By Isaac Kelley — This week saw the release of the first chapter of “X of Swords” (Pronounced “Ten of Swords''). “X of Swords'' is the first crossover event in this current era of Krakoan X-Books. For those that missed the initial onramp, this event might serve as a jumping-on point for one of the most exciting acts of superhero storytelling that I’ve ever witnessed. For those of us already living in Pax Krakoa, let’s review the story to date. For the rest of you, let’s get you caught up to speed.

The Road to X of Swords

The X-Men had a hard reset last year. The X-Men are unique in the world of superhero comics, and I have always had a big soft spot for them. There is something so special about the way this franchise represents the extreme end of superhero comics’ ability to crawl up its own ass — I mean this in a good way. The X-Men are now a 50-year-old soap opera spread across interconnected books, featuring super powers, time travel, space travel, clones, demon dimensions, and something called the “Siege Perilous.” It is a delightful spectacle of the absurd. (There are also metaphors about civil rights and the other inherent to the franchise, but that’s an essay for another day…)

So, naturally, when Jonathan Hickman gave us the jumping-on point for his take on the X-Men, and it took the form of two interlocking miniseries of double-sized issues spanning 100 years and ten timelines, complete with text pieces, maps, and timeline flowcharts, some of which was written in a new mutant language, I was thrilled. Hickman got what made these books great. These series — House of X and Powers of X — are a bold reset, in some ways the boldest reset comics has ever seen since DC Comics cleared the board in 1985. Spoilers abound from this point on.

Krakoa Era Recap

Moira Mactaggert, the long-dead human best friend of Charles Xavier is not actually dead, and is actually a mutant. This is a preposterous retcon, essentially impossible to jibe with many previous stories, but the gonzo confidence in which it is executed sells the premise. Moira has the mutant ability to Groundhogs Day. Whenever she dies, reality resets to the time of her birth and she retains the knowledge of everything that has occurred to her in her past lives. The timeline of the Marvel Universe as created by Stan, Jack et al, all takes place within Moira’s 10th and penultimate life.

Seemingly only Xavier and Magneto know that Moira is alive and the three of them are working together to enact an exceedingly ambitious plan. Charles Xavier has formed an alliance with Krakoa, a sentient island with mutant plant powers. He has brought the mutants to Krakoa, declaring themselves to be a sovereign nation and extending citizenship to every mutant on the planet. Even the baddies. The worldbuilding makes this feel weighty and new, even though Utopia, Genosha, and Avalon were all previous executions of the same basic premise.

Krakoa the island can create miracle drugs that cure previously incurable diseases and extend humans’ natural life span. Krakoa the nation has formed an economy based on selling those miracle drugs to any country that recognizes their sovereignty. Krakoa can also create gates anywhere in the universe if a particular type of plant is planted there, making the borders of Krakoa a bit weird. It has landmass in both the Atlantic and Pacific. Some Krakoans, notably the Summers Clan, live on the moon, but that part of the moon is also considered to be Krakoa. Also, the Krakoan gates can only be opened by mutants.

None of this is the craziest thing. The craziest thing is that the X-Men have conquered death. It has been worked out that any mutant can be reborn if Xavier uses Cerebro to interface with five particular mutants, one of whom is the long-prophesized Mutant Messiah, one of whom is Goldballs. The history of Marvel is full of dead mutants, millions of them. Krakoa is aggressively resurrecting them.

Oh, and the big picture thing is this: Moira has seen that in every timeline she’s lived through, no matter what she does to prevent it, the humans eventually create a version of the Sentinel Program that exterminates all mutants. This life is seemingly Moira’s last chance to avert that fate for the mutant people.

These twelve issues hit like a thunderclap. They are gorgeous, dense, beautiful books. The top-tier art by Pepe Laraza, R. B. Silvia and especially colorist Marte Garcia make this feel like a movie, compared to the television of other superhero comics.

It was followed by a new X-Men series written by Hickman, and nine-or-so other related titles, all based on the world of Krakoa, most of them very good comic books. All of these X-Books have a distinct trade dress that gives them a unified feel. Most of the interior ads have been replaced with text pieces that flesh out this larger new world order. All of them feel like different strands of the story of the post-human nation of Krakoa, more like the original New Gods premise than previous versions of the X-Men. Almost every issue ends with a reading order list, reinforcing the notion that all the disparate titles are one larger story.

Let’s look at all the titles!

The Dawn of X Comics

X-Men, the flagship title, isn’t really about the X-Men any more. There really aren’t any X-Men any more, not as we’ve long known them with a school and formal teams going out into the world to fight evil mutants, etc. This is a book about the challenges of forming a young extra-human nation and creating a distinct mutant culture. It’s funnier than you’d think. Written by Jonathan Hickman, illustrated by Lenil Francis Yu.2

Marauders is my favorite title in the lineup. The central character is Kate Pryde, formerly “Kitty.” She has assumed the captaincy of a ship representing the interests of the Hellfire Trading Company. She is also the Red Queen of the Hellfire Club. (Neither is to be confused with the Hellfire Cult.) Half-swashbuckling adventure, half soapy-politicking, this is everything I want in a comic book. Written by Gerry Duggan, Illustrated by Matteo Lolli.

Excalibur is the oddest title in the lineup. It is a team of mutants formed by the mutant formerly known as Apocalypse, tasked with doing, er, magic shit. In Pax Krakoa, Apocalypse, along with Mr. Sinister, Sebastiani Shaw, and many other traditionally villainous characters are now not only part of the team, they’re part of the government. This book leans hard into the magic and is pretty good, but it can be a bit hard to follow with all the arcana. Written by Tini Howard, illustrated by Marcus To. Oh, and Apocalypse now wants to be called “-|A|-.” I’m going to keep calling him “Apocalypse.”

X-Force As per usual, X-Force is the secret get-their-hands-dirty X-Team, complete with “do the ends justify the means” moralizing, and questions about the price of safety, the necessity of militant organizations, and so forth. Written by Benjamin Percy, illustrated by Joshua Cassara.

New Mutants is maybe the least-well defined title in the bunch. I guess the concept is “what are the characters from the old New Mutants” title up to these days? The answer seems to be “Shenanigans.” This is a pretty good answer. Written by Ed Brisson and Illustrated by Flaviono except for a few hilarious issues written by Jonathan Hickman and illustrated by Rod Reis

Fallen Angels was a critically-maligned book that only spanned six issues…and has since seen all of its central characters shuttled off to other roles in other books. Essentially, if you missed this one, you haven’t really missed anything.

Wolverine is about the title character doing unappealing tasks with greater skill than all others. This includes fighting Dracula. Written by Benjamin Percy, illustrated by Adam Kubert and Viktor Bogdanovic.

Cable used to be a grumpy old man from the future. Now he’s a cocky teenager? This traces its roots back to the pre-Krakoa Extermination mini-series, but even if you haven’t read that, it still seems about right because everything about this character is complicated and stupid. In a good way? Also, the grumpy old man character is apparently alive but in a “different time and place,” fighting radioactive crabs and stuff, and will presumably eventually make his way to this time and place. This is the slightest of the books, but fun. Written by Gerry Duggan, illustrated by Phil Noto

Hellions is Suicide Squad but X-Men, sort of? Mr. Sinister suggested that all the sociopathic mutants should be put on a team to perform black ops missions. As therapy. It’s a team of z-list characters (Nanny is on this grim-and-gritty team!), but somehow is a fascinating read. Written by Zeb Wells, illustrated by Stephen Segovia.

X-Factor is a team of investigators specializing in mutant missing person cases and murder investigations, all of which is pretty weird in a culture when the dead can be brought back. It’s a really good book. How good is it? They managed to make a Mojoverse story not suck. Written by Leah Williams, Illustrated fantastically by David Baldeon.

There have also been a series of loosely-connected one-shots written by Hickman that all feel like they could have been issues of the main series. There was a Fantastic Four crossover miniseries that was pretty good, but wasn’t edited by the X-Men team and had a weird fake version of the X-Men trade dress and isn’t listed in the reading order, so it almost doesn’t feel canonical. There was also a miniseries tie-in to the big Marvel summer event Empyre. Those are normally the definition of skippable, but this one has style. It spent a full page on the following text caption: “[ALIEN] PLANS VS. [MUTANT] ZOMBIES VS. [OLD] LADIES.” Which is the premise of the miniseries. It’s pretty friggin’ good.

What About X of Swords?

Those are the individual books, but what’s the setup for “X of Swords?” Bear with me here, because it gets a bit convoluted and odd. You see, there used to be a living, inhabited island named Okkara. Thousands of years ago it was split into two living islands: Krakoa and Arakko. Arakko was overrun with monsters and Apocalypse, who is very old, sent the island to another dimension, the world of Amenth, possibly to protect its people. The mutant people of Arakko have been locked in an endless war with the warrior hordes of Amenth ever since. It is all very D&D.

Now a tiny piece of Arakko has come back to our reality and reconnected to Krakoa. This piece is full of monsters and a single person lives there: A Summoner of Arakko, who calls himself the grandson of Apocalypse. He has come to seek help from his grandfather, for Arakko is finally falling to Amenth. In order to join the fight, Apocalypse has enlisted the reluctant aid of Excalibur to open a gate to the Starlight Citadel, an Otherworldly castle that serves as a portal to all dimensions. The gate is now open.

That’s the basic setup of “X of Swords.” What else happened in the previous hundred or so issues of Krakoan X-Men might come up during the crossover? Lots! Let’s hit some highlights.

Russia has been extremely aggressive against the Krakoan Nation and may have a mole in their ranks. In a mindboggling piece of odd characterization, Beast has decided the best way to address that is to publicly detain all Krakoan citizens of Russian origin on suspicion of treason. This internment includes Omega Red, who is secretly a thrall of Dracula.

For some unknown reason, Kate Pryde is the only mutant that can’t use Krakoan gates. Sebastian Shaw thought that might mean she couldn’t be resurrected and so he killed her for political reasons, thinking she would stay dead. It didn’t stick, and boy, is she pissed.

In a couple of blatant event prologues, some mutants have been disappearing in a rainbow flash only to reappear seconds later. In Wolverine’s case, he reappeared covered in blood. In the case of Storm, Psylocke, Domino, and Mystique, they came back wielding assault rifles.

Jubilee’s baby, Shogo, can turn into a dragon when in Otherworld.

That guy walking around in the creepy X helmet is Professor Xavier.

Oh, and here’s a list of all the swords you might see during the crossover: Magik and Nightcrawler are longtime sword-wielders. Shatterstar is too, but he’s trapped in the Mojoverse. Kate Pryde and Cable have both started using swords with some degree of enthusiasm. So has Betsy Braddock ever since she became Captain Britain. Psylocke (who isn’t Betsy Braddock) is a ninja and that means swordplay. For some reason Cerebro’s backup is kept inside a sword, which has recently been stolen by Mikhail Rasputin. Krakoans have a suicide and rebirth ritual called the Crucible, which involves fatal combat by sword. Okkara was split in twain by the Twilight Sword, and Arakko culture reveres the White Sword, Purity. Uh…and Shinobi Shaw also carries a sword. That last one probably won’t be relevant.

That brings us up to speed. Sort of. I didn’t even have room to mention Orchis, who are maybe the main bad guys? I have lots more to say about this era of the X-Men. Something special is unfolding in these pages, so I’ll be back here next month at the “X of Swords” halfway point, to provide color commentary.

Isaac Kelley should really be working on his novel, but he can't stop thinking about the X-Men so he wrote this instead.