S.W.O.R.D. #10 - "Triple Threat"

[laughing_tree]

I think over time we'll see Wiz-Kid questioning a couple of the tenets of the mutant society - though he's extremely on board with most of it. The human world required Takeshi to adapt himself to fit in it, and even then treated him as less when he knew he was more, particularly given his extremely high power level. Krakoa and S.W.O.R.D. adapt to him and make full use of his abilities. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[donnblake]

Not a surprise from Ewing at this point, but I appreciate this. You can critique aspects of Krakoan society without concluding that that means that, y'know, Gyrich is the better option.

That said, Wiz-Kid, EVERYONE makes technology out of plants. Chimps make technology out of plants. Refine your boasts.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah. Leaf cutter ants developed agriculture with plants.

[shadur]

"I'm just making the tough calls, that's how I make myself feel important despite having an absolutely horrible track record of being wrong on everything" Gyrich is literally never the better option.

At least Apocalypse has/had an actual Grand Plan with an Ultimate Goal in mind.

Gyrich will just make one Tough Call after another to address what he sees as the current situation until there's no one and nothing left to save.

[tinygaylaura]

Plus there's also the fact that I actually like the vast majority of Mutantkind. I think the number of mutant characters I actively dislike in canon probably numbers less than fifty.

While on the flipside, I actively despise Gyrich and everything he stands for and the kind of people he supports and wants to help

So yeah, the Devil will be buying a snow shovel before I ever see Gyrich as the better option to anything

[icon_uk]

The sad part is that Gyrich could have been a much more effective character. When he was introduced back in the late 70's early 80'd he was a pain in the ass, but the thing is that he was sometimes right. We first met him when he wandered into a trashed Avengers HQ, took down Jarvis and was waiting for the team in their meeting room when they got back from their latest fight (that had trashed the HQ) and pointed out that they had absolutely dreadful security, and given the tech and info they left lying casually around, that was a genuinely just poor show and they needed to improve, and he wasn't wrong.

But since then he's just the Bad Ideas Bear in a three piece suit.

[scorntx]

About the time he zapped Storm with the depowering gun (great idea, Forge) was when he crossed from simply obnoxious to repugnant.

Then there was that time in Thunderbolts he turned Nomad in a brainwashed assassin, going right into monstrous.
(Think if more modern writers remembered that story, or if Nomad weren't dead, Gyrich'd probably be treated a bit harsher by the narrative.
... I cling to this optimistic thought.)

[mastermahan]

I mean, a depowering gun isn't a *bad idea* per say. Remember the time the X-Men and the Avengers had to debate whether to Old Yeller Scarlet Witch because of her uncontrolled reality warping? Or how Orphan-Maker needs to stay in his armor because his power is just that dangerous? Or any of the other poor bastards who lost the power lottery?

Giving it to a government with a history of mutant right abuses? THAT was a bad idea.

[scorntx]

But as always with any idea of depowering in X-Men, it's portrayed as an Extremely Bad Thing, even if you're zapping someone who doesn't want their powers, and keeps saying they don't want their powers.

Plus, on a less serious note, making it a gun doesn't seem like the best option. When Storm got zapped, it looked like it smarted something nasty.
"Well, there's a hideous disease going around. Good news, we've got the cure right here. No fuss, no muss, no long list of any side-effects besides feeling a little sleepy afterward."
"That's good."
"Buuuuut we do have to shoot you in the face. With this shotgun."

[mastermahan]

I'm sure Forge has learned from that experience not to make objects that are needlessly dangerous.

Oh wait, Wolverine asked for a surfboard and Forge made it razor-sharp and adamantium. He hasn't learned shit.

[scorntx]

Hey, it's what Wolverine wanted.

"What if he drowns, or cuts himself?"
That will be a very important lesson.

[shakalooloo]

Everyone makes technology out of dead plants. Mutants create it from living plants.

[donnblake]

I mean, even then, and even if you rule out things like the entirety of agriculture, there've been at least two storylines just in the Krakoa era with humans doing exactly that (that country that Beast war-crimed, and those drug grannies that Shaw wanted to bang).

No doubt, mutants have done some impressive stuff, it's just that the concept of making stuff out of plants isn't as revolutionary as Whiz-Kid seems to think.

[tinygaylaura]

I do think Krakoa has taken it to kind of a new level tho?

Plant Science certainly exists in the Marvel universe but the fact Krakoa's plants basically work like a cross between a replicator from Star Trek and a TARDIS is pretty damn impressive

[donnblake]

Oh, absolutely, they're doing cool stuff.

I'm just amused that Whiz-Kid has chosen to brag on like the one aspect of it that isn't that impressive.

It's like if Storm went, "Due to my mutant gifts, I can summon the wind to extinguish the candles upon this birthday cake."

[tinygaylaura]

I mean if she did it while talking like her 90's cartoon self that would be pretty epic

"I SUMMON THE COOLING FORCE OF NAAAAATUUUUURREEEEEE...LET YOUR WIIIINNNDDDSSSS EXTINGUISH THESE CELEBRATORY FLAAAAAMMMEEEEESSSSS"

[tinygaylaura]

I loved this so much

I was so relieved that Wiz Kid turned out to be a triple agent here and I especially loved his inner monologue here:

"Yeah there are assholes living in Krakoa like there are assholes living everywhere.

But end of the day

I live in an immortal super science land with free healthcare, no capitalism and no institutionalised racism or ableism where someone like me is only limited by what we can do, not how we look, where we come from or who we are

You seriously think I'm giving all that up to go back to living in some racist dumpster fire of a country?"

[jgraygaming]

They're starting to use the word "human" the way a lot of school kids use the word "gay" as a pejorative adjective. Not to mention words like "flat-scan"

That's culturally-instilled bigotry in the form of micro-aggressions (and at least one human lives on the Island and is likely subjected to it regularly). It happens, of course, in marginalized groups as a pressure valve and a way to strike back, in private, against the dominant oppressive group but the thing is, on Krakoa, they ARE the dominant group.

[tinygaylaura]

Humanity in the Marvel universe were putting mutants in literal concentration camps less than a year ago and have attempted over a dozen genocides against mutantkind in less than ten years

So...as far as I'm concerned, Mutants absolutely have every right to think that humanity in the Marvel universe is absolute garbage

[jgraygaming]

Yep. Pretty sure we all get you think that way.

[tinygaylaura]

I'l happily stop thinking humanity in the Marvel universe is awful when humanity in the Marvel universe can go an entire year without doing a horrifying hate crime or attempting to wipe out an entire species

I feel like I'm setting the bar pretty damn low here

It's not my fault humans are determined to limbo under it

[jgraygaming]

Most of humanity is just trying to survive in a world where 1% of the people control 99% of the wealth and a lot of them are just as marginalized as mutants but can't run away to a magic island where all their needs are taken care of. In general, we're looking at elites setting up policies in a few specific countries and not the species as a whole.

Not to mention all the humans who absolutely are allies to mutants. Stevie Hunter. Charlotte Jones. Peter Corbeau. Amanda Sefton. Michael Rossi. Lucinda Guthrie. Jack, Julie, Katie, and Alex Power. Fred Duncan. Val Cooper (usually). Brian Braddock. Karima Shapandar. Eric Gitter. Puck. Trish Tilby. Harry Morrell. Tom Corsi. Sharon Friedlander. Cloak. Dagger. Lee Forester.

And that's a short list. There's tons more.

[blueprintstyles]

Preach! I keep hoping they just start off with Krakoa in the MCU. They just made everyone forget mutants exist so they could go about their business,

[nyadnar17]

I love that mixed species characters like Brand help keep things in perspective.

This is fun.

[starwolf_oakley]

Seeing Taki makes me wonder where Artie Maddocks and Leech are on Krakoa. They would be interested in Franklin Richards being part of the "club."

[jgraygaming]

I was thinking the same thing. Last we saw them, both were in space with the Future Foundation but they've all since returned.

Leech wasn't popular among the Morlocks because just being near him temporarily removed what was special about him. I have to wonder how popular he would be on Krakoa.

[silverhammerman]

Leech's whole deal would seem to clash pretty strongly with Krakoa's general embrace and celebration of mutanthood and powers, so it really does seem like a shame that no writer has touched on that thus far. He's a mutant who is also walking anathema to the whole ideology of Krakoa! That's dynamite!

[shakalooloo]

If Leech were near Moira when she died, nullifying her powers, would she still re-spawn?

[tinygaylaura]

it would be cool if we got a little scene in New Mutants revealing how some of the older mutants on Krakoa have been helping Leech to get his power more under control so he doesn't just randomly shut mutant powers off by being near people

I feel like that would make it much easier for Leech to socialise

In any case I hope Leech and Artie are okay those two were adorable

[onsokumaru]

I hope Annalee was resurrected alonside with her biological kids and was reunited with her adopted boy.

[jgraygaming]

The fact that we haven't seen her yet have seen the likes of Mastermind brought back is infuriating.

[rolzup]

Yeah, I've been wondering why Annalee wasn't working in the creche. Analee getting a chance to be *happy* is one of the two things that I've found myself most wanting to see from the current Krokoan era.

(The other is a long conversation between Destiny and Rachel Summer about how that whole "Kill Senator Kelly" plan worked out when it was successful, and what that might mean about the long-term accuracy of her powers....)

[scorntx]

There's a bit in Avengers Annual 10 where Destiny actually explains to Pyro that her powers aren't infallible. She can predict likely outcomes, but that still leaves room for things to happen she didn't foresee.

Although Hickman seems to think it's an utterly infallible magic 8-ball.

... though really, you don't need prescience to see that "storm a Senate hearing and try to murder a man in broad daylight" is a mind-shatteringly stupid idea.
Just basic common sense would do.

[scorntx]

The bishie is spreading to everyone. It's even getting to Cable.
Not afflicting him as much, but he's still looking less rugged than usual.

An aside: It's been ten issues, and there's not been a glimpse of Blink as the infograph in issue 1 promised.
The infograph lied.

[silverhammerman]

Did we ever even find out if that was the 616 Blink or the Age of Apocalypse/Exiles Blink?

[scorntx]

I don't think it said.
But I think it was Exiles Blink.
(Maybe her being over in Way of X had something to do with this. Or the constant crossovers.)

[lordy_co]

I think it's 616 Blink, she was ressurected a couple years ago and Ewing is the kind of writer who'd know that and take the opportunity to use a underutilised character.

[scorntx]

Well, having just re-checked SWORD issue 1, it looks an awful lot like 616 Blink, since she's still got the bangs, rather than Exiles Blink's redesigned look.

[scorntx]

Serious talk, tho;
Betraying Gyrich doesn't really feel like much of an intellectual accomplishment.

Like Brand said, he's a weasel. And a particularly stupid weasel at that.
His whole career is being a bully. The kind Sir Pterry once said are the particularly powerless kind who inflict their evil just by making everyone else's life that little bit more difficult.

And really, given the resources at SWORD's disposal, they could easily get rid of him.
Not necessarily kill him, though knowing Brand she could easily cook up a good defense (and at the very least it's clear the usual first argument of "If you kill him, you're no better than him" wouldn't last a second on Krakoa).
Just get Eden to dump him on some nowhere planet. Wipe his mind (nothing of value would be lost, except maybe the sleep of whatever person had to rummage through there).

The only explanation I can figure on is that Brand just prefers the ease of having Gyrich around.
Yes, he's awful and unpleasant and if he was gone the universe would probably be a measurably better place... but he's easy to anticipate.
Or to put it another way: He may be evil, but at least he's stupid.
If he's gone, whoever would inevitably replace him might be harder to deal with. Smarter. Not much smarter, but just enough.
Which probably wouldn't slow Brand down that much, but it'd still be a hassle.

[bruinsfan]

Yeah, I think from Brand's perspective, Gyrich reliably making the worst decision is very useful.

[tinygaylaura]

"Betraying Gyrich doesn't really feel like much of an intellectual accomplishment."

Neither does winning at mini golf but it's still fun. It's important to find time for lifes little pleasures as well as the big ones

"Like Brand said, he's a weasel. And a particularly stupid weasel at that."

How dare you insult weasels like that

"His whole career is being a bully. The kind Sir Pterry once said are the particularly powerless kind who inflict their evil just by making everyone else's life that little bit more difficult."

If he was around in real life he'd definitely work for the DMV. Or the IRS

"And really, given the resources at SWORD's disposal, they could easily get rid of him.
Not necessarily kill him, though knowing Brand she could easily cook up a good defense."

Actually she wouldn't need a defence. Killing ORCHIS employees is fair game. Krakoa's government correctly views ORCHIS and all those that work with and for them as an infestation that needs to be removed from the planet

"(and at the very least it's clear the usual first argument of "If you kill him, you're no better than him" wouldn't last a second on Krakoa)"

Well she's already better than him and nothing can change that

And to my way of thinking, finding a way to off him would just be another way to demonstrate she's better than him.

"The only explanation I can figure on is that Brand just prefers the ease of having Gyrich around.
Yes, he's awful and unpleasant and if he was gone the universe would probably be a measurably better place... but he's easy to anticipate.
Or to put it another way: He may be evil, but at least he's stupid."

That's pretty much how I figure it as well

It's handy for Krakoa if the people that their enemies are putting in charge of their operations are morons.