X of Swords Sees An X-Men Fighter Deliver A Brutal Kill

Spoilers for this week’s X of Swords comics below! Marvel’s ambitious X of Swords crossover continued this week and even though the ten swordbearers of Krakoa were already behind in the tournament’s score….things got even worse for them. Leading into this week’s issues, which included X-Force #14, Hellions #6, and Cable #6, the X-Men were down with a score of 5-2 but even more rounds take place VERY quickly over the course of X-Force #14, concluding in round 22, known as “Drawing First Blood.” This round bits none other than Storm against the horseman Death, the rules are simple, draw first blood from your opponent.

The set-up for the event is that in a previous round, Storm and Wolverine were tasked with a drinking contest, but unbeknownst to them their drinks had been poisoned by Death. This poison has made its way into Storm’s body (Wolverine’s healing factor quickly got it out of his system) and has caused her great distress and pain. The scene begins with the pair in an arena in one of the other sections of Otherworld, a place known as Sevalith, a realm populated by “blood-drinking socialites” that on Earth we would call vampires, but who have no such word in their language.

“One of the Otherworld’s longest reigning nations, Sevalith drips in blood and is bound by curses,” a description of the realm read in Marauders #13 earlier this year. “For as long as Sevalith has existed within the wheel, it has been a study in opposites — brutal cathedrals wedged and stacked like coffins in geometric shapes dot the landscape, concealing a larval, soft people within. Hideous sharp-toothed night creatures don meters of sumptuous fabric and crown themselves in jewels, bedecking their fierceness with a haunting beauty.”

As you might expect from this description, and from the name of the round, whoever has their blood drawn will no doubt become a snack. Storm and Death begin their battle, and after things appear to be at a standstill the horseman removes his helmet and will use his visage against Storm and weaken her. The mutant thinks on her feet, holding her dagger at such an angle that it causes Death to look at himself, leaving him incapacitated and giving her the opportunity to deliver this killing blow.

After this, Storm delivers the most badass line of the entire crossover, asking: “Well, he’s bleeding isn’t he? Have a taste.” The vampires descend on Death. Point Krakoa.

The next issue of the event that follows the tournament, Cable #6 (Hellions #6 follows Mister Sinister and his team elsewhere), doesn’t mark Death as being among the dead for Arakko, but this page certainly doesn’t make him look alive.