AiPT!: Welcome, X-Fans, to another uncanny edition of X-Men Monday at AIPT! Jordan D. White discusses not one, not two but five chapters of X of Swords! So without further ado, here’s Jordan talking–deep breathe—Hellions #5, New Mutants #13, Cable #5, Excalibur #13 and X-Men #13. Phew.
AIPT: Welcome back, Jordan! Marvel’s been teasing the sword battles to come: Captain Britain vs. Isca the Unbeaten, Magik vs. Pogg Ur-Pogg, and most recently, Cable vs. Bei the Blood Moon. X-Fan Michael Que was curious how you all decided which Swordbearers would face off against one another?
Jordan: How did we decide? Hm… I don’t know. That’s kind of like asking where do ideas come from. We just thought about what would be a good story and then the writers wrote it. There are cool things that happen in each of those battles.
AIPT: Well, obviously with characters like Solem and Wolverine, they’re kind of matched up from the get-go. Would you say that applies to other Swordbearers of Arakko? Were they all kind of designed to be opposites to the Swordbearers of Krakoa?
Jordan: No. I mean, even Solem and Wolverine, I wouldn’t say they’re designed to be opposites. Now, obviously, we’ve said he’s a foil for Wolverine and that thing about him being kind of like a Loki to Wolverine’s Thor in a certain way–they’re not brothers–spoiler.
But I think the characters came about in different ways. I mean, I think we’ve said Pogg Ur-Pogg came about in going, “We’ll have a monster. Pepe, draw someone.” And he drew someone awesome. And so then we developed a character around that awesome drawing. So some of the characters came from story ideas. Some of them came from visual things. Some of them came from things we wanted them to do in fights. Some of them came from things we wanted them to do a post-X of Swords and they were kind of back-engineered, I suppose.
So each of those, in particular, I’m trying to think if they all were the same. Yeah. Those all kind of came about for different reasons. The Betsy and Isca one has a very specific goal for what that battle is about. I mean, basically, all of them have very specific reasons why those two fight, but they’re very different outcomes as to what we get from each of them. Because I think there’s still a lot of surprises to come in this and I don’t think anybody really knows what’s going to happen–by which, I mean, I’ve seen a lot of speculation and well, certainly nobody has been right about what’s going to happen. But I think some of it, people are not even thinking in the right direction, which is good because that means we’ve misdirected them well.
AIPT: The first portion of X Of Swords has largely been character profiles. How did you all decide on this approach to the beginning of the event? And will the next portion follow its own theme?
Jordan: Yeah. X of Swords: Stasis is definitely a turning point where things will be going slightly differently. I mean, and again, generally speaking, I think people can tell what direction that is, but it has a different feel and different pacing and a different, I don’t want to say a different style, it’s all the same story, but you know what I mean. It’s got different goals than the first half does. And I think that that was the case all the way back to our original conception of X of Swords, even when it was two-thirds the size it is now, it was always going to be the first half is about finding the swords or training. And then the middle point happens and everything after that is the second half. So it’s going to read differently and, I will be honest with you, it will read much more as one thing.
The first half of it has been a lot of, I don’t want to say side stories because they’re not, but parts that seem a little bit like, well, OK, here’s a story about Storm getting ready. Here’s the story about Doug getting ready. But I wouldn’t think of those as separate stories. I would think of those more as when you read a good novel where there is, let’s say, more than one perspective to it that isn’t just one character you’re following the whole time. You will read a lot of times the first half of the novel–there will be characters doing things in chapters that you’re like, well, these aren’t even connected yet. And then everything starts coming together more in the end. The second half of this is going to be much more “this issue follows directly after that issue.” And again, I think in a way that will bring together all of the threads from the first half. So it is one big story and is intended to be one big story for sure.
AIPT: In Excalibur #13, Saturnyne refers to the Amulet as a relic. Does Saturnyne completely reject Merlin and Roma now and, will we ever discover more about Merlin and Roma’s current status?
Jordan: Well, you’ve heard a bit about it in the data pages about their realms or their provinces, I suppose, of Otherworld. But yes, the balance of power has reversed. She is now the ruler of all of Otherworld. And each of them are, I wouldn’t say subservient to her, but at the very least lower on the power ranking than her. So yeah, she’s higher up in the tree of Otherworld power than they are. As a result, she does not need to bow to their ways of doing things anymore. That is, as she said, a system that Merlin set up–she doesn’t care what Merlin set up anymore. It’s now hers to set up so she can do it however she wants to.
AIPT: We’ve been learning about Otherworld’s status post-Secret Wars. Originally, Otherworld consisted of two islands, Avalon and Tír na nÓg, so where do all these realms come into the picture? Was the whole island of Avalon divided into 10 kingdoms or are the other nine kingdoms located outside of Avalon?
Jordan: So they’re talking about the fact that maps of Otherworld pre-Secret Wars were the British Isles, right? Otherworld has changed in a big way, though. I would say it is not that Otherworld is now the British Isles divided in 10. I would say now Otherworld is 10 times bigger than it used to be, or infinitely more than that even. Everything that we have ever known as Otherworld pre-Secret Wars is reflected in what we are calling Avalon now. And the rest of Otherworld is completely never seen before.
AIPT: We know changes were made to “The Hanged Man” page in the Free Comic Book Day X-Men comic. Is the same true of the page with the 10 Swordbearers of Krakoa? Also, X-Fan Anonseed246 asked if there’s a chance we’ll be surprised by the identity of the 10th swordbearer of Krakoa?
Jordan: As I’ve said before, we produced those pages very early in the process because Free Comic Book Day comes early. But let me put it this way: there are definitely folks out there who know the answer to this one who have sussed it out because all the information is right there. So they definitely have 10 magic swords that they are going to be wielding in this tournament. And the question of the 10th swordbearer, I suppose, is still lingering, but there are folks who have spotted the answer.
AIPT: What can you tease about this week’s lone X of Swords chapter: Stasis?
Jordan: So, two days from now, Stasis comes out and it’s the only one. And like I said, it’s a big turning point. There’s a lot of really cool stuff in it. If you’ve been curious about these Swordbearers, there’s going to be a lot of fun stuff to learn in there and we’ll be moving into the next phase.
I actually also have another thing I can tease, which is fans who have been fans of X-Men for a long time, or just fans who are fans of the long history of X-Men–there is actually a big announcement coming up tomorrow, Tuesday, that I think a lot of you will be excited about. So keep an eye open for that as well. So Tuesday, a big, big, big thing that I think people will like, and Wednesday, Stasis–a turning point in the series. And then from there into the back half of X of Swords, which is going to be bananas.
20 comments:
So Pepe Larraz designed Pogg. No wonder I think Pogg looks awesome. I hope they do a Marvel legends line of Swords and the character you assemble is Pogg.
Oooh, imagine having the swordbeares with their respective swords 😍
Yes! We could get Captain Avalon, Asrar design Storm, (Betsy of course maybe in her Otherworld armor) all with their respective swords 😍
Don't know why but the armour that Betsy wears often gives the feels of the gold clothes in Saint Seiya
"there is actually a big announcement coming up tomorrow, Tuesday, that I think a lot of you will be excited about"
The SWORD book, perhaps? Or the X-Corps one? Either way, I'm not building high expectations for this announcement (but who knows, maybe it will indeed be something nice).
As for the tenth Swordbearer... wasn't Magneto shown in a cover with the nine Swordbearers we already know? In fact, didn't he go on to do something in the Creation issue?
Then again, if it's someone else, that's fine, too. Probably not Moira, I guess. And not Colossus, either, as they already said he'll be completely absent from this crossover (thanks to that stupid Beast). Nightcrawler would be nice.
I mean... They don't have to make all if they don't want to, but at least give us Betsy, Storm and Doug with Warlock could be interesting too. They can skip Wolverine since there are enough of him already
Pretty sure there's not a tenth swordbearer... Stasis already shows Gorgon using two blades
Why would they do all 10? The series are normally smaller than that. I meant "all" as all that would be included in a Swords line.
@FSaker, yes Magneto is shown as part of 10 sword wielders. White said he's seen people already guess who that is. So we shall see soon!
Magneto being there could be a misdirection itself... The swor he is seen wielding in the tarot card doesn't fit any of the sword's description
*sword
Yeah 😅 but hear this one, two BaF lines, one for Pogg and one for Apocalypse, we could get all of them (dreaming is free)
@lucasg_i, good point. His presence in that art could be a curve ball.
Still, it's curious that White specifically mentions a 10th Swordbearer, implying that unlike what we thought, Gorgon isn't taking two spots and someone else will join the side of the heroes.
Kwannon would be a good candidate, but since she'll be busy with the Hellions' sidequest, I guess we can rule her out. Nightcrawler would be great - but he wouldn't be surprising. Xavier/X, maybe? I mean, he's even less of an action guy than Doug is (plus, he's pretty much the main figure in the Dawn of X era).
And it's confirmed that Betsy will fight Isca, which may make many people here fear for her... but you know, when a villain is presented as "undefeatable", that's pretty much a sign that they WILL be defeated. Then again, it's Hickman, and he likes to subvert conventions, so...
@Psi-Girl was thinking if we bombard AIPT with similar statements/questions for their X-Men Mondays, maybe it would encourage them to bring these concerns to Jordan and kinda force him to respond to our concerns. It might not do much by ourselves, but if we all sent in the same questions every week, it might get their attention. Just a thought.
Does anyone know where the X-Men Mondays question section/link is on AIPT? I can't seem to find it at the moment.
Good luck to you guys. Jordan doesn't give a shit. He's lucky he was given editorial control over XMen whenever Hickman was finally able to write the XMen. No way his work as editor would have been as near successful without Hickman essentially being the mastermind and keeping tabs on all the continuity and direction of the characters.
Jordan spends all his time tweeting cringey jokes and taking idiotic selfies. Same with Cebulski, he's the most disconnected and least involved EiC ever.
Yeah... But then again, Betsy is in Excalibur after the event, so she's not dying... But she's still gonna lose something or someone... I'm guessing either Brian or Jamie are gonna bite the dust, given that Is a is undefeatable, Betsy losing a loved one would be defeating her in a way more significant than losing a sword fight
*Isca. Sorry, I'm writing from my phone and autocorrect is a nightmare
It's not so much him caring (though it saddens me to hear that he may not), as much as getting AIPT asking him one of our direct questions in his interviews.
Its all about him caring. You can ask him anything you want but if he's apathetic towards what you want then its not going to happen.
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