A review by billyjepma
X-Men: Hellfire Gala - The Red Carpet Collection by Gerry Duggan, Jonathan Hickman, Al Ewing

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

There’s some solid stuff here—and the event is never better than when it leans into the playful pomp and circumstance—but it suffers from all the classic problems of a comic crossover, which dilutes the collection significantly. Part of the problem is with me, I acknowledge, considering most of the tie-ins here are less about the events of the Gala than they are continuations of the ongoing stories in their respective books. I can’t speak to the quality of those books, but the showings here range from fine to skippable, at best. 

Artwork is pretty stellar across the board, though, and the costuming alone made this something I’m glad I dove into, even if the storytelling in the tie-ins didn’t do much for me. Mileage will vary, but there’s no denying the genius of turning this premise into a proper event.