{"id":6620,"date":"2021-04-23T22:16:49","date_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:16:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6620"},"modified":"2021-04-23T22:37:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:37:23","slug":"s-w-o-r-d-5-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6620","title":{"rendered":"S.W.O.R.D. #5 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. #5
\n“Giallo”
\nby Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti & Marte Gracia<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> A relaxed-looking Fabian Cortez with Magneto standing behind him, and a dead Snark. One of these two things happens in the issue, and it’s not the one Cortez would prefer.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong> Data page, of sorts. These are the thoughts of the We-Plex Supreme Intelligence System, which is the version of the Supreme Intelligence from the home timeline of Noh-Varr (Marvel Boy). The 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt was Marvel Boy’s group in his home timeline. I’m not particularly up on Utopian Kree continuity, but basically they’re a more peaceful offshoot of the Kree Empire under Plex’s government.<\/p>\n

The top right panel lists a bunch of problems that Plex has been dealing with lately: Knull (from\u00a0King in Black<\/em>), the Olympian gods (from\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em>), the mainstream Kree (just generally), and “the Korvac apotheosis” (presumably referring to the return of cosmic villain Korvac over in\u00a0Iron Man<\/em>). But right now, Plex is mainly concerned with the Snarkwar – the war for succession among the Zn’rx, which began over in\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> and has already been mentioned in earlier issues.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Wezel is one of the competing claimants to the Zn’rx throne. We were already told in issue #3 that he was “besieged at the edge of Utopian Kree space” and “[a]ttempting negotiation with the Supremor for safe passage”, so evidently not much has changed since then.<\/p>\n

PAGES 3-4.<\/strong>\u00a0Wezel negotiates badly.<\/em><\/p>\n

Obviously, the Utopian Kree aren’t quite as lacking in pragmatism as Wezel was hoping.<\/p>\n

Wezel’s killer is identified later in the issue.<\/p>\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\n

The title, “Giallo”, is Italian for “yellow”, though it’s also the name of a pulp fiction genre.<\/p>\n

The recap is headed “Murder Dresses in Gold”, and the cast headshots are colour coded in line with S.W.O.R.D. colours (where appropriate). Cortez’s division colour is officially yellow, but he insisted in issue #2 that it should be referred to as gold.<\/p>\n

Most of the non-S.W.O.R.D. aligned characters are shown in black, though for some reason Magneto is singled out for grey. Abigail Brand is listed simply as Brand, as she was in the flowchart in issue #1. There are purple and yellow boxes with the contents redacted out. Yellow is presumably the new character introduced later as Cortez’s replacement (who gets a brighter yellow – and yes, Cortez’s colour was slightly greyed out in previous issues too). Violet is “observation \/ analysis”; we seemed to have established that this was Mentallo, so it’s not clear why he’s redacted.<\/p>\n

PAGES 6-9.<\/strong>\u00a0Cortez is reborn and taken direct to the Council chamber..<\/em><\/p>\n

Cortez is (understandably) expecting the routine ceremony that we saw quite frequently in the early days of Krakoa, though to be honest, resurrection seems to have become so commonplace that the Krakoans are starting to dial that stuff down anyway. How many resurrection ceremonies can even the most enthusiastic Krakoan be bothered attending, after all?<\/p>\n

Cortez\u00a0did<\/em> do something vaguely useful while fighting Knull in “King in Black”, and Magneto is granting his request to address the Council – though in the most unhelpful way imaginable. Magneto could have simply told him to get lost, but seems to be taking the opportunity just to humiliate the guy. As we’ll see, pretty much everyone else appears to be on board with this idea; Cortez doesn’t seem to be too good at making friends.<\/p>\n

We might wonder about this. After all, about the only thing Cortez actually achieved in his supervillain career was to create the Acolytes as a cult under his leadership. That tends to suggest he has at least some degree of charisma on his side. But the Acolytes were mostly nobodies – he’s dealing with A-listers here. And even to lead the Acolytes, Cortez had to trade on Magneto’s reputation. Oh, and he nearly killed Magneto too in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #1-3, which surely doesn’t endear him to the guy. Magneto makes sure to rub it in by presenting minor villain Peepers as a more important character, just as he did in issue #1.<\/p>\n

As foreshadowed in last issue’s data page, there are only nine members of the Council present – Professor X, Magneto, Storm, Nightcrawler, Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Mystique, Exodus and Mister Sinister. Two seats have been vacant since “X of Swords”, and the twelfth belongs to Kate Pryde, who is presumably off dealing with Marauders business.<\/p>\n

PAGES 10-11.<\/strong>\u00a0Khondor and Lyga talk.<\/em><\/p>\n

We were told in issue #3 that these two are “moderate reformists” who have agreed to ally together to take everyone else out, before settling matters in single combat. From the look of this scene, this is mainly Lyga’s plan, and Khondor is stringing her along. By Snark standards, Lyga is practically a liberal, though mainly she just seems to find the whole war of succession undignified.<\/p>\n

Djagyar was murdered in issue #3, and we’ll find out who killed him in the course of this issue. (The coloured speech balloons make clear it’s the same killer.)<\/p>\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong>\u00a0Cortez addresses the Council.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cortez’s basic argument is that mutants should not be singling out humans for special protection in their laws, which he sees as excessively generous to what he considers an oppressor class. He makes a somewhat bizarre argument that since humans are mortal, they’re functionally dead anyway, and therefore can’t really be murdered. The interesting question to ponder here is – why is Cortez bothered about this? Leaving aside his attempts at oratory, which obviously aren’t winning him any friends, he doesn’t really seem to gain anything from making this argument unless he genuinely believes it – which seems slightly at odds with his depiction as being concerned solely<\/em> with his personal prestige.\u00a0Does he think this will be received as an insightful contribution to mutant nationalism, and that it’s the speech that the Council want to hear? If so, he seems to have entirely misjudged them – but he doesn’t seem to be very good about reading the room generally.<\/p>\n

We haven’t heard the word “flatscan” in a while. It was the go-to insult for mutants describing ordinary humans in the 90s, Cortez’s heyday.<\/p>\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong>\u00a0Khondor and Lyga are killed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Self-explanatory.<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-20.<\/strong>\u00a0The Council meeting continues.<\/em><\/p>\n

Nobody really seems very interested in discussing any of the points that Cortez has raised; Magneto pays lip service to them being worth considering, but talks as if Cortez had been making points about manslaughter and negligence (neither of which would be covered by a rule against murder in the first place, unless Krakoa has an unusually broad concept of “murder”).<\/p>\n

Peeper changes the subject entirely and starts questioning Cortez about why he hasn’t chosen a mutant name. This might be thought a slightly risky line of inquiry in the company of Abigail Brand, Emma Frost and Sebastian Shaw. But Cortez’s response is basically that he’s attached to the perceived prestige of the name, and sees it as symbolising his entitlement to be in the ruling class. (Note that “We bent continents to our whim” accompanies a panel of Storm.) Cortez is presumably claiming to be descended from the Conquistador Herm\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s (1485-1547), who was indeed Spanish nobility, and contributed to the fall of the Aztec Empire.<\/p>\n

Cortez’s problem isn’t so much that he lacks the suffering and moral authority of Magneto, as that he delusionally believes that his (self-proclaimed) aristocratic status will be recognised as giving him that authority. In fact, Abigail has now found a replacement for him, so the one value he actually had – the ability to contribute to the Six – is removed.<\/p>\n

He mentions in passing his sister. That would be Anne-Marie Cortez, who died in\u00a0X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #3. Of course, this is the Krakoan era, so she might be back at some point to offer her own version of events.<\/p>\n

Magneto suggests that the punishment for murder is “exile”. It’s normally stated to be imprisonment in the hole aloong with Sabretooth, which I suppose could be seen as a form of exile.<\/p>\n

Amelia Voght refers to herself and Cortez as “old friends” because they were members of the Acolytes together.<\/p>\n

Khora, Cortez’s replacement, debuted in issue #3 when she killed a Snark, but this is the first time we’ve seen her clearly.<\/p>\n

PAGE 21.<\/strong> Data page, or rather, a collection of excerpts from three different data pages.<\/p>\n

The first is a repeat of a data page from issue #3, which was Brand’s personnel notes on Fabian Cortez. Khora’s entry was redacted on that page, but is now shown. Also unredacted is the last line of Boost’s entry, which now reveals him being considered for “deniable ops”.<\/p>\n

The second is a list of targets for the Snarkwar. Essentially Brand wanted Kuga to become emperor. In issue #3, Khuga was described as the rank outsider to win the Snarkwar, a “radical modernist”, and currently in retreat after suffering a catastrophic defeat. The third is a new document, with Brand’s personnel notes on Khora.<\/p>\n

PAGE 22.<\/strong>\u00a0Everyone abandons Cortez.<\/em><\/p>\n

It seems unlikely that this is the last we’ve heard of Fabian Cortez, in which case everyone might live to regret treating him like this.<\/p>\n

Amelia Voght was Professor X’s partner up until shortly before the X-Men were formed (she left at around the same time he took in Cyclops). This was all established in Scott Lobdell stories in the 90s. It’s nice to see them on good terms.<\/p>\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong>\u00a0Magneto and Abigail.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abigail evidently takes the second law literally as applying only to humans, leaving her free to kill aliens. Note that the Quiet Council weren’t told\u00a0how<\/em> they had made Kuga the emperor, though Magneto appears to know (or drew the correct conclusion).<\/p>\n

The room at the end appears to be a whole warehouse of the Mysterium artefacts, one of which was retrieved in issue #1. Whether S.W.O.R.D. have been knocking out copies, or the Six have just been retrieving a whole load of them, isn’t clear.<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: LAST DANCE.<\/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. #5 “Giallo” by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti & Marte Gracia COVER \/ PAGE 1. A relaxed-looking Fabian Cortez with Magneto standing behind him, and a dead Snark. One of these two things happens in the issue, and it’s not the […]<\/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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620","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=6620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6625,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620\/revisions\/6625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}