{"id":6814,"date":"2021-06-24T22:04:29","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6814"},"modified":"2021-06-24T22:15:26","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T21:15:26","slug":"s-w-o-r-d-6-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6814","title":{"rendered":"S.W.O.R.D. #6 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. #6
\n“This is What Comes Next”
\nby Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti & Marte Gracia<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE<\/strong>\u00a01: <\/strong>Abigail Brand distributing mysterium to assorted aliens (who we can see reflected in its surface).<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Captain America and Dr Doom.<\/em><\/p>\n

Although this is a “Hellfire Gala” tie-in issue, we open with the Gala itself already finished, and Captain America looking up at Mars, terraformed an hour or so earlier in\u00a0Planet-Size X-Men<\/em> #1. We previously saw some of Captain America’s reaction in the epilogue to\u00a0Marauders<\/em> #21: “Well, you solved one big problem, but I’m worried you might have made an even bigger mess. I just hope you all know what you’re doing.” The “one big problem”, we now know, was what to do with Arakko.<\/p>\n

In sharp contrast to the triumphalist tone of\u00a0Planet-Size X-Men<\/em>, the tone here is almost mournful, laying all the stress on the fact that the non-mutants are being excluded from the sort of interplanetary expansion that he always saw as a hopeful vision of the future. Cap sees the main lesson here in terms of division and separation instead. And he’s right, of course – the mutants will be in full-on hubris mode for most of this issue too, so this is a very interesting way of starting the issue. It’s no accident that Captain America, the Marvel Universe saint, is being used for this role.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the same time, the suggestion here is that the regular superheroes are going to wind up allied with Dr Doom against Krakoa. We previously had a quotation from Doom at the end of issue #1, after S.W.O.R.D. first retrieved mysterium: “You have stolen fire from Heaven to hold in your hands. How could I object? I have done the same myself – with one significant difference. I wore gloves. Be careful.” Clearly, Doom believes that the mutants are going to screw it up somewhere along the line.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Guardian is completely overwhelmed by the whole thing, and Henry Peter Gyrich takes the opportunity to try and recruit him into Orchis. (Captain America overhears this and seems to have some idea what it’s referring to.)<\/p>\n

That said – note Gyrich’s sales pitch. The X-Men aren’t humanity’s friends; Krakoa is a “rogue nation”; they want to “take our place as Earth’s dominant species”. Pretty much everything the mutants do in this issue – unilaterally declaring their planet the capital of the solar system and the sole representative of Earth to the interstellar community – backs him up. The mutants may not be trying to wipe out humanity, but they absolutely\u00a0are<\/em> trying to marginalise and sideline them.<\/p>\n

PAGE 7.<\/strong> Recap and credits, with the Hellfire Gala tie-in design.<\/p>\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong>\u00a0Abigail Brand addresses the diplomats.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abigail has come directly from the Gala, as has Frenzy next to her; they’re both still in their Gala outfits. That presents Brand as a pirate, of course.<\/p>\n

The ambassadors are identifies on the upcoming data page.<\/p>\n

PAGE 9.<\/strong> Data page listing the ambassadors. These are basically the same groups who appeared at the conference in Ewing’s\u00a0Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> vol 6 #7-8, representing the Galactic Council.<\/p>\n