The X of Swords event is giving us a new team moving forward

[icon_uk]

Marvel has announced a new X-Men series... IN SPACE!

We've seen S.W.O.R.D. before, intorduced in Joss hedon's X-Men run, they were the space-related arm of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and with an equally contrived Acronym: "Sentient World Observation and Response Department")





The former SWORD'S role seems to have been at least partly superceded by Alpha Flight, but now we have a new, mutant based version which will come out of the X of Swords event.

Especially good news is that the writer will be Al Ewing (Who has a proven track record of taking improbable sounding, editorially-mandated projects and making them REALLY good!) and art is by Valerio Schiti

So the line-up consists of

• Abigail Brand - Half alien, half human mutant and sometime paramour of the Beast



• Magneto - Sometime paramour of Charles Xavier



• Kid Cable - They're really trying to make this kid stick somehow aren't they?



• Manifold - Teleporter IIRC, and I'm not sure I do to be honest



• Frenzy - Superstrong, super determined and it's about time we saw more of her IMHO



• Fabian Cortez - Power booster, asshole, and someone it's about time we saw a lot less of IMHO



• Wiz Kid - Former member of the X-terminators back in th 80's and transmutating^ wheelchair user Takeshi "Taki" Yamada, aka Wiz Kid!

*Transmutating as in being able to mentally reshape metal, plastic etc to create technological devices.







I'm guessing Taki is shown standing purely to display the outfit. Not sure how I feel about him using the convenient floating wheelchair that Xavier used. I mean I can see why, but it always seemed an overly convenient device in the comics to remove the obvious access issues that might otherwise have been an issue. Taki used to soup up his wheelchair for missions etc, but it retained it's normal wheeled form when he wasn't actively turning it into something else.

Comments

[mastermahan]

I get that every team gets a token villain in this era, but Fabian Cortez is a weird choice. He has no backstory. His powers are poorly explained and dull. He never had any apparent motivation for organizing the Acolytes into attacking humanity or betraying Magneto.

Fabian Cortez is so boring, Exodus made a more interesting Acolyte leader. Exodus.

But hey, Frenzy! I'm down for more Frenzy.

[redmagpie]

he's got a cape-waistcoat so i guess that's something

[dan_ingram]

I suspect I'll enjoy this series, but I find it odd that the UN would disband their first warning agency simply because Brand and Carol had a snit.

[icon_uk]

SWORD is like SHIELD, American funded rather than UN isn't it, or is that only ever other week? It's VERY confusing.

[dan_ingram]

All the same, you'd think that it would require government action to disband and reform the agency.

Guess we'll see.

At least Taki is back outside of fanfiction!

[donnblake]

Given that this one is staffed by mutants and includes Magneto, I'm going to guess that this iteration is Krakoan/Xavier funded.

Also, I'm rather amused that the sword sigil is through the O for observation, rather than the R for response.

[zerocaloriecola]

i dont think AF are disbanded

sword is just krakoa's AF

[john_wyatt]

That fits in with the end of Empyre and Abigail Brand storming off the start something new.

[akodo_rokku]

Okay but, SPACE HOODIES.

[silicondream]

Your neck gets chilly in hard vacuum! I'm sure hoodies solve this problem somehow!

[scorntx]

Magneto probably insisted on 'em.
Notice he's the only one not wearing a hoodie.

"Now, this is a strange planet, so I want everyone wrapped up warp, and no flirting with any bug-eyed monsters."

[shadowpsykie]

i really love when magneto is written as Jewish GrandmotherTM

[iamrman]

I don't care for most of these characters, but I trust Al Ewing to make a good job of it. Who knows, I might end up even liking it.

[scorntx]

Technically Manifold's power is that he's a "universal shaper" or some crap like that which Hickman thinks sounds deep.
But yeah, he teleports.
(But unlike some teleporters, he's not got a limit on how far he can go, so long as it's in his universe of origin.)

... kinda digging Eden's beard a little.


Frenzy! Yay!
Loved what Carey did with her an - oh man that was a decade ago now.
... still, Joanna. Yay!


-They're really trying to make this kid stick somehow, aren't they-
A Poochie is for life, not just the summer event!

[petermilley]

"Why won't my hips unsway?"

[bruinsfan]

Refresh my memory, how forthcoming has Brand been about sharing info when faced with extraterrestrial threats *before* the situation goes south and her organization needs to bring in superhero groups to clean up the mess?

[scorntx]

Usually? About as forthcoming and helpful as any government official in a fictional setting.
So, not very.

... still, she's more helpful when the problem is there than, say, Maria Hill.
Or worse, Val Cooper.

[bruinsfan]

Maria Hill never met a bad situation she couldn't make worse. Or a good one, if a bad one wasn't available.

I never thought of Val Cooper as anything but your usual competent NSA advisor though. She was a pawn of the Shadow King's at one point in the 90s, but she was hardly alone in that. What did I miss?

[scorntx]

Well, there was that time she thought that giant Sentinels were a perfectly good idea to bodyguard the X-Men, whether they wanted giant Sentinels watching and controlling their every move or not.

And then she didn't get why the X-Men were annoyed about all this.

Val's not as bad as Maria Hill in terms of dog-kicking, but she's not exactly the sort of person you want helping you anyway.
(And Maria is occasionally useful, on the semi-rare occasions when she stops being obstructive or pointlessly evil.)

[zerocaloriecola]

Well, in her first appearance she hid from the x-men that one of their own may, based on precognition, destroy Breakworld, so she cooperated with one of the aliens so they could make a mutant cure.

Still, her concern was that Carol, being a recent alpha flight leader (and possibly still alpha flight in spirit), should've contacted Alpha Flight. While it is a valid point, it also valid to consider that the Cotati, being a pacifistic and friendly race, would'nt have warranted any extraordinary measures from alpha flight right away, and when it appeared like they should've called in AF because of the incoming Kree-Skrull Fleet carol did point out that they should bring em in now, but the rest of the avengers didn't seem much interested in attempting diplomacy because..... it's the kree and the skrulls and they wouldn't get there in time.

[jmacq1]

Holy smokes, Wiz Kid? That's a deep cut, but he's like an even more powerful version of Forge. Be interested to see what they do with him.

[magnetoisright]

A team made up a lot of fun and interesting characters (And also Fabian Cortez is there) written by Al Ewing doing more cosmic Marvel stuff? Seems promising to me