S.W.O.R.D. #1 - "Mysterium"

[laughing_tree]

It’s an absolute blast to be working with the X-team, and to bring Marvel’s merry mutants into the new Age of Space – and introduce space to the new age of Krakoa! -- Al Ewing

Comments

[themajesticmoose]

Loved this

I love the current X-books status quo from Marvel and I love Al Ewing's writing so this was a perfect match

Really like how Magneto and Brand are written here and I even found Teen Cable enjoyable here. And I love the bit where Magneto trolls Fabian Cortez by pretending he doesn't even remember his name and how absolutely no one wants Cortez there

Also found the scene with Magneto's reaction about Wanda interesting. Makes me think that Magneto is not onboard with the way Exodous has been talking about her and that he does still care about her even if thanks to that idiotic retcon that happened in that terrible event comic Marvel did (Axis, to all of you understandably going "Which one?" at hearing the words "Terrible Marvel event comic) she's not his daughter anymore

[crinos]

Oh my God.

Fabian Cortez was such a shit they didn't take him for Krakoa.

Like, they took fucking Emplate. They took the fucking SHADOW KING. But Cortez Magneto is like "New phone who this?"

[nyadnar17]

I think its the moments of pure pettiness and spite that make me really love Krakoa.

Every scene with them treating Cortex like the shit he is was wonderful.

[themajesticmoose]

The panel where Brand is like "Oh god this douchebag is still here" while Magneto has the best ._. face ever at how he has to deal with This Asshole once again is hillarious

[crinos]

Yeah, Erik's face is a face that says "I sit at a table across from Mr. Sinister, The Nazi war criminal, every day, and somehow its not nearly as grating as being in a room with this douche."

[zachbeacon]

"Like, they took fucking Emplate."


Well one of them is a dangerous parasite...and the other is Ms brother.

Joking aside, Emplate is the Krakoan citizen that bothers me more than anyone. Sabretooth was too much but somehow the mutant cannibal gets a pass?

[crinos]

Emplate was the guy who turned his sister into a mute rock creature and locked her in a U store it in a leather fetish suit so he could feed on her.

I mean I read some of those early issues, and what I picked up is that Emplate is meant to be an allegory for a sexual predator. (And considering he was created by Scott Lobdell, that makes him even more uncomfortable).

Oh and speaking of, Empath is also on Krakoa, and they excuse his shitty behavior over the years as "That's part of his mutant powers, so we have to respect his mutant identity."

[zachbeacon]

I don't want to excuse Empath* but a sizable chunk of the mutant community was built around an asshole with mind control powers so I wonder if even the X-Men have become desensitized to that kind of thing especially now that "make more mutants" is the law of the land.

*Or Mesmero. Or the various Masterminds. Or any number of others with similar MOs.

Emplate, on the other hand, EATS PEOPLE. Or at least their bone marrow. Best case scenario, he tails Marrow and Spike and chews on any bones they leave behind. I sure don't want that guy anywhere near the island's daycare. I just don't see him being around as conducive to the survival of the species; even with resurrections you're going to have a LOT of trauma.

Then again I also don't want Sinister near the daycare and he's one of the people running things. Surprisingly I'm cool with the Artist Formerly Known as Apocalypse watching the tykes; he'd probably just make them play dodge ball to determine which among them are superior.

[crinos]

Not only does Emplate feed on people, but he operates on vampire rules. His condition is CONTAGIOUS.

So how is the entire island not just a bunch of hand mouthed vampire monsters by now?

Minor Good Place Spoilers

[zachbeacon]

There are just too many ways this could have gone wrong for me to believe that they haven’t experienced at least some of these…

Emplate vampire infestation.
Actual vampire infestation.
Zombie infestation.
Brood infestation.
Demon and/or Bamf infestation.
Techno-organic plague.
Sublime.
Nano Sentinels.
Normal Sentinels.
New strain of the Legacy virus escaped Sinister’s lab.
Some Sabretooth clones escaped Sinister’s lab.
Nukes.
Ect.


I assume the new mutant civilization operates on "Good Place" rules and just reset/reorganize when things inevitably go wrong. Death is meaningless now and there are multiple mutants who can alter memories and time so who knows how long they've actually been doing this. It would explain a lot of the more arbitrary rules.

"No humans ... except for that one, that one, and that one. Mostly we just don't want the avatar of destruction who is immune to telepathy. Mom always loved me more anyway, Cain."

"Also telepathy and time travel are fine but we can't have precogs because they might learn our secrets"

"Clones aren't people except for when they are."

"Sorry, Kitty. You can't use the gates now because we're all, um, naked" (*frantically trying to dispose of the dead body of one of her loved ones*)

Re: Minor Good Place Spoilers

[deh_tommy]

i’m still waiting for Mandrill, Shriek and Onslaught to show up chilling in the pools.

Re: Minor Good Place Spoilers

[themajesticmoose]

If I remember right Emplate's condition has been dealt with by Krakoa basically granting him a way to feed without killing or harming mutants anymore. Still wouldn't exactly call it a bright move on Xavier's part to allow him onto the island given his past history though but making terrible decisions is basically Xavier's stock in trade

"No humans except the ones we want around" sounds like a good law to me. If I was a mutant in the Marvel universe I'd be on board with that. Most humans in the Marvel universe are honestly garbage so picking and choosing which ones get to come and which ones don't sounds like a smart move

I'd like to hope that tracking down and eradicating Sublime and monstrosities like the Nuke's has been a priority for the Council or one of their teams like Hellions or X-force as part of those groups mission statement is the elimination of all potential threats to mutantkind created by any other species

[shadur]

On the one hand I think the comics have done Wanda a brutal disservice and she deserved better.

On the other... Given what she has done in canon, and how utterly traumatic that was for everyone involved, I can only respect Magneto's restraint in not personally flicking that ambassador out the airlock after that snide remark.

[crinos]

Yeah you know, everyone blames Wanda for wiping out Mutants.

How about we remember the reason that happened was because Quicksilver manipulated her into changing the world into one where mutants ruled, and then she only snapped and depowered everyone because Magneto killed Quicksilver when he found out.

Like, don't put that all on Wanda. She was in the midst of a mental breakdown and her family was right there making it worse. I don't see Erick shouldering any part of the blame for that nonsense. I don't even know where Pietro is.

[scorntx]

Yeah, but Pietro, like, went nuts because he lost his powers, abducted his daughter and exposed her to terrigen, causing the US government to steal it, the Inhumans to declare war and then the US government tried to kill them all because of that.
And then he blamed it all on Skrulls, then got caught out on lying about that and went "sorry I said a Skrull did it", so clearly, he's earned his forgiveness.

Whereas that hideous monster Wanda will have her misdeeds hanging over her head FOREVER, no matter how many "Wanda tries to atone for her misdeeds" stories we get.

(Just noting: There is something Very Not Right about how Pietro's role in House of M is ignored or brushed off while Wanda will be forever raked over the coals for it.
... maybe it's because most people just don't seem to like Pietro anyway? I dunno...)

[akodo_rokku]

Well if I remember correctly, wasn't Hank Pym the one who caught Pietro's lie?

And then he went and died and well does anybody really trust him anyway?

[crinos]

Wanda destroying Mutantkind that one time is gonna be one of those things she's never gonna be able to live down. Just like Hank Pym hitting Jan. And also ignoring the greater picture that Wanda isn't a monster, she was someone having actual mental health issues and not getting the proper treatment for them.

Like, Jan didn't leave Hank because he was a domestic abuser, she left because Hank was bipolar and he was refusing to seek treatment for it out of stubborn pride, Hank slapping her (Which was written as being an accident but they drew it as intentional) was just the final capstone of that. It wasn't until the Nadia Wasp era that properly got addressed and the record set straight. But the main takeaway from that is still "Hank Pym beats his wife." (Of course the Ultimates didn't help matters much).

Its gonna be the same with Wanda. Like the only thing anyone's ever gonna bring up is the fact she wiped out mutantkind. Not the fact that she was having a nervous breakdown at the time over losing her kids, or the fact that she spent that entire arc stuck between her asshole brother and asshole sometimes father. No no, its Wanda Maximoff, destroyer of Mutants.

And I say that as someone who thought the Decimation was a terrible fucking idea. But I got two rants in this post don't need to go on a third.

[deh_tommy]

Heck, you could argue Magneto’s got a lot of the blame and yet here he is trying to do the exact same thing *again* and no one bats an eye.

[mindsweeper]

Maybe it's just easier to ignore enablers and give them less blame than the actual perpetrator.

It's only remembered in the X-books, where bashing Wanda is easy fan service. Bendis' teen Jean-Wanda confrontation in ANXM was a thing of beauty. It's a non-issue elsewhere. The Avengers side got over it immediately.

I just don't think there's been a good "Wanda atonement" story, which is the problem, too. I would say that the character wasn't helped in her return by writers who I've seen make her (a) a bigger victim than Mutants ("woe is me"); (b) unbelievable excuses that make her look worse ("I sought ultimate power from Doctor Doom, how could I know it'd go wrong?"); (c) callous disregard of the incident ("why does it matter if there are more Mutants anyway?"); or (d) incompetently to rectify things ("oops, I made 16 million Mutant zombies").

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Do we have that Jean-Wanda moment here?

[mindsweeper]

I don’t know for sure but I looked and didn’t see it. It’s All-New X-Men 12 from 2013.

If you want to see it, I could post it. I’ve never done a post here but could probably figure it out. It’s about 6 pages: 5 full pages and 2 partial pages, so I think that’d be within the rules for an old book.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I'd be down for that. =)

[deh_tommy]

That ambassador speaks nothing but the truth. Wanda deserved better than to have mutantkind’s children be brainwashed into thinking of her as a heartless boogeyman. Heck, that Magneto calls her “pretender” is enough to show where he stands.

[scorntx]

You know you're doing something wrong when Paibok (the POWER SKRULL!) is going "dude... dude. Ease up."

[themajesticmoose]

In universe I can understand why mutantkind absolutely has a right to be angry and not forgive given that Wanda, even if she was in the middle of a breakdown at the time and bitterly regretted it afterwards, did kill a LOT of mutants and inflicted a fate worse than death on those who survived

Out of universe and as someone who likes Wanda, I wish writers would just give her a redemption arc and have it stick or else just stop bringing House of M up. That garbage and the ridiculous "No More Mutants" nonsense has thankfully been completely undone at this point and I'd honestly rather it just got left in the past

[gnarll]

I wish they could decide on how old Magneto is physically. Late 30s at the most, but could be up to 10 years younger.

[lordultimus]

Call me overly optimistic, but the fact that they keep bringing up Wanda keeps making me think they're going to make her a mutant again.

[scorntx]

Things to love:
Just how much everyone thinks Cortez sucks.
"We have Kid Cable, who killed his more likable adult self. We have Ameila Voight and Frenzy, former members of the Acolytes. We have Blink, who was duped into helping Selene try to wipe out all life on Earth that one time. We have Vanisher, who sold drugs to kids, and you are still the worst person here, Fab."

Everyone on the teleport team wears uniforms except Gateway, who's just the same as usual.

Blink. Blink! BLINK!

(Anyone ever play that X-Men Legends game? Because for some reason, seeing them loot the White Hot Room just brings back memories of a voice yelling out "SUPER-COMBO."
It's an bizarre and interesting combination of powers in weird ways. And it's awesome.)

The implication that Doom keeps an eye on everyone just so he can send them self-congratulatory emails.
Wonder what Reed's spam filter looks like...
"For hate's sake, Richards, I spam at thee!"

[lordultimus]

Wait, is this 616 Blink, or Exiles Blink (who was living in 616, last I checked)?

[themajesticmoose]

It hasn't been stated yet so it could be either of them

Unless Ewing has confirmed one way or another on Twitter

[deh_tommy]

I find that hard to believe Exiles Blink would be okay or all too defensive of Krakoa considering she’s probably seen similar experiments play out in other universes and friggin’ Apocalypse (the guy responsible for the state of her original world) is in charge.

[zachbeacon]

Exiles Blink has better things to do.

Actually ... has 616 Changeling shown up yet? I miss Morph.

[mastermahan]

He has, actually! No lines yet, but he was in a crowd scene. I'm fairly sure that's the oldest death they've reversed so far.

[zachbeacon]

Aside from retcons (and I know his death is also a retcon), that's the earliest mutant death I can think of. He and 616 Blink are basically blank slates and it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up taking on traits of their counterparts from other realities and media.

(I'd prefer more Exiles Morph than TAS Morph but AoA/Exiles Blink is pretty much the only reason anyone cares about her)

Still find it funny that Thunderbird apparently died because they thought he was too similar to Wolverine and now he's in a world with, like, six of them. Plus his own, more likable, kid brother with identical powers.

[scorntx]

... has anyone actually used 616 Blink since the DnA New Mutants days?

[zachbeacon]

I legit forgot she existed outside of that Phalanx story where she dies almost immediately.

[themajesticmoose]

Eh... honestly if I had to make the choice of living in a country where Apocalypse is part of the government or living in America right now...I'd pick Krakoa

[donnblake]

Re: Reed's Spam Filter

Pah! Do you think any algorithm designed by that INSUFFERABLE FOOL RICHARDS could prevent the delivery of Doom's message to it's intended subject? All of Doom's messages arrive promptly in Richard's feeble and insufficient inbox, resplendent in their devastating dismissal of his life's work.

Not that Doom cares enough to e-mail Richards more than three or four times a day. If Doom is feeling benevolent, perhaps a fifth, when he is CCed on pictures of the Doomcat's particularly cute antics sent to Valeria.

Dr. Victor Von Doom

~Thought for the Day- PRAISE DOOM!

[cainofdreaming]

Doom snark. Not quite Alfred snark, but still good.

[zachbeacon]

I'm all for dunking on Fabian Cortez but maybe pretending you don't know him isn't the right move here, Mags.

"He didn't eviscerate me with a paperclip? I GOT AWAY WITH IT!"

[mindsweeper]

The following scene with Magneto and Peepers having a broment hurt Cortez a lot more.

Humiliation > death for Mutants now. Especially since everyone who gets featured on-panel seems to jump the resurrection queue anyway.

[zachbeacon]

I mean, who doesn't like Peepers?

[themajesticmoose]

Peepers is adorable and deserves to be appreciated

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I don't recognize this Fabian guy... why is he so bad?

[scorntx]

Fabian Cortez, one of the first set of Acolytes, alllllll the way back from 1993, and Chris Claremont's final story in his first run on the X-Men.

Cortez pretended he was using his powers to strengthen Magneto, but was actually sapping his strength (drug analogy! Don't do Cortez!). Then he betrayed him, which also killed a few other people, including his sister (who, if she's been resurrected by Krakoa yet, might be looking to ask her bro a few 'questions').
He proceeded to crop up a few more times in the 90s, just generally being a pony-tailed pain in the behind, manipulating and backstabbing everyone, until Magneto killed him.

Tl;dr: He's Mutant Starscream. But without the success rate.

[zachbeacon]

And he's recognizable to people who didn't read comics at the time because he was doing a lot of the same stuff in the animated series.

With a more annoying voice than Starscream.


Its weird that one of the worst (not in a good way) X-Men villains of the 90s is named after one of the best X-Men writers of the 90s. At least I assume so; they are literally the only two Fabians I can think of.

[scorntx]

That's not a coincidence. Claremont named Cortez after Nicieza.

[zachbeacon]

Well, that seems petty as hell.