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We need to talk about S.W.O.R.D. and the Benedict Arnold flow that Al Ewing and other Marvel writers have been hitting us with left and right. It’s hard to summarize because the final issues of S.W.O.R D. (#s 10 & #11) have felt like a wild DBZ fusion dance of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning’s greatest hits with Abigail Brand and Whiz Kid going into deep cover to get ahead of the Orchis thorn in mutantdom’s side.

Beast’s Betrayal

Back tracking a bit, this next level espionage, double agent storyline should come as no surprise after we uncovered the appalling levels of savagery that Beast was willing to go to “for the sake of Krakoa.” He spied on the mutants of his nation, had plans to round up all mutants with Russian ties, and parade and shame them publicly to instill fear into anyone that may have traitorous thoughts on their mind. Some real Third Reich, GoT walk of shame shit. He was able to straight up (with the help of Sage…although she didn’t know the extent of his Big Brother ways) institute a fungal spyware network and used teleflornics to develop some low-key control over Terra Verde, a small nation.

Except it all backfired, got hacked, might’ve blown up in his face and exposed Krakoa as an aggressive nation that couldn’t be trusted if Emma Frost, Professor X, and the Council didn’t put the kibosh on the whole operation the night of the Hellfire Gala. Will we ever see the end of Illuminati x Age of Apoc Beast and the return of warm, kind, X-Men TAS Hank McCoy?

The True Traitor

I give you all that to say, Abigail Brand shit’s in Beast’s cereal and calls it the prize at the bottom of the box. She has catapulted herself into Cruella de Vil territory and I can’t wait to see how it all blows up in her face, or if she’ll live long enough to be one of the main wheels in the cog that lead to the end of mutantdom. In S.W.O.R.D. #10, we find out that Wiz Kid is kind of a spy for Orchis. He’s been giving Henry Gyrich intel about the mutants and their new nation. We also find out that he’s only been feeding them the info that they need to get Gyrich to trust Takeshi Matsuya.

Of course, he double crosses the Gyrich and helps Brand infiltrate Orchis with the help of Pym particles. But as much of a genius that Whiz Kid is, he has no chance of predicting what Brand has up her sleeve, and apparently, neither does the entire nation of mutants. We see where her loyalties lie in S.W.O.R.D. #11, and while I can’t say that I blame her, I can still be as disgusted by her as Madara was at the entire 4th Ninja War army when he was bussin they ass.

Backstabbing Brand: It’s a Brand Name

Brand’s treachery is devious on so many levels. The entire nation entrusted her to monitor the threats in the stars and that approach planet Earth, so it’s particularly disrespectful she can even think about treating them as such cannon fodder in her sadistically splendid schemes. But splendid they are indeed.

Part of me has a feeling she may play some role in the future breeding pits of Mars we found out about wayyy back in Powers of X #1. Part of me wants her to be playing a different long game; one that doesn’t include sacrificing this glorious age of Krakoa. There were so many other candidates to be the big traitor of the X-Men – Fabian Cortez, Omega Red, Havok, Psylocke, Legion, and the list goes on. But no, the head of the X-Men’s space operations is the culprit as she continues to slither through the grass. I’ll tell you one thing though! I’ll be keeping up with Brand’s schemes in X-Men Red dropping in April.

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