Even though I bought this in single issues, I've been putting this off for a while. A 22 part crossover across 9 books and 3 one-shots is pretty daunting. It's obviously bloated. Some of it is pretty cool. The whole third act is relatively silly. The juxtaposition was just weird after such a serious buildup. You can certainly see the parts Hickman focused on and the lesser parts by some of the other writers. At this point, I'd love to see the X-Men close the gate on Otherworld. It's so uninteres...

X of Swords started out really strong, the first half of the book was really good, and it looked like we were heading towards a massive war between Krakoa and Arakko, the stakes were extremely high, we got introduced to every sword, and then... the story takes a huge shift in direction and ends up with something entirely different.Maybe it was me and I just didn't see it coming, time will tell, but at least the last issue delivered my expectations, with a freaking epic finale illustrated by Pepe...

This event was a colossal waste of time. It interrupted storylines to provide us with a pointless "contest of champions." The underlying conceit of this event was that the X-Men would each carry special swords to fight other mutants wielding special swords. There were multiple issues of filler, because this event did not deserve 22 installments. Then, when the actual contests came about, there was very little actual sword fighting. Instead we had silly drinking contests or dance contests.... Yay...

From the very start of the Jonathan Hickman X-books' era it all felt too big, too much and too unrealistic, so I wasn't looking forward to his first major event and already had my sights set low; but this 10 mutants must get 10 swords to fight 10 baddies from Arakko feels like a 1980s package deal to sell comics with limited creativity. So the bad - the plot, the new characters, the further detailing of Apocalypse's origin, the whole Dawn of X premise and Otherworld, which I have always just abo...

I was going to pen a pellucid explication of my rationale for why this 22-part bit of WTF-ery has both merit and demerits aplenty, but then I realized I have a bunch of stuff to do, so I’ll leave it at this: while I’ve enjoyed Hickman’s take on the X-Men far more than I thought I would, X of Swords is like a dream that starts off awesome but segues into you getting life advice from a chain-smoking guinea pig who sounds like Sam Elliott and doing interpretive dance to the discordant sounds of Van...

I expected a lot from this crossover and was sadly disappointed. There were some good points mainly with Wolverine, X-Force and the Hellions. The ending was better but it took a long time getting there and just pushed it up to 3 star instead of 2 for me.My main problem with this crossover it is 23 issues, I was expecting a lot more, not just a setup of the next stage for the mutants. The book is supposed to be a tournament to the death of 10 chosen champions from Krakoa Vs. Arakko's 10 dark cham...

I see from some of the other reviews here that X Of Swords has been controversial. I have to say that it shoots right to the top for me as the best X-Men crossover story I've ever read. Was it perfect? No. Almost inevitably there were a few rote or repetitious beats in the assembling of the ten swords. But as the story gathered pace, and as it became clear that this was a battle that would be decided in lots of places - mostly not battlefields - and in lots of ways - mostly not by fighting - I g...

Monet breaks the 4th wall2 grudging stars in honour of the few writers conscripted in who managed to somehow create an engaging or fun story or two and the talented artists who had to draw the scripts they were served up along the endless nonsensical slog of throwaway settings and bonkers infographics this event gave us.IT.WAS.SO.BAD.I feel really let down as the whole House of X/Powers of X had me legitimately excited about the soaring direction the X-Titles were headed but these 700+ pages ser...

Despite my feelings about Hickman’s bowdlerisation of the X-books, this particular crossover wasn’t too awful. There were as many things I liked about it as there were things I disliked, so the story averaged out OK. The art was largely pretty good.My next book: Atlantis Attacks

This is a review from reading it in singles. My opinion/rating might change when I revisit it collected (which will probably be next year)Firstly, this being 22 issues over a number of different books almost put me off. I know X-men cross over stories have done that before, but this was my first time actually being invested in the current X-men title (because Hickman) so I had decided if I wanted to go all in or notSo I decided to go all inAnd for the most part I really enjoyed it! It does lose

Man I had so much stuff going that stopped me from finishing this. Well it’s done now. This book started off with so much promise. Even tho I was shaky ( and still am) about Amenth and Arakko as far as where they are located, I was still into the build up of the story. Watching some of the characters go on their quests to find their swords and the how the odds were stacking up against them as they marched towards the coming contest of swords was a great ride. Plus the artwork was great. Everyone...

While X of Swords was always going to live in the shadow of House of X/ Powers of X, I think it also fell victim to its own hype. Other than pulling from all the Dawn of X titles into one 22 chapter silo it is essentially an elongated role call, a series of oddly goofy trials, and an Apocalypse side story. There’s a tremendous emphasis on Otherworld, Lady Saturnyne, and it almost begs the question of whether or not X of Swords is really more of an Excalibur event than a large bridge across all t...

This was a hefty read, originally X of Swords was intended to be 12 issues but covid hit and for some reason they thought adding 10 more was a good idea. I think they should’ve stuck with 12 the story is way to drawn out and unnecessarily confusing at times. I will say I am a sucker for tournament arcs so I did enjoy the story for the most part and Storm was an absolute badass in here I love seeing her get some spotlight.

X Of Swords is that rare thing, a crossover where the side books are vital to the story. Not in terms of plot - the 22(!) chapter format makes it look like everything is going to matter, but there’s so much misdirection in play that almost none of it does.Instead the side books here are crucial because they get to keep their tone. The stuff which sticks with me from this very long story - the stuff which meant I enjoyed it despite its glaring flaws - are the two-part Otherworld dinner in Maraude...

I would like to say that I have mixed feelings about this run, but I don't. It was not an enjoyable read. It was too long, too confusing, too goofy, and too expensive (I bought the individual issues). I avoided the Excalibur runs because of its tendencies to delve into Captain Britain ominiverse craziness. I found the Captain Britain Corp, Saturnyne, Otherworld, and the rest of the extensive world-building that Alan Davis, Chris Claremont, and other created too hard to follow -- and often too si...

I read the much-anticipated big X-event of 2020 on the Marvel Unlimited comics app which let me get all set up with the necessary lead-ins. The most important being one of my favourite reads of last year, House of X/Powers of X. While lots of the mutant books have dealt with challenges faced by the mutants, this is the first real threat against Krakoan dominion. Before we go into the event, here's what I recommend reading of the new series as a lead-in to this main event:-X-Men-Excalibur-Maraude...

The hordes of Arakko are on their way - but to trample Krakoa, they must pass through Otherworld, and the Lady Saturnyne has something to say about that. Instead of all out war, she proposes a contest. To the winner, the spoilers. But first, the competitors must assemble their swords.X Of Swords is a 22 issue crossover, with something like 6 of those issues being over-sized. It's an ambitious project, with a huge number of people involved to make sure that the moving parts come off right. You'd

It started off really well but took so much of time to get going and the first 11 parts were just them collecting swords and then when you expect the battle to start, its the same old story of what happened to Arakko through different lenses and then the competition becomes goofy and silly and the point system is weird, there is no actual sword fight. When we reach the near end, there is one good issue with the X-Men where Cyclops has to decide to take the X-Men into Otherworld and rescue the mu...

An ambitious, fun, regularly spectacular-looking crossover event that surprised me most of all by making me really care about what was happening amidst its apocalyptic stakes. The premise suggests several sword duels to the death, which sounds like it would quickly get monotonous and also bump into the constraints of any Big 2 comic event to not actually kill off half the stars of the series involved. Instead, Hickman and the other series’ writers built this crossover from two equally entertaini...

Would have liked more of Hickman's influence than Tinis's, but it was still a great event. Seemed like a condensed End Game. Would have liked more Krakoa-side drama. They haven't even shown Brian Braddock's family in forever, even in Excalibur.Interested in what Apocs' going from here.