S.W.O.R.D., Vol. 1

S.W.O.R.D. (2020)

by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti (Illustrator), Marte Gracia (Color Artist)

One giant leap for mutantkind! The new nation of Krakoa has quickly become a major force on the world stage…but why stop there? The X-Men have relaunched the Sentient World Observation & Response Directorate — a fully independent organization dealing with all things extraterrestrial on behalf of Earth. And S.W.O.R.D. is thrown right into the deep end of a planetary crisis as Krakoa battles the invading King in Black! Meanwhile, Abigail Brand prepares a deniable operation all her own. What is Protocol V — and can the Earth survive it? Then, walk a mile in the Manifold’s shoes as S.W.O.R.D.’s Quintician takes a journey across the universe — and comes face to face with a deadly enemy! And as the Quiet Council discuss the rules of murder on Krakoa, in space the killings have already begun…

COLLECTING: S.W.O.R.D. (2020) 1-6

Genres: Comics, X Men, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Science Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2021

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abigail Brand is back and back with a cosmic mutant team to combat non-Terrestrial threats as well as being an early warning system. With one of the most eclectic line-ups in Hickman's X-universe made up of Brand, Magneto, Kid Cable, Manifold, Frenzy, Wiz Kid and Fabian Cortez! What Ewing does better than his current X-universe writing peers is not only deep dive X-continuity but give his characters contextual history (and animosity) to one another, which works really well. There a great rendition of a now conflicted Fabian Cortez. Lifelong X-Men fans may find this the strongest book of this era, but conversely young and/or new fans will miss a lot of what's going on. This one gets an entry accelerated 8 out of 12, Four Stars.

2023 read

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some potential to be really cool. Mutants interacting on the galactic scale. But it's just boring with such disjointed storytelling. None of the issues work together to provide something greater. Even the three King in Black issues go nowhere or even tell a story. There are a lot of inferred moments to things going on elsewhere. I have this sneaking suspicion that you need to read Ewing's Guardians of the Galaxy in conjunction with this to get any kind of impact and that's a terrible way to write a comic book. No wonder this got cancelled.

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 3 out of 5]

La serie empieza con el nuevo equipo que ha formado Abigail Brand en "El Pico". Que previamente en los eventos de X of Swords fue invadido por una raza alienígena y casi destruido.
Allí Brand ha reunido a un equipo bastante disparejo con Manifold, Wiz-Kid, Frenzy, Mentallo y Cortez. Su función ayudar a Krakoa en eventos espaciales.
Luego varios números se dedican a la pelea con Knull, que tiene su propio arco en Marvel.
Me encantó el guiño de Frenzy a los Summers.
El número final está en la Hellfire Gala. Brand habla con los demás miembros del consejo Galáctico (gente de otros planetas o sistemas) para que acepten a Arakko como nuevo planeta titular del sistema solar. La historia no me encantó sin embargo la calidad del dibujante es excelente.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

As per usual, Al Ewing can do no wrong. He takes a rag-tag group of mutants and populates a space station with them, throwing the X-books wholeheartedly into the conflicts he's already busy creating over in Guardians of the Galaxy. Plus a King In Black tie-in, and an invitation to the Hellfire Gala, neither of which manage to derail the ongoing plot, since the book's so scattershot in its approach to storytelling anyway. There are only two issues here I think that directly lead into one another, but instead of feeling disjointed, it makes the scope of the book feel sweeping and all-encompassing as a result.

Ewing's character work can't go unnoticed either - Manifold, Gizmo, and even Fabian Cortez get some wonderful spotlights, while Abigail Brand snarks her way through all six issues with some barbs that even Kieron Gillen would be proud of.

And the artwork's lovely as well, since Ewing's Empyre collaborator Valerio Schiti pencils his heart out of these insane spacescapes.

You'd think the X-books might have reached critical mass, but with each new title, they just keep getting better.

[Ben Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked S.W.O.R.D., Vol. 1 as I wanted to see what happened next after Empyre Omnibus. I couldn't not, after after reading the last issue Web of Venom: Empyre's End!

I haven't read much marvel but I never felt lost and I enjoyed this read a lot. My library doesn't have volume 2 so I might have to check out marvel unlimited.

[Alistair · Rating 2 out of 5]

*read in single issues*
Great premise and an amazing creative team but unfortunately it got derailed by the King in Black event and lost all the momentum of the first 2 issues.
Going forward I was hoping it wasn't going to tie into too many events and could have a little breathing room...but looking at the coming Marvel solicitations YIKES

[Scratch · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a real book. There is no real coherent story, so this "volume 1" is more like 6 disparate issues in the Marvel universe that have almost no connection to each other.

A random assortment of fairly obscure mutants are named. Most of them play no significant role in the plot. Do you remember Risque? Are you happy that she's back from character limbo? Well, tough noogies, nerd. She isn't going to have a line of dialogue or any significant effect on the plot. And it's much the same with most of the other obscure characters who get name dropped.

Paibok the Power Skrull appears in both issue 1 and 2, but Abigail Brand acts like she has never seen him before in issue 2.

Abigail Brand presides over a summit of intergalactic leaders to brag about the mutants terraforming Mars. She inexplicably decides to cosplay as Space Captain Harlock for the meeting.

Eden is a teleporting mutant who inexplicably is featured heavily in issue 3 or 4. The writers want to make it clear that he is crazy powerful, and that his power is actually that he speaks to the universe, and the universe does him favors. ... Okay? This power would be more interesting if it weren't vaguely alarming to multiple world religions. But we have no reason to care about Eden, despite the weirdly focused issue dedicated to him. We know next to nothing about his background, family, etc.

The only other "main" character to get so much attention was Fabian Cortez. Previously, I had commented upon how we knew nothing about his family, or what he looked like outside of his Acolyte costume. Then, weirdly, in an issue that focused entirely upon him, he was forced to stand around naked, and he talked about how his family left him with a rich inheritance he wasn't satisfied with. So, in that regard I guess I got my wish?

It all feels so random and disconnected. S.W.O.R.D. is just a title that gets miscellaneous snippets from the X-universe. There is no particular plot running between these 6 issues. And the problem isn't just that the "King in Black" nonsense made a pit stop in this title, interrupting the nonexistent preexisting plot.

This title will be canceled soon.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

S.W.O.R.D. surprised me by easily being one of the more enjoyable X-universe books I've read in some time. It sets up a lot of storylines, but they're all quite intriguing and could have big implications down the road. Of course, this is a classic element of the first volumes of any X-series - hook the reader with some wild Krakoan nonsense, then backpedal wildly in any additional volumes. So I'm not exactly getting my hopes up.

But hey! S.W.O.R.D. Vol. 1 is fun! It even manages to encompass a King in Black tie-in without going too far off the rails. (How unfortunate that a brand new series is allowed only a single issue to introduce itself before it must enter the grand Marvel universe of event tie-ins.) I appreciated that the new (to me) mutants were all robustly introduced and given at least a modicum of personality. And I'm definitely more interested in spacefaring adventures than bland Earthbound politics. I'll take "mysterium" and "Snarkwar" over yet another "these humans sure do hate mutants!" storyline any day.

[Benji Glaab · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 I'm barely familiar with the team, and that's where the fun starts. Ewing was able to add a lot of personality to the cast. The art work is killer, and there is a solid foundation for a quality series.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had been relatively unethused about the new SWORD, despite Al Ewing's work on it, but that's because no one told me the new SWORD crew was all mutants. There's such a rich cast of X-characters, and Ewing delves deep to come up with his choices, and then proceeds to tell great stories about them. Manifold gets a lot of great focus, but so does Fabian Cortez, who has a great story here with a beginning, middle, and end.

The other focus of the book is, of course, on space.

A lot of it is over-the-top science fiction that feels like it's a direct extension of the same in Ewing's Ultimates, and that's terrific. We get most of that in the first issue.

However, space also means alien races and their conflicts. There are two of those in this volume, King in Black and Snarkwar. King in Black is definitely the weakest part of this volume (and it's three of the five issues). Oh, Ewing does well with the concept, and I think it was good to get SWORD going just in time to crossover, but I don't think the action-oriented story was really what Ewing is best at. The Snarkwar, on the other hand, was great. It was quick, it was subtle, and it focused on character.

Overall, this volume earns 4.5 stars, with the King in Black holding back the volume as a whole, though I totally agree with its inclusion and feel like it's relatively organic.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

The whole purpose of this book seems to be to wring every last dime out of the re-imagined X-universe. There really isn't any consistent, connected story running through this and a strangely grouped bunch of fairly obscure mutants. About the only recognizable ones are Abigail Brand (wait? she's a mutant, too?) and Eden, or Manifold. I guess Cable's in there, too, though primarily to give Knull an entrance into this mishmash (of course, we've got to work the King in Black storyline into our brand new, barely launched title, before any basic story or stakes have been set up). The artwork is functional, though nothing special (Magneto in particular looks ridiculous throughout). Kind of a wash.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than a 3 but not really a four

I had a hard time judging how this book hit me - Ewing is usually an instant “Yes!” For me, and his character work here is still gripping - Manifold and Brand are both awesome, readable folks I can’t get enough of.

So I perused my fellow Goodreaders’ reviews and they crystallised it: plot hardly carries from issue to issue, Knull nonsense felt hollow-filler, and if I gotta read Guardians to make sense of this? Hard pass. I will never enjoy Marvel space opera for reasons that elude me.

[Rylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

normally i love al ewing and this book has the setup for him to do something great. instead there’s a severe lack of plot and the character work is not nearly as good as his other stuff. this feels more like a series of events and info dumps rather than an actual story

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning and ending in this are fantastic, but everything in between got muddled for me. The art was consistently stellar though, and the ending got me hooked enough to keep reading going forward. 3.5/5 stars.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't finish got extremely bored.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Right out the gate this feels like a title that is inevitably going to be canceled (it was), because the first volume, while far from a terrible read, didn't really encompass much of anything interesting, and feels entirely too disconnected from the terrestrial Krakoan affairs.

The first issue introduces us to the mutant crew manning the new SWORD space station in orbit around Earth. Abigail Brand has collected a bunch of mutants from relative obscurity to have them crew her station. Unfortunately so many of the crew have nothing to contribute here, and several of the team haven't even been introduced yet, as their names have been redacted on every one of those infographics detailing the station. They're too secret to even be in the story!

I typically enjoy Al Ewing's work, but there's very little story to be found here. Issues 3 and 4 are forced to tie into the King in Black event wherein the Earth has been taken over by the god of the Venom-like symbiotes. It's just not terribly interesting and feels like a distraction being forced on us by Marvel's editorial team. Then we get an issue where Fabian Cortez addresses the Krakoan council, and an argument is brought up regarding one of Krakoa's primary laws, but nothing much is made of it here. The final issue is the Hellfire Gala crossover, which had some great moments from Doctor Doom, but the only noteworthy thing here is that we find out which mutant has taken a leadership role of their new civilization on Mars. I did very much enjoy the costume designs for Brand and Frenzy, but so much of the rest of the team we don't even get to see in their Gala getups (and in fact, we never actually see the Gala itself in this issue).

This volume has too little drive in any narrative direction, too many unknown characters are introduced at once and not utilized in any way at all much less a meaningful one, and too much time devoted to a war of succession of an alien species I couldn't care less about. With this and some of other X-books coming out at the same time, it feels like Marvel was just throwing out any kind of mutant-related book without compelling stories to tell just to see what would stick. In many ways it feels like the 1990s again, and while I love that my mutants are back on top, this is one particular aspect of the 90s I'd rather not revisit. I'd rather see a smaller stable of books with a concentration on quality than have the comic book racks flooded with dozens of short-lived mutant titles that aren't interesting enough to find an audience. The art duties in this volume were done by various artists, and they were all at least consistent in terms of quality that no particular issue felt visually jarring or out of place.

2.5 STARS

[Michael Church · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another X-Book that I heard a lot of good things about before its release, but now that it’s here, I don’t fully understand the buzz. There was definitely some potential here, but it got derailed by the King in Black event for three whole issues.

The first issue does a lot of setup for the team and the premise. It was heady and seemed to have a pretty expansive concept, but it doesn’t lead to any payoff in this volume. I still don’t even know what it was they retrieved in that first issue, though it does seem to come back in the very last page.

The KiB tie-ins frustrated me at first, but they were alright, I guess. I don’t care about Venom or Knull, so I’m just kind of sick of having my X-Men hijacked by symbiotes (happened before with the whole Poisons story, too).

The last issue was interesting, but I’m not super familiar with Snarkwar and if this is a concept that’s come up in the comics before. It was an interesting premise, and had some good moments with Cortez and other characters. I actually did feel a little bad for him at the end. I’ve read that him and Fenris are the two characters that most authors just aren’t trying to redeem. Fenris I know by reputation, but Cortez wasn’t as clear to me.

There’s enough of a concept here to bring me back, but it was not a strong start to be honest.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t super crazy about this one. The Knull stuff was interesting and the council stuff at the end was interesting, but most of this felt removed as an X book in my opinion.

[João Pedro Gomes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Esse volume me lembrou de como crossovers e histórias espaciais não são mesmo minha praia. Bem injusto, aliás, enfiarem um crossover tão desinteressante logo no começo desse volume, cujo início é tão promissor. Ao mesmo tempo, boa parte do volume é inegavelmente bem-escrita, e alguns momentos até me lembraram do peso narrativo de HoX/PoX do Hickman (saudades imensas). Por esse flash de nostalgia tão bem-vindo, e por renovar minha esperança na grandeza de escopo da era, dei uma estrela extra. Devo ler Hellfire Gala a seguir! Dedos cruzados.

[Alex Sarll]

Al Ewing joins the Dawn Of X party, with a book doubling as a bridge to his Guardians Of The Galaxy and leaving him the current king of Marvel space. The tone of the Hickman-era X-books, with everything big and hints of it all getting bigger still, is a perfect match for the writer behind such unabashedly epic series as Royals and Ultimates, and the first issue lets us know the level on which we're operating, Magneto moving a space station into a more suitable position without even needing to break off a conversation. Mutants having already redefined their relationship with human nations, it makes perfect sense that they should next look outwards – and if they're now Earth's dominant species, why wouldn't they take over extraterrestrial relations from the flatscans who keep botching the job? Especially when operating on a wider canvas looks set to enable further intra-mutant synergies along similar lines to the Five who have made death a non-issue in the age of Krakoa. And not just along similar lines, but promising changes of a comparable scale.

Granted, wider Marvel ructions mean that the bold new mutants-in-space era is almost immediately derailed, with the new SWORD, just like the old organisation, completely failing to prevent an alien invasion required by a line-wide crossover, this time the deeply trying King In Black. Still, Ewing manages to scrape a promising story even out of this unpromising ground, all black ops and back-up plans in case Earth is lost. All this while leaving the obligatory Krakoa-era org charts and diagrams heavily redacted, promising more reveals and wheels within wheels down the line – and unlike some writers, and particularly after Immortal Hulk, I do trust Al to make good on all those mysteries in the end. There are ties to that book here, the loathsome Gyrich popping up again, just as threats such as Orchis tie it to the wider X-picture. In the meantime, the regular cast is...well, not exactly big names, for the most part (though good heavens Abigail Brand looks excellent in a tailored green suit. And indeed a green pirate outfit. I think maybe I just have a crush on Abigail Brand? Which would make sense given her established taste for the hairier, more grandiloquent gent). But that means more freedom to manoeuvre, whether it be jokes about Mentallo's enormous purple helmet, or mind-blowing redefinitions like the reason that, whatever impression we may have gathered from his prior appearances, Manifold is not in fact a teleporter. The designated whipping boy, though, must surely be the obnoxious Fabian Cortez, a character I only half-remember from bad nineties X-comics. Though my one real quibble with the series to date ties back to him; even when the point is given to so unsympathetic a mouthpiece, we never really get an answer to one big question Cortez raises. Namely, why should Krakoa be so firmly against murdering humans when, by only resurrecting Homo superior, it's already sentencing all sapiens to death?

[Chantaal · Rating 3 out of 5]

X-Men 2021 Dawn of X project continues!

Ratings and links to previous reviews under the spoiler:

House of X/Powers of X ⭐⭐⭐
X-Men, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐
Marauders, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Excalibur, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
X-Men/Fantastic Four: 4X ⭐⭐⭐⭐
X-Force, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐
New Mutants (Hickman), Vol 1 ⭐⭐⭐
New Mutants (Brisson), Vol 1 ⭐⭐
Fallen Angels, Vol 1 ⭐
Giant-Size X-Men, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
X-Men, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐
Marauders, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐⭐
Excalibur, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐
X-Force, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐
Wolverine, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
Cable, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
Hellions, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐⭐
X-Factor, Vol. 1 ⭐⭐
X of Swords ⭐⭐
Hellions, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐
X-Factor, Vol. 2 ⭐⭐


Well, this wasn't terrible? I'm actually impressed at how much Al Ewing was able to focus on character along with the plot, even though the plot made no damn sense because I have NO idea what's going on in the greater Marvel universe around this time. Venom symbiote stuff? Cosmic Marvel plots?

(As an aside: I hate what Wanda has become to the mutants in this post-Krakoa world. Just seeing the way Magneto mentions her in one single instance in one of these issues speaks volumes to how much she is thoroughly reviled by all the mutants. And, like, yeah. I get it. But she's also a character with decades of history in the Marvel universe AND WITH MANY OF THESE MUTANTS, INCLUDING MAGNETO. It boggles the mind that Krakoa turned the mutants into such a massive cult-like hive mind. There has to be some payoff about that at some point, right? ...right?)

The 3 stars is because Abigail Brand is a boss ass bitch, and that's all I ever want from a SWORD volume, really.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I really like the exciting promise of a mutant space agency expanding Krakoa’s ambitions to galactic scale, and the spotlight characters like Brand and Manifold are unique among the current X-books, but these issues get too dragged down with the mediocre Knull crossover event to pay off on much of that promise yet. The art is generally spectacular and vibrant. Environments are reliably great, while character expressions are mostly solid but occasionally have an uncanny silliness to them that fits uncomfortably between the overall serious tone of this series and something more exaggeratedly comic like Max Sarin’s brilliant faces in Giant Days.

My 3.5 stars are based on what’s actually here, but I’m optimistic about where the story is headed, and I expect it will continue to look great.

[Tuni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was just reading this one for completion’s sake and damn if it wasn’t great. Love the characters, love the art, love the direction it’s going. Can’t wait for more.

[Zeina (Taylor's Version) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I LOVED the last issue SOO MUCH!!!! Even though I didn't fully understand everything it was really fun to read this!

[Andres Pasten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Se nota que Ewing está a otro nivel. veamos como sigue la historia y su cruce con los guardianes.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
These series is a bit of a mess, and I'm still not sure what it's about. Something something X-Men in space. The Gala issue was probably the best. The Knull issue was pretty awful.

[Lulu (the library leopard) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excited to announce that mainstream superhero comics are, in fact, good! It's the X-Men in space with amazing art (everyone say thank to Valerio Schiti) and a fun team line up and I enjoyed it a lot. Got a bit derailed by a big comic cross-over event, but I'm very excited to see where future issues of this go.

[Matthew Randell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda all over the place and having not read any other King In Black I'm kinda confused by that issue (did Manifold end that whole thing??). BUT amazing character moments, especially for Magneto. Never been that big on previous X-Men In Space stuff but this is much more focused on mutants than Shi'ar so I'm all in for now.

[Jamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Ewing just doesn't disappoint

[Adam Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll round this one up from 3.5 because I think the potential here is huge. The premise is fun, and in just a few issues Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti made a bunch of characters I know nothing about pretty interesting. More impressive, they did it while being dragged immediately into a bunch of tie-ins to other Marvel events that I can only imagine were editorially required... It's to Ewing's credit that he at least uses those issues to do such successful character work to build out his cast. The Manifold issue in particular is phenomenal. The Hellfire Gala issue at the end is a real knockout, and I can't wait to see where S.W.O.R.D goes afterward.