X-Factor #4

X-Men: X of Swords #2

by Leah Williams, Carlos Gómez (Illustrator), Ivan Shavrin (Cover)

THE BEST DEFENSE - TARGET: ALL ENEMIES OF MUTANTKIND! First, the new team strikes back against the humans who took one of their own. Then, with its orders established, the new X-Force hits the ground running, taking on deadly threats targeting mutantkind’s rightful place in the world -

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Comic Book, Superheroes

41 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 30, 2020

About the author

Leah Williams is an American writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi. She has written comics for Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and is working on more. Her debut novel was a YA Fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen and she is currently writing its sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen. Leah has nonfiction articles and essays published in The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, and Salon.

Reviews

[Tom Wilson]

X Of Swords Part 2

Definately slower than part one, but happy it was a complete continuation of the story rather than a X-Factor tie-in. Really looking forward to this event.

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant]

This book broke my heart, seriously, I don't think I ever felt this anxious reading a Marvel book before, I take my hat off to Leah Williams.

ROCKSLIDE! MY DUDE! BRING HIM BACK! NOW!
Rockslide has always been the mutant I wanted to see making it to the big leagues, kinda sucks to see him die like this, with a chance of never coming back, but let's wait and see, maybe he will come back with a new power set.

Bare in mind, this issue has nothing to do with the ongoing X-Factor series, and is not collected in those trades, this is strictly for the X of Swords storyline.

[Tanabrus]

Il secondo capitolo di X of Swords è ottimo: continua la storia senza interruzioni, quasi una seconda parte del primo capitolo, e al tempo stesso ci dà risposte, alza ulteriormente l'asticella e offre alcune prospettive interessanti.

Le risposte riguardano chiaramente il torneo, le spade e i partecipanti, che ormai dovrebbero essere stati individuati e che devono solo recuperare le armi.
L'asticella è alzata grazie al sacrificio di Rockslide, ed è qualcosa di davvero imprevisto. Morte definitiva, e al tempo stesso possibilità di tirare dentro nuovi personaggi con corpi vecchi, nuove versioni "alternative" di personaggi che moriranno in questa saga. In attesa di conoscere il nuovo Rockslide, viene da pensare se qualcuno dei Dieci sia magari giudicato ormai pronto per una sorta di reboot, venendo sostituito da una versione alternativa. Un Braddock, magari? Apocalisse?

E infine, le scene interessanti.
Toccante il viaggio nel subconscio di Lorna, il suo desiderio di venire approvata dal padre e al tempo stesso il desiderio nichilista di non esistere.
Ma anche il duro confronto di Charles e Erik con Apocalisse moribondo, o quanto accaduto al momento della resurrezione di Santo (e si rivede Moira, per la prima volta dopo più di un anno!)

Che risuonino i tamburi di guerra!

[heidi]

Less wordy and less dense than Creation #1 but a good continuation of the X of Swords event nevertheless. I wondered how X-Factor's plot from Mojoverse was gonna mesh with the storyline, but apparently Marvel has decided not to bother with continuity.

- The Krakoans can't have everything too easy, can they? This new development regarding resurrecting someone who died in Otherworld is giving the upcoming tournament the edge it needed for fans to take the danger seriously. I'm nervous now.

- Oh no. So Doug / Cypher is going to be one of the champions? Doug!?? To quote Monet, “the Bambi of mutants”?? I'm going to pray so hard that he'll survive the tournament 😬

- More pages with Lorna! Good.

- Interesting to observe the parenting dynamic of Charles and Erik with Lorna. Of course Erik is the bad cop dad and Charles is the nurturing mom. However, Dadneto seriously needs to lay off. I want to see Lorna become her own person and stop wanting to please Magneto so much.

[James DeSantis]

Part 2 is a home run for the Sword event in X-Men's big event.

With the return of the Mutants who went with Apocalypse we are rushed to save them before they die. But what happens when they die in the other world and brought back? Do they come back normal? On top of that we have our first champion step up to the plate for the tournament that is coming.

This is badass as fuck tbh. A 5 out of 5.

[Tym]

Interesting setup I’m just hoping it will live up to expectations

[Cid]

this rating is just for Magik

[Brian Garthoff]

Xfactor 4 is an issue of Xfactor in name only. It’s an early X of Swords entry and it uses Polaris a lot but that’s about the extent of it. Williams writing leaves something to be desired, but there are at least some interesting pieces in play now. I have a lot of nitpicks with this one, but I’m mostly glad to get it out of the way and see what transpires over the course of the event with the other creative teams behind the wheel.

[Ian Sharman]

Okay, once again I find myself reviewing a comic by someone I've previously worked with, having inked Carlos Gomez on several occasions...but only on covers, so I wasn't too familiar with his sequential work, which is great here.

As it says on the cover, this is X Of Swords part 2 (of 22) and, as such, it's very much not a continuation of the current X-Factor run. The only nod to this being an issue of X-Factor is that Polaris is central to the plot. But, I'm not even mad about that, because this is good, and makes a refreshing change to crossover tie-in issues that are only tangentially related to the crossover they're tying in to.

This issue also resolves a very important plot point from X Of Swords, namely: How are there any stakes to a tournament in which people fight each other to the death when they can just be resurrected? The answer is...well...a spoiler...but suffice it to say that the stakes are significantly raised.

It also suggests that X Of Swords might have some significant and lasting consequences for some of the characters involved. Which is equal parts exciting and terrifying.

But what's certain is that I'm hooked!

[Scratch]

This issue of X-Factor makes no bones about the fact it is just part of the X of Swords event. It does not pick up where the previous X-Factor storyline left off in the Mojoverse. I give it props that it at least tries to give the Peter David cast of X-Factor more screen time. This issue began with Theresa talking for the first time in months, if not years. We also heard from Monet, Rictor, and Polaris. I feel like if Multiple Man, Strong Guy, and Wolfsbane were actually around, we might have heard from them too.

Why is Saturnyne spontaneously capable of doing all these things? So far in this X of Swords event we have seen her freeze time, and now we are seeing her not just leave a telepathic message in Polaris' mind, but also set up an automated telepathic trap that fought Monet and Rachel when they tried to take a peek in Polaris' brain.

How? Saturnyne is powerless. She has this big important role as the omniversal majestrix, but she personally is powerless. I agree that that has always seemed weird and lame, but that's just the way it has been.

Ever since Dawn of X we have been seeing way more text pages in our X titles. This issue had a bunch, and it was a text page alone that addressed Merlin and Roma, now separate from Saturnyne, apparently ruling other domains. Nice info to have, I guess, though probably baffling to new fans who have no idea who these people are. Roma used to make sporadic appearances in the 90s, but I don't think she has been seen since the Spider-verse event where she talked to the Captain Britain Spider-man. (Also, I have difficulty connecting Roma with this idea of hedonism that is described here.)

And, like, a lot of attention was paid to Santos?

Three stars is being a little generous, honestly. More of a 2.5.

[Emily]

Nooooooo! Like couldn't they have picked someone else? I knew that they'd come up with a way to make death permanent but 😢 I was super into the idea of this energy being thing. Ok so...Warlock wasn't a secret? When did that happen?

[Caleb Dean]

This has become one of the best crossover in history. Polaris is featured very prominently in this issue and I loved that. I love everything about this book so you must read it.

[David]

This was pretty good but daaaaaaaamn did it take some mental gymnastics to remove the resurrection protocol out of the story.

I can only assume the condemnation of Apocalypse is because he did what he did without council approval, which I don't particularly understand because seemingly anyone can plant a gate anywhere anytime... So that being the case they are blaming him after the event, if that's the case just get better at stoping people planting gates.

Interesting seeing more about the five and the resurrection protocols and moved the story on nicely.

[Kori Watson]

Might give in a better review if I ever read enough surrounding context to understand what’s going on and if it’s good in context, all I know is I wanted to read X-Factor and I got an event book that gave me a headache.

Still gave it a 2 star because the art is really good and it probably works better in context but even then it’d probably be no more than a 3 star because there were too many in world documents for my liking.

[The Wintermute System]

So, this is an X of Swords crossover and this series just gets... worse as a crossover. Rather than be just mediocre, it had to do so and crossover with an event I'm not that into - from everything I've read so far - and it made no real sense and felt purposeless, so I hated this issue more than most of this series. I hope the next issue isn't an event, and I see why this lasted only ten issues...

[Norrin Shearer]

Good stuff. X of Swords is fascinating. This issue sets up really high stakes by demonstrating what happens when the mutants die in Otherworld. RIP Santo. I also guessed most of the prophecy's champions, or at least had the same thoughts that Cypher did which made me feel smart. Good stuff here!

[John]

Chapter 2

[Roman Colombo]

Read my review and recap at Comic Years.

[Benjo]

Ang ganda talaga sa mga ganitong crossovers, pa may reason na mag shift ng perspective while maintaining the story. One great thing about the comic medium.

[Hal Incandenza]

Numero al momento cruciale perché si modifica non di poco quello che è l’attuale status quo dei mutanti krakoani.
Ben scritto e ottimamente disegnato.

[Rob S.]

Was good to get away from the too-cuteness of the regular X-FACTOR run. Still a little heavy of exposition, but a solid entry in the X OF SWORDS X-over. 😉

[Mana]

Damn. Coming out swinging. Real death champions and swords. This is going to get worse for Krakoa before it gets better. Love the way this is going. Really want to devour the event in one sitting.

[Lenore]

yess

[Jen]

I read Voyeur by Leah Williams issue #1 but it isn’t on Goodreads yet so I am rating this to count towards my book goal lol.