SWORD #4

[lordultimus]

Comments

[tinygaylaura]

Brand, when you have to explicitly promise that there won't be any inbreeding while explaining your plan because that would otherwise be a concern people would have with said plan, that's one of those red flags that your plan is a bad plan and you should come up with a better one

Also oh my god THE THINK TANK BECOMES A GIANT ROBOT

IT'S A ROBOT IN DISGUISE

[zachbeacon]

The inbreeding line just made me think she obviously doesn't have any Summers, Apocalypse, Eisenhardt, Howlett, or Darkholme DNA because sooner or later they're related to everyone else.

I actually feel bad for Mentallo. I hope Whiz Kid didn't mess with his radio settings on top of everything else.

[tinygaylaura]

Don't lose his favourite station!

[zachbeacon]

Krakoan law #104: Don't touch that dial.

[tinygaylaura]

(Sylvester Stallone voice) DO NOT BETRAY THE LAW

[dan_ingram]

So has Proteus stopped altering reality for some reason? Just wondering, he seems kinda useless

[lordultimus]

All of the Five have been restricting their powers for solely resurrection purposes.

[tinygaylaura]

He does use his powers as part of that

He has to be careful how much power he uses as using his powers too much is what causes him to go into full on Cletus Kassady style "Always Chaotic Evil" mode because using that much power has a harmful effect on his mind

[zachbeacon]

If only he hung out with someone who can duplicate powers.

Hope someone like that shows up.

[tinygaylaura]

I mean if Hope did that she would suffer the same ill effects Proteus does though

[mastermahan]

That just hits the same problem as with Proteus. The Five are the only ones who can resurrect people. If any one of them dies, death is permanent again. They've been told to stay out of combat because they're too valuable to risk.

It's been mentioned they've looked into possible substitutes, but no dice so far, so if Proteus dies, death is real-ish again. Maybe if they knew another reality warper, they could sub in for Proteus. I sure hope Xavier didn't do anything stupid like exile one just because because his x-gene was somehow fake.

[bruinsfan]

That doesn't even make sense to me. Aren't all inherent superpowers in humanity based on genetic tinkering by the Celestials, with some active and developing naturally (mutants) and others latent but triggered by radiation or other extreme events (mutates, like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man)? Franklin's powers developed naturally when he was a toddler, and are different from those of his parents, ergo mutant. And he was identified as a mutant when he was too young to know anything about the society of mutants and subconsciously alter his genetics to fit in with them—the writer's bullshit explanation for him being excluded.

[lordultimus]

Technically, the only ones that have been confirmed for 616 that are latent Celestial experiments are mutants. The rest are subtext, in-universe theories, or alternate realities like Earth-X.

[tinygaylaura]

I get the impression it's just a stupid retcon Dan Slott came up with because he doesn't like the X-books, probably because he can't stand stories better than anything he's ever written, written by writers more talented than he will ever be

[zachbeacon]

Especially when the next best backup after Frank is probably Mikhail Rasputin and no one wants that.

As for the Hope thing, I was under the impression she was one of those "copy your powers but use them better than you" types like Synch. If not, then why isn't Everett on the Five instead?

[mastermahan]

Hope can do more than mimic mutant powers. She can manipulate other mutant powers to activate or enhance them. From what I recall of House of X, her role is boosting the others and linking them into a hive mind, and probably restoring their powers too.

Which is something Sage might be able to manage, depending on how her powers are being interpreted these days.

House of X actually mentions Synch and Mimic as possible backups, but they decided to send Everett on a suicide mission for some damn reason.

[zachbeacon]

It's crazy to me that we have a status quo where Mimic is a mutant but Franklin Richards and Quicksilver aren't.

[sabertoothlotus]

I was wondering about this, too... seems like he could solve this entire problem himself.

[mindsweeper]

When you become a hero, your powers get nerfed. Last issue, he shrugged at Sunfire becoming a mini-sun, because it’s not hard but here, Mainfold has to ask space to give him a piece of the sun to fight back.

[deh_tommy]

Thank whatever Nightcrawler prays to now for Abigail Brand to finally – finally – tell off and not indulge in Krakoa’s crap without coming off as evil or in the wrong. True, there’s better times to do so than the end of all life in the universe at the hands of an eldritch nightmare entity from the dawn of creation, but baby steps (and I’m probably reading too much into things, but judging by her tone and how pretty much everyone’s been written since HoX/PoX, I doubt Jean here cares about any non-mutant lives lost).

[scorntx]

(psst: That's Hope, not Jean.
The difference is the freckles.

Also, slightly different flavour of self-righteousness that comes from being a moody 'teenager'.)

[mastermahan]

To be fair, I don't think Hope usually has freckles.

[mindsweeper]

Jean’s off saving the day (as exposition) in the main series.

See, I thought this was showing how Brand’s arrogance and secrecy was her fatal flaw. She shows up out of nowhere and thinks she can order the Five around? Of course, they wouldn’t listen to her. Maybe Goldballs, but not the rest.

[tinygaylaura]

I agree that was my take away from this scene as well especially as her plan didn't work here

[lordultimus]

Can't it be both?

[zachbeacon]

While I agree with her overall point, Hope is full of it; There's no way anyone misses Gorgon.

[mastermahan]

Here are we are at the funeral for Gorgon. Would anyone like to say a few words for our fallen brother?

...

Didn't he start a terrorist death cult?

He brainwashed Wolverine into murdering, like, hundreds of people, including Northstar.

I thought his hooves were pretty cool.

Wrong Gorgon.

He joined Hydra AND the Hand.

He was Xavier's bodyguard and he interpreted the "no killing humans" law as free reign to cut off a bunch of limbs. Those guys are now pissed-off cyborgs, by the way.

I saw him fuck a rock once.

...

Can we leave now?

[icon_uk]

"He brainwashed Wolverine into murdering, like, hundreds of people, including Northstar."

[tinygaylaura]

If Wolverine held a grudge against everyone who'd ever mind controlled him he'd have more enemies than Spider-Man has Tragically Doomed Loved Ones

[bruinsfan]

Bwah! Yeah, surely it can't involve much more than saying "go on, you know you wanna!"

[scorntx]

"Here lies Gorgon.

He kinda sucked."

[tinygaylaura]

Domino: I miss Gorgon

But my aim's improving!

Wolverine: Domino for gods sake we're at his funeral

Domino: Fuck you that was funny

[mastermahan]

This is clearly a terrible plan, but it's nice that SOMEONE sees that mutants and humans are functionally identical.

[tinygaylaura]

Well I mean mutants are better but physically most of them probably do all look alike to people from space, yeah

[deh_tommy]

The X-gene (as far as I’m aware anyway) has only been found in human offspring. Even if they’ve got tentacles for arms or a beak in place of a mouth or pretty much lack any distinct humanoid features entirely, they’d still count as human on a genetic level, no? I mean, unless they’re half-nonhuman (like having an animal or plant or alien parent or something).

[tinygaylaura]

Ah actually there are other species where the X gene has expressed itself

Broo is a mutant Brood and there are/were mutant Skrulls as well. I don't know what has become of them but they were around during the "The Twelve" story arc

[lordultimus]

They didn't have the X-gene; they're mutants to their race but they don't have the X-Gene.

[tinygaylaura]

Oh okay

I thought they were mutants in the earth sense of the term as well because they were born with superpowers and stuff

My mistake!

[bruinsfan]

Aren't all Skrulls the Deviant branch of their origin species?

[tinygaylaura]

I was under the impresson all Skrulls are naturally born as shape shifters