S.W.O.R.D. #5
Cortez has his day in front of the Quiet Council in S.W.O.R.D. #5, by writer Al Ewing, artist Valerio Schiti, colorist Marte Gracia, and letterer Ariana Maher. Besides the Council action, there’s also the issue of the Snarkwar and the first seeds of something from X Of Swords actually mattering.
In space, one of the heirs to the Zn’rx throne, Wezel, asks for protection from the Utopian Kree but is killed while making the call. On Earth, Fabian Cortez is resurrected and brought, naked and dripping, to the Quiet Council to make his case, and he chooses to discuss the second law of Krakoa- that mutants should kill humans. In space, two more heirs to the Zn’rx throne, Khondor, and Lyga, meet to discuss Wezel and the other heirs’ deaths, with Khondor admitting it was admitting he was behind some of them and preparing to kill Lyga. Back on Earth, Cortez talks about why he doesn’t think that killing humans is wrong- since they aren’t immortal, as mutants now are, they’re basically already dead. In space, a knife is thrown and kills Khondor. Standing there is S.W.O.R.D. member Amelia Voight and someone else. Back on Earth, Peeper shuts down Cortez by asking him about his mutant name. Cortez goes into a long spiel about keeping his given name and using it to illustrate his grievances against humanity, which Magneto reminds him are paltry in comparison to Magneto’s own. Amelia shows up in the Council chamber with a mutant from Arakko- Khora of the Burning Heart, who has the same powers as Cortez but none of the murderous ambition. It’s announced that she’s replacing him in S.W.O.R.D., and everyone leaves the Council chamber with Cortez aghast.
Ewing does a great job of pacing with this issue. This issue is light on action, yet the rapid cuts between everything serve to give each scene a narrative momentum they otherwise wouldn’t have if Ewing stayed in any one scene too long. It especially helps because Cortez’s little diatribe is just as insufferable as he is, and having to read about him for too long would be a bit of a chore. That said, the best part of the whole thing is getting to the end of it and seeing how well everything was stacked against Cortez from the beginning. Ewing was positioning the issue to go one way the whole time- completely against Cortez. It started with his resurrection- usually, Xavier handles the resurrections, but this time it’s Jean Grey, which is a bit of a downgrade, and she snarks him the whole time.
From there, he’s placed in front of the Council naked, a position that no one wants to be in, and Magneto brings in Peeper, a move made specifically to irk Cortez. It only gets worse from there, as it’s almost certain that most of the Council knew about Khora- the info pages from previous issues represented reports from Abigail Brand about how she wanted to replace Cortez and had a list of those who had similar powers. The whole thing was a set-up, and it was masterfully choreographed by Ewing from the beginning of the issue. It also sets up Cortez to be an antagonist from within Krakoa- he’s smart enough to figure out that he was played and will react accordingly at some point.
Schiti’s art is again stellar. Khora of the Burning Heart looks amazing, and it’s nice to finally see a mutant from Arakko in one of the books. The Snarkwar pages are pretty great as well- Ewing loves writing sci-fi stuff like this, and Schiti is great at drawing it. He also perfectly captures Cortez’s shock at the end of the issue in the whole affair.
S.W.O.R.D. #5 deals with the disruptive element that is Fabian Cortez but also sets him up as someone to watch in the future. Ewing scratches his sci-fi itch in this issue and also finally does something interesting with Arakko, which was completely unexpected. Schiti art is a great compliment to his script. S.W.O.R.D. remains one of the most impressive X-Men books.
