#arakko

[rei-ismyname]

Magneto arrives to save Iron Man

He's back and he's even hotter!

I LOVE his shit eating grin, rippling cape and muscles, and most of all his cunty posture. 'Hello Stark, check out these thighs.' It's true that his wife (Emma Frost, it's a sham thing but Tony catches feelings) sent Mags to rescue his dumb ass as he makes a huge mess in the Australian Outback, but this is a newly resurrected, kinder Magneto. I suspect he'd have done it anyway. For drama, if nothing else.

Tony only knew that one singular mutant was coming to bail him out. He didn't expect his 'nemesis' (citation needed) mainly because Tony was there when Magneto died on Arakko during Judgement Day. He's surprised, but not unhappy about it. Maybe. See, Mr Stark just had his shit kicked in, and he had hallucinations of the Master of Magnetism while knocked out.

T-Bag is feeling guilty about the whole Stark Sentinel situation (as he should. Not the first time Stark Sentinels have been made for genocide.) That guilt manifests with the face of Magneto, here to judge him. In a petulant reply to this most recent charge, Stark brings up some old shit ( X-Men #1 from 1963) but Mags has a zinger for him. Considering Stark's subconscious is doing all the talking, some part of him thinks he's just as bad as Silver Age Magneto. It's not a competition, but I think he's worse. Mr Military Industrial Complex Billionaire over here can fuck right off.

'The world doesn't need arms merchants' is both true and relevant. Tony has changed, he's been redeemed! Yet engines of death bearing his name are stalking the planet yet again and plan to purge it, having already carried out mutant genocide. Tony will never see any legal or social consequences for this, but perhaps he believes he deserves this judgement. I don't really care about Tony Stark, to be honest. I'm here for Magneto, and this is the war in Tony's subconscious when Max Eisenhardt arrives.

Mags isn't here to point fingers - he's here to save an ally. Red Elon Musk Feilong has a grudge over Arakko, and his fucking face when Mags doesn't know who he is delights me. I don't think Mags is being truthful - he SHOULD know who this ORCHIS clown is, but they've never met. He's been through a lot lately. Besides, they've got bigger fish to fry. Feilong has realised that the AI leopards are eating his face too, so they're on the same side for now and are stuck in a giant Iron Man suit without power.

Luckily, 'I am power.' Mags revitalises the monstrosity and rides to war with two billionaires. After he fucks up a ton of sentinels (a continuity error but whatever,) Nimrod sends one of his bodies (Madrox should sue) to stop them.

Mags is much more effective than the his last Nimrod fight, though he doesn't remember it. Nimrod is weak to Mysterium somehow so he makes the very problematic move of gassing Mags with Terrigen. WTF did he get that from? It's good to know Tony could have easily prevented IvX at any time. I'm sympathetic to everyone who had to deal with the rushed production schedule Fall of X received, but this is Looney Tunes shit.

Nimrod, you chump. You set yourself up for the 'awful lot of metal around here' Magneto classic. Speaking of metal, Mysterium just keeps getting better. SWORD did steal it from the Phoenix's clothes line, so whatever, it can do new stuff if it wants. It's alive, it loves Magneto, it hates Nimrod, and could take or leave Tony Stark. That's relatable. ORRRR, Jean is in the White Hot Room right now, after Moira stabbed her with a blightswill knife. She could be affecting the metal to get this Nimrod jerkoff. Sounds kinda silly - moving on.

Looney Tunes or not, I'm a sucker for Magneto hovering and saying dramatic shit. Preferably hurling vehicles around, but magic metal and a dickhead robot is close enough. Let it be known that Mags is the Mysterium Whisperer. Pretty obvious when you think about it, though his relationship with the miracle metal wasn't explored deeply.

Yes! Haha. Get Magneto'd, idiot! This Nimrod body is dead, as is the Mysterium and Tony's giant robot. Damn, they would have been useful. Anyway, bye losers! Mags has more fascist robots to kill in his wonderful cape. Thanks for fucking everything up only to help at the last minute. Enjoy the Outback (they don't, and Tony leaves a huge mess.)

[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

[farsight-the-char]

ARAKKO!?

Richard is still still on Arakko?

Also Hulkfam going full Barbarians, hell yeah.

What are you cooking, Man of Charts?

[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

[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]

2020's X-Men Vol.5 #13 (LGY : Uncanny X-Men #657) variant cover by artist Mahmud Asrar.

[marvelstars]

The Brotherhood of Arakko

X-MEN RED #1 BY AL EWING & CASELLI

[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?

[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

[comicwaren]

From X-Men Red Vol. 2 #018, “The Mended Land”

Art by Yildiray Çinar and Federico Blee

Written by Al Ewing