X of Swords (Summer X-Over)

[TooFlyToFail]

Fights and character arcs have been weak. Structure is now super wonky as of this week. However these swords better count for something. I mean Storm stole from Wakanda and Wolverine went to hell to get his sword (Solem’s too).

At this point, I feel even this event is just set up for S.W.O.R.D. At the end of the day, Cable is going to power up the peak and let it rain.

If it ends with Cable doing anything of great significance to set up S.W.O.R.D. ......I'll likely take a break from this run. I still hate that Cable is in this event, with the Light, when it could've/should've been Magneto. Or, I'll bring up again, why isn't Mikhail here as their White Sword equivalent with the Cerebro Sword?

[pkingdom]

Are they playing to 10 points? Or until one side is all dead? Who knows! Apparently the winner can use the Citadel? I think? This sort of event comic told via a game of author telephone needs to die.

You could have made an entire issue of that data page about Bei. Give a character a backstory like that, and then have the sudden wedding. Manga do that kind of backstory drop all the time and its usually at least decent. Even then that data page was laughable. She's just a knock-off Black Bolt.

I was afraid the original Horsemen were going to be like the Final Host. The narration built up these guys so much, and War hasn't done anything any brawler in the Marvel couldn't do, and Pestilence apparently forgot about his powers when attacked at the beginning.

[superjosh]

Tbf, X of Swords is technically a tarot card:

"Ten of Swords Tarot card. The X of Swords is a cause for fear in any who believe in the power of the cards, and you should prepare yourself for whatever it portends. It is one of many cards which can represent disaster, but, alone among them, it is a disaster which cannot be avoided."

So the swords were never going to be that important, however....the fights and character work have been pretty bad.

It was definitely implied and presented that the swords would be VERY important to the story. There were many issues dealing with the recovery of swords. The whole thing Lorna built for the ten swords. The data pages devoted to each sword. S.W.O.R.D. LOL.

The swords themselves have been pushed aside for tarot cards lately, but you can't say they were never meant to be important.

[GeneTitan]

The only thing I enjoyed about this week's offerings were the art. I've always loved Caselli, Noto's style is becoming a favorite of mine and Cassara was perfect for depicting Blightspoke. Those pages were beautiful.
However, I'm disappointed with this whole crossover:
1. The Swordbearers of Arrako were presented as badasses and high level threats. Isca is literally reduced to playing party games.
2. Why go to all the trouble to build up the sword aspect and Magik, for example, loses in an arm wrestling match?
3. The Cypher/Bei wedding came out of nowhere.
4. Did we really need a 2nd issue at the parley dinner party?
At this point the only thing I'm looking forward to is Larraz's art on the final chapter.

With all the effort that was put into this, it is not exciting. I know Hickman plays the long game, but I was really interested in Orchis and The Children of the Vault. I no longer care about the Arrakans and if I have to read about Amenth one more freakin' time.

I just want to get back to the regular books and leave Otherworld.

[Exodus]

The only thing I enjoyed about this week's offerings were the art. I've always loved Caselli, Noto's style is becoming a favorite of mine and Cassara was perfect for depicting Blightspoke. Those pages were beautiful.
However, I'm disappointed with this whole crossover:
1. The Swordbearers of Arrako were presented as badasses and high level threats. Isca is literally reduced to playing party games.
2. Why go to all the trouble to build up the sword aspect and Magik, for example, loses in an arm wrestling match?
3. The Cypher/Bei wedding came out of nowhere.
4. Did we really need a 2nd issue at the parley dinner party?
At this point the only thing I'm looking forward to is Larraz's art on the final chapter.

With all the effort that was put into this, it is not exciting. I know Hickman plays the long game, but I was really interested in Orchis and The Children of the Vault. I no longer care about the Arrakans and if I have to read about Amenth one more freakin' time.

I just want to get back to the regular books and leave Otherworld.

All of this! Sums up my feelings exactly. It is one thing to subvert expectations but this crossover just became so dull. I just cancelled half of my X-Men pull list.

[Mr. White]

WTF just happened?

My exact thoughts summed up so eliquently.

[superjosh]

With all the effort that was put into this, it is not exciting. I know Hickman plays the long game, but I was really interested in Orchis and The Children of the Vault. I no longer care about the Arrakans and if I have to read about Amenth one more freakin' time.

I just want to get back to the regular books and leave Otherworld.

YES AGREED! I'm starting to really, REALLY hate Excalibur and Tini Howard's contribution to the X-books. When X of Swords was first announced, I was like "WTF". Then I was like, ok, maybe this could be interesting... at least it's different. Now I see that it's just Tini Howard's awful Excalibur series but infecting the whole lineup.

It was such a poor choice for the first big event after HoX/PoX.

[Exodus]

YES AGREED! I'm starting to really, REALLY hate Excalibur and Tini Howard's contribution to the X-books. When X of Swords was first announced, I was like "WTF". Then I was like, ok, maybe this could be interesting... at least it's different. Now I see that it's just Tini Howard's awful Excalibur series but infecting the whole lineup.

It was such a poor choice for the first big event after HoX/PoX.

Unfortunately, I also have to agree. Excalibur is absolutely unreadable to me and was such a low point for the X-Men.

I still think that "XoS: Creation" and "XoS: Stasis" are fantastic issues (just gorgeous to look at, I cannot NOT like this!). But everything in between not so much...

[Bgardner]

It feels like this 22 part crossover is going to either end super rushed, leave so many dangling plot threads or just gloss over explanations to really interesting bits. Major questions still out there:

1. Why did Amenth break through in the first place and split the land in half?
2. What happened to the white sword? Why did he turn on Arakko?
3. What’s up with the summoners? What’s the vile school?
4. What’s Saturnynes game?
5. How does S.W.O.R.D fit into this? Why did Saturnyne send cable there?
6. What’s Cyclop’s plan with the rain references? Jean and the telepaths? There’s been no reference to them in weeks...
7. It seems like at least Isca, Solem and White Sword’s stories are just beginning. I bet the Summoner is back too. Is Bei going to stick around? Or is she going to be Doug’s long lost love? That’s almost half the arrako characters that seem like there is much more story to tell and I hope we get more than just a data page on Redroot as well.

That’s a lot to cover in 5 issues especially with the pacing so far. My point is it seems like there might even be a second part to all this and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Seems like a lot of ground to cover

[Glio]

"Cypher / Bei wedding has come out of nowhere" does not hold much when many of us suspected that it was something that would happen for weeks.

Since his card was shown in Stasis it was something that was suspected and his interaction in the previous issue of Marauders cemented it.

[Sutekh]

2. What happened to the white sword? Why did he turn on Arakko?

Seems like White Sword thinks the Horsemen & Genesis are the ones that gave up and joined Annihilation's demon army, and he's still fighting the fight they originally came to Amenth to fight.

But yeah, there's still a ton left to tell.

[Glio]

Considering that the Summoners who worked for Arakko were secretly allied with the Summoners who worked for Amenth, it is likely that White Sword realized that Arakko was already being corrupted from within and thus attacked Genesis.

He has some kind of control over souls so he must have been able to see it.

[Bgardner]

Considering that the Summoners who worked for Arakko were secretly allied with the Summoners who worked for Amenth, it is likely that White Sword realized that Arakko was already being corrupted from within and thus attacked Genesis.

He has some kind of control over souls so he must have been able to see it.

I’m on board with this theory as well. Totally agree. My point is that there’s a big story to tell still. Probably another issue for the history of arrako and Amenth from his point of view and there’s not too much left. Anyone want to speculate on the celestial spire change from ivory tower?? Think that’s the Celestials? Apocalypse connection?

[MentalManipulator]

"Cypher / Bei wedding has come out of nowhere" does not hold much when many of us suspected that it was something that would happen for weeks.

Since his card was shown in Stasis it was something that was suspected and his interaction in the previous issue of Marauders cemented it.

You're stretching it a little bit. What they meant, and I agree, is that it came out of nowhere within the story. Badly executed build-up to it in the narrative. We lost so much precious time in both Marauders issues with Wolverine, who didn't move the story forward, like, at all, instead of trying and build something interesting with Cypher and Bei before the wedding.

I know you like how cookie and funny these plot twists were, but by a storytelling point they were poorly executed. Very unsophisticated storytelling here. And they had A LOT of time to perfect it.

[kalai]

Yeah, this event is weird, Hickman my man.