustration of people who want peace and acceptance. The Red Team struggles with the obstacle of foreign sovereignty when a country is violating human rights. In…