Genesis fills Apocalypse in on what happened since the sundering of Okkara in X-Men #14, by writer Jonathan Hickman, artists Mahmud Asrar and Leinil Yu, colorist Sunny Gho, and letterer Clayton Cowles. Part twelve of X Of Swords, this issue serves as more back story for the forces of Arakko and… well, if you like X Of Swords, it's good. If you don't, it's just more wheel spinning.

Genesis and Apocalypse meet up in the Starlight Citadel, and Genesis tells Apocalypse about the years she spent in Otherworld- battling the hordes of Amenth, building a mutant nation, and the wars fought. Her sister Isca, fighting for Amenth now, came to her to parlay and brought her to the Golden Helm of Amenth, and Genesis got to see what Amenth was doing- creating a hybrid race of demon and mutant. Genesis decides to fight the bearer of the Golden Crown and triumphs but learns a terrible secret- whoever defeats the Golden Helm must wear it. She fought it for a hundred years, but in the end, she took it up and conquered Arrako, adding its strength to Amenth. She had hoped that Apocalypse would have raised a strong mutant army to stop her but to no avail. Now, they find themselves on opposite sides of the battle, and only the strongest will survive.

This chapter of the story gives readers the backstory of why Genesis is leading the bad guys but, to be honest, it kind of feels like filler. It's pretty cliche- she thought that she could use strength to win the battle, but her strength damned her. There's really not much more to say about the entire comic. Hickman does a beautiful job, of course, but that's because it's Hickman and these types of stories are his bread and butter- laying out massive battle scenes, explaining what's happening, et cetera.

However, this comic suffers from what so much of this story has- it just feels kind of superfluous. X Of Swords is backstory, build-up, and filler so far, and while one can argue that set-up is essential, is this much set-up really worth it? That depends on the reader's opinion of the story, but the problem is so much of the set-up has been predictable. This comic is well done- it's hard for something that Hickman writes to be actually bad, but it doesn't really scream out that it needs to be told. If the reader hadn't guessed that this is what happened, then it's fine, but this whole issue could have been used for other things as well; this isn't an entire issue story. It depends heavily on the reader's investment in the story and how much they care about Apocalypse and his wife. How good it is doesn't matter at this point- it just matters if the reader likes X Of Swords.

That said, the artwork by Asrar and Yu is top-notch as always. Even if one isn't extremely invested in X Of Swords, this is a great looking comic, and it helps the pill go down. The only problem with it is that it kind of feels like snapshots- there's no fluidity to it. It's like reading a history book with pictures. That's probably partly the point, but it would have been nice if it was a little more dynamic.

X-Men #14 is a well done comic, but one's enjoyment of it entirely hinges on whether X Of Swords is working for them. It's all very predictable, but it does do an excellent job of getting across the kind of person Genesis is- she may actually be more hardcore than Apocalypse. The art is great if a little static. However, it's just more set-up for a crossover that already feels like it's gone on too long.

Grade: C+