By Isaac Kelley —Welcome back to Pax Krakoa, a monthly color commentary column about Marvel’s X-Men comics. This month, we are covering the first 11 parts of X of Swords (pronounced “Echs of S-Words”) the first X-Men crossover of the Hickman era. It’s the scavenger hunt half!

The concept of a crossover is a grand tradition in the world of superhero comics. A crossover is when one story is told throughout typically separate titles, with classic examples like Bruce Wayne: Murderer or Maximum Clonage. They are often distinct from events, which are standaloneish miniseries that other books tie into, such as Zero Hour, Secret Wars II, etc. The Spider-Man titles, Batman titles, and especially the X-Men titles are prone to big crossovers across the entire family of books. And, to be blunt, they frequently suck.

There have been lots of approaches to big sub-linewide crossovers throughout the years, but they tend to be uneven affairs, bloated with inconsequential action interspersed with a couple of “shocking” temporary characters deaths. Most readers, unless they are completists, have to choose between getting a choppy incomplete story, or buying titles that they do not ordinarily read. For these reasons, my enthusiasm at the start of X of Swords was muted. Happily, I have so far found X of Swords to be pretty dang good.

Obviously the best part of X of Swords is that the logo looks like a sword. This is what’s known as so cool.  But this crossover has more going for it than just a clever logo treatment. It has a strange high stakes narrative that comes out of the storytelling that crossover’s two architects, Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard have been telling all year.  It doesn’t feel editorial-driven or gimmicky. It has a structure that makes the story feel like a cohesive whole, but at the same time the individual books remain skippable. In short, the thing is just working.

X of Swords - First Half

Things kick off in X of Swords Creation #1, an oversized one-shot. Without the support of the Council, Apocalypse leads a team to provide aid to Arakko. Soon he is reunited with his long lost children in Otherworld. He apologizes to them for his abandonment, which is unnervingly human of him. They then betray him, as does Summoner. Apocalypse is repeatedly stabbed and the Krakoan mutants try to retreat, but not before Rockslide is killed by Summoner. 

Let’s take a minute to catch up on Otherworld. A lot of the action in Excalibur has been centered there. Otherworld is a hub dimension that leads to several other realities. It is a place of magic. Earth connects to it through the kingdom of Avalon. Arakko and therefore Amenth connects to it through the kingdom of Drydor. Drydor has fallen to Amenth and therefore, Amenth is now a vassal state of Otherworld. Otherworld is ruled by an Omniversal Majestrix, her royal Whyness, Opal Luna Saturnyne, a being of almost limitless power.  She operates out of the Starlight Citadel. There’s a lot of mythology to keep track of, and the X of Swords titles have a lot of text pieces and maps to help the readers freebase all this worldbuilding. 

The forces of Amenth are set on conquering Krakoa. To do so, they would send their invasion force through Otherworld, which Saturnyne will not allow. Instead, she makes the two factions — the Krakoans and the Arakkii — agree to a vaguely defined contest of might. Each side is given a laundry list of ten swords, and tasked with gathering their champions and their swords over the next three days.

The story continues in X-Factor #4. With Rockslide dead, the Five attempt to bring him back. The resurrection goes tragically wrong and the man they bring back is not the Rockslide of their reality. Apparently, for hand wavy reasons explained with the word “somehow,” if a mutant dies while in Otherworld, they cannot be resurrected by way of the Krakoan Resurrection Protocols. The person that would come back is a version of that person from another reality. 

Also, the hunt for the swords begins. Saturnyne provides a series of riddles in verse, providing clues toward the nature of the ten swords. Some magic circle thing is created with ten circular spots, one for each sword bearer. Magik, bearer of the Soul Sword, stands on her circle, ready to get this party started.

Wolverine #6 and X-Force #13 form a sort of two-parter within the larger 22-parter. Wolverine goes to Hell to find Muramasa, the greatest swordsmith in the world, who has been tasked with making swords for the Hand clan of ninja. Solem, one of the champions of Arakko, travels there for the same reason.. Muramasa has crafted two superswords for a demon ninja wedding (comics!)...Wolverine and Solem both fight some demons and some ninja and some demon ninja. Solem ends up with both swords, but gives one to Wolverine for some off-page cost. Wolverine returns to Krakoa and stands on his circle.

Marauders #13 is guest-written by Vita Ayala, the soon-to-be new writer of New Mutants and writer of the actually-coming-out-soon Children of the Atom. Storm travels to Wakanda, the kingdom where she was once queen. She needs to retrieve Skybreaker, a sword of unspeakable historical significance to the Wakandan people. She betrays her former family and steals it, rather than wait for the permission of T’Challa. She stands on her circle.

None of the cast of Hellions #6 is really “champion of Krakoa” material. But rather than sit on the sidelines, they decide to try to steal one or more of the Arakkii swords. Also, Sinister completes his years-in-the-making transition from “mysterious villain” to “comedy buffoon.” They head out to Otherworld.

Warlock is a shape-changing techno-organgic space alien. For unknown reasons he has as of late been pretending to be bonded into a single being with his best friend Doug Ramsey. He can turn into a sword, and in fact, he is one of the ten swords. In New Mutants #13 Doug trains under Magik to learn how to sword fight. Doug’s superpower is that he is good at languages. He seems real screwed. Nonetheless, he takes his place on his circle. 

Speaking of swords, S.W.O.R.D. is space S.H.I.E.L.D.! Beast used to date the leader of S.W.O.R.D., Abigail Brand, and there was a real fun short-lived series ten years ago by Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders. It’s cool. In Cable #5, following a psychic prompt from Saturnyne, Cable, Cyclops, and Jean travel to the Peak, S.W.O.R.D.’s space station base. They fight some space invaders that have overrun the base and killed most of the staff. It’s fun enough but doesn’t really seem to have much to do with the crossover. The Summers return to Earth and Cable takes his spot on his circle, with his sword, the Light of Galador. 

In Excalibur #13, Captain Britain and her brother Brian, the previous Captain Britain bicker over who should wield what sword. Saturnyne tries to sow strife between them and also to boink Brian. Her machinations fail and Betsy steals her sword. The Braddock twins return to Krakoa and stand in their circles, Brian wielding the Sword of Might, and Betsy wielding the Starlight Sword. 

In X-Men #13, Apocalypse heals from his wounds, and remembers losing Arakko to Amenth. He retrieves Scarab, his ancient sword, long buried in Egypt.

The swordhunt concludes and X of Swords reaches the midpoint in X of Swords: Stasis #1. Apocalypse joins the other Swordbearers, as does Gorgon, who is a Hydra Hand mutant guy who happens to own two of the ten named swords, Grasscutter and Godkiller. Meanwhile Apocalypse’s children assemble their champions and collect their swords. 

The Krakoan champions are teleported to the Starlight Citadel. They are each provided a room. In each room they are provided with a special tarot card suggesting various fates for each of them. Gorgon’s reading is hidden, and Apocalypse gets one that makes him angry. His card is the Lovers and it shows him in the embrace of Genesis, his long-lost wife, who now wears the Golden Helm of Amenth and rules that land, leading the charge against the people of Krakoa. 

X of Swords - What’s Next?

Presumably the second half will devote individual issues to individual battles, plus whatever the hell the Hellions are up to. This 22-part crossover seems to be, at its heart, a love story starring Apocalypse. Perhaps not that surprising given that one of the co-writers created East of West, but It’s pretty great. In a month’s time we’ll see if they stick the landing.

Read last month’s installment of Pax Krakoa!

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