X-Men #12 spoilers (prelude to X of Swords)

[nandes]

This is a pretty dense story so it's hard to fully summarize it correctly.

First, we go back to the scene during the Cotati invasion where Summoner and Anole, Rockslide and Loa are playing a game. Santo and Summoner end up learning about eachothers' weakness (the later has the mutant power of invulnerability, except for his eyes).

Apoc comes to the scene and stops the game. He tells Summoner that he has built the External gate to Arrako (as seen on this week's issue of Excalibur). His plan involves sending Krakoa (!) to the Otherworld, but first he needs to hear from his grandchild what happened since Arrako was thrown into the chasm.

In the majority of the issue we get Summoner's account of the events, but it's not certain if we are meant to trust him or not. He starts way back from when Apoc threw his wife (Genesis, one half of the mystery woman from the FCBD issue) and his children (the og horsemen) into the chasm, a tale that has been known for the Arrakoans as an act of sacrifice for some and betrayal for others.

Arrako was thrown into Amneth, a fallen world which was before conquered by the White Sword - a mutant and an External. There the mutants raised a new mutant society not very dissimilar to Krakoa, built around ten towers.

Tragedy begins for Arakko as Idyll, a precog, propethized the fall of Arakko. Genesis led an army against the Amneth demons, but betrayal came from the White Sword, who was corrupted after living many years in Amneth, and had his own army and ressurection proccess.

Genesis survived, but suffered another betrayal from Isca, the Unbeaten, who has the power to never lose and thus was inclided to switch sides in the war. The later brought Genesis to face Annihilation, the god of Arakko (and the other half of the woman from the FCBD issue). Genesis lost, Arrako fell after thousand years of war and Summoner was sent to our world in hope that Apoc could save them.

After the story, we see Apoc watching while Banshee, Unus and Summoner lead into the External gate that was built in this week's Excalibur issue. Summoner ensures that everything will work and Apoc will be heralded as an hero of Arakko, but his words sound very suspicious.

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Oof! A great issue. Lots of heavy worldbuilding and mysterious new characters at play here, which is all very excting! Have Genesis and Annihilation actually became one person? This is all what Hickman has always excelled at so no surprise here. The only thing that bothered me was the inconsistent colouring of Genesis' skin, but hopefully that will be fixed down the line. Now onto X of Swords