{"id":6367,"date":"2021-02-12T21:49:26","date_gmt":"2021-02-12T21:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6367"},"modified":"2021-02-12T21:49:26","modified_gmt":"2021-02-12T21:49:26","slug":"s-w-o-r-d-3-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6367","title":{"rendered":"S.W.O.R.D. #3 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>S.W.O.R.D. vol 2 #3
\n“Everywhere Man”
\nby Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Ray-Anthony Height, Bernard Chang, Nico Leon & Marte Gracia<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold doing his thing, with the outback on one side and the Alpha Flight station (with Henry Gyrich) on the other. Unlike last issue, this does have a\u00a0King in Black<\/em> tie-in banner, though it’s largely obscured.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold leaves Lila in charge.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although it’s notionally a\u00a0King in Black<\/em> tie-in, this issue is largely a spotlight for Manifold, perhaps in part to introduce him to the X-books’ audience – although he’s a mutant, his previous appearances have mostly been in Secret Warriors,<\/em>\u00a0Avengers<\/em> and\u00a0Black Panther<\/em>. And fair warning, I’m not hugely familiar with any of those runs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As explained in the issue, Manifold doesn’t exactly teleport so much as manipulate space. The practical effect is very similar, but it’s more like he’s bringing the location to him. You might compare it to the difference between a conventional speedster and a time manipulator.<\/p>\n

Lila<\/strong>\u00a0is Lila Cheney, one of the five teleporters working in the Teleport Team under his command. Despite what he says here, she wasn’t actually identified as second in command on the org chart we saw in issue #1. In fact, the data page later in that issue said that no backup had been identified for Manifold as a member of the Six, indicating that his contribution to the Six depends on the unique way his powers work, and can’t be replicated merely by any old teleporter.<\/p>\n

“Gates”<\/strong> is Gateway, the X-Men’s local teleporter from the Australian era, who used to sit enigmatically on a nearby hill and never say anything. Although Manifold denies that Gateway is his “mentor”, that’s pretty much how matters were portrayed in Manifold’s debut in\u00a0Secret Warriors<\/em> vol 1 #4 – at the very least, Gateway was teaching him. Gateway did indeed speak in that issue, and Manifold expressed some irritation at his more stereotypical tendencies.<\/p>\n

PAGE<\/strong>\u00a03.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold goes “everywhere”.<\/em><\/p>\n

None of these individual locations looks particularly significant. The rainbow colouring seems to echo the colour-coding of the S.W.O.R.D. structure, but I doubt there’s any significance to that.<\/p>\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits. I think this is the first explanation of why Manifold is described as a “quintician” (an invented word) – it’s derived from “quintessence”, which is correctly defined here.<\/p>\n

The title “Everywhere Man” is presumably a play on “Nowhere Man” by the Beatles.<\/p>\n

PAGES 5-8.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold visits Kata Tjuta.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kata Tjuta\u00a0<\/strong>was where Manifold was training with Gateway in his debut in\u00a0Secret Warriors<\/em> vol 1 #4. It’s a set of rock formations in the Northern Territory of Australia, about 220 miles from Alice Springs. Manifold seems to be returning here partly to anchor himself because he doesn’t have the usual option of orienting himself by the stars (due to the symbiote shell surrounding Earth as part of\u00a0King in Black<\/em>).<\/p>\n

As far as I know, Baz and Sammy are new characters.<\/p>\n

T’Challa\u00a0<\/strong>is, of course, the Black Panther. The “space business” is the lengthy Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda storyline from Ta-Nehisi Coates’\u00a0Black Panther\u00a0<\/em>run. Broadly speaking, the storyline reveals that a group of time-travelling Wakandan explorers set up an intergalactic empire centuries ago which is now behaving in very imperial ways. Black Panther and Manifold are both mind-wiped as part of the story, and Manifold spends some time serving in the imperial forces.<\/p>\n

“I gotta see a big lizard guy then chat with our opposite numbers.”<\/strong> The “big lizard guy” is the Snark from the next scene. “Our opposite numbers” are Alpha Flight – i.e., S.W.O.R.D.’s opposite numbers.<\/p>\n

“Respect this sacred land”\u00a0<\/strong>is indeed the third Krakoan law established back in\u00a0House of X<\/em>. Manifold seems to take it at face value as a sign that these people are on the same page with him. His compatriots, perhaps rightly, see it more as an attempt to engineer something that’s not innate to the culture.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> A data page on the Snarkwar. The Snarks are the reptilian aliens who served as the main aliens in\u00a0Power Pack <\/em>back in the 1980s; “Snark” is strictly just a corruption of “Zn’rx”. The Snarkwar is basically the rival clan leaders warring for control of the Snark Race, following the death of the previous leader. The current Snarkwar is a storyline that started in Ewing’s\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> run, but the basic idea that the Snarks fly into a warring frenzy has been seen before.<\/p>\n

The Hyinar Usurpation is a storyline from Ewing’s\u00a0Royals<\/em> series (about the Inhuman royal family). Hyinar died in\u00a0Royals<\/em> #8. Stote is the walk-on emperor who was killed in\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> vol 6 #7. The “Bhadsha era’s reforms” refers to Emperor Bhadsha, the relatively-moderate Snark ruler from late-period\u00a0Power Pack<\/em>, who did radical things like establishing diplomatic relations with nice people, and trying to introduce trial by combat as a means of succession to the throne, as an improvement on the traditional massive war.<\/p>\n

The Snarks listed here as contenders for the throne all appear to be new characters. Like Stote, they’re all named after animals (cougar, weasel, condor, liger and jaguar).<\/p>\n

The “Utopian Kree” are a sort of splinter group of Kree, associated with Marvel Boy of the Guardians of the Galaxy.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-14.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold visits Djagyar.<\/em><\/p>\n

“Your mob do a lot of stealing powers, right?”<\/strong> The Snarks do indeed have a long history of trying to steal super powers – or anything else vaguely useful that might be lying around – for use in the Snarkwar.<\/p>\n

Burner and Lifter<\/strong> were members of Mutant Force (later the Resistants), the same outfit that Peeper was a member of. The suggestion is that they’re offering the powers of these two D-listers to the Snarks in the hope of getting the Snarks on side; hopefully the process proves fatal, and the two mutants can simply be resurrected with their powers intact. Otherwise, it’s a trip to the Crucible for them.<\/p>\n

I don’t know who kills Djagyar, though the reflection suggests some sort of triangular headdress (which might mean Shi’ar).<\/p>\n

PAGES 15-20.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold visits Alpha Flight.<\/em><\/p>\n

As in issue #1, this scene incorporates data page elements into the regular storytelling.<\/p>\n

Issue #1 also established that Gyrich was now running Alpha Flight, the US government space station. “Gamma Flight” is the Alpha Flight squadron assigned to tackle the Hulk, as seen in Ewing’s\u00a0Immortal Hulk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gyrich is revealed to be associated with Orchis, the anti-mutant scientists on the space station from\u00a0House of X<\/em>. Pretty much everything else about the document is redacted; the dialogue indicates that (for once) this is actual in-universe redaction, and that this is the form in which Gyrich got it. Clearly, despite being the notional head of the “infrastructure \/ influence” division, he’s not exactly in the loop when it comes to plans.<\/p>\n

Manifold leaves just before Gyrich mentions his “mole in S.W.O.R.D.”. The surely-too-obvious candidate would be the perennially disloyal Fabian Cortez, but he’s hardly the only ex-villain up there.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong>\u00a0Manifold checks in on Abigail Brand.<\/em><\/p>\n

She reminds him that this is meant to be a\u00a0King in Black<\/em> ti-in issue, and he’d really better get back to that plot.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.\u00a0<\/strong>Manifold returns to Krakoa to find…<\/em><\/p>\n

Knull-corrupted Cable has beaten everyone – we can see Paibok, Frenzy, Magneto, Random, Cortez and Banshee among the people suspended.<\/p>\n

PAGE 23.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: COCOON.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. S.W.O.R.D. vol 2 #3 “Everywhere Man” by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Ray-Anthony Height, Bernard Chang, Nico Leon & Marte Gracia COVER \/ PAGE 1.\u00a0Manifold doing his thing, with the outback on one side and the Alpha Flight station (with Henry Gyrich) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6369,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6367\/revisions\/6369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}