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Sep 23

X of Swords: Creation #1 annotations

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 by Paul in Annotations

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

X OF SWORDS: CREATION
“X of Swords, Chapter 01”
by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia

X OF SWORDS. Welcome to the big crossover event of 2020. It runs through every X-book for the next couple of months (aside from the Juggernaut miniseries), and this is one of several one-shots dotted along the way – the next one will be X of Swords: Stasis, due out at the end of October.

As with Powers of X, the title is a Roman numeral, and you’re meant to call it “Ten of Swords”. It’s a tarot reference, but we’ll get to that.

COVER / PAGE 1. In the background, the Original Horsemen; the main group of Summoner, Cable, Apocalypse, Prestige, M and the Beast; and in the foreground seem to be some of the hordes of Arenth.

PAGE 2. The epigraph is a line from Saturnyne, the Omniversal Majestrix and ruler of Otherworld from Excalibur – somewhat surprisingly, the big X-books event turns out to come not from the pages of X-Men, but from Excalibur. I’m not sure Saturnyne exactly owns the magical dimension of Otherworld, but she certainly rules it.

The small print reads “Otherworld”, “Arakko” and “Dryador Falls”, all of which we’ll come back to.

PAGES 3-4. The Horsemen and their forces besiege Del Di’Lorr.

The Horsemen. If you’re just joining us, previous issues of Hickman’s X-Men have established that in ancient times, Krakoa was part of a single island called Okkara; that demonic monsters invaded; that Apocalypse led the battle against them; but that at the end, the island was split in two, with one half becoming Krakoa and the other half becoming Arakko. A whole bunch of ancient mutants on Arakko wound up trapped in the bleak, demonic dimension of Arenth, including Apocalypse’s wife Genesis and their four children, who are the original Four Horsemen. The people of Arakko have been at war with the rest of Arenth ever since. Genesis is believed to have died, and the Horsemen are now in charge and (evidently) leading an invasion. They appear to be marching through Otherworld to Krakoa – we get more on the cosmology later, but Excalibur had already established that there’s a path from Krakoa to Arakko via Saturnyne’s dimension of Otherworld.

We’ve seen glimpses of these Horsemen several times, but this is the first time we’ve seen them speak at any length. The one with the flaming head is War; we haven’t strictly speaking established the names of the others, but it seems a reasonably safe bet that the guy with the scythe is Death (especially given his dialogue on page 4). The one covered in bandages is evidently Pestilence (we’ll see later that their arrow makes the king’s messenger to Saturnyne diseased). So the sarcophagus-looking one must be Famine.

Dei Di’Lorr. The city is new, as is the Kingdom of Dryador (of which it forms part). A dryad is a wood-nymph, so it’s probably got something to do with that.

PAGE 5. The King of Dryador sends a messenger to Saturnyne.

In X-Men #12, Summoner related the history of Arakko to Apocalypse and mentioned in passing that others from Arakko “sought out a different kind of salvation”. The accompanying panel showed people dressed exactly like the soldiers here, implying that these people are some sort of splinter group from Arakko. However, as we’ll see later, Summoner is a very unreliable source.

The Starlight Citadel is Saturnyne’s palace, as seen prominently in Excalibur. We’ll get to the cosmology shortly, but basically, Otherworld appears to be a number of smaller kingdoms (such as Avalon), all ultimately answerable to Saturnyne as the overall ruler. The kind of Dryador is sending a warning up the chain of command.

PAGE 6. The Horsemen mortally wound the messenger.

As we’ll see, he gets there anyway.

PAGES 7-8. Credits and recap. For the first time, the design has changed to include colour, and there’s no Krakoan text on the credit page. Both pages have small print reading “Creation Crossover”, which speaks for itself. Page 7 also has the “Mutants of the world unite” text which usually appears on X-Men‘s credits.

The “recap” just spells out the status quo established in House of X.

PAGE 9. Saturnyne receives the messenger.

Saturnyne is taking the typical Marvel cosmic role of a character who isn’t doing conventionally heroic things because her focus is on a much bigger picture. She doesn’t seem remotely bothered by the dying messenger, but she’s very trouble by the fall of Arakko.

Note that the messenger says that Arakko has fallen – not Dryador or Del Di’Lorr. The “Tower” he’s referring to may not be the one we saw in his own city.

The two aides with Saturnyne were previously seen in Free Comic Book Day: X-Men. The minotaur guy is Quaddeus Quo, and the fish-like woman is named later in the issue as Ryl.

PAGES 10-12. Quaddeus Quo summons up a creature for Ryl.

This is a reprint of the first three pages of Free Comic Book Day: X-Men, with a slight tweak to the last line of dialogue that doesn’t really change the meaning. Apparently they’re gathering some sort of creature to be used in making an as-yet-unexplained device for Saturnyne to use. According to promotional art for X of Swords, the other two characters accompanying Ryl and Quaddeus are called Sinner Rose and Temple.

Summoners. X-Men #2 and #12 establish that Arakko and Arenth have magical Summoners who can summon and control demons. Quaddeus Quo appears to be another Summoner, or at least to have some sort of vaguely comparable power – at any rate, the use of the word “summon” to describe what he does is unlikely to be a coincidence.

PAGE 13. Data page about the Starlight Citadel. This largely speaks for itself, in terms of describing the Citadel.

“[W]hen the original Captain Britain Corps was destroyed”. In New Avengers vol 3 #30, another Jonathan Hickman story.

The Priestesses of the White. Previously introduced in Excalibur. For present purposes, basically Saturnyne cultists. A more moderate group, the Priestesses of the Green, also exists, but isn’t defending the Citadel.

The External Gate. A gate from Krakoa which Apocalypse created in Excalibur #12, using the life force of four of the Externals (ancient immortal mutants who we don’t need to worry about because they’ve been turned into power stones).

PAGES 14-15. Saturnyne receives her newly forged device, and starts her tarot reading.

More reprint from Free Comic Book Day: X-Men. The newly forged device seems to be some sort of thing for helping to tell the future using tarot cards – I guess?

PAGES 16-20. Saturnyne reads the Tarot cards.

These pages are reprinted from Free Comic Book Day: X-Men, but some of the dialogue has changed.

Judgment. My tarot knowledge is pretty superficial, but this card is usually about rebirth and second chances. Traditionally, it would depict the Christian scene of the Resurrection at the Last Judgment. The card here shows Apocalypse with Summoner; presumably Apocalypse is getting his second chance to save Arakko, which seems to be a matter of genuine concern to him.

The original text read: “Finality. An irrevocable change. From here, there is no going back. Surrendering to rebirth is the only path ahead.” The new text stresses rebirth and the fact that the mutants are now engaging in wholesale resurrection, which absolutely cannot go well.

The Four of Wands. Obviously, the Four Horsemen causing devastation. Normally the Four of Wands is seen as a positive card, with connotations of harmony and the good results of hard work – given their behaviour in earlier scenes, perhaps that’s how the Horsemen would see it. Also, here they seem to be fighting the monsters of Arenth, not leading them. The original text read: “The labours of a community – a family. Coming together for a black ceremony. A baptism of blood.”

The Hanged Man. A card open to various interpretations (tarot wouldn’t have lasted so long if it was ever specific enough to be falsifiable, after all). The traditional image shows someone being hung upside down, which sometimes means a traitor’s execution, but is also sometimes equated with Odin suspending himself from a tree to gain knowledge. Means whatever you want, really.

The interesting thing here is that not only has the text changed from Free Comic Book Day: X-Men, but so has the art. The art shown here has Siryn, Archangel and Polaris in the front row, Beast, Rictor, Rockslide, Summoner and Havok in the second row, and Apocalypse in the foreground. This is the team that accompany Apocalypse into Otherworld later in the issue, minus M. However, the original art had Banshee in Siryn’s place, Glob Herman in Rockslide’s, and M in Summoner’s. Make of that what you will.

The original text was “Sacrifice? Curious. Can any of them be trusted to throw themselves on the pyre of change?”

The Eight of Cups. Apparently indicates changes of affection, and breaking with the past. According to Summoner’s highly-unreliable flashback in X-Men #12, the woman on the left side of the picture is Apocalypse’s long-lost wife Genesis, and the woman on the right is the evil queen of Arenth, Annihilation. The original text read “Disillusionment. Abandonment. That which was once the harmonious lifting of voices is now a mocking echo – then silence.”

The Ten of Swords. The Ten of Swords is the tarot card that shows somebody with a bunch of swords in his back. You know, that one. Unsurprisingly, it’s a bit ominous.

Naturally enough, it represents the X-Men. In the foreground are Cable, Apocalypse, Wolverine, Magik and Captain Britain, all wielding swords. There are five more shadow figures in the background, two of whom are obviously Storm and Magneto; the others are less clear. The original text read “Betrayal. Betrayed. By those you would show your back. A loss, but an expected one. One always expects a sunset hours after the dawn.”

This concludes the reprint section.

PAGES 21-22. Data pages. Tarot explains the tarot reading we’ve just seen (and which she’s drawn independently).

Tarot is a member of the original Hellions, the opposite numbers to the original New Mutants. Her power is to bring the images on her tarot cards to life, but she was also quite keen on using them the conventional way.

“The Xorn brothers.” The two Xorns are Chinese – this is not the place to get into the horrible continuity trainwreck that led to there being two of them. Four is an unlucky number in China because it sounds very similar to the word for “death”.

PAGES 23-24. Summoner returns through the External Gate with a monster and a badly injured Banshee.

In X-Men #12, Apocalypse sent Summoner through the portal to deliver a message to Arakko, accompanied by Banshee and Unus the Untouchable. As we’ll see, Summoner has double-crossed them and is luring Apocalypse into bringing a bigger force.

Normally only mutants can pass through the Krakoan gates, but Summoner’s giant monster can get through. That’s not good news.

The three characters waiting by the gate are Rockslide (the rock guy), Prestige from X-Factor and Magma from New Mutants.

PAGE 25. Banshee is brought to the Healing Gardens.

The doctor is the Healer, once the in-house medic of the Morlocks. He’s been seen regularly serving as a doctor on Krakoa, and for some reason chooses to keep his old tattered costume.

PAGES 26-32. The Quiet Council meet.

In case you’re new, this collection of heroes and villains is the unaccountable ruling body of Krakoa. Apocalypse is a member, which is why his chair is empty. The other members are Professor X, Magneto, Mr Sinister, exodus, Mystique, Storm, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, Sebastian Shaw, Emma Frost and Kitty Pryde. This is the first time we’ve actually seen Kitty attend a meeting. Cypher, in the background, is serving as Krakoa’s translator, but is not actually a member of the Council.

“We recently constructed an External Gate on the Arakko remnant that joined with Krakoa.” The Arakko remnant showed up and joined with Krakoa in X-Men #2. The Gate was constructed in Excalibur #12. As Magneto points out, there is no “we” here – Apocalypse acted on his own. Apocalypse makes two arguments in response to that. The first is somewhat tendentious – Council permission isn’t generally required to make gateways. This is true, but this is not a normal gateway. The second is more compelling – Krakoa wants it there.

Krakoa. We established back in Powers of X #4 that Krakoa really wants to be reunited with Arakko. Its dialogue with Cypher on page 27 is exactly what you’d expect from context: “Well?” “I acknowledge and accept the gift of the External Gate.” “Really? That’s it?” “Yes!”

Krakoa’s second speech is “You need to understand, you are guests here. Our co-existence is collaborative and wonderful but I am the land. And the land is mine.” Note that Cypher adds the line “It’s a union of shared interests” – it’s possible this is just artistic licence due to the size of the Krakoan font, and that we’re meant to assume that Cypher’s version is the accurate one.

Its third speech is “Unless there is a known, greater threat (sic), the gate stays open.”

By the way, as best as I can tell, Krakoa’s dialogue in Powers of X #4 was gibberish even in translation.

Apocalypse’s flashback on page 27 is a straightforward recap of the origin of Arakko as seen in Powers of X #4, Summoner’s arrival in X-Men #2, and his role in Excalibur #1-12.

Summoner’s flashback is a complete fiction, as we’ll see later – though Unus really is a prisoner.

Nightcrawler’s list of villains. Homines Verendi are an anti-mutant group from Marauders. The Flower Cartel are a drug cartel from Wolverine. Xeno are the anti-mutant organisation from X-Force. Mystique chips in to add Orchis, seen principally in House of X and also in X-Men – Mystique has a particular interest in them because she’s been strung along in anti-Orchis missions with the promise of her wife Destiny eventually being restored.

Kitty Pryde is “the only person in this room who hasn’t walked through a gateway” because, for some reason, her powers don’t interact with them properly – this is a central plot point of Marauders.

The other gate to Otherworld was established in early issues of Excalibur. As Apocalypse acknowledges, it provides a portal to Avalon. His argument for needing a larger gate is that Krakoa doesn’t have full control over it – which isn’t really an answer. Why would that be a good thing? Not unreasonably, several members of the Council promptly argue for destroying the second gate, since it’s a security breach and it isn’t even needed in order to mount a rescue mission to Otherworld. That motion passes – the dissenters appear to be Apocalypse, Marvel Girl, Storm, Kitty and possibly Mystique (I can’t quite tell if that’s her arm of part of Exodus’s costume).

PAGES 33-34. Apocalypse’s group of volunteers gather by the External Gate.

The group are:

  • Polaris from X-Factor, here at the request of her father Magneto.
  • Havok from Hellions, here at the request of his brother Cyclops.
  • Rockslide, who was ill-advisedly befriending Summoner in X-Men #11-12.
  • The Beast, from X-Force, who usually has ulterior motives these days and dodges the question of why he’s there.
  • Rictor from Excalibur. As Archangel points out, Rictor has been clearly enthralled by Apocalypse in that book.
  • Archangel, who was turned into a Horseman by Apocalypse back in the 80s.
  • Siryn, who is Banshee’s daughter and has the most obvious reason to be here.
  • M, who has no discernible reason to volunteer, but suggests that she has an interest in the “job”. Saturnyne started out as a normal human, so does M have her eyes on the job?

PAGES 35-37. Data pages on the cosmology of Otherworld – basically, the Starlight Citadel in the middle, ten sub-worlds around it, and links to Krakoa on one side and Arakko on the other. Most of these are new.

Dryador Rift. The gap between Arakko and Otherworld proper. Previously mentioned in passing in X-Men #2.

The Floating Kingdom of Roma Regina. Apparently referring to Roma, the daughter of Merlyn and at one point the character who used to be depicted as Saturnyne’s equal or superior. She originally comes from Captain Britain’s back story and was brought into the fringes of the X-books in the late 80s, where she helped the X-Men start new lives in Australia.

Infuri the Evergorge. Apparently ruled by something called Forgemaster Federal – Fury 005. The Furies were anti-superhero robots from 80s Captain Britain.

Avalon is exactly what it sounds like. Currently ruled by Apocalypse’s puppet Monarch (Jamie Braddock) following early issues of Excalibur – however, King Arthur had inexplicably vanished before Excalibur #1, a plot thead that remains unresolved.

Sevalith, Mercator, Hothive and Blightspoke all seem to be entirely new. Mercator’s spot colouring suggests it’s particularly significant.

The Holy Republic of Fae is apparently the current kingdom of Roma’s father Merlyn, responsible for empowering Captain Britain.

The Crooked Market is apparently ruled by the 80s Captain Britain villain Mad Jim Jaspers, or perhaps a counterpart from another world. He’s a dangerously powerful reality warper. In the original storyline he created something called the Crooked World, and the Crooked Market is obviously named in reference to that.

PAGE 38. Prestige and Cable try to read Banshee’s mind.

PAGE 39. Apocalypse and Archangel exchange words.

PAGES 40-41. Apocalypse is horrified by the sight of Otherworld and approaches his children.

PAGE 42. Prestige and Cable read Banshee’s memories.

PAGES 43-45. The Horsemen and Summoner turn on Apocalypse.

In X-Men #12, Summoner suggested that in one interpretation of his people’s history, Apocalypse had betrayed them and wilfully dumped them in the hellish dimension of Arenth. The suggestion seems to be that this is indeed what the Horsemen and Summoner believe, and they’re out for revenge.

PAGES 46-47. Cable and Prestige learn that Summoner betrayed Banshee; Saturnyne intervenes to give them a steer.

PAGE 48. Saturnyne decides not to intervene in the big fight.

Standard cosmic character behaviour.

PAGES 49-50. Summoner kills Rockslide.

In X-Men #11-12, Summoner lured Rockslide into playing a game to explore each other’s vulnerabilities. He learned that Rockslide’s true form is an energy being inside his rock shell, and thus how to kill him for real – which is what he apparently does here.

PAGE 51. Cable goes to Cyclops and Marvel Girl for help.

The Summer House is the Summers Family’s home on the Moon.

PAGES 52-53. Havok and Polaris lose patience with Saturnyne’s failure to help, and attack the Citadel.

PAGE 54. Cyclops leads Cable and Marvel Girl to the object that Saturnyne showed.

They’re breaking into a facility belonging to AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics), beating up the henchmen and using their teleporters. Presumably – it’s possible that the AIM guys are already unconscious when they arrive but that doesn’t make much sense.

PAGES 55-56. Saturnyne finally gets involved and freezes time.

PAGE 57. Cyclops explains what the thing is.

As we’ll see later, they’re aboard the Peak, the orbiting (and apparently abandoned) headquarters of SWORD, the alien-focussed sister organisation of SHIELD.

The sword which Cable uses as a power source is the Light of Galador, a Spaceknight artefact which he picked up in Cable #1.

PAGES 58-64. The contest is announced.

Saturnyne treats Death as the acting regent of Dryador (on the basis that he conquered it by killing the previous government) and gets him to agree to a challenge. In three days, the champions of Arakko will duel the champions of Otherworld, who are going to be the X-Men whether they like it or not. Each side then lists ten swords which they’re apparently going to hunt down in advance of this big fight. Most of these are new, but a few are not:

  • The Twilight Blade is the sword that was used in the original attack on Okkara, and apparently had something to do with the death of Genesis. It may be the same thing as the Twilight Sword used by Surtur in Thor.
  • Muramasa is the only blade to appear on both lists, and presumably refers to the Muramasa Blade which appeared prominently in Wolverine: Origins.
  • The Sword of Might is one of the artefacts involved in empowering Captain Britains.
  • Grasscutter is a sword of the Japanese god Amatsu-Mikaboshi; Hickman used it in a Secret Warriors story in 2010, in which it was seemingly destroyed.
  • Godkiller is Grasscutter’s flawed sister sword, destroyed at the same time.
  • Warlock could simply be a reference to the former New Mutant, currently disguising himself as Cypher’s weapon arm.
  • The Light of Galador is already in Cable’s possession.

PAGE 65. Data page about the Peak’s mysterious shutdown. It became incommunicado three weeks ago and nobody knows what’s going on. The small print includes the words “Invasion” and “Brand” (referring to SWORD’s leader Abigail Brand).

PAGE 66. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: A NEW DEATH.

Bring on the comments

  1. Chris V says:

    Death also looks to be Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead.

  2. SanityOrMadness says:

    Yay, 23 issues of fetch quest!

    “Kitty” Pryde?

    Wasn’t the Muramasa Blade destroyed in Tom Taylor’s All-New Wolverine series? (Where Muramasa was still alive and made armour for X-23).

    The Twlight Blade shouldn’t be anything to do with Surtur’s sword – Surtur forged that in the present day at the start of Simonson’s Thor run, destroying Beta Ray Bill’s original homeworld in the process.

    Wasn’t SWORD shut down a while back and replaced with a new version of Alpha Flight?

  3. Joseph S. says:

    The Peak reveal was less of a surprise, as Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti’s S.W.O.R.D. was just announced for December (and in the X-office).

  4. Allan M says:

    Re: page 19 (Ten of Swords), that looks like Gorgon in back-left – flowing long hair, swords, long billowy clothing. And the centre-back has to be Doug/Cypher – he’s got the jacket, we know that Warlock’s one of the swords, and Doug wielding a techno-organic sword in all the promo art. I think back-far right is Brian Braddock with the Sword of Might. He receives it in Excalibur #6, has Betsy (and then Rictor) bury it in #7 but it’s evidently coming back. And Betsy’s wielding her psychic sword. My guess is that Gorgon ends up with both Grasscutter and Godkiller, hence the two swords, while Betsy sticks with her powers’ sword.

    Brand quits the space-centric version of Alpha Flight during Empyre Avengers Aftermath, hence she’s back with SWORD.

  5. Jerry Ray says:

    Abigail Brand also had a cameo foreshadowing a new status quo for her at the end of one of the Empyre epilogue books a few weeks back.

  6. Jerry Ray says:

    Ah – beat me to it while I was reading. 🙂

  7. Mikey says:

    This was a total mess. Why am I supposed to care about numerous armies of brand new characters with very confusing origins? What does any of this magical nonsense have to do with mutants?

  8. Ben says:

    Not a bad beginning, even if I dropped Excalibur and aren’t exactly invested in all this.

    Tye X if Swords crew- the guy in the far left is definitely Gorgon. Which makes sense since I think at one point he had Godkiller/Grasscutter.

    Less verifiable- the middle guy looks like Cypher’s current jacket and pouches costume. I zoomed in on a digital picture and it looks like the sword is black with gold lines= Warlock.

    No idea on the right person.

    You would also assume Storm gets Skybreaker.

    If he didn’t already track as evil, Summoner riding back on Cthulhu was probably a sign.

    I like how much Monet has gotten used lately.

  9. Chris V says:

    It seems like it would make a really popular video game.

  10. J. Lipton says:

    I quite liked 90s Excalibur, and I know I read some of the early issues as well, but I must confess: I am drawing a terrible blank on a lot of the Captain Britain, Saturnye, Otherworld lore. If this is going to be of such crucial importance to the X-Men story, I hope Marvel kindly considers putting together some sort of Graphic Novel to get people up to speed.

  11. sagatwarrior says:

    To be honest, the X-Men has rarely ventured into realm of magical beings. The closet I remember is when they had to fight the Adversary and went into the Siege Perilous with the help of Roma, which was during the Australian Outback era. Since then, the 1988 vol. 1 Excalibur dealt with magical beings, parallel and alternate universes. But that went out of vogue during the late 1990s, early 2000s, where the main appeal of the X-Men came from the Bryan Singer movies. So far, I’m not seeing the bigger connection to Powers of X, and the future that it shows.

  12. Daly says:

    This issue was AMAZING!! A feast !

  13. Luis Dantas says:

    Calling Roma “Roma Regina” implies that she is in some sense a Queen (latin word for Queen). I wonder if we will be told why she and Merlyn are apparently in separate domains.

  14. Chris V says:

    I think what is missing in this story is that even though the X-titles have wandered in to the realm of fantasy fiction in the past, the stories were almost always first and foremost about characterization.

    -Inferno was about the Scott, Jean, Madelyne Pryor relationship.
    Even though the enemies were a bunch of demons, even they seemed to have individual personalities. I thought S’ym and N’astirh were interesting, in their own right.

    -Fall of the Mutants was the story of Forge and Storm. They were being tempted with the chance to start everything over, and hopefully avoid the same mistakes on this new Earth.
    They had to decide to deny the Adversary’s offer.

    -Limbo was always Illyana’s story and about how Illyana was growing as a character.

    We saw characters grow or change due to the events.

    Granted, this is Apocalypse’s story.
    Does anyone really expect that this story is going to change Apocalypse?
    He’s been a very one-dimensional character since his introduction. The best characterization we have seen for him was during Age of X-Man, where he could be written in a totally different context.
    Besides which, how is Apocalypse expected to change with Krakoa? Mutants are becoming dominant, which is something Apocalypse has wanted to happen.

    ———

    The second problem is that Hickman’s introduction on the X-Men (HoX, PoX) spelled out in very explicit terms (agreeing with Morrison) that the X-Men are science fiction characters, not superheroes.
    Far more so than any statements ever made by Claremont on this subject.
    So, to ground the characters so strongly in one genre, it’s jarring to see the first event of seeming any real importance since those initial comics stand so much in rejection of that very concept.

  15. Mark Coale says:

    “Roma Regina” is the alternate dimension female counterpart of Roman Reigns, right?

  16. Adam says:

    I enjoyed this!

    At first I was unhappy, because I was used to nothing but foreshadowing happening in X-MEN and the issue begins with a lot of portent and tarot readings, etc. I didn’t realize that the comic had a lot more pages because I was reading on my computer.

    But once the I passed the data pages and realized the story was getting underway I was having a good time. Love the return of Pepe Larraz. I liked how they handled the betrayal (and it also explains why Annihilation looks Egyptian in Summoner’s tale; he’s lying and she is Genesis).

    I’ve never read Excalibur and have only just been aware of the existence of Otherworld, Saturnyne, etc from normal geek osmosis, but wasn’t lost.

    And I’m an Apocalypse fan, so!

    The first twelve months of Krakoa have really felt like a drag, but this is much better.

  17. Adrian Brown says:

    I have to thank Paul for these annotations. I am with Mikey on this. Definitely not interested in this crossover based on the summary. As a more casual reader less steeped in X-Men lore minutiae, this made my eyes glaze over. Hickman is like a bad D&D Dungeon Master. He has enough history and “rules” to build good stories on but insists on adding unnecessary new factions, histories, worlds, rules and magic. But then he still falls flat on making interesting character stories out of it.

    As ChrisV points out, where are the characters in these stories? It feels like a flowchart (and data pages!) was sent to the artist instead of a script and the poor artist had to do all the heavy lifting. Even the foreshadowing is amateurish (see Rockslide). At this point, Hickman is adding more and more worldbuilding details with none of the character and wit that could make it interesting. Swap all these characters out for any other random X-Men or Avengers and it would not skip a beat. Some of the best characters in comics are now reduced to being nothing more than placeholders and power sets to be used randomly in a repurposed Eternals plot.

    And I also see that Ewing is writing yet another book with a team produced by the brand new X-Men Random Team Generator.

    On the plus side: I saw a preview and the art looks absolutely gorgeous. And I will still give Hickman some credit for at least having some overarching plan and direction for the line (even if it makes all the characters interchangeable). It still looks like a variation of his equally kitchen sink Avengers run but it is something at least.

  18. Adrian Brown says:

    Also, does Apocalypse feel a bit like Thanos in Hickman’s work or am I going overboard on the Avengers parallels?

  19. CJ says:

    @Paul: “Amenth” is typo’d as “Arenth” in the write-up.

    The parts with the X-Men were decent; it’s good that at least Apocalypse and Archangel have some tension, and that whatever is going on with Rictor and Apocalypse may be relevant.

    I really wish I could get worked up about a fantasy epic. Instead of focusing on mutants, we’re got another hold alternate version of Krakoa to deal with. Anything to keep the really interesting bits of HoX/PoX at bay as long as possible…

  20. Jeff says:

    X-Men has finally turned into Dragon Ball Z.

    In all seriousness, I thought this was great. It reminded me a lot of the feeling I got reading HoX/PoX. Lots of clever ideas, some great character moments and a huge, epic scale. Larraz is a superstar. Hickman has made me interested in an X-Men fantasy epic, which I normally can’t stand. So kudos, I guess. This kicked ass.

  21. Chris V says:

    If only Hickman had finished anything HoX/PoX related before moving on to doing something (somewhat) reminiscent of those titles again.

    I absolutely love House and Powers, but it was left completely open ended, after all.

    I adore how we even got an entire mini-series and three issues of that breakneck speed title X-Men devoted to Empyre, and still have only moved about an inch with the grand scheme introduced in HoX/PoX.

  22. Evilgus says:

    I really enjoyed this. The art was superlative and really sold it to me. It built the atmosphere and Hickman’s dialogue felt far less stilted than for a long time (very portentous for the magic characters, more natural for the X-Men). And for such a large cast, it had so many nice character beats.
    – Monet in a prominent role..
    – Polaris and Havok representing for their families and generally smashing things up
    – Cypher/Krakoa overruling Xavier at the Council
    – Rachel/Cable cooperating on uncovering the truth
    – Some motivation for what Apocalypse was working towards: reuniting with his family (if true…)

    For me, it worked. Yes it’s a sideways leap into magic but the X-Men have had fun with these stories before and I think that’s what we’ll be seeing.

    Not sure how I feel about pinning Otherworld down on a map, but it does make it clearer how the army has to invade through the Starlight citadel to get to Krakoa. And Saturnyne has outmanoeuvred Apocalypse – she’s forced a fight between the two sides.

    Others have pointed out that the realm of Mercator may have something to do with Johnny Absalom, the last missing Omega mutant.

  23. Joseph Sannicandro says:

    Hey everyone going Hickman Hickman Hickman, please remember that this is co-written by Tini Howard. X of Swords is both of their events.

  24. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    I think I liked it.

    No, let’s back up (already). I liked it, but it is flawed in many ways. The most obvious is – this is issue one, and it had to be, what, triple-sized in order to get the action moving at all? So the issue with this issue is – editing. Golly, this could use a trimming down. A triple-sized issue was necessary to have a modicum of plot development – something that, really, ought to fit in a single-issue-sized issue.

    But – at least they got the ball rolling. I’m definitely not against science-based characters being thrown into fantasy plots. The Hulk is a science-based character and my favourite stories with him are probably Planet Hulk (a fantasy epic… sure, ‘in space’, but a fantasy epic nonetheless) and the current Immortal series.

    I do hope we’ll get a perspective switch soon to get the Arakko version of the story – and more time with those characters. They could surely use more character.

    But whatever doubts and criticisms I have – I’m mostly positive about this. Let’s see what the other… sigh… 21 issues do with this set up.

  25. Peter Singer says:

    What is this story, though? I don’t really understand the point of it.

    Does it at all tie into the themes of HOXPOX? It’s 22 parts! Are we going to spend one issue with each of the ten getting their swords and then just a big fight? I feel like there has to be more to it than just that.

    This was part one and I enjoyed it as a setup, but what is it REALLY about?

    It’s a HUGE crossover, but will it be worth it? I’m quite sceptical.

  26. Drew says:

    As someone who’s only following some of the satellite titles, have they explained why Warren still has metal wings? I’d have thought he’d be the absolute first person to volunteer for Poccy’s weird ceremony, and either take a piece out of him or get to be reborn with his feather wings. Do they just not have a sample of his original, unaltered DNA? (Surely Sinister must.)

    Maybe he just finds them more useful in combat, but with nesrly the entirety of the mutant race united and flexing their power, you wouldn’t think that would be a major consideration.

  27. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    Also – I’m pretty sure Peak was destroyed the last time some alien invasion caught Earth by surprise and then SWORD was closed down, so an intact Peak on orbit will require a retcon.

    Honestly, after Whedon introduced SWORD, it didn’t take long for the Peak to start exploding like SHIELD helicarriers. I’m pretty sure it was compromised and destroyed during both Secret Invasion and Infinity. But whatever, it’s up again, who cares.

    Honestly, despite being mostly positive about this issue of X of Swords, I’m waiting for Al Ewing’s SWORD much more than for the other 21 issues of X of Swords.

    Kieron Gillen’s SWORD was fantastic and dramatically short-lived, and I liked or loved (mostly loved) everything Ewing has written for Marvel so far. And, obviously, the cast is bizarre (Fabian Effing Cortez?!), but that’s basically a given at this point.

  28. Thom H. says:

    I think Krzysiek Ceran hits on my main problem with Hickman’s plotting. (Aside: I realize this is Trini Howard’s story, too, but Hickman is the acknowledged man-behind-the-wheel for the entire franchise.) He sets up a story that I’m excited about, then backs up to continue setting up the story, then backs up some more to continue setting up the story…and then suddenly everything falls into place. The End!

    If you need that much set-up to tell your story, it starts to feel very contrived. Not to mention it kills all the momentum. Why not start at the beginning of the story instead of starting at the middle and endlessly pulling back?

    @Drew: I think Angel was already resurrected in HoXPoX — wasn’t he one of the crew who died destroying the Master Mold? So “metal wings” must be part of his DNA now, I guess.

  29. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    The ‘metal wings are in his DNA’ bit was written (or at least confirmed) by Kyle & Yost – after Angel reverted to being his old self again, a hypnotized Rahne ripped his wings off at the beginning of their X-Force run and he grew back the metal ones.

    Shortly after it was confirmed that he can now switch between both forms at will.

    What Drew is saying is ‘why wouldn’t Warren want to be resurrected without them’ – sure, the technoorganic stuff is written into his DNA now, but there must be some samples from before still around that the Five could use to grow him a fresh, Death-less body the next time he expires.

    So until an on-page explanation is given, we must assume that despire all his posing, he’s actually comfortable with flinging neurotoxin-filled flechettes.

    (How did he survive the 90s without changing his codename to ‘Flechette’?)

  30. FUBAR007 says:

    J. Lipton: I am drawing a terrible blank on a lot of the Captain Britain, Saturnye, Otherworld lore. If this is going to be of such crucial importance to the X-Men story, I hope Marvel kindly considers putting together some sort of Graphic Novel to get people up to speed.

    All the relevant back issues have been collected in TPB and/or are available digitally on Marvel Unlimited. It’s years and years of material, though.

  31. Chris V says:

    Peter Singer-It reminds me quite a bit of Hickman’s Infinity.
    I remember that being a huge amount of world-building in the first issue, a bunch of mindless fighting with nothing actually happening for a few more chapters, then a grand ending with a major plot development to follow through with in the final issue.
    I can see this ending up the same.

    There will be probably be some big reveal or event at the very end of the cross-over, leading in to future stories.

    I’m just afraid that whatever it will end up being will be something else removed from anything Hickman touched on in House/Powers.
    So, it’ll just end up as more distraction, while Krakoa deals with that, as if the books need more future set-up.
    That has been all that Hickman’s X-Men title has featured.

    —————-

    I saw someone mention that Tini Howard is involved in writing this too. I’d say it’s very much Howard’s story.
    Hickman wrote some quick bits during H/P about the Twilight Sword and such which seemed to be there simply to set up the new Excalibur book.
    It has solely been Howard writing Apocalypse as a sorcerer. Almost the entirety of the set-up has been in Excalibur.
    It very much does seem like this cross-over should have been an Excalibur story, instead of the first major event in the “Dawn of X”.

    The fact that it’s become such a victim of sprawl cannot bode well for it.
    Most comic big events have a hard time filling six issues of content, with usually some padding or mindless fighting to fill chapters.
    This cross-over being stretched to nearly double its original length (I think it was originally 13 part)….I don’t know how the creators will fill up that much more content without wasting pages.

    Especially considering how much time wasting has already gone in to X-Men book….like three issues devoted to a random Marvel crossover.

  32. Chris V says:

    I see someone mention the Hulk. Right. That’s what’s great about superheroes. They can fit in to any type of stories. Hulk is a character based in science, but can easily be involved with fantasy plots as well. The same applies to the X-Men.

    The problem is that no one has come on to Hulk and pared back his story and said, “This is what the Hulk is about. He is a science fiction character, not a superhero.”, then went ahead and ignored that soon after making such a statement.
    Well, you could argue that Ewing did make a similar statement about the Immortal Hulk by saying he was a horror character not a superhero.
    (You could also argue that Ewing never contradicted his mission statement either.)
    I would argue that Ewing’s statement is far less forceful than what Hickman gave us with House/Powers though.

  33. Jerry Ray says:

    Is it wrong to assume that Hickman had a vision for an X-Men status quo (the Krakoa thing and the resurrection stuff, maybe repurposed from an Eternals story) that would culminate in some theoretical payoff/conclusion (eventually), and HoX/PoX was really just about getting that status quo established, moreso than about setting forth themes or actually starting things rolling toward the eventual conclusion?

    It seems like (and sounds like, from comments that Paul has made) Hickman got his status quo set up and everybody decided to just linger in it and play around for a while. HoX/PoX then was really just a glorified origin story for the new status quo, and when everybody gets tired of it, Hickman will actually start telling the endgame/payoff story, but the stuff that’s being published now is just “some X-Men stories” and not part of some grand arc.

    I really haven’t been enjoying Excalibur, and I really only like the Otherworld stuff because a lot of it had Alan Davis art back in the 80s. But I have to say that, like HoX/PoX, I enjoyed this issue almost despite myself. It’s not what I want out of an X-Men comic, but as a story, it feels big and portentous, and like there’s a plan behind it. “X-Men with Swords” sounds real dumb to me, but I’ll go along for the ride since I’m already buying all the books anyway.

  34. Chris V says:

    You may very well be right, Jerry Ray.

    Hickman’s X-Men is simply setting up threats that can be used for Krakoa to deal with at some point, as needed.

    Everyone is so sure that there is something wrong on Krakoa, and keep looking for clues.
    Plus, sometimes characters seem to be written so strangely.
    Characterization and motivation is often lacking for many characters.

    Which may be heading to that conclusion, but if so, writers are forced to tiptoe around all of that, while getting ahead with telling their own stories.

    I know this direction has alienated purists who miss the X-Men as superheroes fighting for a world that fears and hates them.
    I can’t say I am all that enthralled with Hickman’s direction as a status quo, in and of itself. I am still hanging on because of interest in the big ideas.
    I want to guess where Hickman is moving with those ideas introduced in House/Powers.

  35. manchego obfuscator says:

    this was pretty much exactly what I feared it would be from the setup and solicitations, just a nonstop stream of new and old proper nouns I don’t give a shit about tying into Arakko and Otherworld, two of the least compelling ongoing subplots of the DoX era. was praying for a plot twist connecting this to Moira or something, but nope. can it be December already?

    also, nothing that actually happened in this issue gives any real clue why it was branded as a “red” issue, which wasn’t the case for the three issues of HoX/PoX that got that treatment

  36. Chris V says:

    The only thing I could see that would warrant that is either the introduction of the original Horsemen, who were mentioned in life nine.

    Or, maybe the mention of Mercator on that map.*
    That would be a really minor reason for that, but if it is going to lead to Krakoa finding one of the last two Omega-level mutants, it could be a big deal for Krakoa.

    *I didn’t even catch the possible significance of that until a person here mentioned what it could mean.

  37. Jed says:

    It’s interesting to me that a new seemingly-major plot development in the current X-Force is Mikhail Rasputin’s theft of the Cerebro Sword, which hasn’t been mentioned at all in this book. Wouldn’t Charles and Erik (and Beast?) be aware of this huge security breach and be moving to act upon it? Why make it a sword if that isn’t going to play into this crossover? I guess we’ll find out when we get to the X-Force title(s) in this story.

  38. JOHN WYATT says:

    I liked this, but I’m confused by some of the basic setup:
    Are we readers supposed to know why Saturnyne is able to/wants to arrange a March Madness tournament with the Arraki forces who appear to be attacking her land?
    I assume the Horsemen are attacking the Citadel to get to a gateway that leads to Krakoa. Then, after a while, Saturnyne freezes everyone and tells them to stop fighting, take three days off to get ten swords each and continue the battle. If she can freeze them like that, why doesn’t she just shut the whole crossover down and wipe the Arraki out? Why hand off the fight to the Krakoans, who apparently can’t overcome her freeze? Why do the Arraki agree to the break, agree to new weapons instead of just continuing their attack?

  39. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    This is guesswork, but… Saturnyne might consider them to be beneath her. Enough of a threat to deal with, not enough of a threat to destroy personally. They accepted her ruling – the Anubis-looking dude didn’t think twice or didn’t care that doing so, he accepted that he’s a vassal of Saturnyne.

    And this is Otherworld, so I’m guessing fae rules about magical contracts are in place and everybody should be much more careful about the words they use.

    But going by that, Saturnyne doesn’t need to wipe the Arakki out because she’s just bound them to herself.

  40. Josie says:

    I’m thinking that the people who were satisfied with this issue were largely gratified by having so much content stuffed into a single issue. I guess if Marvel’s going to stretch a story over literally dozens of books as a desperate cash grab, it’s a smart move to make people feel like they’re getting their money’s worth in chapter 1.

  41. Karl_H says:

    It feels like kind of a reach for SWORD to play such a big role in this. I mean, it’s an acronym, not an actual sword. Maybe Hickman is going to bring in his SHIELD mythos in this crossover and hey I said that facetiously but you know it’s just crazy enough to might work…

  42. Krzysiek Ceran says:

    ‘it’s an acronym, not an actual sword’

    It’s a magic story. Names have power.

  43. ASV says:

    No writer in comics history has loved a design motif as much as Hickman loves big weird helmets that cover the eyes and also have no eye holes.

  44. Diana says:

    It all just feels so disjointed, is the thing.

    This *could* have made sense if the whole Otherworld/Arakko/hocus pocus shtick was Moira’s plan from the start – pushing mutants closer to the mystical end of the X-Men spectrum would certainly be a novel attempt to stop the Sentinel/posthuman future (which was the whole point of HoXPoX and, by extension, DoX).

    Instead… I mean, honestly, what’s the point of any of this? What is any of this supposed to be building towards?

  45. Dave says:

    Wait, the Cerebro sword ISN’T one of the swords? That’s all kinds of stupid.

  46. JCG says:

    Makes sense.

    It’s just a piece of metal Magneto put together of some old junk?

    What place would it have in a collection of magical/mythical swords?

  47. JCG says:

    > Instead… I mean, honestly, what’s the point of any of this? What is any of this supposed to be building towards?

    Does it need to build towards something?

    Can’t it be just a story? Like the Kulan Gath or X-Men in Asgard in ye olde days.

    Either read it or not if you find it interesting. Personally giving it a skip as I have not been following Excalibur.

  48. Diana says:

    @JCG: Claremont is *emphatically* not a writer you should point to as an example of someone who does self-contained stories.

    Besides, the Kulan Gath and Asgard storylines didn’t completely change the status quo of the entire line – HoXPoX has. There’s no X-book on the stands that doesn’t reference Krakoa or have familiar characters acting like pod cultists. That’s the problem.

  49. Chris V says:

    The Kulan Gath story was two issues of one title. The Asgard story crossed over between two annuals. Oh, how I miss those days.

    Besides, how can anyone skip all twenty-two issues of this event? There may be a hint given that something may not be right on Krakoa. If the reader misses that hint, they may not be able to put Hickman’s puzzle together.
    Then again, it may not be a hint about anything.

    ——————-
    Isn’t Professor X shown using the Cerebro sword in promo art?

  50. Chris V says:

    Everything that happens in “X of Swords” must have happened almost the same during Moira’s life nine also.

    Moira’s power doesn’t effect anything that happened before she was born.
    Apocalypse sealed his original Horsemen in another dimension long before Moira was born.

    In life nine, Moira outlines that Apocalypse rescued his original Horsemen.

    If the original Horsemen turn on Apocalypse in this life, then they must have turned against Apocalypse at first during life nine too.

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