This week’s crop of comics for Marvel’s X of Swords event have finally brought the titular tournament to its beginning with Exaclibur #14 and Wolverine #7 delivering the first few rounds of the fight. Though a few of the battles take place as we were lead to believe, meaning duels to the death via sword, others take place in surprising locations and with much fewer stakes than we might have thought. One that began as expected was a fight between Wolverine and Summoner, the grandson of Apocalypse, which saw them fighting to the death with their swords, but things quickly take a weird and wild turn. Full spoilers ahead for Wolverine #7!
Videos by ComicBook.com
The fight between Logan and his foe takes place in Blightspoke, a realm of Otherworld that is described as the “realm of collapsed realities.” As a result, the fight between the two of them changes constantly, putting them in a variety of alternate worlds and places, which means changing their outfits but also their entire anatomy and existence in the blink of an eye. The issue further describes Blightspoke as the “cemetery” and “hospice” for realities that have died and notes: “Here they fight each other, even as they fight existence itself — among the celestial and cellular and psychic and dimensional and elemental. If this — the fight for Arakko and Krakoa — is a war of worlds, then the warring worlds of Blightspoke are a fitting arena to determine that fate.” And some of those warring worlds were quickly revealed as you can see below.
Up top is a dynamic splash page from the issue that shows off the many different dead realities and they include: a reality where Wolverine is an actual wolverine and Summoner is a cobra, a reality where they’re in the same body, a reality where they’re old, a Minecraft like reality, a reality where they’re cave paintings, another where they’re knights, one where they’re chess pieces, and most importantly one where they are very, very clearly inside of TRON.
The battle within Blightspoke ends after Wolverine sends his sword flying through the eye of Summoner, killing him. However there’s a catch as Queen Saturnyne reveals the terms of this round where “a fight to the death,” and with Summoner having now achieved death he is considered the winner and a point awarded to Arakko over Krakoa. Wolverine is not pleased with this.
The crossover continues on from now through the end of the month with just six issues remaining after this week’s offering of titles. November 18th sees the release of X-Force #14, Hellions #6, and Cable #6 and it all wraps up on November 25 with X-Men #15, Excalibur #15, and the final chapter, X of Swords: Destruction #1. You can find the full checklist for the 22 part event below.
