X of Swords Finale (X-Men 15, Excalibur 15, Destruction) Reviews *spoilers*

[baxer]

The whole quite council feels basicly designed to be as narratively volatile as possible, too have all that classic political backstabbing drama going on. There is a reason why i never got the impression this Krakoa Nation thing was ever designed to last.

It appears like a mighty castle build on sand.

Nice observation, it really feels temporary

Didn't the Handbook for Dawn of X they brought out a while ago, had a whole page dedicated to who counts as having been a X-men and who was only working with them on missions?

it wasn't written by the x-men writers and editors

[sunofdarkchild]

I’m thinking Bei is going to replace Gorgon as a Captain... well until he comes back

I don't see that happening. The captains have to command, meaning they have to be able to communicate with others and right now Bei can't even communicate with Doug.

Of all the Arakko mutants who are now on Krakoa Isca would be the best choice to become a captain with her 'can't be beaten' ability. Wolverine seems like the most obvious choice as he has comparable skills to Gorgon and has a lot of experience as a leader, even if he's written like a moron much of the time. My pick would be either James Proudstar or Dani Moonstar given their history as leaders, but I can't see either of them being offered the job given how New Mutants has been playing out.

[The tall man]

I think this event has actually raised some really good concerns or at least some thoughts about Krako’s leadership. Xavier is its founder and father figure, Magneto might be their folklore like figure if you believe exodus, but Cyclops is a leader.

Against the will and express orders of their entire government he just lead a literal large army of mutants who all had to understand that if they die they will die permanently this time, but they followed with no hesitation. If I was the quite council right now I’d be a bit afraid of Scott Summers and the authority he holds.

Scott and basically the entire council only holds as much authority as Xavier, Magneto and Moira allow them. Make no mistake the power structure and leadership of Krakoa was given as a token measure, Xavier and Magneto are pulling a slight of hand. They are essentially playing the misdirection card, you guys play at be a government while we are overhere attempting to deal with the real purpose of Krakoa. If this weren't the case then they would have revealed Moira and told at least a handful of people about the mutantkind's potential future. Such as Scott , Ororo, Jean and Logan to name a few. The fact that they haven't is telling, the Quiet Council is a sham.

[Journey]

Yo I just thought of something with Grandpa Pocs heading off with Wifey, who's running the Crucible now? Who has the balls to take Poc's place?

[Havok83]

Yo I just thought of something with Grandpa Pocs heading off with Wifey, who's running the Crucible now? Who has the balls to take Poc's place?

The Resurrection Protocols have been put on hold. We dont know when they will resume but when they do, there will have to be some changes, this being one of them. There may not even be a Crucible anymore as that was primarily Apocalypse's thing

[Journey]

Yo can I just say if Jean is really booted from the council Bobby should take her place, I mean he's a founding member and of the 05 with the choices being Hank & Warren he's the only one to consistently keep his **** together for the last however many years, as far as Poc's place I say Selene she's the only other villain with major clout on Krakoa & they can watch her more.

[baxer]

Scott and basically the entire council only holds as much authority as Xavier, Magneto and Moira allow them. Make no mistake the power structure and leadership of Krakoa was given as a token measure, Xavier and Magneto are pulling a slight of hand. They are essentially playing the misdirection card, you guys play at be a government while we are overhere attempting to deal with the real purpose of Krakoa. If this weren't the case then they would have revealed Moira and told at least a handful of people about the mutantkind's potential future. Such as Scott , Ororo, Jean and Logan to name a few. The fact that they haven't is telling, the Quiet Council is a sham.

This is very on point. The council is a misdirection, while the trio Mags/Xavier and Moira do their own thing that is actually far more important than some day to day small problems.
And Moira probably have her own agenda that Magneto and Xavier doesn't know.

[Daedra]

Scott and basically the entire council only holds as much authority as Xavier, Magneto and Moira allow them. Make no mistake the power structure and leadership of Krakoa was given as a token measure, Xavier and Magneto are pulling a slight of hand. They are essentially playing the misdirection card, you guys play at be a government while we are overhere attempting to deal with the real purpose of Krakoa. If this weren't the case then they would have revealed Moira and told at least a handful of people about the mutantkind's potential future. Such as Scott , Ororo, Jean and Logan to name a few. The fact that they haven't is telling, the Quiet Council is a sham.

this is very true, sometimes we the readers gets so fixated on the current story line that we kind of lose sight of the bigger picture, the truth is that when it comes to krakoa Xavier, Moira and Magneto hold all the cards, it's their endgame and theirs only.

[charliehustle415]

What was the extra dimensional being that they freed in the FCBD ISSUE? Did we ever learn that

[Big Joe]

I have quite liked the entire event. Some of the outcomes were pretty obvious, but how they came about were well handled. Most people realised there'd be a couple of "deaths".

The removal of Jean from the council is interesting, same with Apocalypse. With Shaw about to be taken out as well there could be a power play to take over the council coming up.

A few people have been expecting a political split, and it's easy to see this as the start of it. It also allows the future opposition to that new council to coalesce around Cyclops and Jean.

I wonder if we're going to get an Apocalypse series, after the past couple of years I'd buy it.

[baxer]

I have quite liked the entire event. Some of the outcomes were pretty obvious, but how they came about were well handled. Most people realised there'd be a couple of "deaths".

The removal of Jean from the council is interesting, same with Apocalypse. With Shaw about to be taken out as well there could be a power play to take over the council coming up.

A few people have been expecting a political split, and it's easy to see this as the start of it. It also allows the future opposition to that new council to coalesce around Cyclops and Jean.

I wonder if we're going to get an Apocalypse series, after the past couple of years I'd buy it.

Excalibur was basically his solo book

[Rnap22]

I don't see that happening. The captains have to command, meaning they have to be able to communicate with others and right now Bei can't even communicate with Doug.

Of all the Arakko mutants who are now on Krakoa Isca would be the best choice to become a captain with her 'can't be beaten' ability. Wolverine seems like the most obvious choice as he has comparable skills to Gorgon and has a lot of experience as a leader, even if he's written like a moron much of the time. My pick would be either James Proudstar or Dani Moonstar given their history as leaders, but I can't see either of them being offered the job given how New Mutants has been playing out.

Isca would flip sides if they were losing. I wouldn’t want someone that cannot lose ops a Captain if it means she would flip if the odds were flipped to the opponent’s side. And Bei can represent the Arakko side who all seem to understand her.

Some people will have to be represented from Arakko on the Quiet Council if they will be apart of the same island nation of Krakoa

[Chainsaw Vigilante]

I enjoyed the crossover, it was far more interesting and respectful of the characters used than Empyre, though I have some gripes.


I think Apocalypse's characterization and changing of his history was very off, and (only a small tidbit that I noticed) having Genesis be said to be the fittest (even though Apocalypse beat her twice in the last part of this arc and resisted the Annihilation mask which contradicts that statement/title) speaks of "current year" type of topics- it didn't feel too forced, just that it feels of the time where it's a media trend and so it was put in there, I'd rather something feel natural than tacked on and her title proved to be false so what was the point? I think Apocalypse having chosen to be with her should have really just said all that was needed to her fitness given his upbringing, it's defining the character through simple logic not just by her mate's choice (which some may somehow feel offended by a female character being defined by that but whatever). I'm guessing the "loving" Apocalypse is a continuation of the X-Man with the Lifeseed arc and that alternate reality with hippy dippy Apocalypse, but considering that that arc made him feel so off I wouldn't have built anything on that foundation. I could be wrong on that front though, but a an Apocalypse that cares too much just feels wrong.
Some of the arc felt like it betrayed the Rise of the Apocalypse mini and so the established origin of the character not to mention the already established Akkaba Clan thing (So he pined for Genesis so much yet had a bunch of kids through whatever means with other mothers?), and I don't think Apocalypse used his omnimorph powers even once, but that aspect has barely been used in the past 15 years or so, even Evan/Genesis rarely used them (what was once a defining aspect of the character). I'm just glad the Techno-organic body junk that Nicieza used in Cable-Deadpool and the "old man in a suit" junk that was picked up by Alan Davis from the Askani' Son mini haven't been referenced.
The ending sort of felt like "that's it?" in terms of Apocalypse's character arc that I felt was going to more interesting places when Excalibur started and Betsy still being shattered felt crappy after her anticlimactic death; but the Captain Britain Corps re-appearing and Arrako rejoining Krakoa could both be interesting, as will be what the new Krakoa-Arrako council will look like. I'm just hoping something more comes for Apocalypse, Betsy, and Otherworld in the future as I felt like something more grandiose was set up; not that this arc was light on impact, but Otherworld has had several storylines in the past that felt bigger and five godlike entities control realms in Otherworld now with Jamie, James Jaspers, Roma, Saturnine (who was never this powerful in any previous stories, though this started in the newest run of Excalibur; not a gripe, it just came out of nowhere to me since she was more of a diplomat than anything else before), and Merlyn, plus a realm controlled by The Fury, and I felt like Apocalypse was doing some interesting things with Jamie and Morgan LeFay that felt like bigger plans for Otherworld rather than just the end result of this event.
Another issue I have is that a lot of the fights just seemed too short/small scale compared to the fact that this event was in no small part built around them. I also feel that the sword aspect seemed like an afterthought gimmick so that it wouldn't be some Contest of Champions retread in that respect, the swords never felt instrumental to the story outside of the appearance of S.W.O.R.D. at the end and the Twilight Sword (which seems like it's not Surtur's so why use the same name?) being a reason for Arrako and Krakoa splitting. I mean I wasn't in the story for the fights, but it just feels like that aspect was a letdown.

The gripes are outweighed by the positives though, I read each issue anticipating the next which is more than I can say for almost any Marvel event (small scale or large) in the past 15+ years (I can count the events I've been interested in in the single digits). I'm glad the character of Apocalypse finally got an interesting storyline in the past 20 or so years outside of Remender's work and the tie-ins to it, and I'm glad we got to see an interesting Otherworld storyline again by people that actually seem to care about it and have knowledge of it and the characters it is connected to.

[nandes]

What was the extra dimensional being that they freed in the FCBD ISSUE? Did we ever learn that

Some beast that Saturnyne needed to make the ritual that allowed her to see the future in the cards, I think

[nx01a]

Wonderful finish to an overly drawn out event that started out epic then got derailed by farce. Skipping the actual tournament actually makes this read so much better.
>X-Men and Excalibur were OK. Discouraging using the X-Men moniker? Sigh. Skipping straight to Destruction...
>X-Ceptional art! Larraz can do no wrong!
>DEATH IS ALIVE!!!! <3<3<3 I'm SO happy about that. He was my favourite of the Arakkoans, and having him rule an entire dimension of undead is wonderful. I hope he comes back for revenge on Storm soon.
>Thankfully Bei and Cypher were the only sources of humour in these last 3 chapters... and that lasted for about a page and a half. Humour was the wrong way to go with the middle section of this event. Imagine how wonderful this would have been as a high octane LotR saga? I'm bummed we got Wolverine modelling in a dress instead.
>Cyclops and Phoe... er... Marvel Girl and Magik really came through. Well done.
>The Peak got teleported in by Magik as the 10th sword as expected. Pity there was no death ray but unloading all the mutants and the deus ex machina aliens made sense. I thought they were setup for S.W.⨂.R.D. but they really were a Chekov's Gun for this event.
>Apocalypse gets his family back, reunites Okkara, and saves millions of enslaved mutants before heading off for more conquest. I'd say his story's done! For now. Seeing the Arakkoa mutants integrate into Krakoan society and life on Earth in general will be interesting.
>An entire regiment of multiversal Captain Britains (Captains Britain?) with purple-pink hair? Gods, enough with making Betsy more than she deserves to be and giving her power and importance she hasn't earned.
>And no retelling of the Arakko origin story from White Sword's perspective. We dodged that bullet.

Favourite panels...
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