The X-Men are Using Powers as Space Currency

Warning: this article contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #3

Another week has gone by in the Marvel Comics universe, and still the war against Knull continues to escalate. Despite having sat on the sidelines of the conflict in its early days, now that the heat has turned on, the X-Men are in a far more precarious situation than they’d expected. Despite their best laid plans, the King in Black has taken over Krakoa. Now that their center of operations has been disrupted, and their teams scattered across the globe, mutantdom is at its most vulnerable. And desperate times call for desperate measures.

In this month’s S.W.O.R.D. #3, by writer Al Ewing and artists Valerio Schiti, Ray-Anthony Height, Bernard Chang and Nico Leon, the mutant “Quintician” Eden Fesi, aka Manifold, is hopscotching his away across the galaxy in the name of national security. His charge is one he’s none too happy to bear. With Knull’s darkness blanketing the planet, all of Earth is in need of space-faring allies. Unfortunately, most of the friendly alien civilizations, such as the Shi’ar and the Kree-Skrull Alliance, are already busy dealing with Void God on their own turf. So who can they turn to? Enter Djagyar of Bho Clan, heir to the Zn’rx Empire. 

For context, the Zn’rx, otherwise known as Snarks, are a race of power hungry—in more ways than one—reptilian creatures, that are as cunning as they are vicious. Currently in the midst of yet another war of succession—their oldest tradition—colloquially known as the Snarkwar, these beings have a well-known monomania for stealing super-powers. Djagyar, currently the favorite heir to win the throne, has something the X-Men need: a fleet of powerful starships capable of reaching Earth quickly. With their forces combined, mutants and the Zn’rx heir could destroy the symbiote shell surrounding Earth and finish Knull for good. In exchange, the Krokan mutants are willing to offer up what the Snark prize above all else: powers. 

How would this deal work exactly? Two mutant volunteers would undergo the painful and probably fatal procedure of having their powers extracted by the Zn’rx, who would then implant them into one of their own. Both volunteers, the pyrokinetic Byron Calley, aka Burner, and the gravitykinetic Ned Lathrop, aka Lifter, were once members of Magneto’s second Brotherhood of Mutants, before becoming mutant mercenaries. They may not be the best of the bunch, but their sacrifice in this case is considerable.

Despite the Crucible and Krakoan resurrection protocols slowly making previously depowered mutants whole again, the trauma of House of M is still fresh in the collective mind of mutantdom. Incredible abilities are part and parcel of the mutant identity; to have them taken away willingly or not is a genocidal kind of violence. This explains the deep unease Manifold feels in proffering such an exchange and certainly why he isn’t overly perturbed that it’s ultimately refused. To even consider dealing on such terms, regardless of the fact that both mutants would eventually get their powers back, just goes to show readers how much the X-Men have changed since their early days.

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