X of Swords (Summer X-Over)

[CGAR]

I dont know why people are thinking its any different than a main event that ends up having like 5-10 tie-ins on the side.

Its basically the same but we're getting it all in one weekly event.

Even if you think its slow and you don't like Otherworld. Its still adding and world building to the lore.

[lefthanded]

I dont know why people are thinking its any different than a main event that ends up having like 5-10 tie-ins on the side.

Its basically the same but we're getting it all in one weekly event.

Even if you think its slow and you don't like Otherworld. Its still adding and world building to the lore.

Ditto. You only have to look to the past X-men events that are in essence X-men versus somebody (here its Krakoa vs Arrako).

1. Avengers vs. X-men - Similarly to this event, you have these 'tournament style' matchups. There doesn't need to be any 'Otherworld' type world building since these are already established characters. But, even though we know these characters, the fights (and the whole event) falls flat since everyone (the writers and the characters themselves) is just rushing through it. Iron-man vs Magneto has no stakes aside from one being an X-man and one being an Avenger. In contrast, even though Pogg ur-Pogg is introduced in a few panels and has an established motivation of being a mercenary, the upcoming fight feels more significant than Iron man vs Magneto.

2. Inhumans vs. X-men - Didn't have tournament style fights, but after a promising setup issue, it again seemed to devolve into too much abstract motivations without personal stakes. It feels very similar to the Dark Avengers Utopia event, with the opposing teams coming into conflict but no reason to care about individual battles.

The other events in the past few decades have all been repeats of events that have been done before (another Phoenix-Jean Grey, another time travel future X-men team comes to the present day, another age of apocalypse type event, etc).

Prior to Hickman, my opinion is that the last great X-men event was Messiah Complex, and that is because there were both larger (future of mutants) and smaller stakes (Cable's survival). So, this event truly is a breath of fresh air, as this slow build up has established many stakes to be invested in (Krakoa vs Arrako as the larger stake, whether Doug will survive, Apocalypse and his old family, how Otherworld realms is affected by this tournament, whether the non-horseman Arrako champions will be invested or not, Psylocke balancing her role of Krakoa or Captain Britain, etc).

[JB]

Yeah I think a lot of ppl look at "22 parts!" and think the event a lot longer than actually is but 2 months is actually a pretty short for an event time-wise

Agreed. We get multiple chapters most weeks so it's moving pretty fast. And here we are in November already.

[ericng]

Betsy will fight Isca in Excalibur 14.

No, the cover of Excalibur 14 focus on Cypher and there's no other New Mutants issue this month.

So he will fight in Ex 14 and not Betsy.

[ericng]

So, this event truly is a breath of fresh air, as this slow build up has established many stakes to be invested in (Krakoa vs Arrako as the larger stake, whether Doug will survive, Apocalypse and his old family, how Otherworld realms is affected by this tournament, whether the non-horseman Arrako champions will be invested or not, Psylocke balancing her role of Krakoa or Captain Britain, etc).

So what is at stake here?

If Krakoa won, then Krakoa and Arakko get united and Krakoa rules the new combined territory..Arakko champions will either be killed or leave Arakko.

If Arakko won, then Apocalypse's children would slaughter all mutants on Krakoa and then claim Krakoa...

[Purplevit]

No, the cover of Excalibur 14 focus on Cypher and there's no other New Mutants issue this month.

So he will fight in Ex 14 and not Betsy.

Link below.
https://twitter.com/Marvel/status/1313214879579291649

[Gigantor]

Has anyone else noticed the SWORD Excalibur is not in the story? A story in Avalon with captain Britain and a sword tournament and nobody is using Excalibur? Isn’t that really strange? And even though this is an X-men event I feel like the black knight should have been in this story don’t you?

[Purplevit]

X Swords Destruction UNKNOWN COMICS exclusive variant by Mico Suayan.
Probably means nothing to story inside.

[Jackraow21]

Probably means nothing to story inside.

Especially considering Logan and Daken aren’t even wearing those outfits these days.

[Exodus]

Has anyone else noticed the SWORD Excalibur is not in the story? A story in Avalon with captain Britain and a sword tournament and nobody is using Excalibur? Isn’t that really strange? And even though this is an X-men event I feel like the black knight should have been in this story don’t you?

I really do not care about Excalibur...(the sword and the bad x-men series....).

For me it is a lot more strange that they have introduced the Cerebro SWORD and now nobody is using it...well, let's see if the authors will remember it.

There are also good swordsmen like Exodus and Nightcrawler who have been left out from the tournament.

[Dthirds3]

Has anyone else noticed the SWORD Excalibur is not in the story? A story in Avalon with captain Britain and a sword tournament and nobody is using Excalibur? Isn’t that really strange? And even though this is an X-men event I feel like the black knight should have been in this story don’t you?

Thats because the original Excalibur was broken and thats just the largest chunk. And back knights sword is not going to be related to the symbiote

[Glio]

I really do not care about Excalibur...(the sword and the bad x-men series....).

For me it is a lot more strange that they have introduced the Cerebro SWORD and now nobody is using it...well, let's see if the authors will remember it.

There are also good swordsmen like Exodus and Nightcrawler who have been left out from the tournament.

It is likely that in an original draft it was going to be Magneto's sword but finally they decided to reject it and for Mikhail to get it.

[lefthanded]

So what is at stake here?

If Krakoa won, then Krakoa and Arakko get united and Krakoa rules the new combined territory..Arakko champions will either be killed or leave Arakko.

If Arakko won, then Apocalypse's children would slaughter all mutants on Krakoa and then claim Krakoa...

Comic book events usually have to set some kind of stakes that are either meaningless because everything reverts back to status quo, or is supposed meaningful because of the impacts going forward.
For me, what most events fail to do is set personal stakes, and have meaningful character progression.

The winner of Arakko vs Krakoa in general is kind of abstract and doesn't really mean much. Like Avengers vs. X-men, the 'victor' is ultimately unimportant. However, in this event, Hickman establishes individual character points that make individual matchups more meaningful. If Krakoa wins but Doug loses his fight, that still impacts the overall 'victory.' Magneto winning his matchup versus Ironman in AvX had no bearing on the overall 'victory', and so felt ultimately meaningless.

[Devaishwarya]

To that point...HiX-Man and Co. have clearly placed very personal stakes on the Krakoan combatants. Storm basically put a hot molten spoke in her relations with T'Challa and Wakanda and there are other stakes hinted for her. Wolverine made a bargain with Solem that will undoubtedly return to bite him. o--[A]--o stands to lose not just his family all over again, but actually be the one to fight and defeat his wife.
Even non-combatants have personal stakes...Rockslide was killed and resurrected as Every-Rockslide-ever.

[PrezValentine]

X Swords Destruction UNKNOWN COMICS exclusive variant by Mico Suayan.
Probably means nothing to story inside.

Well, these are four former Deaths, so who knows, maybe it has the hidden meaning that they're taking no prisoners when it comes to the First Horsemen.