Cable 6 preview X-of Swords Part 1 of 22 - Okay, NOW I'm confused

[icon_uk]

Now a LOT about X of Swords has somewhat confused me, but this takes it to the next level.

One page from the preview under the cut



Hang on... there's a round TWO???

Or is there??

From the review of Cable 6 which is here



I mean, last weeks Excalibur #14 which was Chapter 15, had the score at Arakko 2 / Krakoa 1 (as a result of awarding one point each to the Ramsey Blood Moon's on the occasion of their wedding) so how the heck did we get to the start of Chapter 19 and we're at Arakko 17 / Krakoa 6? How is any of this this working?

And if Bei had her challenge with the wedding, why is she in combat again? Does this mean anyone might have more than one trial (Trying not to worry about certain particualrly squishy omni-linguists of course)

I confess I had been working on the presumption that with ten swords on each side it would be ten rounds of one on one.

Honestly, would a score card have been TOO much to ask for because this just seems to get more bizarre and sprawlingly random?

Comments

It's just such a mess

[kthorjensen]

I was really enjoying the setup but once you have a character say "Oops! This contest has arbitrary and changeable rules!" you kind of throw out any real drama or investment. Pretty bummed out by how this big crossover is going.

Re: It's just such a mess

[silverhammerman]

It seems like such a shame that after the generally well executed DoX relaunch (even with the caveat that some people really aren't connecting with this era) the first crossover has ended up becoming a typically unwieldy and bloated Marvel event. I know it would have been impossible to sustain the HoX/PoX momentum indefinitely, but as someone who generally despises crossovers I would be extremely unhappy if I were reading these books on a monthly basis.

Re: It's just such a mess

[akodo_aoshi]

This is not a contest. This whoose line is anyway the X-Men edition.

Re: It's just such a mess

[icon_uk]

That makes so much sense

"Right Doug, you think you're about to go into a life or death sword fight, but it turns out you accidentally booked yourself into a wedding with a woman you've never met before... and GO!"

Re: It's just such a mess

[viridian5]

"Do it in the style of a musical!"

[cainofdreaming]

Brian probably just refused to wear the mankini, so Arakko got extra points.

[caivu]

I'm half-convinced that there's a clause in whatever contract X-Men writers sign that all their stories must be convoluted and make no sense. I really don't know why that segment of Marvel is such a particular magnet for that sort of stuff.

[donnblake]

I look forward to Jay and Miles explaining this in a decade or so.

(I should really get caught up on that podcast).

[shadowkat]

Are they still doing it? They seemed to take a break in there somewhere.

What I've noticed is these books have a lot more world-building than plot in them. There's whole pages that explain characters and areas of "Otherworld" or Arrako that I didn't know existed and I'm not sure how it is relevant to the story if at all.

There's lots and lots of exposition and world building here, not a whole lot of story - in that respect it kind of reminds me of HoX and DoX. But those had more story/plot, less exposition.

[donnblake]

> Are they still doing it? They seemed to take a break in there somewhere.

That is the sort of question I might be able to answer if I were caught up on it!

[shadowkat]

LOL! I kind of need to be caught up myself. I lost track of them somewhere after The Phalanax.

Am slightly curious to see what they make of and how they explain the whole Grant Morrison/Whedon/Warren Ellis period.

Sigh, the problem with the X-men is each writer decides to change the entire canon to fit their ideas.

[icon_uk]

They're already in the Ellis Excalibur run and have addressed their concerns about recent revelations.

They did the same for Scott Lobdell when covering his writing of the early 90's.

I imagine they'll be very positive about a chunk of some of each of those writers, like Morrison's establishement of an actual mutant culture, for a while at least, whilst NOT so positive about other aspects (Yeah, Morrison's Magneto is going to be a tough one)

[shadowkat]

Oh cool! I really need to catch up.

Although I skipped over Ellis' run. Not quite sure why.

[icon_uk]

Yup, they took a couple of months off last year or the year before, but it's till going strong since then. They switched to a three weeks out of four pattern, but due to the pandemic, they've been releasing some delightfully random discussions on the "skip week"

[john_wyatt]

Spoilers below:

X of Swords went off the rails last week. It went wild and wacky for some reason. Omnipotent Saturnyne has decided the rules of this tournament are whatever she feels like at the moment (or she has a secret agenda or she's mad because Brian Braddock didn't sleep with her or something)

After a great deal of hype, the first battle was Isca THE UNBEATEN against Captain Britain, Betsy Braddock. After about a page of swordfighting, Betsy's sword (Saturnyne's Starlight Sword) breaks, and then, inexplicably, Betsy herself shatters and Isca wins the fight.

Isca's win makes the score Arrako 1, Krakoa 0

Then comes Doug's battle against Bei. Doug feared he'd be in a sword fight to the death. Instead, inexplicably, he marries Bei. Saturnyne is amused and awards a point to both sides.
Arrako 2, Krakoa 1

Next: Magik vs. Pogg-Ur-Pogg. Inexplicably, the battle turns out to be arm wrestling. Pogg-Ur-Pogg wins instantly.
Arrako 3, Krakoa 1

Next: Wolverine vs. Summoner "to the death." Wolverine kills Summoner. Inexplicably, Saturnyne reveals fighting "to the death" means the winner is the one who died and awards a point to Arrako.
Arrako 4, Krakoa 1

Next: Inexplicably, it's Storm vs. Wolverine - in a drinking contest. It's Krakoa vs. Krakoa, so the winner is Krakoa.
Arrako 4, Krakoa 2

Next: Inexplicably, this one is Arrako vs. Arrako: Solem vs. War. "The first to sever an appendage wins." Solem calls in a previous favor and switches with Wolverine. Wolverine cuts off War's hand and wins. As he was fighting in Solem's place, the point goes to Arrako.
Arrako 5, Krakoa 2

That's where the score stood at the end of last week. The whimsy seems to continue this week with a preview showing Captain Avalon (Brian Braddock)'s battle involving a foot race against Redroot. And then there's the preview above, which shows the score somehow standing at Arrako 17, Krakoa 6.

The shift in tone has given me whiplash. I'm not against silliness, but the first 15? parts of this crossover was fairly serious and seemed to set the stakes at a deadly level. But, while that may be true, Saturnyne has revealed the competition to be random and silly. At some point, she did mention the she never explained the rules in advance.
Grrrr.

[beyondthefringe]

Elsewhere, I saw a commenter suggest that Saturnyne is actually manipulating the contest in favor of the X-Men by rigging these rounds in their eventual favor.

Courtesy of JonR commenting on HouseToAstonish:
"For the two straight fights, Betsy and Summoner are Gone, but Betsy might return at any time.

For the weird fights.. Cypher is the weakest link on Krakoa’s side in a straight fight, and now Bei’s promised to fight for him. Maybe that goes both ways — Bei’s oath was pretty direct while Doug’s wasn’t — but it puts Doug at a much stronger position.

The drink-off is ridiculous, but it establishes the concept of Saturnyne making people on the same side ‘fight’, before she really pulls it out with War and Solem. If Saturnyne could see the future enough to know how that played out, then she knew she’d be putting Wolverine in the position to be humiliated at a drunken fool but maim War, and also force Solem to use up that pesky favor early. If she didn’t know, then she still put Arakko in a position where one of their fighters was going to be delimbed.

For the arm-wrestling, someone who was built as a major opponent for Arakko now had their moment in a gimmie that didn’t hurt anyone, and Saturnyne doesn’t have to call on him again for a bit if she doesn’t want to. Similarly there’s Betsy’s fight, where Saturnyne threw the person she doesn’t like at the person who’s definitionally going to win anyway.

Meanwhile the points don’t matter a lot, because we’ve seen Wolverine called to two fights (and dropped in on another, because Wolverine). So there’s no telling how many rounds there are, which means Arrako’s lead doesn’t mean a lot. Krakoa’s side has gotten made a bit of a joke, but that helps hide the favoritism."

My thought: that's convoluted but makes a lot of weird sense... but may just be -too- coherent and complicated for this storyline. But it would be nice if that was the case, that Saturnyne wants the X-Men to win but can't just hand it to them for Reasons.

[mastermahan]

That's basically where I see this heading. The first fight sees Betsy shatter for reasons only Saturnyne knows, and Saturnyne assures everyone she's totally dead for real, even though there's no body.

We all know Betsy's fine. The comic doesn't even pretend she's not, since everyone just moves on to snickering about Doug's wedding. Saturnyne is lying, and lying in a way that works to the X-Men's advantage.

Though that doesn't make "Saturnyne screws with everyone for 22 issues" all that compelling.

[ap0cryphal]

TBH kind of tired by how simultaneously whimsical, full of lore infodumps, and halfway incoherent this crossover is shaping up to be. It feels like too much of almost everything: SECRET HISTORIES! NEW CHARACTERS WITH SECRET TIES TO CLASSIC CHARACTERS! NEW BACKSTORIES! NEW STAKES! SO MUCH LORE! ENTIRE ENCYCLOPAEDIAS WORTH OF LORE! SNARK! ROMANCE! IRREVERENCE!

A valid criticism for Hickman as author / narrative architect can be that he often lets plot drive the characters instead of the other way round - but this seems a lot messier than avengers / secret wars or fantastic four / ff.

Idk, like you can dislike characterizations and retcons in HoX/PoX, but the story is coherent, even with the +10/+100/+1000 timeframes.

This feels like Chidi's Chilli from the good place. Sure, peeps are nice, but do you want them in your chilli?