An Exceptionally Gorgeous Comic – X-Men: Red #8

[**Mild Spoilers Ahead for X-Men: Red #8!]
Cassandra Nova, with the help of a mind-controlled Forge, has launched a swarm of her nanite Sentinels to spread across the world from the desolate island of Genosha. Jean Grey’s X-Men: Red team responds from their base in Atlantis. Jean, Trinary, and Gabby make a joint effort to shut down the Sentinite swarm while Storm is sent to deal with Cassandra Nova herself. Will it be enough?

X-Men: Red has been the most consistently enjoyable X-Men team book to come out of the recent boom, though Astonishing, Blue, and Gold have all had their high points. This trend continues with this issue, as we are presented with a taut effort to bring down the devious Cassandra Nova once and for all.
One thing that Tom Taylor accomplishes here is making the psychic powers make some vague sense. Magic and psychic abilities are often the most esoteric and hard to grasp, but what Trinary and Jean Grey do in this issue to fight the Sentinites makes comic book sense.
Storm has the high point of the issue, and we are reminded how powerful Ororo Munroe truly is.
The climax involves Trinary and Jean Grey “using hate to fight hate” in a manner that may come off as exceptionally corny and may break the issue for some. I enjoyed it, but I’m pretty damn corny.

Carmen Carnero’s artwork is absolutely fantastic. The detailing is extensive and impressive, especially in the faces. Storm’s big moment is made all the more exciting by the majesty with which Carnero depicts Ororo’s power. Rain Beredo gives an impressively deep and engrossing color palette that really seals the deal on this being one of the most beautiful comics to come out this week, and that’s impressive considering both Clay Mann and Kelley Jones had books come out of DC this Wednesday.
X-Men: Red #8 begins to bring the Cassandra Nova plot to a close in a highly enjoyable, if at-times corny, climactic issue. Trinary and Storm get to be the power houses of the issue (though Storm is almost always a power house), and there is plenty of sincerity and optimism to grab onto in the story. Carmen Carnero and Rain Beredo succeed in making this an especially gorgeous comic book, and the overall experience earns a strong recommendation. I definitely suggest giving this one read.
This comic comes to us courtesy of writer Tom Taylor, artist Carmen Carnero, color artist Rain Beredo, letterer VC’s Cory Petit, cover artist Jenny Frisson, and variant cover artists Travis Charest with Tamra Bonvillain and Jamal Campbell.