One of the most powerful and fascinating details of the X-Men's current revival is that their new, ever-splintering yet still-idealistic nation is a home to everyone. Current X-Books have been pushed and pulled because of the chance for Mutantkind to regain some of the sins of the past.
The launch of X-men: Red focuses on Storm's new position as the Regent of Arrako. The ancient Arraki, who hailed from the living island, were among the Krakoans. Storm finds herself playing a balancing act between the people she has known most of her life and the new group of alien allies that she wants to represent as the new leader of this new world.
Storm's biggest problem is that she doesn't want to be seen as a Queen, but is forced to carry that mantle and represent it nonetheless. She invited this in the moves she made to help terraform Mars into the new home of Arrako. Storm has taken on the trappings and title of such a leader, no matter how many times she rebels and insists that she is simply the Regent. There is a throne on Arrako, and she sits on it as a queen, with the title of Voice of Sol giving her decisions the weight of rule, and her actions the responsibility of speaking for the entire people of Arraki and Krakoan alike.
Storm has an opportunity to speak for all of her people because of the issue that gives her an opportunity. How much she hates it. She destroyed her throne in a fit of rage and cast aside the mantle she had taken for herself, an act of rebellion against the expectations placed on her. It's not the only revolution Storm stages. She knows that if the red planet is to stand on its own for all its inhabitants, it needs a team.
The Brotherhood of Mutants rises once again, taking the title of villain for his agents and turning it into a point of rebellion. It is not the first time in this era of X-Comics that the new Mutant society has reclaimed a name associated with atrocities against Mutantkind: one of the most prominent Mutant forces on Krakoa is Captain Pryde and her Marauders. Recent rumors suggest that the X-Terminators are going to return as a group of hunters for their own rescue operations. The idea of reclamation and rehabilitation is part of the point of Krakoan society and an extension of Arraki society.
Storm taking that to heart and leading the united Arraki and Krakoan immigrants on Mars into forming a new Brotherhood of Mutants is not just biting her thumb at Brand. To highlight that Arrako is a different, independent world, a great turn for a character who has struggled to see who she is beyond the confines of Krakoa's own Quiet Council of leaders. She has worked with the Marauders and has been an X-Man. Her time as leader has evolved into something different, an act of rebellion to break the chains around her and be free to be who she really wants to be.
A new punk-rock look is reflective of her classic Mohawk era and a position among a Brotherhood of Arraki and Krakoans, fighting for their own world together. There are more things to be proud of than royalty.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
