History ComicBook / XOfSwords

* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Issue 14 of Marauders has Logan deciding to get drunk at Saturnyne's party in anticipation of the fighting to come after. He gets drunk enough to act like a jerkass to his friends, wrongfully accusing Brian, a married man, of causing the fight children might die in because he wouldn't have sex with Saturnyne, even though the prophecy was already underway by then (and all sleeping with her would have gotten is him personally being spared). The issue ends with him [[spoiler:seemingly stabbing Saturnyne in a rage, though this was later revealed to be a hallucination]]. This ruins any chance of Brian managing to talk Saturnyne into disqualifying Arakko for War attempting to poison Logan.
* AlienInvasion: One last agent on the S.W.O.R.D station informs Jean Grey why the station was abandoned before he sends himself out of the airlock. Inside the station is a door to another universe, where the alien Vescora come from. The Vescora are not bound by physical law, capable of surviving any environment. They cleanse, analyze and harvest the detritus of the planets and realities they invade additionally infecting victims to produce more Vescora. These traits also make them perfect servants for Saturnyne at the end of the event.

* AllJustADream: Issue 14 of ''Marauders'' ends with Logan trying to stab Saturnyne. Issue 15 begins with the demons of Arraki storming through to Earth, laying waste to all in their path, and Logan finally getting put out of his misery. ... except it's all a psychic vision Sat put in Logan's head, to show what would happen if he actually ''was'' stupid enough to stab her.

* AllForNothing: The Hellions, after many off-screen adventures, find that the tournament has already begun and their mission was completely useless. [[spoiler:This was by design, Sinister needed a pretext to harvest Arakkan mutant genes.]]
* AnimalSuperheroes: [[spoiler:Two members of the reborn Captain Britain Corps that we see are clearly a frog and a swan. There are also two other birds, which may be an owl and a dove.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:The contest ends in victory for the X-Men, Arakko is reunited with Krakoa and the Captain Britain Corps, MIA since the lead up to ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', are back, but Apocalypse has been chosen to be sent to Amenth as part of the agreement that sent Arakko back to Earth, Rockslide and Gorgon are KilledOffForReal and Betsy Braddock is currently MIA. Apocalypse also suggests that Cyclops' decision to ignore the Quiet Council and invade Otherworld is the first crack in Krakoa's foundation with the Quiet Council.]]

** Apocalypse further states that she is actually the ''strongest mutant of Okkara'', a nation, which he had revealed to the rest of the Quiet Council itself, had consisted of ''scores of god-like mutants''.

* ExtinctInTheFuture: Played with. An item on Saturnyne's menu is assorted raw seafood from Dryador, where each bite is the last of its kind.

* FallenHero: The White Sword and the One Hundred Champions had grown embittered by the daily cycle of slaughter and resurrection for thousands of years. Never being rescued by their fellow mutants, they came to see the Arrako mutants as no better than the demons and they attacked the crusading force of Genesis when they made it to his bastion.

* ScrewThisImOutOfHere: The White Sword only agreed to help the Horsemen during the Sword trials. When it comes to Annihilation declaring total war on Krakoa and eventually the rest of Earth, he up and leaves to return to his citadel.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Nobody mourns the large numbers of demons that the White Sword's forces had crucified.

** And then, even with the Corps on their side, the battle seems lost, Cyclops and Marvel Girl send the S.W.O.R.D station (this was the missing 10th sword of Krakoa) into Otherworld and unleash a mighty strikeforce of mutants - both (relatively) weak and strong (including ComicBook/{{Gwenpool}}) that saves the day.

[[caption-width-right:350:Draw your sword.[[note]]Clockwise from top: ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}, [[ComicBook/CaptainBritain Captain Avalon]], [[ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} Captain Britain]], ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, ComicBook/{{Magik}}, ComicBook/{{Storm}}, and [[ComicBook/{{Cable}} Kid Cable]]. Not pictured: Gorgon.[[/note]]]]

* DoesNotLikeShoes: As part of her change to a MsFanservice, Roma always goes barefoot and her robe shows that she's bare from the upper thigh down.

** Subverted. [[spoiler:After serving their roles as {{MacGuffins}} to start the plot for the first half of the crossover, they are mostly forgotten once the setting switches to Otherworld in the second half of the crossover.]]

* DoesNotLikeShoes: As part of her change to a MsFanservice, Roma always goes barefoot and her robe shows that she's bare from [[ShesGotLegs the upper thigh down]].

* BalefulPolymorph: Saturnyne transforms the Golden Helm of Amenth into a staff/spear for its owner to bear. This greatly weakens the ability for Annihilation to take over its host, as the helm provided direct access to the wearer's mind.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Roma, daughter of Merlyn and current ruler of the Fair Kingdom of the Fae, has now devoted herself to gentle hedonism and got the requisite FanservicePack upgrade. She's also dropped the PointyEars and goofy topknot ponytail of the 1990s for something more human and a lot classier - going from a poorly drawn elf to an art nouveau covergirl a la Alphonse Mucha. As well she ditched the mystical armour for a robe with an opening that plunges past her navel.

Now, Apocalypse found a way to open a new portal and rescue the mutants of Arrako...but it turns out that they don't want to be rescued. Over a thousand years of living in Amenth has turned his first Horsemen against him and together with the leader of Amenth, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Annihilation]], they plan to invade Krakoa and Earth. But first they must cross Otherworld -- and before they can do that, the leader of Otherworld, Opal Luna Saturnyne, insists that a [[TournamentArc tournament]] be fought between Krakoa and Akkara. A tournament of [[CoolSword swords]]. ''Ten'' swords for each of Krakoa and Arrako's champions.

'''''X-Men: X of Swords''''' [[note]](pronounced ''Ten of Swords'')[[/note]] is a 2020 BatFamilyCrossover published by Creator/MarvelComics, devised by Creator/JonathanHickman & Creator/TiniHoward and running throughout the entire ComicBook/DawnOfX line of ComicBook/XMen titles: ''[[ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen X-Men]]'', ''ComicBook/{{Marauders}}'', ''[[ComicBook/XForce2019 X-Force]]'', ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur|2019}}'', ''ComicBook/{{New Mutants|2019}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Hellions}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Cable|2020}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Wolverine|2020}}'', and ''[[ComicBook/XFactor2020 X-Factor]]''.

* SummonMagic: In the last battle, all sides make heavy use of it. Amenth have their summoner schools portal in [[EldritchAbomination the darkest]] [[{{Kaiju}}elements of Amenth]], Saturnyne summons a new Captain Britain Corps that's based on Betsy and finally Illyana and Cable join forces to summon the alien Vescora into the fray.

* WhatWereYouThinking: Magneto and Xavier chew an injured Apocalypse for his hubris and the danger he brought to Krakoa.

--->'''Saturnyne''': (narrating) The tenth sword would descend from heaven, only to return at the dawn of a new age

** When Saturnyne is making her declaration, we are shown the [[spoiler:S.W.O.R.D. Space Station]] just as she says "Raise. Your. Sword." In the last issue[[spoiler:it proves decisive in the fight.]]

* AmbiguousAllegiance: The White Sword of the Celestial Spire is one of the Swordbearers of Arakko -- but he makes it clear, even from the start, that he's fulfilling an obligation, not following a cause he believes in. His actions during the contest serve to destroy Arakko's massive lead (and after the first of his champions fell, he couldn't claim to not know it would be judged in this way), and once the contest is over he takes his army and leaves rather than fight the Krakoans.

-->'''Monet:''' So we, what, pick our champions, find the blades...and then what happens?
-->'''Opal Luna Saturnyne:''' Then the contest begins.
-->'''Monet:''' Care to be more specific?
-->'''Opal Luna Saturnyne:''' It's exactly what you think, mutant. You step into the arena, knowing the full measure of what you're fighting for... You face your enemy, who wants nothing less than your total annihilation...you look them in the eye, steady yourself... And then... ''And then...'' You raise. ''Your.'' '''''SWORD.'''''
--> -- ''X of Swords: Creation'' #1

** To add insult to injury, Solem was even rumored to be Bracken’s extra-marital lover who seduced Bracken into cheating on his wife War.
* BrutalHonesty: Illyana, like Warlock and Krakoa, is worried about Doug entering the tournament due to him usually being a NonActionGuy. Even as she trains him she bluntly tells him that if he enters that battlefield, it’ll be the last thing he ever does.
* CameBackWrong: ''X-Factor'' #4 adds a massive wrinkle to the resurrection process: [[spoiler:a Mutant who dies in Otherworld is effectively “erased” from existence and replaced with an amalgam of other variations from the multiverse, effectively killing the original.]]

* DidntSeeThatComing: Even though she's the who one who prophesied the whole thing Saturnyne is still taken by surprise when Betsy and Brian work together to seize both the Sword of Might and the Starlight Sword from her. According to Betsy this is because she intended to drive them apart, while underestimating their love and loyalty to each other. She’s equally taken aback when [[spoiler:Betsy hijacks ''another'' scheme and resurrects the Captain Britain Corps with Betsy's identity rather than Brian's.]] Saturnyne is then impressed at Apocalypse's choice of Arrako (and its millions of imprisoned mutants) for the peace exchange, she mentioned she hadn't anticipated that.

** It’s an in-joke for long-time hardcore Marvel comic fans, as Gorgon, during his time as a villain, was shown to have the sexual fetish of petrophilia I.e. turning women to whom he was sexually attracted (mostly his subordinates in HYDRA) into literal statues using his mutant power. This was in the Secret Warriors series by current head X-writer Jonathan Hickman.

* FamousLastWords: Invoked by Wolverine when he kills [[spoiler:Saturnyne]], who just told him that everything dies. [[spoiler:Turns out to be a hallucination, but still.]]

* MiniMecha: [[spoiler:Magik figures out Pogg Ur-Pogg's secret. The giant armoured crocodile is essentially the "sword", not that large khopesh-like blade he swings around. The real Pogg Ur-Pogg, a green-skinned elderly obese midget, is inside the giant croc and pilots it, with Magik referring to it as "alligator pajamas".]]