Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: black panther, cassandra nova, gabby, gentle, Jean Grey, laura kinney, mahmud asrar, Marvel Comics, namor, nightcrawler, Rain Beredo, sci-fi, sentinels, storm, superheroes, Tom Taylor, wolverine, x-men, x-men red

X-Men Red #4 Review: The Rise of Ab-Lantis

Jean Grey's X-Men team returns to Wakanda with the Sentinel controlled by Trinary, but they are immediately attacked by Storm. Jean detects that someone has taken over Storm. If they survive this encounter, they will need to free Storm, discover how she is being controlled, and stop further attacks from falling upon Wakanda.

Tom Taylor and Mahmud Asrar deliver another compelling issue of X-Men Red with the comic's fourth installment. Once more, the story flows well, the characters are entertaining, and the social allegory is interesting.

While it does touch on the idea of social media influencing mass opinion, it actually takes a step away with a new concept to X-Men comics, "the Sentinites." While the name is a bit pained, it does serve as an interesting metaphor for social media abuse and its ability to cultivate hate or even self-hate.

Also, Laura and Gabby finally call Namor out on walking around in the fish-scale speedo. They convince him to put on a badass teal suit and tell him that he could show off "ab-lantis" again later. This is one of the best single lines in comic, as you could guess.

Mahmud Asrar's artwork continues to impress, especially when we finally get to see the full team assembled with their X-Men Red artwork. The stylized aesthetic lends itself to motion and visual expression. There are some panels where the faces can look oddly shaped and a couple of instances where the panel sequencing and layout can look weird, but these are rare and don't take away much from the comic's visuals. Rain Beredo's color work is bright, well balanced, and catches the eye well, especially when the new costumes are shown off.

X-Men Red #4 continues to be the tightly scripted and well paced king of the current X-title pile. This issue continues to take the story in interesting directions and assembles a badass lineup of X-Men to battle an aptly devious villain. This comic earns a recommendation. Give it a read.

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