A brief portrait of another time, and a tarot reading from the Omniversal Majestrix. A hint of ten swords by Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, Clayton Cowles and Tom Muller. And then, a dark age looms by Tom Taylor, Iban Coello, Brian Reber, Joe Sabino and Carlos Lao.
Chris Eddleman: Well Rob, there was a time when we didn’t write about X-Men for almost two months and I made a big deal about how it felt like forever. I’m kicking myself pretty hard for that one, since it’s been about 4 months now, and our only respite is this FCBD issue. However, it hints at X of Swords [Ed note: “Ten of Swords”, like the tarot card], so I’m excited to dig in.
Robert Secundus: SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS!
Fish Magic
RS: This is a weird opening! Especially a weird opening to a comic that was intended to be given out for free in order to get new readers to try and jump into X-Men comics before a global pandemic radically altered our lives and shook the Direct Market so heavily that the cracks it left behind may ultimately doom the industry, or at least the industry as it exists in its current form! There’s a Minotaur, and a Fish Wizard. They summon… something? Something writhing? Chris, do you know what that thing is or what’s going on here?
CE: So we get the introduction that this is another time, another place (calm down Rent fans). These four seem to be summoners, like the pale child from way back in X-Men #2, released approximately four centuries ago. This took me a couple of reads to figure out, but they’re summoning a being from within a star, which dies as a result. Now this being looks to be KRAKOA, or perhaps it’s predecessor Okkara, or just something related. That one might be wild speculation but, that’s kind of the point in this issue so let’s have fun. The font that the woody being uses to talk looks like the Krakoa talking font from back in House of X/Powers of X and that would explain why there’s summoners on the other island I guess. Now they perform this whole wild ritual to appease Saturnyne and power her seeing glass, which should perk the interest of Excalibur fans. [Ed note: If you’ve not been reading Excalibur to know what Her Whyness is up to, check this out]
RS: So… Krakoa might not be a mutant island, and might not be a mutated island that Nick Fury found after an atomic bomb gave it sentience, but might instead be a bootlace-worm like starborn being? A Star-Child? We’ve seen those before in Hickman comics (specifically, in his S.H.I.E.L.D.). And Saturnyne is involved in the summoning of Krakoa? What •┤Ȧ├• wants from Saturnyne, or how she is involved in his centuries-long plot, is one of the major mysteries of Excalibur. It feels like we should be able to figure something out from this, but I don’t have much.
CE: Yeah, it’s just a bunch of very tantalizing hints with very pretty art from Larraz and Gracia. Prior to her tarot reading, we get a portent of the coming conflict between Krakoa and Arakko, and then onto our very wild speculation (and very pretty art) in the form of the cards!
A Wicked Pack of Cards
RS: Most of this issue is devoted to a Tarot reading. Below, we’ve tried to give you as much information as we can to help you develop your own conclusions from the reading: the name of the card, who we see depicted on the paige, the traditional interpretation of the card, and the narration of Saturnyne. Chris and I have also added our own speculation.
Passages quoted from Waite’s Pictorial Key to the Tarot.
Judgement
Depicts: Apocalypse and his Pale Boy, surrounded by Kirby dots and four gigantic blue crystals, overlooking a pit.
I have said that this symbol is essentially invariable in all Tarot sets, or at least the variations do not alter its character. The great angel is here encompassed by clouds, but he blows his bannered trumpet, and the cross as usual is displayed on the banner. The dead are rising from their tombs–a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations. It should be noted that all the figures are as one in the wonder, adoration and ecstacy expressed by their attitudes. It is the card which registers the accomplishment of the great work of transformation in answer to the summons of the Supernal–which summons is heard and answered from within.
Herein is the intimation of a significance which cannot well be carried further in the present place. What is that within us which does sound a trumpet and all that is lower in our nature rises in response–almost in a moment, almost in the twinkling of an eye? Let the card continue to depict, for those who can see no further, the Last judgment and the resurrection in the natural body; but let those who have inward eyes look and discover therewith. They will understand that it has been called truly in the past a card of eternal life, and for this reason it may be compared with that which passes under the name of Temperance.
Narration: “Finality. An irrevocable change. From here, there is no going back. Surrendering to rebirth is the only path ahead.”
CE: Well, Rob I think this is referring to the eventual reunion of Krakoa and Arakko, and Apocalypse and the Pale Summoner being instruments of this change. The four pillars might represent the Horsemen, but that seems repetitive. It definitely seems like X Of Swords material.
RS: That seems to be indicated by the selection of those two figures. But I also want to call attention to the “rebirth” emphasized both in the traditional reading and in Saturnyne’s interpretation. What is being reborn out of their union? And given the traditional meaning, what are Apocalypse and Pale Kid summoning, or being summoned to do? And what’s the deal with that pit?
Four Of Wands
Depicts: The First Horsemen in combat with an unidentifiable foe.
From the four great staves planted in the foreground there is a great garland suspended; two female figures uplift nosegays; at their side is a bridge over a moat, leading to an old manorial house. Divinatory Meanings: They are for once almost on the surface–country life, haven of refuge, a species of domestic harvest-home, repose, concord, harmony, prosperity, peace, and the perfected work of these. Reversed: The meaning remains unaltered; it is prosperity, increase, felicity, beauty, embellishment.
Narration: “The labors of community– a family. Coming back together for a black ceremony. A baptism of blood.”
CE: So it’s been hinted that Apocalypse’s First Horsemen are still in the other dimension of Arrako, fighting against some demonic foes. The art definitely seems to depict that very long conflict. That definitely seems to contrast slightly with the idyllic meaning portrayed in the card’s traditional meaning but, I think we’re meant to hone in on family and community, a community forged in never-ending combat with an unbeatable foe. Prosperity and a black ceremony as a concept here makes me wonder if the Horsemen have some way to fully defeat the demonic forces.
RS: I agree– I think we can expect victory, peace and prosperity achieved as a result of their violence. The Baptism is intriguing; a “Baptism by Blood” is most traditionally used to refer to individuals who are killed for a faith they wish to practice before they are fully brought in to that faith, but it is commonly used to refer to an experience of violence and combat which changes the combatant; it can refer then either to the Horsemen or to their victims. And that blood, that ritual may be key in bringing about prosperity, and may be key in whatever summoning we can expect from the previous card.
The Hanged Man
Depicts: Death Banshee, Archangel, Polaris, Glob, Rictor, Trinary, Beast, Havok, and •┤Ȧ├•, striding forward from four pink crystalline towers.
The gallows from which he is suspended forms a Tau cross, while the figure–from the position of the legs–forms a fylfot cross. There is a nimbus about the head of the seeming martyr. It should be noted (1) that the tree of sacrifice is living wood, with leaves thereon; (2) that the face expresses deep entrancement, not suffering; (3) that the figure, as a whole, suggests life in suspension, but life and not death. It is a card of profound significance, but all the significance is veiled. One of his editors suggests that Éliphas Lévi did not know the meaning, which is unquestionable nor did the editor himself. It has been called falsely a card of martyrdom, a card of prudence, a card of the Great Work, a card of duty; but we may exhaust all published interpretations and find only vanity. I will say very simply on my own part that it expresses the relation, in one of its aspects, between the Divine and the Universe.
He who can understand that the story of his higher nature is imbedded in this symbolism will receive intimations concerning a great awakening that is possible, and will know that after the sacred Mystery of Death there is a glorious Mystery of Resurrection.
Narration: “Sacrifice? Curious. Can any of them be trusted to throw themselves on the pyre of change?”
CE: Towers again. This seems like a specific place but, not easy to tell what it means yet. The traditional meanings are awfully broad but, I’d like to focus on the Great Awakening and the Mystery of the Resurrection. The wording of the narration suggests that possibly one of these characters (or several) are going to have to be sacrificed, either for the good of others or for some higher purpose. It’s maybe more cerebral than a simple “One of these Mutants WILL DIE” but it seems as though someone will have to do so. To put it simply.
RS: But again we have the “glorious Mystery of Resurrection.” I don’t think death is the thing to worry about here (though I think you’re right that someone may die), so much as that change. And look at the characters gathered: so many have or are in the process of suffering such change. We have two horsemen of death (in their horsemen forms), Beast, who has experienced so many physical and ethical metamorphoses, Glob, who has similarly experienced a radical ethical change since his New X-Men days, Havok and Polaris, both of whom have undergone radical transformations as characters due to depictions of their mental states, and the mutant who was once known as the genocidal Apocalypse, but is now known as the great protector of Krakoa, •┤Ȧ├•.
CE: Solid points on this one, change is often seen as a death of self in some ways. Plus on Krakoa, we know death is only permanent if you’re a pirate.
Eight Of Cups
Depicts: Two ladies? One lady? One of the First Horsemen? An Art-Deco looking figure is bisected, showing a human face on the left, with a halo, armor, a wolf, a dove, and purple flowers, and a demonically masked face on the right, again armored, but armor reminiscent of Apocalypse’s Egyption armors, with a wolf’s skull and a bird’s skeleton, and black thorns.
A man of dejected aspect is deserting the cups of his felicity, enterprise, undertaking or previous concern. Divinatory Meanings: The card speaks for itself on the surface, but other readings are entirely antithetical–giving joy, mildness, timidity, honour, modesty. In practice, it is usually found that the card shews the decline of a matter, or that a matter which has been thought to be important is really of slight consequence–either for good or evil. Reversed: Great joy, happiness, feasting.
Narration: “Disillusionment. Abandonment. That which was once the harmonious lifting of voices is now a mocking echo– then silence.”
RS: This may be the toughest one, because every single detail here– the picture, the traditional meaning, and the narration– is pretty light on information that we can understand at this time. If we knew who the figure was, we might have a better time of it. Obviously duality is key in each– the split of the image, the voices and the silence. Abandonment of “previous concerns” is centered in Waite’s reading, and echoed in Saturnyne’s. I think we’re going to see a character either abandon a previous calling and become a horseman, or the reverse, we’re going to see one of the horsemen turn aside from -A-.
CE: So what’s a little speculation without getting completely wild. I think this is a depiction of Storm. I think the “harmonious lifting of voices” refers to her position as the speaker/priestess associated with the mutant resurrections. I have nothing else other than that, and of course the lack of pupils. But Storm deciding to take a new path while her character has spun her wheels a bit during Dawn of X would be pretty true to the character who once got very punk in the 80s.
RS: Hell, I feel like she’s been put in stasis the entire time I’ve been reading X-Men, maybe longer. The only arcs I feel like Storm has gotten have been: 1. Dating Wolverine for a hot minute, 2. Losing her cool hammer in X-Men: Gold, and 3. Routinely declaring that with training and therapy she’s gotten past her phobia of tight spaces before the next writer ignores that, and the following writer after that declares, again, that with training and therapy [etc]. For one of, possibly the greatest X-Men, she’s really been ill-served in modern comics. So I’d love for Storm to be key to X of Swords. Here why I’m skeptical: that hair isn’t white, right? Or, maybe it is? Is the coloring just really bad? Or the shadows are weird? But your point about voices is bouncing around my brain… I think you might be right. I think just (not so shockingly), the coloring of Storm in a modern X-Men comic might be subpar. Again.
CE: Or, I’m just very wrong! Gracia’s coloring is usually pretty great.
X Of Swords
Depicts: Cable, Apocalypse, Wolverine, Magik, and Captain Britain, all wielding Cool Swords, with their backs to silhouetted figures (possibly Gorgon, Storm, Cypher, Magneto, and Brian Braddock) who are also holding swords.
A prostrate figure, pierced by all the swords belonging to the card. Divinatory Meanings: Whatsoever is intimated by the design; also pain, affliction, tears, sadness, desolation. It is not especially a card of violent death. Reversed: Advantage, profit, success, favour, but none of these are permanent; also power and authority
Narration: “Betrayal. Betrayed. By those you would show your back. A loss, but an unexpected one. One always expects a sunset hours after the dawn.”
RS: THE MAIN EVENT! THE CARD WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR! THE ONE WITH: SWORDS.
CE: The poster style card of the set, this seems to allude to a lot of misfortune, which seems expected from a Marvel event comic. I think the meaning to latch onto is “not especially a card of violent death” which maybe means we’ll just have other big sadnesses instead. Makes sense with the way death is portrayed.
RS: We’ve been dreading misfortune and betrayal since the name of the event was announced, and Saturnyne confirms our worst fears. I think you’re right that we’re going to face a loss, not a (permanent) death. I also think Saturnyne’s specification– that the betrayal is by one “you would show your back” helps us narrow things down. It doesn’t help us discern who the traitor is, but rather, given that image, who it isn’t. It is one of the shadow figures behind the backs of the characters in foreground– those depicted are safe. Which is especially interesting, as those characters in the foreground are all characters we might expect to “betray” Krakoa in some sense. •┤Ȧ├• and Captain Britain both seem to have divided loyalties (the former to his people on Arrako, the latter to Britain and Otherworld). Magik and Wolverine both have natures which have previously been turned against their comrades by outside forces. Kid Cable entered this universe murdering a beloved character, and I think most readers still don’t fully trust his motivations. But if we’re to believe Saturnyne, these are the individuals who will be betrayed.
Dark Ages
RS: Oh, there’s another story in this one? With people who are not X-Men? Ok, I’ll bite. Chris, what did you think of DARK AGES?
CE: So you and I just spent about an hour or so talking about the speculation we had for X of Swords generated by a short story and some rad looking tarot cards. Dark Ages was Tony Stark’s armor failing and him falling for several pages. It’s looking like Dark Ages is going to be a Dies the Fire riff on the Marvel Universe, which I have to admit does not particularly wow me. Tom Taylor is now kind of the king of the dark AU, and this seems like another one of those. The nature of these FCBD issues is hype generation, and I can’t say I’m hyped for “Marvel but without cool science fiction stuff.” We got the Kulan Gath Saga, which was kind of this idea but barbarians!
RS: I like the Kulan Gath Saga! I hear other people like Tom Taylor Comics Where Superheroes Deal With Ultraviolence In Their Dark AU! [Ed. note: As we all know, X-Men fans don’t read other comics so I’m just gonna go out and tell you that this is a reference to Taylor’s Injustice: Gods Among Us and DCeased]
I do wish there was more here to talk about then NYC having a black out, Tony Stark falling down, and stubbing his toe real bad. Really gorily bad. If Captain America is going to be some kind of Conan wandering across a dark Earth, I’ll probably read it? I guess? One thing is really getting me though — I’m really struggling to buy into the idea of this as a Dark AU in any way other than the literal darkness we see on panel. Any Earth without Twitter — that’s a utopian AU, man.
CE: I think in 2020, I just want nice things. A personal problem, I suppose. This issue did increase my X of Swords hype, which was already at pretty high levels. I’m excited for what Howard and Hickman have for us coming up.
RS: I just want to be distracted from the unmedicated anxiety in my brain and the dystopian, reprobate world sprinting into horror outside it. I just want to sleep through the night without any more screams. Both of these comics can accomplish the former! Probably! That’s good. Sorry, sorry, got dark. Um. Swords?
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Krakoan reads X of Swords, July. *weeps*
- Love my good dude Quaddeus Quo
- SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS
- Imagine a kid grabbing this book and seeing their hero Tony Stark bloodily lose a foot.
- We can only hope that the kid would stop reading after around the third page of narration that makes absolutely no sense without knowledge of an entire line of comics with tight inter-story continuity and makes the most sense with working knowledge of divination.
- I think this issue confirms that FCBD for Marvel is, like most of their marketing, not concerned with finding new audiences.
- SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS SWORDS
Robert Secundus is an amateur-angelologist-for-hire.
Chris Eddleman is a biologist and co-host of Chrises On Infinite Earths.
