X-Lapsed, Episode 194 – S.W.O.R.D. #5 (2021)
X-Lapsed, Episode One Hundred Ninety-Four
S.W.O.R.D. (vol.2) #5 (June, 2021)
“Giallo”
Writer – Al Ewing
Art – Valerio Schiti
Colors – Marte Gracia
Letters – VC’s Ariana Maher
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: April 21, 2021
S.W.O.R.D. has done the impossible… made me feel sympathy for Fabian friggin’ Cortez! Today’s episode features a Quiet Council pile-on on the poor former Acolyte… who is given the floor to make a plea, but is not even given a pair of boxers post bursting outta his goldball!
There’s also some Snarkwar stuff… but ain’t nobody got time for that!
Plus: Great Mailbag and chatting a bit about the INFERNO announcement!
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Twitter: @acecomics / Instagram: @90sxmen
This was my favourite issue of SWORD to date. Some of that comes down to my having a much higher tolerance for Snark Wars from way back. It's weird that my bouncing around the episodes mean that I'm going straight from Power Pack to Snarks. I'm sure this wasn't written in order to fuel Power Pack nostalgia but it did that for me.
Clearly the key element of this story was the Fabian Cortez "trial". It was definitely a set-up by Magneto. I guess he never got over X-Men 1-3. The element that stood out to me was the class issue. Fabian is shown as full of aristocratic privilege and is ultimately seen-through by Peeper who is clearly working class and has never had privilege. It's interesting to see class as a distinction within the Quiet Council, they are the high-class of Krakoa but they are from different classes in human society. I felt like Cortez's true crime was trying to keep a human privilege instead of accepting it was a new society. As you know I'm reading certain books in real time and others on Unlimited so I have already seen Cortez's appearances in Way of X. Reading this scene as about class privilege really adds texture to what is coming up. Maybe I'm seeing it because of reading out of order but it seems to be in the mix.
Anyway I feel like maybe we should start a campaign for Peeper to take up one of the open seats on the Quiet Council. He would be great at it.