Yeah, just by virtue of being surprising it was better than 90% of capes event where you can see what the main beats are going to be from issue #1.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
To be honest I wasn't all that excited for an "anime style tournament" so what we actually got in X of Swords was really good for me.
I agree. Well, I've never even seen a comic attempt one so I can't say I'm not curious. But I agree it wasn't needed.
I just wish they could have adjusted the tonal shifts in the story's arcs better. High stakes at the start, stall out for a long stretch to collect swords, tensions relax at the dinner, then they quickly re-establish the stakes with Logan's horrifying vision, only for goofy hijinks to then hit us like whiplash for the main event. Why did they do that? It makes it a harder read even if all the pieces are quite good.
I think the point was that the cast (like the reader) was expecting a "serious tournament" to solve things using those swords, but Saturnyne pulled the rug out from under all of them and surprised them with chaotic Otherworld nonsense instead. In that case the tonal shift whiplash makes sense.
Yeah, I mean, keep the surprise rug pulling, but move Wolverine's vision toward the end of the tournament. Maybe make Arakko slightly less menacing at the start? Then make Annihilation's breaking of the tournament more of a dramatic event instead of just something she does off-screen to no one's surprise? I don't know I can't write but I still think the narrative can be improved while still keeping the surprise tournament of game show events.
Last edited:
Man, I'm really glad we are getting back to these plot points like Nimrod and The Vault after not really giving much of a fuck to XoS, I wonder where that sentient life that spawned from the techno organic virus inside The World is gonna show up too.
I'm actually a bit sad Nimrod is happening this soon. Everytime Nimrod has shown up its sort of been an end of an era situation.
Even when Bastion shows up it tends to mean the status quo is about to change.
And while I don't think that will be the case here, that makes it feel a bit wasted.
Even when Bastion shows up it tends to mean the status quo is about to change.
And while I don't think that will be the case here, that makes it feel a bit wasted.
It'll be the end of the era where Nimrod is an era ending entity.
I'm really not getting SWORD, and it's frustrating me a little. I feel like it should have had at least six issues to establish itself before getting caught up in someone else's story arc. There's no baseline, making it incredibly unfriendly to new readers.
Excalibur seems to be content with being always average and never great, the biggest disappointment this issue being the flat Emma Frost. The team seems to be coming together though, with the oddly lampshaded exception of Jubilee.
(Is there some sort of editorial mandate on this team? Tini doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about it either.)
X-Force was very promising! It was surprisingly nice to have an issue with no Beast or Wolverine, and Percy managed to inject some very welcome humanity into Quentin "my superpower is being a dick" Quire.
Excalibur seems to be content with being always average and never great, the biggest disappointment this issue being the flat Emma Frost. The team seems to be coming together though, with the oddly lampshaded exception of Jubilee.
(Is there some sort of editorial mandate on this team? Tini doesn't seem all that enthusiastic about it either.)
X-Force was very promising! It was surprisingly nice to have an issue with no Beast or Wolverine, and Percy managed to inject some very welcome humanity into Quentin "my superpower is being a dick" Quire.
The tweet's "unavailable" for me. I assume X-Corp finally got announced?
Yes X-Corp was announced. I assume it was taken down for artwork fixing because, yeah... Monet was looking pretty Caucasian there.
I feel like one of Hickman's greatest strengths is making this sort of stuff a seamless part of his books.
I fully expect a bit of a paradigm shift, but it'll be an interesting one, and set up for the true endgame.
I don't mind S.W.O.R.D., but I agree. It's kind of a shame this King in Black shit had to get into it, but I guess it also wouldn't have made sense if it didn't. Maybe should have released afterwards.
Excalibur... I dropped that at book #2 or #3. Incidentally, I didn't really like X of Swords. It seemed... meaningless and disjointed? I'm happy others enjoyed it, though.
X-Force is consistent heat. Enjoy every issue of that book, and I'm looking forward to what's happening next.
But most importantly... I really wanna know who the X-Men are!
Last edited:
yeah it's fixed now :)
And damn, I really love David Aja
At this point, not an endgame. It's truly too early for an endgame.
But he's also 48 years old so I don't see him pulling a Claremont run.
What I do see happening with Nimrod returning is a culmination of several plots. Mystique will get resolved, the "exiled" characters like Sabertooth and Selene will get resolved, the Horticulture will get resolved, the Vulcan thing will get resolved and some other things will get resolved. I have a personal theory now but don't want to share it yet.
Honestly I think we are about to get more of a Phase 2... Especially after this week's X-Force.
I don't think the Vault and the World are done yet. And I have a feeling they have a lot more to do.
Also I just thought of this. Where is Danger? She is a confirmed mutant even if she is technology. Why hasn't she shown up yet?
Just a bad colorist then. Or rather a quick color job where the paint bucket bled into another character.
Either way, glad they fixed it both in the comic and on social media. Monet is a prominent POC X-Men character. She needs to be used that way.
Damn, I didn't realize Hickman was 48!
But yeah, I can see a phase 2. Or maybe even a Moira X reset for her final life, coinciding with another Marvel refresh or something lol
Marvel didn't refresh for 54 years (technically longer see Timely and Atlas.) No way they do it again 5 years later as a line.
Well if your are just going by X-Men comics it's really more really more like Phase 16.
Edit - I meant more like Phase 2 of Hickman's plans for the X-Men.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's what Reign of X is, like how Dawn of X was Phase 1.
Lol I get you both now.
Funny coincidence?
If you include the "Classic X-Men" stories. This X-Men run is like a speed play of Claremont's run.
Lots of space, lots of character growth, lots of defining moments in the canon.
Funny coincidence?
If you include the "Classic X-Men" stories. This X-Men run is like a speed play of Claremont's run.
Lots of space, lots of character growth, lots of defining moments in the canon.
Yeah, I was actually hoping that her X-Corp was nothing like her Excalibur haha
I'm catching up on this on Marvel Unlimited. I had read HoX/PoX when they came out but stopped the main series after Professor X was killed outside of the main books. I didn't feel like buying all the side books if hat was was was required and figured I'd wait until a good chunk was on MU, and here I am!
So my question is, after Dawn of X do I need to keep reading the other X books besides ones I just happen to like, or am I good to just read the main stuff by Hickman?
So my question is, after Dawn of X do I need to keep reading the other X books besides ones I just happen to like, or am I good to just read the main stuff by Hickman?
Skip Fallen Angels for sure. The Wolverine and Cable solo books are both decent books, but superfluous.
New Mutants and X-Force are both great, but are surprisingly less essential to the main storyline than you'd expect.
X-Men, Marauders and Excalibur are the main essential titles as you head down the road to X of Swords.
X-Factor and Hellions start later, and both are a lot of fun, but are side gigs for sure.
Note that once you get to XoS, however, you'll need to read all the parts as it makes its rounds through all the books.
Honestly though, Fallen Angels was the only stinker for me in the whole line... I think everything else has been worth it.
OP
OP
Yup! I don't know if there's a curated Dawn of X list on MU but if you read X-Men #1 there should be a reading list at the end you can follow.
X-Men Legends is in continuity but the book will only be covering stories set in the past. It's allowing previous X writers to finish stories that were left hanging at the time.
Emma knows. She at least knows Moria is still alive. Probably shouldn't have made her no-space have a portal to Paris.
Also the Hellfire Babies have been hated for a long time. I remember wishing that amnesiac Shaw would regain his memories and then show up to one of their meetings and snap all their necks.
As the Verendi they have been aged up a bit so it's not entirely ridiculous. And they have been used better in Marauders.
Still want Shaw to snap all their necks.
In other things Cable was just okay. A couple of okay lines and Domino calling them Stryfe clones made me laugh (did we ever really resolve who the clone was?) Best part was Domino getting her Deadpool 2 moment of literally being saved by a ridiculous coincidence.
Yeah it was her Deadpool 2 moment. Her powers have never worked that good before now.
Edit - Also remember all Wanda used to do was probability manipulation. She eventually went on to Decimate the mutant population.
Edit - Also remember all Wanda used to do was probability manipulation. She eventually went on to Decimate the mutant population.
Someone didn't read the Domino miniseries where she trained with Shang Chi. This was nothing.
Domino at full potential had a bar full of assassins kill *themselves* by doing nothing at all.
I read HoX.PoX when it came out, staggered and far apart so I don't think I enjoyed reading it back then, or I wasn't particularly moved by it.
I got the collected issues and read it start to finish this week... Amazing story, beautiful art and I was really wow'd by the ending. I would love to see this as a movie someday.
So does the continued story keep up the HoX.PoX quality?
I got the collected issues and read it start to finish this week... Amazing story, beautiful art and I was really wow'd by the ending. I would love to see this as a movie someday.
So does the continued story keep up the HoX.PoX quality?
Yes and no.
That's not to say that it's not excellent, but House and Powers are dense as shit and the repercussions are spread out across a bunch of different titles, so you'll get a wavering line that drops and peaks over and over. Thong outright sucks though, which is good.
Except for Fallen Angels, don't read that. First issue starts out promising, but the writer got a job in Hollywood and you can tell he phoned the rest of that shit in to bail out of his obligations. Read a wiki entry on that shit and move on.