By Zack Quaintance — I am not one of those people who are super knowledgeable about the X-Men, and can tell you every last detail about every last mutant who shows up in the background of this new X-Men era. I read X-Men comics all through the mid-to-late ‘90s and early ‘00s, and I’ve read X-Men runs here and there when favorite creators take the reins. But I’m not on X-Twitter and don’t even really know how to find it, and I’m fine with that, as much as it has cost me fame, fortune, and the respect of my peers.

Recently, however, my pal Joe Grunenwald had an idea for a feature called X Words about X of Swords, and I liked it so much I asked if I could use it for a regular feature on this site. Without further adieu, I’ll dive right into that. The concept is simple, I’m recapping X of Swords (pronounced 10 of Swords) with 10 key words. You’ll get the hang of it fast. Also, spoiler warning if you haven’t read the event.

X Words About X of Swords

Swords. I said spoiler warning and so here it is — this thing has swords, or rather it will. Through the first two official parts of the story, there has been much talk of swords but not too much use of them yet. Getting the swords is part of what we’re doing in this event.

Tarot. Also central to this event is tarot. If you’re an X-Die Hard, you already know that, if you’re not, you learn it in the first issue. I was skeptical about the use of Tarot in advance of this event (I think narratively it’s a dense and unwieldily element to incorporate in any movie or book), but comics with its slow visual pacing is well-suited for it. Don’t be put off by the Tarot.

X (Ten). The concept for this story is apparently that 10 champions will wield 10 swords in a battle for Krakoa. Which makes a goofy name cool, and is not worth really diving into any further.

X (X). Speaking of words on this list not worth diving into further! Here we have X because this is also about the X-Men. Which, duh, but it’s using many characters we haven’t seen too much of yet in Krakoa in interesting ways, and some characters (Apocalypse) we’ve seen a whole lot of too. Basically, I think this event shows what a good framework can enable in monthly comics storytelling — possibilities.

Summoner. Summoner is an awesome title/character name, and it’s paired here with a character design and story twist that both totally rule.

Chadwick. This is here for the Chadwick Boseman tribute penned by Ta-Nehisi Coates and illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze that had me in full on tears before I cracked the rest of X-Factor #4, the goofy story about swords that gave rise to this goofy list.

Stakes. This event in part II really ups the stakes by putting a caveat on the new immortal X-Men status quo. The sword battle is to take place in a borderline non-sensical realm called Otherworld, where it turns out X-Men can’t die. Stakes!

HELP. This is here because I love this panel, drawn by Carlos Gomez and colored by Israel Silva.

Cyke. This is here because I love that nickname, which I think previously peaked during the X-Men: The Animated Series era of this franchise.

Coexistence. Finally, this is here because there is a quick bit wherein we are reminded that the X-Men must coexist with the sentient island Krakoa, which it’s easy to forget and just think they live on and in it. I wanted to highlight this for posterity, because it occurs to me that when the entire Hickman run on X-Men is all said and done, I’m guessing coexistence will be what it’s all about. Hell, I halfway expect this was the word he wrote on a whiteboard in the pitch meeting that sparked all these comics. I could write a 3,500 word essay about this with well-researched examples that support it (dating back to the initial teaser ads for the run), but I have a fear of success and such a piece would without question catapult me to the immense riches that await people who are good at writing really smart things about comics.

Phew! That was fun. Join us again at some point in the future for X more words about X of Swords!

Read Isaac Kelley’s excellent look at how we reached Pax Krakoa!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.