Sanctus Sacrum
“X of Swords Chapter 2”
X-Factor #4
Written by Leah Williams
Art by Carlos Gomez
Color art by Israel Silva
• The resurrection protocols introduced in House of X have freed the X-Men franchise from its endless cycle of pointless deaths and tedious, convoluted rebirths. It’s also opened up a lot of new narrative possibilities, and that’s the basis of Leah Williams’ new X-Factor series. But it’s also created a problem for a big story like X of Swords – if none of the X-Men can die, what does it matter if they fall in this epic battle? As long as the protocols were in place they could face any war as a battle of attrition they would inevitably win.
This issue moves along the plot from the first chapter and establishes some new stakes: Yes, any mutant can and will be resurrected, but if they die in Otherworld they lose all established sense of self and their history. The person resurrected is a version of them made as a composite of infinite versions of the self in Otherworld and this self permanently overwrites everything saved in Cerebro. It’s got all the existential stakes of death, but the weird wrinkle of still existing as a comic book character. It’s a smart compromise that doesn’t break the innovation of the protocols. The downside is realizing most major stories from this point onward will have to do some version of this narrative workaround.
• We find all of this out as Rockslide is resurrected after being murdered by Summoner in Otherworld in the first chapter. Rockslide is a perfect character to sacrifice in this way – he’s a minor character that has been hanging around the backgrounds of stories for nearly 20 years but doesn’t have a well-developed personality beyond “what if AJ Soprano was The Thing,” so nothing is really lost in this decision. There’s a lot of narrative possibilities in the new mysterious composite version of Rockslide, so the character finally has a distinct story purpose. Also the thing about him being this intangible ghost within a rocky shell now feels more creepy – a ghost of a boy no one knows, a shell of a person who is lost forever to anyone who knew him.
• Williams only has one chapter in the X of Swords saga, and she really makes the most of it in this double-sized issue – she works in a very good scene with her beloved Emma Frost responding very much in character with absolute horror at the realization that one of the students has permanently died, she builds on the processes of The Five and X-Factor, and you can sense her absolute delight in writing the text page explaining the hedonistic realm of Roma and the rhyming riddles announcing the sword bearers of Krakoa. There’s a strong “AHHH I CAN’T BELIEVE I GET TO WRITE THIS” energy in this issue, and that adds an extra bit of joy in reading it.
• Carlos Gomez’ fill-in art on this issue is adequate but a bit too bland for a story of this magnitude, particularly as it comes just after dazzling world-building art by Leinil Francis Yu and Pepe Larraz. Gomez, who worked with Williams recently on The Amazing Mary Jane series, is a natural for Spider-Man comics – his art is basically the current Marvel house style spiked with a bit of J. Scott Campbell pizzazz. But in this issue we basically just get flat house style, and while it does the job it lacks a spark. It makes sense why he was hired for this issue but I think given the current roster of artists working for the X-office but not booked for a X of Swords issue this probably would’ve been better illustrated by Matteo Buffagni or Lucas Wernick.
• The sword hub at the end of the issue is so very video game in both concept and design – Final Fantasy in particular, though I’m hardly a gaming expert. But I really appreciate the way Hickman-era X-Men borrows visual notions from video games but also creates environments and situations that would logically carry over to video game adaptations. Everything about X of Swords so far would make for a pretty cool game, and I suspect that factored into it on a concept level. As much as the Hickman era is pushing boundaries, it’s also very much about expanding X-Men IP for eventual use by other parts of the Disney family. It’s the best case scenario on the creative end for this sort of vertical integration, but it is absolutely is IP development for vertical integration.