Warning! Spoilers ahead for S.W.O.R.D #1 from Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti
S.W.O.R.D is back in Marvel Comics, and this time it looks like it’s here to stay. Being the space defense answer for SHIELD, this new version is also going to exist as the space program for the mutant nation of Krakoa. However, commander Abigail Brand is determined to make sure things are done right. She has no interest in seeing the same mistakes that happened with the first version of SWORD, or even her last job with Alpha Flight which she recently quit. Despite having teamed up with the X-Men to run her new program, Brand has plans that extend beyond the goals of the mutant island nation as well.
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The issue begins with the arrival of Magneto to SWORD’s space station in orbit above the Earth. Being a member of Krakoa’s Quiet Council, he’s come to inspect and assess the newly rebuilt station that was liberated and reactivated during the recent X of Swords event. Known as the Peak, the new station has been outfitted with the latest Krakoan organic technology, and several of the X-Men and mutants from Krakoa are helping Commander Brand run the program in as smooth a fashion as possible.
Magneto couldn’t be happier with the progress SWORD has made, seeing the program as the future and next step for Krakoa. His words do seem to indicate a hope within Magneto that SWORD might one day be able to locate and help initiate the foundations of a mutant homeworld all their own that would be apart from Earth. However, Brand makes her perspective quite clear to the Master of Magnetism: while SWORD may work with Krakoa, it does not work for Krakoa. One of the biggest problems the first SWORD and Alpha Flight had were that the interests of Earthly nations compromised their missions. As such, she can’t afford to serve merely one mutant nation. She has to think about the entire planet of Earth and its position in the greater galaxy in order for the program to be truly effective.
However, Magneto does press the issue some more, countering that most of her staff and leadership are mutants of Krakoa and members of the X-Men, and the agreement made was for SWORD to serve as Krakoa’s space program all the same. While that may be the case, Brand doesn’t truly sell Magneto on her intentions and mindset until she introduces him to the Six. Similar to the Five on Krakoa (a group of mutants tasked with the island’s mutant resurrection protocols), the Six are tasked with teleportation and retrieval missions, led by the mutant Manifold.
Brand sends the Six to travel and bend all of time and space. Upon their return, they’re all dazed though still successful. While the reasoning and where they went is pretty unclear, Brand apparently sent the Six on a mission to obtain an object, which appears to be some sort of large metallic black diamond. Magneto himself is in shock with whatever it is that Brand and her team has recovered. He even concedes that while SWORD may be the space program of Krakoa and the X-Men, the object in her hand and what she’ll build with it goes beyond anything he’s ever dreamed. According to Brand herself, “This is what comes next.” While this certainly kicks off a big mystery with the emergence of this new SWORD, fans won’t have to wait long to learn more details when S.W.O.R.D #2 comes to comic book store shelves January 13th.
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