X-Men: X of Swords Artist Teases the First Major Dawn of X Crossover

X of Swords, the first major X-Men crossover of the Dawn of X era, is nearly upon us. It is fitting then that Pepe Larraz, who helped kick off this new era as the artist of House of X, is drawing the opening issue of the event, X of Swords: Creation #1. Speaking to GamesRadar, Larraz teased that this is a tale that is millennia in the making. “It’s a story that commenced thousands of years ago, which still resonates and will have consequences now and in the future,” he says. “I can’t really tell anything else because everything is a spoiler!”

Larraz is also drawing the X of Swords: Stasis one-shot and designed the X-Men’s newest enemies, the Swordbearers of Arakko. He spoke a bit about what went into the designs for the event.

“Ah, If only it was just the Swordbearers!” Larraz says. “These pages have a lots of designs, new places, new characters… It was fascinating to help Tini and Jonathan give shape to all that.

“The Swordbearers have to inspire fear and threat at first sight. But also tell a story of ancient times and savage lands. I had to put all that in the designs. I wanted something alien, antique but futuristic, savage but sophisticated. The Egyptian motifs provided a link between the designs.

“And, well, Pogg is the result of my obsession of drawing giant animals. The description just said “a monster” so I brought the Nile crocodile to the table. There’s no scarier monster on Earth!”

X of Swords is a 22-part event. The story begins in X of Swords: Creation #1.

“This is going to be a big crossover, and Tini Howard and I are writing the big chunks of it together, and then all the other X-Men books are going to filter in and out of it,” Jonathan Hickman, Marvel’s Head of X, told ComicBook.com in February. “The tarot stuff came from Tini. There’s a scene in [the] Free Comic Book Day [special], and it’s in the first issue as well, that ties into all that and pulls it all together. That’s where it comes from.”

X of Swords: Creation #1, on sale September 23rd.

X of Swords: Creation #1
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(W) Jonathan Hickman (A/CA) Pepe Larraz

X OF SWORDS – CHAPTER 1

A tower. A mission. A gathering of armies.

Rated T+
In Shops: Sep 23, 2020
SRP: $6.99