#arakko

[rei-ismyname]

Loser Husbands have the wackest matching drip at the Hellfire Gala

Here's Chuck looking like an absolute fool and brushing Havok off. It's actually quite cruel.

Smug bastard. I wonder how many people think that X looks like a target. He looks like an Apple-brand pharaoh, but Mags is even worse.

I'm convinced this was Charles' idea, because this is the first time Mags has looked anything but fabulous in his entire life. Same white and gold colour scheme, but he somehow found a hat that looks worse than Party Cerebro. Normally cockblocking Havok is a move I'd support, but he and Chuck are being corrupt bastards here. Top hat with a gold band, an ill-fitting 3 piece suit, and an ugly cape. Embarrassing.

Here they are side by side being upstaged by a man who usually wears underwear and nothing else. Chumps.

I don't believe Jumbo Carnation was responsible for these abominations, but clearly some planning has gone into it as they match. It's gotta be Chuck. We know Mags changes into better clothing by the time he meets with Wanda, so at least he knows it.

He did just successfully spearhead the terraforming of Mars. Much better outfit for celebrating yourself in. I'm surprised they didn't wait until *after* The Hellfire Gala to proposition Namor. Sure, it's been a good first year for Krakoa, but they know Namor's mindset well and he's not going to be impressed by what they've achieved.

Terraforming Mars, on the other hand, is so impressive that not even Namor could turn his nose up. Maybe they didn't actually want him on the council because he's a very difficult person to get along with. That hasn't stopped them before, and Namor does have a lot of experience ruling. If so, they're probably just stroking his ego to keep him as an ally.

Atlantis did fall not very long after this so it's a little surprising he'd join the Avengers (who don't like him, to put it lightly) instead of joining his former allies who've gone intergalactic and have the ability to restore his kingdom. I miss The Submariner under the purview of the X-Office. He has more history with the FF and Avengers but I think he's more interesting when in the X-Men's orbit.

[karenxmenfan]

Ororo Munroe, Storm (5/x)

[vertigoartgore]

Krakoa era's Storm (with her very cool X-Men: Red look designed by Russell Dauterman) by artist Dima Ivanov (2022).

[marvelstars]

Magneto meets Fisher King

X-MEN RED #1 BY AL EWING & CASELLI

[evilhorse]

Never stare into the sun

(X-Men Red #18)

[insextras]

Apparently, there's an arakko mutant who can retcon you out of the story if he tastes your blood

Unfortunately, we will never hear about him again

I do wonder though, what would happen if someone was completely erased from existence and everyone's memory. Would that create some sort of paradox? Or would everything have happened the same but people just wouldn't remember the person who caused all of those events?

[ffverr]

When she started dropping titles like Daenerys Targaryen 😩

(S.W.O.R.D #6)

[garvgoyle]

Lactuca the Knower is the best character to come out of Arakko

[heckcareoxytwit]

Storm, Sunfire, Sunspot and the Arakki mutants gather around at Arakko-Mars during the aftermath of Blood Dawn the Arakki sparring ritual. The injured Sunspot tries to joke as a way of coping his pain from his ill-timed fight with a stronger Arakki mutant. He hopes that the Arakki mutants are not about to start another pain-based holiday. Bei the Blood Moon reminds him that Arakko lost its voice in Otherworld and now Redroot the Forest has finally returned to them. Cue to Bei's words, Sunfire manages to return Redroot with the help of Weaponless Zsen and Storm. After extracting Redroot from his chest, Storm helps to keep Sunfire alive by zapping his chest to jump-start his heart. Once Zsen had planted Redroot to the soil, Storm showers the Arakki mutant with rain to make her grow into normal size. Sunspot mentioned that he wallowed in self pity long enough and has a more important role to play. Bei says their pain will not be without purpose. Sunspot approaches Weaponless Zsen and tells her serving with her father (Fisher King) and aunt (Syzya of the Smoke) was an honor. Sunspot decides to relinquish his seat on the Night table and grants it to her so that he could go back to Earth and find his friends.

X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #120, 2024

[studyofx]

We've read a lot about them but we finally get our first look at the other denizens of Otherworld in X of Swords: Stasis! Once again beautifully created by @PepeLarraz !

Do you have a favorite of the Kingdoms of Otherworld?

[rei-ismyname]

Resurrection of Magneto Highlights 1

RoM is a book that loses something in the highlight format as the big moments are truly earned and impactful. There's an ongoing narration, dialogue or soliloquy running through each issue tying everything together and to truly give context I'd have to annotate it. Lucky for us, Al Ewing and Luciano Vecchio are masters and every panel serves as a coda for Storm or Magneto from SWORD and X-Men Red. This is easily my longest Highlights yet, there's just so much to say.

I wish I dreamt about Magneto

Ororo has a dream of a full page splash - Magneto, Max, saying 'I was wrong' surrounded by five of his iconic helmets. 3 red ones, bloody and facing towards the world. 1 black, 1 white upright behind his back. It's been quite a while since Uranos the Undying tore his heart out on Judgement Day but it's good to see Ororo has some measure of peace and love on Arakko with Craig of NASA.

She's the deuteragonist of RoM so she chooses to follow her dream and seek Max in the afterlife. Ororo shows up at Adam Brashear/The Blue Marvel's underwater base and asks for help with exactly that. He lampshades how bozos like Reed would deem it impossible and leads her to a portal. He's in the middle of explaining how dangerous it is and requires... we don't hear because Storm takes a running leap and YOLOs into it. Tarn the Uncaring and a who's who of Marvel cosmology are there to greet her. Tarn is insulted that Ororo has come for the guy who exploded his head, but as above, so below - he loves to talk and she outwits him.

Ashake is often obliquely referred to but very rarely directly, so it's lovely to see her magical ancestor here to help. As Ororo pets her black cat, Ashake confirms this is a place of magic. Symbols and metaphors are powerful here - something Mags could use help with in his current state. It's also connected to the Kabbalistic tree of life, but I'm not very knowledgeable about that.

Two redrawn and recoloured keystone moments of Max and Ororo's relationship down the bottom.

She resolved to see this through and her thought carries her towards the Sphere of Judgement. Unexpectedly a bunch of Dominions bar her path, though luckily the two mutants are too small to truly be of interest to them. Still, a single mortal arriving in Overspace is significant and they prompt her to ask questions. The face of Dominions are shown but it's still fairy tale rules. The most important thing she learns is about Enigma, though she doesn't know it at the time.

The Sphere of Judgement is hostile, everything is inverted. Lightning is red, the river is lava, clouds are black, everything is broken. She notices this spot from her dream and the charred frames of Max's five helmets still sit in blood. Magneto has been here for months by choice, bypassing the Waiting Room Wanda built but refusing to move on. He believes he deserves this.

Finally she reaches Magneto weeping blood in front of a wall of names. Everyone he ever killed and he's counting every one, remembering their name. He's judging himself, punishing, and doesn't think he deserves to leave.

He shares his greatest shames, his most recent cruelties. Worst, the ones he convinced himself was necessary. He's overwhelmed by the red in his ledger and in this place of judgement lashes out, flinging names off the wall at Ororo while naming the person. What snaps him out of it is the mention that something happened to Charles, heh.

'The no-place of his heart' 👌

Max turns the judgement on Ororo but she rejects it, calling him out for extending Charles the grace he won't extend to himself plus a little hypocrisy. Magneto has always been prone to drama and that tendency can hurt as much as it heals.

That really gets him going, but he's judging himself more constructively now. Love, friendship, accountability. The things that are keeping some part of tethered to the living world. He pulls one more name down to say the name aloud before he sends it at Ororo - it's his - Max Eisenhardt. Still, he cries 'it's out of our hands.' He truly wants to give up but I think a part of him knows his story isn't done.

Ororo disagrees. Displaying why she's the only person who could assist in the resurrection of Magneto, she covers his eyes and remembers the rules of this place. The wall of the dead becomes its opposite - the wall of the living. Not those he killed but those he saved. It's enough to pull him out of punishing himself. Neither group should be forgotten but he can choose to save life rather than take it - to change.

Torturing yourself in a personal hell might appease some of those dead, but accepting responsibility to the living should be what comes after judgement. Suffering helps no one, and as he says to Logan as he's about to kill Charles much later - 'no more martyrs.' Part of why I enjoyed Magneto identifying Logan Behavior is because he himself is the king of it. Charles too. All three are prone to martyrdom but dying is easy. It's living that's difficult and worthwhile. Secluding yourself from the world, whether it's in the Sphere of Judgement, a mega prison, or with a pack of wolves - is senseless and selfish. Living is better.

Next time - what does that actually mean for both of them and how do they get out of this place? It's not as simple as turning a key. Choosing to live is hard work. Metatextually, change and rebirth requires a tour of all that he is, all that he's done. What's the point of killing a character and then bringing them back the same as they were? Comic books do it all the time, but Magneto's long history is a study of opposites and extremes. He, the writer and the reader all need to deconstruct Magneto so he can be reconstructed as a better person. With the benefit of hindsight we know he succeeds, but what does that actually look like for him? 60 years of his oversized influence on the world is a lot and it only gets better from here.

[karenxmenfan]

Color Wheel Challenge - YELLOW: Khora of the Burning Heart from S.W.O.R.D.

[vertigoartgore]

2024's X-Men Vol.6 #33 (Legacy Numbering : Uncanny X-Men #698) trading card variant cover by Russell Dauterman & Matt Wilson.

[farsight-the-char]

With Loki's help, Thor completes an All-sleep in record time, and forged a new Axe Tormod from his helmet.

Now, plan formed, Thor begins assembling a Force of Thunder to battle Ur-Lightning, Toranos.

The First, shall be the Voice of Sol, Weather Witch, of Arakko and of Krakoa, Ororo of the Storm.

[marvelstars]

The Brotherhood of Arakko

X-MEN RED #1 BY AL EWING & CASELLI

[evilhorse]

Do you think your rules can still apply?

(X-Men Red #16)