X of Swords: Creation #1
Jonathan Hickman & Tini Howard (W) • Pepe Larraz (A)
Cover by: Pepe Larraz
Variant Cover by: Miguel Mercado
Design Variant Cover by: Pepe Larraz
Launch Variant Cover by: Russell Dauterman
Premiere Variant Cover by: Pepe Larraz
Wraparound Variant Cover by: Mark Brooks
Black and White Wraparound Variant Cover by: Mark Brooks
The Story:
X of Swords – Chapter 1
A tower. A mission. A gathering of armies.
In Stores: September 23, 2020
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
21 comments:
...The art looks great. But I still have no idea why the Horsemen want to attack Krakoa. Vengeance against their former master, maybe?
I still love that Hickman created four brand-new Horsemen rather than going with the same lazy solution of turning well-known characters into Horsemen that every writer before him did (except for Remender and Louise Simonson, of course).
Yeah beautiful. My favorite horsemen are the fire head and the red orb head.
Because Apocalypse sacrificed them and they've been trapped for eons
I love the designs of all these new characters tbh I hope they become classic xvillains because IMO since House and Powers the villains have been way too boring and similar. I miss evil mutants lol
@Psi-Girl, good point. You know, maybe after X of Swords Apocalypse could move to the main X-Men book? I mean, he sits right next to X and Magneto (both of them being major characters in the X-Men book) in the Council of Quiet, and I remember seeing a preview where he goes to the UN with the two of them.
He could still act as Betsy's team's liaison but stay at Krakoa while they go out on their mystical adventures. That would help to make Excalibur feel more connected to the Krakoan society, I think. And although Howard said she wants to explore "mutant magic" in her run, Rictor seems to be a character who's becoming increasingly connected to it (and if Betsy continues to be Captain Britain, CB's powers are intimately connected to magic), so...
By the way, I finally got to read the third part of HoX/PoX (the third book published here collected HoX #3-5 and PoX #4), and the part with Scott's team being brought back to life is... endearing and disturbing at the same time. It's great to see once again how the X-Men truly love each other like a family, but Ororo's speech to the Krakoan population made her look like one of those fanatical cult leaders... hopefully that's not how she'll be portrayed after that.
Also, couldn't X have given the resurrected mutants some clothes before showing them in front of the entire population? It seems mutantkind has overcome the taboos involving nudity...
Yeah FSaker most people (myself included) were weirded out by the resurrection scenes. Felt very tribal/cultist
@randybear, exactly!
...Oh, and speaking of returns, while the X-Men enter the X of Swords event, it seems the Phoenix Force will return... in the Avengers book. Jean, Scott, Emma, Rachel and Hope can sigh with relief as they will most likely be free from the Phoenix mess this time. The teaser shows Captain America, Luke Cage, Namor, Iron Fist, She-Hulk and Wolverine as Phoenix hosts.
I hope Captain America becomes the new host, becomes the Dark Phoenix, gets beaten up and sent to prison. After everything he did in AvX (and still came out of the event as the hero), it would serve him right (and if Iron Man and Hawkeye also get sent to prison as his accomplices, that'd be even better). Logan should have the same fate, but well, he's on good terms with the other X-Men once again, so I forgive him.
Similar to the siege of Gondor the Four Horsemen want to retrieve something. They seem to be familiar with Opal Luna and the Otherworld. Ancient Egypt and Celtic mythology were contemporary from the gist of the preview.
That's... a great idea. Yeah, TK is quite useful in combination with Kwannon's ninja skills, while Betsy could be like she was before the body swap, a full-time telepath. Though I'd suggest Betsy could still have fighting skills (even if not as pronounced as Kwannon's) to differentiate herself from other telepaths, while Kwannon could still have the psi-knife to disrupt people's minds (after all, what's the point of having Ninja Psylocke around if she doesn't use the iconic psi-knife??). And if that's the case, hopefully Betsy can regain her Psylocke codename (and as I said in other comments, I wouldn't mind if both women use the Psylocke codename at the same time).
Hopefully this will be the opportunity to give both women a proper development. And a curious thing is: I know many people here fear that Kwannon getting the Psylocke identity could be Marvel's way to give her Betsy's spotlight, and this fear may be increased with the Excalibur cover teasing that Betsy may be dead... but then we look at the solicitation for Hellions and see that Kwannon is ALSO teased to be dead. And I don't think Marvel will kill off both of them.
In fact, I don't think Marvel will kill either of them. At least not for a long time, or even for the amount of time Kitty was dead in the Marauders book.
I am used to Betsy's TK weapons and want them to stick. We all like the combat type X-Men. Betsy wished to be a combat type and the gem she had from Roma granted her wish. In the worst way possible Betsy became a fighter. Betsy has European TK weapons and Qinoa Japanese. The butterfly is Betsy so is the psycho blast. It's quite simple actually.
@psi girl I wanted that from the get go. Kwannon with TK and Betsy with telepathy. Never cared for Betsy with TK. Actually I wanted Kwannon with just empathic abilities, but I'd settle for tk.
I'm loving the gothic Stargate designs for the new Horsemen.
It is revealed that the Four Original Horsemen are related to Apocalypse. The female War is the mother of the Summoner. The blue man who resembles White Sword, War had Summoner with, is speculated to be a son of Apocalypse. War herself could be the daughter of Apocalypse and Genesis (not Tyler nor Evan). In prehistoric supremacy intermarriage was allowed to keep the lineage pure. The Summoner is an albino which is caused by congenital disorder and affects skin pigmentation. Could Hickman be exploring such ideologies within the mutant society?
Hickman constructs an intriguing past for Apocalypse. Some believe it goes against Apocalypse's cruel theory of the survival of the fittest. I'm of the opinion a family and a community humanizes him.
@Jaime Braz Apocalypse is Papa Smurf confirmed. He lived like forever and lives on it's normal to have a big family.
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