X of Swords, Part 17: X-Force #14

[superboyprime]

"They’re in a crazy world of Otherworld. But that doesn’t mean the things that happen don’t matter. So, are there no rules? Well, there are, they’re just weird rules of magic and not rules of order the way that we’re traditionally used to. It will make a difference who wins these fights. It will make a difference how they win the fights. It will make a difference who lives and dies. Just because there was an arm wrestling match doesn’t mean that some of the fights aren’t to the death because some of them are to the death. I mean, so far two characters have already died?" - Jordan D. White

Comments

[john_wyatt]

The switch to silly fights was such a narrative mistake. Maybe Tini Howard wanted to recall some of the classic whimsy of old school Excalibur, but the nonsense came after such an effective grind of how serious and portentous this conflict would be. Way too jarring, and it took away a lot of my interest in how this would conclude.

[icon_uk]

I think I look at it from the other direction, there are only SO many different ways to have two people with swords engage in fighting in a comic book art format, and I think they'd have exhausted them pretty quickly. It would basically be two people (probably) trash talking each other whilst thrusting and parrying, with added special effects in some cases.

(Unless they considered making each battle in a different art style, which would still be the same fight, but visually stylised. Not sure that would work for a crossover event though.)

The wacky variety hi-jinks of a transdimensional "Jeux Sans Frontiers" at least allows for something different and genuinely surprising.

And we are talking Saturnyne here, who has always had a slightly warped view of the world. It was the combatants who expected it to be all grim and gritty and where's the fun in giving them exactly what they expected.

Though, to be fair, the main battles between Apocalypse and his family were pretty brutal.

[themajesticmoose]

Yeah I was really glad that it wasn't just sword fights and that we got some fun and silly contests mixed in there because I think if it had just been eleven issues of characters having sword fights that would have got very same-y very quickly

I understand why some people feel that the opening of the arc felt like filler because there was so much focus on finding the swords and then they weren't as important to the plot as we thought they'd be but I still really enjoyed it and I thought that the issues about finding the swords were still fun for giving us some good character stuff with Storm, Doug, Illyana and Scott, Jean and Cable and I liked the introduction of Solem who I think seems like a fun anti-villain/chaotic neutral character

[deh_tommy]

I’m not as opposed to the silly fights as much as other people may be, but I honestly wonder what the point in gathering the swords was when the only one that seemingly really mattered was the Starlight Sword, one of the only swords actually in Saturnyne’s possession. Krakoa’s accidentally further antagonised Wakanda *again* for nothing.

[themajesticmoose]

I mean to be fair, the sword Ororo got did play a part in this story as seen above as she used it to defeat Death there. And this was a genuinely awesome moment I thought because I love Ororo and I love that even without her powers she was still able to kick his arrogant ass

I do hope that Ororo was able to make amends with T'challa and Shuri after she returned the sword.

[erikred]

At this point, I think we can all agree that Ororo's power is putting blades in hearts.

The weather stuff is just the sleight of hand.

[themajesticmoose]

Ororo Munroe lead the X-men at one of the most dangerous times in mutantkinds history AFTER having her powers stolen by a flatscan weapon

Whether she's got access to her powers or not, she will mess you up if you threaten her friends, her family and her people

[donnblake]

I think at some point you have to chooes, though. Not everything had to be a straight up sword-fight, but I have a hard time reconciling Jorand D White up there talking about how the fights and their outcomes matter with a one panel dance contest or jigsaw puzzle.

Basically, if you want to do "Who's Line Is it Anyway?" that's great- I love, Who's Line- but don't expect me to be holding my breath in anticipation as the points are totaled up.

[thezmage]

I THINK they were going for a "at the mercy of powerful entities whose whims are completely unpredictable" vibe.

[mindsweeper]

To me, that just speaks to the point that this didn’t need to be a 22-issue crossover. The story wasn’t there so it was so much filler. If this had been just in Excalibur like the Cross-Time Caper, that might’ve been fine.

I think it was a bloated mess that didn’t live up to its hype at all. The Arakkoans turned out to be nothing special. Saturnyne’s plan made very little sense. The “special” swords were irrelevant, making the issues about the search for them irrelevant. Etc.

[themajesticmoose]

I guess it comes down to what you were hoping/wanting to get out of the story. Just speaking for myself I for the most part prefer stories where it's just a fun romp, some excitement, some laughs, some emotional moments but not a big "Nothing will ever be the same EVERYTHING CHANGES FOREVER" sort of deal

I much prefer smaller scale events like Empyre or X of Swords over stuff like Infinite Crisis or Death Metal.

So I liked it for the most part. I would agree that it definitely wasn't as High Stakes as the hype built it up to be but I don't really trust comics hype in general

[akodo_aoshi]

Problem is expectations are not just shaped by the Hype but by the books.

In some series/versions for example I read the books because I know they will provide some romp, excitement, laughs etc..

I read other books bbecause I expect a somewhat serious story.

Here? It's like ordering a beef burger and getting a fish or tofu burger instead.

It's not bad but it's not what I expected or ordered and more importantly not what I PAID for.

[thezmage]

I never much cared for when anime/manga goes to a tournament arc for much the same reason, but I believe that their prevalence proves that it is possible to make a bunch of powered people having fight scene after fight scene entertaining to large quantities of people (other than me)

[icon_uk]

The Pogg ur Pogg reveal was random, though Magik thinking she has guessed what "Pogg" means is a little susprising, I mean it's not like she's there with a team mate who should be able to tell her exactly what it means, and then conjugate it... in fourteen tenses, and then use it in a naughty limerick. :)

[erikred]

"Bro! Do you Stan for Beowulf?"

https://www.vox.com/culture/21399477/beowulf-maria-dahvana-headley-review

It may be that Arakkii is a bit more poetic than English; maybe there are just too many literal translations for "Pogg."

(But I love your Douglove, icon_uk. :) )

[jaxjyls]

The Spelling Bee is what happens when you go to a school that doesn't teach basic Maths or English

[scorntx]

Meanwhile, on Krakoa, Charles Xavier momentarily feels a pang of regret and shame for no reason he can determine, as if some decision of his has somehow backfired.

Then he just shrugs it off, like the hundreds of others he feels every day.

(Who needs an education system now, Chuck?)

[deh_tommy]

Things like “education” and rights to said “education” are human constructs. Mutants have no need of that, they only need to follow whatever Exodus preaches to them.

[mindsweeper]

I think it’s a cute moment to juxtapose against the Logan moment.

If I take it way too seriously, I’d say that Illyanna is a Russian who grew up in Limbo, so it makes sense that English spelling was not her educational priority.

[themajesticmoose]

She may be bad at spelling but Kitty Pryde can confirm that Magik is still a very cunning linguist

She's experienced first hand what a talented tongue she has

[jaxjyls]

Who needs ESL when one can have surprise Danger Room sessions.

[shadowpsykie]

honestly, i kinda liked storm and Death's romance.... or flirtation....

but i also love that people tend to forget storm lived most of her life with a knife in her hand and is just as deadly with one of those as with her lightning.

[themajesticmoose]

I am always here for any story that shows that Ororo Munroe is one of the most bad ass women in the Marvel universe

[phantomfo]

I also love Storm's apparent pride at being one of the few major X-Men characters who's never died.

[shadowpsykie]

Didn’t she become a vampire once?

[beyondthefringe]

I don't think she became a full vampire in regular continuity, but there are several alternates where she did... (the Mutant X continuity and wherever the more recent Bloodstorm who joined the O5 came from.)

She "died" with the rest of the team when they went through the Siege Perilous into the Outback era, and "died" again when Nanny kidnapped and deaged her.

[tcampbell1000]

Count me among those who were a bit flummoxed by the tone shifts throughout this story. I mean, in principle, I like the mixture of humor and serious-toned storytelling very much. But there's an art to transitioning between the two, and after all the swords were collected, what we got instead was this sort of tonal randomness, as if someone rolled a pair of emoji-faced dice to see what each scene would feel like.

This arc had a bunch of thoroughly delightful moments to it, no doubt: I will never complain about Magik losing a spelling bee or about Wolverine losing a stare-at-the-graves-of-your-kills contest. But crosscutting between the two so that we can't fully appreciate either moment is just... goddamn weird, like trying to smile and frown at the same time. And it says all there is to say about how X of Swords coheres as a single, large-scale story.