X-Factor [04] : Swords of X chapter 2 review *spoilers*

[danielsan52]

So can we get Onyxx back?

[frostedemma]

I feel like now that Emma just turns into Penance and goes nonverbal and slashy-slashy whenever stuff gets real has pretty much robbed her of any real volition as a character. I like her better in more of a Rogue role, a sassy flying invulnerable character.

The X-Men *hardly* need another surly slasher. That's what Wolverine/X-23/Sabertooth/Jimmy/Old Man Logan/Scout/Gabby/Wild Child/ad nauseum are for.

Monet can now talk in her penance form and she was the og diamond form mutant, lets show a little respect. Being squared into a sassy flying invulnerable character never did any good for both Rogue and Monet on the long run for their characterisation. Monet is still the same witty and cheeky powerhouse we all know and love since dox, she just got other aspect of her character explored more like her ambitions and genius level intellect.

[pkingdom]

Souls are absolutely a tangible thing in Marvel. Same with the afterlife. Many, many of these characters have literally been to hell and back. A few have even gone to heaven. There's an important McGuffin in the universe called the Soul Stone!

The explanations we've been given for the whole thing are incredibly vague at best. We've got just a couple lines from Magneto who is hardly an expert on the topic. And now we have the 5 who barely understand what happened, and the problem could be chalked up to 'Otherworld is special for being a beyond time and space reality warping place'. Its not impossible that Cerebro is suddenly snatching all mutant souls that die in the multiverse, its just a massive jump in its capabilities that could have wildly terrible implications for the universe and afterlife. Hell, we know that more than 1 of a person can exist, as we had that one exploding kid interact with his magically revived self during the awful Empyre tie-in. That leads more into 'digital copies of people implanted into new bodies' angle. If Cerebro can outright copy souls and produce multiple copies at once, that would drag in an entirely different side of the Marvel universe and make them target number one for Dr. Strange's segment of the Marvel universe.

[OopsIdiditagain]

I wish this issue had more x-factor. Felt like an entirely different book

[silence.]

Just wanted to note that I really appreciate all the artists making sure to draw Emma in a modified version of her costume every time she pops up. Like of course she wouldn’t have a consistent costume aside from the diplomatic scenes and the white suit.

[silence.]

So.... can’t they just... turn off the backing up part of Cerebro when they know someone is going or is in Otherworld? That’s confusing. Just don’t back them up while they’re there.

Good issue though. I bet Rockslide got swapped with Glob because most people wouldn’t care if Glob died. Rockslide... more people care.

They said previously that it’s an automatic back up that erases the previous so it stays up to date. Other world isn’t really a place so the way I understood it is that other world is kind of a no place so when a person gets backed up there “every version” of them gets backed up in every reality. It confuses all of them because the second the step into other world they exist in all their “potentials”. So it’s convoluted but no more than anything else so it works.

I’m basically taking it as an “insta retcon” so it’ll be interesting to see what the writers feel like needed to be deleted when the dust settled. Rockslide was a gimme, who cares about him.

[jwatson]

Souls are absolutely a tangible thing in Marvel. Same with the afterlife. Many, many of these characters have literally been to hell and back. A few have even gone to heaven. There's an important McGuffin in the universe called the Soul Stone!

The explanations we've been given for the whole thing are incredibly vague at best. We've got just a couple lines from Magneto who is hardly an expert on the topic. And now we have the 5 who barely understand what happened, and the problem could be chalked up to 'Otherworld is special for being a beyond time and space reality warping place'. Its not impossible that Cerebro is suddenly snatching all mutant souls that die in the multiverse, its just a massive jump in its capabilities that could have wildly terrible implications for the universe and afterlife. Hell, we know that more than 1 of a person can exist, as we had that one exploding kid interact with his magically revived self during the awful Empyre tie-in. That leads more into 'digital copies of people implanted into new bodies' angle. If Cerebro can outright copy souls and produce multiple copies at once, that would drag in an entirely different side of the Marvel universe and make them target number one for Dr. Strange's segment of the Marvel universe.

The data pages also say flat out that forge was upgrading cerebro do do just that and isn't that the whole point of forge powers as explained on many occasions. He can make things work others can't. I don't think most could copy forges designs which is why they either steal it or make alternate version.

[gonnagiveittoya]

Basically the gist I get of the resurrection process is "we aren't going to explain all the details but it's not just clones who think they're the originals"

[Thievery]

I didn't really enjoy this issue as much as the first chapter of this crossover. Partly because I didn't think that this issue fit together with what actually happened in the first issue.

Polaris seems to blame herself for the death of Rockslide. But if you look at the panel of Rockslide's death in chapter one, Polaris isn't even close to Rockslide when he dies. She is on the other side of the battle with her back turned to Rockslide. Given that, I don't see how Polaris should feel like she could have saved Santo just by lifting a hand and using her power to stop Summoner from killing him. Lorna would have had no way of even knowing that Rockslide had even been killed. Unless I missed a panel somewhere that explains this, but I don't think that I did.

If the story wanted to show Lorna as suffering from survivor guilt and ptsd, I think that more should have been shown of Lorna's history of why she may be suffering from survivors guilt. Especially Lorna's history of surviving the the Genosha massacre. If this was a readers first time they had a story about Lorna, they probably wouldn't have completely understood why Lorna would feel this way. I've seen other people post this and I agree with it.

I found it to be a little bit silly that it was made out to a bit of a mystery of who would be the sword wielders. In the last chapter, Lorna actually listed the swords that would be used. Unless their is some kind of swerve coming I dont know why you would waste time having the characters figure out who the sword wielders are going to be when the readers already know who they are.

[cranger]

I found it to be a little bit silly that it was made out to a bit of a mystery of who would be the sword wielders. In the last chapter, Lorna actually listed the swords that would be used. Unless their is some kind of swerve coming I dont know why you would waste time having the characters figure out who the sword wielders are going to be when the readers already know who they are.

Well all that prophecy stuff and then Doug spoils it all in a data page. Seems like a lot of time wasted, maybe it is flavorful, maybe something in the prophecy will forshadow or reveal something, but what it most likely came down to is this book just had to do its one thing (break the resurrection protocols) and get out of the way, so we got Lorna and some riddles to spice it up.

[Thievery]

Well all that prophecy stuff and then Doug spoils it all in a data page. Seems like a lot of time wasted, maybe it is flavorful, maybe something in the prophecy will forshadow or reveal something, but what it most likely came down to is this book just had to do its one thing (break the resurrection protocols) and get out of the way, so we got Lorna and some riddles to spice it up.

I get that. I understand what you mean.

Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine. I remember reading one novel that was a sequel to a previous book. The characters spent over half the book looking for a secret location when the readers already knew the where location that the characters were looking for was from reading the previous book. It really annoyed the **** out of me. It was one hell of a boring read from a series that I otherwise enjoy.

This mystery of what swords would be used and who the wielders are going to be just reminded me of that.
Hopefully there will be some kind of swerve coming because of a misleading cover or some sort of problem for the characters happening along the way.

[Factor]

Anyone want to hear a wildly speculative theory that almost certainly won't happen? Too bad, I'm gonna tell you anyway.

So I've been thinking about the Warlock prophecy:



Warlock is a given as he was listed as one of the swords, and Cypher would be the obvious choice for his swordbearer, and we've seen plenty of covers and promo featuring Cypher. But there isn't really anything in the prophecy that suggests Cypher, and he says himself that he doesn't know what the second half means. The second part could just refer to the viral reproductive nature of the transmode virus/technarch being. But then there is the "friends lost" bit, and none of the New Mutants or Warlock's friends are "lost" or dead, at least not yet. Perhaps Cypher will die before ever even getting to Otherworld, and the second part of the prophecy refers to the swordbearer that will take Warlock to battle. "Out of one comes many, into many comes one," I think this might refer to Multiple Man, with many dupes possessing a self replicated Warlock. The problem being, there isn't really much of a connection between MM and Warlock. Jamie acted as host to Warlock in the Rosencanny run, but that's about it. Anyway, probably not going to happen, but it's a thought I had.

I think that prophecy might actually foreshadow Cypher's death in Otherworld and later revival as a mix of many alternate versions of himself.
"Friends lost" could mean that Warlock was/is considered gone by everyone other than Cypher (until GS Storm, Cypher wasn't openly talking to Warlock in front of others).

[loke13]

I didn't really enjoy this issue as much as the first chapter of this crossover. Partly because I didn't think that this issue fit together with what actually happened in the first issue.

Polaris seems to blame herself for the death of Rockslide. But if you look at the panel of Rockslide's death in chapter one, Polaris isn't even close to Rockslide when he dies. She is on the other side of the battle with her back turned to Rockslide. Given that, I don't see how Polaris should feel like she could have saved Santo just by lifting a hand and using her power to stop Summoner from killing him. Lorna would have had no way of even knowing that Rockslide had even been killed. Unless I missed a panel somewhere that explains this, but I don't think that I did.

If the story wanted to show Lorna as suffering from survivor guilt and ptsd, I think that more should have been shown of Lorna's history of why she may be suffering from survivors guilt. Especially Lorna's history of surviving the the Genosha massacre. If this was a readers first time they had a story about Lorna, they probably wouldn't have completely understood why Lorna would feel this way. I've seen other people post this and I agree with it.

I found it to be a little bit silly that it was made out to a bit of a mystery of who would be the sword wielders. In the last chapter, Lorna actually listed the swords that would be used. Unless their is some kind of swerve coming I dont know why you would waste time having the characters figure out who the sword wielders are going to be when the readers already know who they are.

But that's not how survivors guilt works tho innit? It's not about what you could have conceivably have done. Polaris FEELS like she could have saved Santos and thefore she feels guilt about his death amd that feeling of guilt and inadequacy only strengthened when she found out that's Santos had suffered a real death.

As for the mystery of who the Sword Bearers were it's still a pretty necessary issue we the readers may have known who the sword bearers were going to be for months now but they are still needed to be an in story reason for why those particular 9 were chosen otherwise you could have just stacked the 10 circles otherwise you could have just stacked the 10 circles with mutants proficient in weaponry and deadly reality warping powers. And then of course there's a real-life reason which not every reader of this event is a hardcore comic book fan who has been hip to all the solicitations cover Arts over the past few months.

[jwatson]

Oh and i'm just going to say it. I know it wasn't intended but given the times we are in for a split second it was not a good look for two white mutants who have made MANY mistakes as well looking down on Egyptian Apoc like that. Again i get it, but i would be lying if i didn't say for the briefest of seconds the visual didn't make me think they got some nerve. lol

[Frostfire]

Just wanted to note that I really appreciate all the artists making sure to draw Emma in a modified version of her costume every time she pops up. Like of course she wouldn’t have a consistent costume aside from the diplomatic scenes and the white suit.

Some of those appearances may have been Saturnyne lol