S.W.O.R.D. #4 - "The Krakoan Sun"

[laughing_tree]

Cable's kind of mutant royalty, while Wiz-Kid's got more of a rebellious streak. I kind of see him as the young rock star Kid Cable only thinks he is. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[onsokumaru]

"same old [insert category I don't like] thinking"
Yep, that's the classic racist rant from people who believe they can't be racist.
It's not like half your High Council is doing exactly what you define as "some old human thinking", right, Hope?

Unrelated: nice rasungan from Manifold. But I wonder if it's a one-time favor universe did him because it hates Knull, of if Eden is now able to throw suns at people whenever he wants.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I'd like to think it's case-by-case. Evil symbiotic god is endangering the universe? Have a sun.

Get cut off in traffic? Maybe take it down a notch, and we'll see what we can work out.

[scorntx]

In fairness, decrying what someone else is doing as "same old thinking" because she personally doesn't like it is pretty consistent for Hope.
Plus, she's a teenager.

[icon_uk]

The trouble is, Hope has a point, Brand is taking pre-emptive action based on bad politics (The Shi'Ar? Really? They've been in somethng like four galactic scale wars in the past 15 years AND casually wiped out the Summer's family (including children) on a whim), unquestionably dodgy ethics (SHE'S unilaterally making decisions about who gets to live), and is attempting it as a black ops, with no over-sight, even as her team is still being formed.

[tinygaylaura]

I am loving this series so far

Ewing is on good form as usual and I am loving the way he's handling the cast

Even as someone who has no interest in the King in Black event I loved this tie in (As well as the Black Cat, GOTG and Wiccan and Hulkling tie ins) and it's a testament to how good the writing on this book and those was that even saddled with having to tie in with an event I don't care for they still did a top notch job at delivering an entertaining story

I always love when Ewing gets to do truly bonkers stuff like this in his stories

Also I really loved Hope calling out how badly thought out Brand's plan was here and how she needs to stop acting like this is still the old SHIELD days when everyone and their mother had some labyrinth machinations going on with their right hand that they didn't bother telling the left hand about

I rarely agree with Xavier but I have to give him kudos for at least realising that letting Fabian Cortez have any kind of voice in Krakoan politics is about as smart as putting Mel Gibson in charge of a brewery that's located next door to a car dealership

I like Brand on the whole but her plan here was so bad I'm glad Hope and the Five didn't go along with it. For one it was thoughtless and cruel to try and force them to abandon some mutants to permanent death and for another trusting the Shi'ar to keep anything safe?

This is an empire whose main exports are assasins and fucking madmen. If you want something blown up, melted, disintegrated or hurled into the sun by all means call the Shi'ar but if you want to keep something SAFE you'd be better off with the Brood than you would the Shi'ar Empire

[deh_tommy]

Eh, Rachel calling out Abigail felt a bit hypocritical since Krakoa’s been guilty of the same kind of Machiavellian scheming they pretend to pan since day one.

[akodo_rokku]

I would assume Hope doesn't know about that. They don't want The Five doubting their duty, after all.

[onsokumaru]

Even without mentioning the initial BIG SECRET, and Beast's CIA-like coups and mass murders in latin america, Hope should know better. When snakes like Shaw, Mystique and Sinister have seats in the High Council, conspiracies are always on the menu.

[cainofdreaming]

Xavier probably keeps the Five in the forefront of the mind whammy list. Can't let your most prized assets start doubting you.

[tinygaylaura]

Xavier isn't "Mind Whammy-ing" anyone as the comics have repeatedly shown to be the case

This isn't Harry Potter

Fanon headcanons that make absolutely no sense aren't going to become continuity

[deh_tommy]

There’s at least a soft implication something is going on with resurrections, though (like how Domino in her dying breath begged and pleaded not to forget her experiences with how the terrorists tortured her and then when she was brought back she apparently doesn’t care and was fine with those memories being gone).

[onsokumaru]

We don't know who is responsible for not respecting her death wish.
It's possible that Colossus didn't tell Xavier what Domino wanted (or maybe lied about it).

[tinygaylaura]

Yeah I see that more as someone going "You know what, maybe it would be kinder to not bring her back with the memory of being skinned alive by a fascist terrorist cult"

[jlbarnett]

an earlier backup that hadn't experienced that yet, to make that decision?

[donnblake]

There is that- we've pretty consistently seen that the backups aren't constant, although I don't know if we've got an exact figure on how often they update. It's possible that there simply wasn't time to upload a post-torture Domino before she expired.

That said, from a Doylist perspective, it feels weird to show us Domino begging to keep a memory, and then having lost that memory, if there isn't supposed to be something deeper.

[mastermahan]

Time is always tricky in comics, but we've been told repeatedly that the backups are weekly, and it certainly seemed like more than a week had passed between her torture and her eventual death.

I read it that someone saw to it that that memory was deleted. It was meant to look like Colossus lied about her not wanting to keep those memories, but I'd expect the telepath going through her memory backup to notice that she wanted to keep all her memories.

[scorntx]

Not honestly sure Elixir and Goldballs have minds to whammy, frankly.

Probably Chuck just keeps 'em controlled by surrounding them with gals and booze.

("Don't tell Wolverine, but I've been stealing from his supply. I've got him brainwashed to think he's drinking beer, but actually, it's toad pressings."
"... when you say "toad"..."
"You don't want to know.")

As for Hope, he probably just tells her he thinks it'll never work, counting on her stubborn contrariness to carry her through.

[tinygaylaura]

Getting surrounded by girls and booze is the kind of "Control" I'd be fine with

[mastermahan]

Cypher's powers mean he could hear whether 'toad' is capitalized or not. He truly wishes he hadn't.

[tinygaylaura]

There's nothing wrong with scheming

Just be competent about it

"I can suffer your treachery, but not your incompetence!"

[zachbeacon]

So this is a rare "Charles is right" moment. Allowing Fabian anywhere near the Council is a terrible idea.

[tinygaylaura]

This and the way he went about founding Krakoa are the two things his character has done right in the half a dozen decades he has existed yes

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I'm not familiar with this Fabian guy. What's he done?

[zachbeacon]

He's a chronic backstabber.

He's Starscream to Magneto's Megatron.

[scorntx]

Except Starscream is occasionally useful, when he's not being a backstabbing incompetent.
And doesn't have a stupid ponytail.

[zachbeacon]

True.

Megatron is a bad manager and doesn't properly utilize Starscream's skill set.

Magneto is a bad boss for thinking Fabian has skills in the first place.

(I know Magneto was convinced Fabian was empowering him for a while but I really don't see how that plus ass-kissing makes him second in command. Toad was actually useful and Magneto treated him like shit)

[zachbeacon]

Also enjoying just how aggressively Scottish Proteus is here. It's like reading Claremont.

[tinygaylaura]

All that's missing is everyone getting dressed up in leather fetish gear

But there's still time for that

I can still hope

[scorntx]

You're no properly a MacTaggert till yuir speakin' in a nigh-offensive cod Scottish accent.
'tis a fact.

(I'm going on the working theory that, since Proteus's Scottishness seems to vary by title, he is actually exaggerating it to be try and be annoying, as a way of getting back at being sidelined by Hope.)

[tinygaylaura]

"I'm doing it to annoy the Krakoans!

Krakoans and Scots are natural enemies!

Like British and Scots!

Or Japanese and Scots!

OR SCOTS AND OTHER SORTS OF SCOTS!

DAMN SCOTS!

THEY RUINED SCOTLAND!"

"You Scots sure are a contentious people"

"You just made an enemy for life!"

[shakalooloo]

"Making backup hatcheries on the fly during a universal crisis is stupid..."

It's only stupid because no-one had thought to do it prior to the universal crisis. Coming up with a disaster recovery plan in the middle of said disaster is better than not planning ahead and hoping (hah) everything turns out okay.

It's not like the Five couldn't just go back to Krakoa once Knull was defeated.

[tinygaylaura]

Well their objection to the plan is that no they wouldn't be going back. Brand's plan was "Leave everyone on the planet to die and give Earth up as beyond saving"

And to be fair I don't think anyone could have planned for "Marilyn Manson and Hordak's always chaotic evil space god love baby tries to turn the planet into space goo dragon hell for shits and giggles"

Even by the standards of the Marvel universe that's pretty damn weird

[shakalooloo]

The objective was to get samples and The Five odd-planet, to have a decent chance of rebuilding humanity in the event of total global failure. Should Knull be defeated, cool, they can go back to the still-existing planet, no harm done.

If everyone stays on Earth and Knull wins, everyone dies.

Leaving the only hope for the future of the species behind at a place that is very dangerous is like telling civilians to stay in a warzone to save the bother of having to transport them somewhere safe.