Raise Your Swords
Part III: Apocalypse is a wife guy
Last week we covered some pretty heavy political, sociological, economical, and cultural issues that had been explored in X-Men from Jonathan Hickman and Leinil Yu. This week will be a slight change of pace as we cover the twenty-two part fantasy crossover epic event “X of Swords” written by Jonathan Hickman and Tini Howard with art by Pepe Larraz and Mahmud Asrar and colors by Marte Gracia (on the main books that is). As this is a twenty-two part event (twenty-four if you count the two prelude books which I most certainly do) that spans every book in the entire X-Men line, there are dozens of writers and artists involved in telling this story.
So what is this massive event all about? It spins out of story elements established in Powers of X, Excalibur, and X-Men. Powers of X #5 from Jonathan Hickman and R.B. Silva established that there was a secret history of Krakoa that involved Apocalypse and his original Four Horsemen staving off some sort of demonic invasion that split the sentient island (then known as Okkara) into the two separate sentient islands of Krakoa and Arakko. Krakoa remained on Earth with Apocalypse while Arrako and the Four Horsemen were forced to sacrifice themselves and stay behind in the realm from whence the horde sprang to in order to seal the rift.
I sometimes take for granted that my subscribers are all lifelong comic book fans who know a lot of the lore and history of the characters I discuss. That’s probably the case for characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, and the classic X-Men, but that might not be the case for someone like Apocalypse. Created by Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice in X-Factor #5 back in 1986, Apocalypse (whose real name is En Sabah Nur) is an immortal mutant born thousands of years ago in Ancient Egypt. His powers are nearly limitless (depending on the writer) and include super strength, endurance, immortality, energy projection, and control over his body at a molecular level. On top of that, he was granted access to technology possessed by the nigh omnipotent Celestials (alien gods responsible for most of the intelligent life in the universe). This technology allowed him to graft Celestial armor to his body granting additional levels of invulnerability. He also uses that technology to bestow enhanced abilities upon his disciples. His modus operandi for years was to create a world where only the strongest survived by culling those he deemed genetically inferior. All of this is to say he’s not exactly known for being a good dude. That has changed in the current era of Krakoa. He sees the mutant nation-state as an extension of his philosophy, so he’s willing to play ball with his former rivals and enemies. He’s also significantly toned down the eugenics talk, so that’s a plus.
Now that we’re all familiar with the life and times of Mr. Nur, let’s dive into these swords (please don’t actually dive into swords)! A brief recap of some of the events in Excalibur and X-Men leading up to the event: Apocalypse’s nephew (an albino mutant with summoning powers named Summoner) showed up on Krakoa after escaping from Arakko seeking help for his people. Meanwhile, Apocalypse had set up the murders of his fellow immortal mutants (known as Externals) through a blood ritual to open up a portal to Otherworld (kind of a nexus point for all realities) so that he would be able to reach Arakko and his family. Also, it turns out that his original Four Horsemen were his four biological children that he had with his wife Genesis. She was also left behind along with the Horsemen locked in a war with the demonic hordes of Amenth. There is a large and diverse assortment of Arakki mutants who have been fighting this endless war against these demons led by a being known as Annihilation. After thousands of years of fighting, the forces of Amenth finally overwhelmed Arakko and Genesis was killed by Annihilation. Not great. Summoner was sent back to Krakoa in a last ditch effort to recruit Apocalypse to save the day, and that is how “X of Swords” officially begins.
Oh god. I haven’t even gotten to the first part of a twenty-two part story. The Substack email length limit is not conducive to Krakoa era recaps. Gonna do my best to hit the key points and power ahead. While the story is twenty-two issues, there are specific X of Swords titles that carry some of the biggest narrative heft. The first of these is X of Swords: Creation #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia, and it is incredible. It’s an oversized comic that opens with the demonic horde of Amenth being led into battle against the the last watchtower of the Kingdom of Dryador in Otherworld by the Four Horsemen. They easily raze their enemies to the ground as a lone messenger escapes to warn Saturnyne what is happening. Who is Saturnyne? She’s the nearly omnipotent Omniversal Magistrex who resides within the Starlight Citadel in Otherworld at the epicenter where all realities intersect. Basically if the forces of Amenth were to conquer the Starlight Citadel, they could pour into all realities with nothing to stop them from conducting multiversal genocide. This would be bad. Meanwhile, a scouting party from Krakoa had gone into Otherworld composed of Summoner, Banshee, and Unus the Untouchable returns with only Summoner conscious and Banshee badly wounded. Unus was taken captive by the forces of Amenth. Again, this is not good. Apocalypse takes the opportunity to assemble a team of mutants to go in and try to rescue Unus and any Arakki mutants they can. Apocalypse is shocked upon his arrival in Otherworld to see that his children are alive, and he goes to embrace them. It’s about this time that things go from bad to worse as his children and Summoner launch a sneak attack on Apocalypse and badly wound him. The Arakki mutants are in total alliance with Amenth. Multiple other mutants are also injured with Rockslide literally cleaved in twain by Summoner and killed. It’s a bloodbath. Fortunately, Saturnyne steps into the fray and freezes everyone in place (couldn’t have done that sooner?), and she proposes a game of sorts to resolve the conflict. Each side will have ten champions who will track down and locate a legendary sword and resolve their conflict through a series of challenges.
The next nine chapters are about the various challengers on both sides tracking down their swords and meeting up in Otherworld. The champions of Krakoa are Apocalypse, Captain Britain, Wolverine, Storm, Magik, Cypher, Cable, Gorgon, and Captain Avalon. The champions of Arakko are Annihilation, War, Summoner, Solem, White Sword, Redroot, Death, Isca the Unbeaten, Bei the Blood Moon, and Pogg Ur-Pogg. The backgrounds of the Arakki champions are presented in X of Swords: Stasis #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz, Mahmud Asrar, and Marte Gracia. The important things to know about these characters are they’re extremely badass and don’t particularly care for one another. Also, Pogg Ur-Pogg is a giant crocodile monster man with six arms. None of our protagonists appear to be having a very fun time, but no one is having a worse time than Apocalypse. He’s spent thousands of years missing his wife and children, and now he finds out his wife is dead and his children want to kill him. On top of that, Saturnyne seems to enjoy rubbing all of this in his face while coyly dancing around what her real plans are. Then at the end of the issue she takes Apocalypse to meet Annihilation who (surprise!) turns out to be his not-actually-dead wife who also wants to murder him. Rough day.
The next ten issues revolve around the various challenges. It turns out this isn’t so much a contest of sword fights as it is a bunch of completely arbitrary games decided upon by Saturnyne with a completely arbitrary point system (except for Captain Britain who does in fact get killed in a sword fight by Isca the Unbeaten). It should be noted that Krakoans who are killed in Otherworld are not able to be resurrected, so this is pretty bad news for Betsy. It’s pretty good news for Saturnyne; however, as she hates Betsy and wants her brother to be Captain Britain. She also super wants to bang him despite the fact that he’s a married man. Saturnyne is kind of an asshole. Anyway, the Krakoans are mostly getting wrecked by the Arakki due to Saturnyne’s ridiculous scoring system. Captain Britain and Gorgon are killed on the Krakoan side by Isca and White Sword respectively, and Summoner and Desth are killed by Wolverine and Storm respectively on the Arakki side. Ultimately Saturnyne rigs the game so that the score is tied at the end, and Apocalypse and Genesis would have to fight each other to the death to determine the winning side. The one bit of info we learn about Genesis is the helm she wears is the dark god Annihilation. It controls the person who wears it and commands the armies of Amenth. The two do battle in X-Men #15 by Jonathan Hickman, Mahmud Asrar, and Sunny Gho. It’s a spectacular sword fight that ends with Apocalypse slashing through his wife’s midsection with her own sword. It’s a brutal act. While bleeding out, Genesis shirks the rules of the game and dons the Annihilation helm to call upon the armies of Amenth to destroy her enemies.
The war unfolds in Excalibur #15 from Tini Howard, Mahmud Asrar, Stefano Caselli, Sunny Gho, and Rachelle Rosenberg. Make no mistake: this is truly a war. The Krakoans are doing their best to fight off the Arakki mutants and the armies of Amenth, but they are hopelessly outgunned. Fortunately, Jubilee shows up in the nick of time with an army of winged priestesses armed with bows and arrows (long story) to help even the odds a bit. Even with these reinforcements, our heroes are still in bad shape. Fortunately, Saturnyne is doing some magic to try and force her boy toy Brian back into the Captain Britain role and create an army of Brian Braddock Captains Britain from across all realities to come save the day. Unfortunately for her (but not for us), the spell doesn’t work and she creates a Captain Britain Corps composed entirely of Betsy Braddock Captains Britain. Whoopsie!
X of Swords: Destruction #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia is the final chapter of this saga, and it does not disappoint! The entire issue is just nonstop action during a full scale war. It opens with the new Captain Britain Corps streaming into the battle. It’s a huge morale boost to the Krakoans as they push forward against their foes. Sensing the battle turning, a group of Arakki summoners respond by summoning a bunch of Lovecraftian monsters to help them. This is decidedly not good. Fortunately, the Krakoans have another trick up their sleeves. Magik uses her powers to open up a portal to allow the X-Men led by Marvel Girl and Cyclops come through to join the fray. When I say the X-Men, I don’t mean like five mutants. There are legitimately fifty or so X-Men who swoop in to turn the tide.
This was already one of the best comic book battle sequences I’d ever read, and now it’s been taken to another level. This is the equivalent of the Avengers: Endgame final battle turned up to eleven. Apocalypse seizes the opportunity to confront Annihilation directly, but it isn’t ready to give up quite yet. It commands its summoners to “summon all of darker Amenth” which apparently means summon a bunch of demonic kaiju because they totally summon a bunch of demonic kaiju.
Clearly this is the end for our heroes. They had a good run, but what could they possibly hope to do at this point? I mean at this point it would take something like opening a portal to another dimension filled with locust-like beings that devour everything in their path. Hold on. I’m being told that this is exactly what they plan on doing. Fortunately these terrifying things were established in an earlier issue of Cable or our heroes would be cooked.
So this is it. The battlefield is complete and utter chaos. It’s essentially a war between three different forces all intent on destroying each other. How can it end? That’s when Apocalypse really makes his move. He wrests the Annihilation helm off of Genesis, and he puts it on himself. It has been established at this point that the helm controls the wearer, but the previous wearers have never been Apocalypse. After over thirty years of publication history where he has preached the doctrine of survival of the fittest where only the strongest prevail, Apocalypse finally gets to put his money where his mouth is. He gains control of Annihilation, and with it he gains command of the armies of Amenth. With all of that power, Apocalypse surrenders to Saturnyne. By surrendering, the armies of Amenth are rendered docile leaving only the locust-like things left. Now completely under control of the situation, Saturnyne rides a dragon that is actually Jubilee’s baby (long story) and uses its magical flames to burn away the “players we no longer need.” She then takes the helm from Apocalypse and transforms it into a staff for Apocalypse to wield and requests that Krakoa and Arakko engage in an exchange of prisoners to preserve the peace. Apocalypse agrees to reunite with his wife and children and go back with them to rule Amenth, and he requests that Arakki itself be granted to Krakoa. That includes all of the mutants who live on Arakko.
That’s where the status quo shifts once again in the Krakoa era. Apocalypse leaves the Quiet Council to rule a new land, and thousands of new mutants have crossed back into our world. Next week: the Reign of X.