Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Jacopo Camagni
Color Artist: Fernando Sifuentes of Protobunker Studios
Cover Artists: Stefano Caselli & Java Tartaglia
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
The Mutants’ space force has been busy making big moves in outer space, but now their enemies are making moves against them. Henry Gyrich, current leader of Alpha Flight, secret member of Orchis, has set a plan of attack in motion against S.W.O.R.D. Part of this plan involves a mole in the team, and now we’ll see why they’re doing it in S.W.O.R.D. #10.
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Review:
Last issue, we found out that Wiz-Kid has been the mole for Henry Gyrich this whole time, and this comic focuses on his perspective and worldview. To be honest, it starts out a little interesting then gets pretty boring in the path Al Ewing lays out for him. If you’re not that big of a fan of the character and don’t like his current depiction by Al Ewing, then you better be ready ’cause you get him for 80% of the comic. He’s narrating this comic and he has a lot to say about himself and his perspective on mutants and humans.
See, throughout the comic Wiz-Kid keeps narrating to the reader that “everyone tries to figure me out.” From his physical condition, which doesn’t make entirely too much sense why he’s still disabled, to his loner mindset right now. Al Ewing tries to write Wiz Kid like he’s a genius loner who nobody understands, when in reality the character is very emotionally transparent and that shows in his narration. He’s intelligent, rude, very much has a chip on his shoulder, and, despite his own words, is very arrogant.
He keeps saying stuff like, “Do I seem arrogant to you? Should I learn humility?” over and over in the comic. Obviously, he is arrogant and could learn a thing or two about being humble at times. He’s written like no one’s read a story with Dr. Doom or Thanos in it or watched Dexter’s Laboratory. Marvel fans, let alone comic book fans, can recognize an arrogant genius when they see ’em. And Wiz-Kid is one arrogant teenage genius, as this comic establishes over and over.
The situation with the Lethal Legion is pretty much an afterthought in the comic. Not much really happens aside from Storm predictably curb-stomping what remains of the team. The art for the battle is fine, but it’s not spectacular. There is an interesting concept introduced with this new iteration of the Lethal Legion by Orbis Stellaris (the talking alien sphere), but it’s uncertain how fun it will be in the next issue. The action is more of a backdrop to the story unfolding with Wiz-Kid as we see him undermine S.W.O.R.D. in the comic.
Spoilers:
Big shock: Wiz-Kid didn’t really betray Krakoa or S.W.O.R.D. In fact, he’s actually a triple agent playing Henry Gyrich for Abigail Brand. Not much of a surprise there, really. It was pretty predictable that Brand either figured him out or he was actually working for Brand the whole time just going off her appearance in the last panel from the previous issue.
The big thing here is figuring out Brand’s big play. Is she going to kill Gyrich, expose him, blackmail him? Brand has been playing her own shady espionage game since the first arc of the series. She’s made duplicitous calls like assassinating galactic leaders, and blocking messages to Alpha Flight & the Avengers to make S.W.O.R.D.’s mutants look good during The Last Annihilation. We’ll see what she does next issue.
Final Thoughts:
S.W.O.R.D. #10 continues the series’ new story arc which is in full-swing in this issue. After the revelation in the last issue, Wiz-Kid takes center stage in this comic. At first, some of the things he brings up are interesting, then it gets repetitive and uninteresting as the comic goes on. Mileage will vary on whether what he says is compelling or not. The fight with the Lethal Legion gets some development, and introduces a neat concept for this current iteration of the villains, but not too much happens there.