X of Swords Reveals The Secret History of Apocalypse’s Wife and Original Horsemen

The ambitious X-Men crossover event X of Swords continues from Marvel Comics, and though we’re over halfway through its 22 issue length the battle itself hasn’t claimed any of the swordbearers. This week’s issue of the flagship X-Men series picks up from the ending of X of Swords: Stasis #1 as Apocalypse is reunited with his long lost wife Genesis, who regales him with the tales of how she and their children (the original four horsemen) survived on this side of Otherworld. Officially captioned “A Mutant’s History of Arakko + and the Fallen World of Amenth,” the entire issue is a recap of literally thousands of years of what happened to the other side.

To start things off, we once again recap the separation of Krakko and Arakko, who began as the one continent of Okkara. In the beginning they were separated by The Twilight Sword, which is actually being held by Genesis for the upcoming contest. She speaks about what Apocalypse already knows, how they held back the demons of Amenth but that Apocalypse himself stayed on the other side of the gate between Arakko and Krakko, insuring a lifetime without his wife or children and instead setting up his time on Earth and in X-Men comics.

After this Genesis reveals that after this some of the mutants left behind “lost their minds” and fled into the wastelands around Arakko. The rest, under her guidance, built an armor for Arakko and erected towers around it. Following that they fought and slaughtered the armors of armies of Amenth on their killing fields for thousands of years. She also revealed that, though once an ally, The White Sword had been driven mad by his ritual of death and resurrection so he could fight Amenth.

Genesis also revealed the back story of her sister, Isca, another swordbearer of Arakko whose mutant ability is a powerful: she has the power to never lose. Isca arrived to invite Genesis to parlay with Annihilation, where she learned that they’d been breeding the Mutants who were previously lost to the wasteland with the Amenth Demons, creating an unholy combination for their armies. After this Genesis and Annihilation fought and the bride of Apocalypse was successful, though she wouldn’t wear the golden helm of Annihilation for a hundred years she eventually put it on and the hordes of Amenth descended onto the planes of Arakko.

The big twist of course is that Genesis reveals she did all of this, held a campaign to conquer these other worlds and realms, to reunite Arakko and Krakko and to reunite herself with Apocalypse. It seems incredibly likely that Genesis and Apocalypse will have to face each other in combat when the trials of the ten of swords begins.

The crossover continues on from now through November though, with the final nine chapters arriving over the next three weeks. Wednesday, November 11th will see the release of Marauders #15, Excalibur #14, and Wolverine #7, while November 18th sees X-Force #14, Hellions #6, and Cable #6. 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.