The stakes continue to grow in X-Men Red #8 from Tom Taylor and Carmen Carnero as the final battle seems to be drawing closer. The X-Men finally make a move against Cassandra Nova who’s pushing her plan to infect people around the world with hatred. But as the X-Men prevent Nova’s plan from coming to fruition, she reveals she has other plans for how to handle them.

Summary

X-Men Red #8 opens with Cassandra Nova forcing Forge to send her nanite sentinels out into the world. Once released, they’ll infect millions of people with overwhelming hatred for mutants,. As word spreads from last issue that Jean Grey was innocent in the death of a British ambassador, the X-Men learn of Nova’s plan. They realize the only way to stop these new “sentinites” is a tried and true X-Men power mixing. Jean will link Trinary’s mind with Searebro and use Honey Badger’s healing ability to accept the strain on her brain to reach out and shut down all of the sentinites.

Nova uses that approach as a backdoor into Jean’s mind. The remaining X-Men manage to use this to track Nova’s location. Storm heads to Genosha to launch her own attack. As Storm does this, the entire team must come together to take the strain of Trinary reaching out to overload the sentinites with hatred.

This is where the issue gets a little preachy. Trinary has apparently absorbed all of the hatred she’s ever found online since her power manifested. We get a great double page spread from Carnero here, yet Taylor’s dialogue felt a little heavy handed in the scene. The team puts the sentinites down as Trinary uploads that hatred to them. And as Nova recovers from Storm’s attack she launches a back up plan against Jean’s team.

Creators

X-Men Red #8 continues to deliver on the dramatic story that Tom Taylor has set out to tell. He’s crafting a very engaging and necessary story for today’s world, as this team is truly adopting the original mission of the X-Men. He’s done a great job showing how the X-Men can fight bigotry in the modern world. However, this issue is the only one that has struck me as a bit over the top in it’s message. I’m still eagerly looking to see where Taylor takes the book, and there was only one scene that felt a little too much through the whole issue.

Carmen Carnero’s pencils are fantastic in this issue. She does a great job showing emotions through all the X-Men. We get just a hint of what she can do with action scenes. And from the ending here I’m assuming we’ll see more of that next issue. Carnero has been a really great addition to the book. Her clean lines and heavy detail are exactly what a title like this needs.

Final Thoughts

Tom Taylor is building to something big in X-Men Red #8. The series has been more focused on the drama and message of the X-Men, and this issue continues that slow build. At times it’s a little over the top but this series continues to be a great addition to the X-Men line. Beautiful art from Carmen Carnero helps to add to how great this series is. This has been a very slow build, but as the series seems to be reaching its end I’m sure it’ll finish in an amazing way.

Final Grade: B