X of Swords [New Printing] - by Jonathan Hickman & Tini Howard (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Swords are drawn in the first epic crossover of the astonishing Dawn of X!

A tower. A mission. A gathering of armies. A fateful conflict looms, and Wolverine, the X-Men, Cable, X-Force, Excalibur, X-Factor, the New Mutants, the Marauders, the Hellions and the rest of Krakoa's residents will all feel the effects -- but which ten mutants will wield the blades? Weapons both new and familiar are drawn from their scabbards as the X-Men prepare to do mythic battle against a truly daunting foe! Jonathan Hickman and his fellow visionary creators -- who have painstakingly put all the pieces into place during Dawn of X -- join forces to smash the board!

COLLECTING: X of Swords: Creation (2020) #1, X of Swords: Stasis (2020) #1, X of Swords: Destruction (2020) #1, X-Men (2019) #12-15, Excalibur (2019) #13-15, Marauders (2019) #13-15, X-Force (2019) #13-14, New Mutants (2019) #13, Wolverine (2020) #6-7, Cable (2020) #5-6, Hellions (2020) #5-6, X-Factor (2020) #4

Written by: Jonathan Hickman, Tini Howard, Vita Ayala, Benjamin Percy, Ed Brisson, Gerry Duggan, Zeb Wells & Leah Williams

Penciled by: Pepe Larraz, Mahmud Asrar, Joshua Cassara, Leinil Francis Yu, R.B. Silva, Matteo Lolli, Viktor Bogdanovic, Rod Reis, Phil Noto, Carmen Carnero & Carlos Gómez

About the Author

Jonathan Hickman is the award-winning writer/artist of critically acclaimed independent titles Pax Romana, Transhuman and The Nightly News. Teaming with writer Brian Michael Bendis, he launched Marvel's Secret Warriors, spinning out of Secret Invasion. He then wrote the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four limited series, which served as a warm-up for his revered runs on Fantastic Four and FF, as well as two S.H.I.E.L.D. series. Hickman penned numerous Ultimate Universe titles before bringing his intricate plotting to Avengers and New Avengers. Hickman's years of planning culminated with the Marvel Universe-shattering Secret Wars. His impressive list of credits includes a trio of lauded series for Image: East of West, Secret and the Eisner Award-nominated The Manhattan Projects. Hickman returned to Marvel to mastermind a transformative relaunch of its mutant titles, beginning with House of X and Powers of X, and continuing with X-Men.

Tini Howard kicked her career into high gear by winning the 2013 Top Cow Talent Hunt, which led to her first comics credit as writer of Magdalena: Seventh Sacrament. She went on to write for major properties including Rick and Morty, Power Rangers and Barbie, and created her own series Assassinistas and Euthanauts, published by IDW. Howard arrived at Marvel to join the Dawn of X team on the pivotal book Excalibur, going on to mastermind the X of Swords crossover with Jonathan Hickman. Her other Marvel titles include Strikeforce, Death's Head and Age of Conan: Bêlit.

New York-native Afro-Latinx writer Vita Ayala graduated from DC Comics' inaugural Talent Development Workshop, soon working on some of the publisher's most famous characters -- including Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Suicide Squad. Their collaboration with artist Emily Pearson on zombie story The Wilds for Black Mask gained Ayala industry-wide attention, including at Marvel, where they demonstrated their talents on books including Shuri and Marvel Knights: 20th. The limited series Age of X-Man: Prisoner X followed, then the ongoing Morbius, and Ayala introduces a new generation of mutants for Dawn of X in Children of the Atom. In addition, they have written comic books featuring such diverse pop-culture icons as Xena: Warrior Princess and James Bond, as well as their critically acclaimed series Livewire for Valiant Comics.

Acclaimed author and screenwriter Benjamin Percy broke into comics in 2014 with a two-issue Batman story arc in Detective Comics. He is also known for his work on Nightwing, Green Arrow and Teen Titans for DC Comics, and James Bond: Black Box for Dynamite Entertainment. Percy wrote two seasons of Marvel's Wolverine podcast series: Wolverine: The Long Night, which was listed as one of the top fifteen podcasts of the year by Apple and won the iHeart Radio Award for best scripted podcast in 2018, and Wolverine: The Lost Trail. In print, he was a key contributor to the X-Men's Krakoan Era as writer of X-Force and Wolverine. Percy blazed a new trail for the Spirit of Vengeance with his deliciously dark revival of Ghost Rider and pitted some of Marvel's greatest heroes against the iconic movie hunters, the Predators. After the mash-up concept Hellverine proved a smash hit in Percy's Wolverine/Ghost Rider: Weapons of Vengeance crossover, the writer launched a Hellverine limited series followed by an ongoing series -- with Wolverine's son, Akihiro, assuming the mantle. And Percy was the ideal choice to unite the ultimate odd couple in the pages of Deadpool/Wolverine.

Ed Brisson is a comic-book writer who started to garner attention with his self-published crime series Murder Book. He broke into the spotlight in 2012 with the crime/time-travel thriller series Comeback (Shadowline/Image Comics). Brisson's Marvel credits include Iron Fist, Old Man Logan, Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Ghost Rider, Cable and New Mutants. He has been nominated several times for the Joe Shuster Award for Best Canadian Writer.

Gerry Duggan has become one of Marvel's most influential writers, having first made an impression at the House of Ideas with a lengthy and always surprising Deadpool run alongside his frequent writing partner, Brian Posehn. Among Duggan's solo credits are Nova, Hulk and multiple tie-ins to the Secret Wars event. He added Deadpool to the revamped roster of Uncanny Avengers and brought his unique blend of action and humor to All-New Guardians of the Galaxy, leading up to the cosmic event series Infinity Wars. Marauders and Cable established him as a vital part of the storytelling team for the Dawn of X era, a role he has cemented further by launching the blockbuster new X-Men title. Duggan's earlier collaboration with artist Phil Noto -- The Infinite Horizon, a reimagining of Homer's The Odyssey in a dystopian future -- earned an Eisner Award nomination for Best New Series.

A writer for the Emmy Award-winning animated series Robot Chicken and co-creator of the stop-motion SuperMansion, Zeb Wells began making a name for himself at Marvel with his irreverent New Warriors limited series, which provided an inspiration for key story threads that would later appear in Civil War; he also wrote the Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways tie-in. His collaboration with the late Seth Fisher on Fantastic Four/Iron Man: Big in Japan produced one of the 21st century's most charming comics. Wells' other credits include Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock, Venom: Dark Origin, Dark Reign: Elektra and Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One. He also contributed to the thrice-monthly "Brand New Day" era of Amazing Spider-Man, most notably with the "Shed" storyline; wrote two Carnage limited series; and helped relaunch New Mutants. Wells has returned to the world of the wall-crawler, teaming with the legendary John Romita Jr. for a new volume of Amazing Spider-Man.

Fast-rising star Leah Williams is a writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi, who has amassed an impressive list of Marvel credits in a short time. Highlights include What If? Magik, X-Men: Black -- Emma Frost, Domino Annual and Giant-Man. Williams demonstrated her flair for comedy and meta storytelling with Gwenpool Strikes Back, and took on a beloved character in the pages of Amazing Mary Jane. For Dawn of X, she has recruited a new team of mutant investigators in X-Factor, and then wrote the seismic X-Men: The Trial of Magneto. Williams' debut novel was a YA fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen, and she is writing a sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen.

Artist Pepe Larraz penciled Spider-Island: The Amazing Spider-Girl and pitted '90s rivals against each other in Deadpool vs. X-Force. Larraz worked on titles including Wolverine & the X-Men, Uncanny Avengers, Avengers and the Star Wars: Kanan before proving himself among the industry's finest talents with House of X. His thrilling artwork made him the ideal illustrator for the blockbuster 2021 relaunch of X-Men with writer Gerry Duggan.

The career of artist Mahmud Asrar got off to a fast start after collaborating with writer Jay Faerber on Digital Webbing Presents and the 25-issue run of the co-created Dynamo 5. At Marvel, Asrar has drawn War Machine, Nova, Thunderbolts and Avengers: The Initiative, among other titles. He built an association with Marvel's mutants on Wolverine & the X-Men and All-New X-Men, and was the ideal artist to welcome a new generation into Earth's Mightiest Heroes in All-New, All-Different Avengers. Asrar joined writer Jason Aaron for an acclaimed run on Conan the Barbarian and worked on Jonathan Hickman's X-Men.

Joshua Cassara made a big splash with his work on the event Secret Empire, as well as its tie-in Secret Empire: Uprising one-shot. He joined writer Rodney Barnes to challenge Sam Wilson as never before on Falcon, and teamed with writer Jeff Lemire and fellow artist Kim Jacinto on Sentry. His fast-growing list of Marvel credits also includes Venom, X-Force, X Lives of Wolverine and X-Men.

A copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way sparked Leinil Francis Yu's interest in comics when he was 11. Whilce Portacio's tutelage helped him land his first mainstream comics work on Wolverine in 1997. Following a successful run, Yu took on such titles as Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Superman: Birthright and Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk. After an extended period laying the groundwork in New Avengers, he and writer Brian Michael Bendis turned the Marvel Universe upside down with Secret Invasion, and the Marvel mainstay has subsequently worked on event comics including Avengers & X-Men: Axis and IVX, and such blockbuster titles as Star Wars.

R.B. Silva is a Brazilian artist who built his reputation at DC Comics on titles including Superboy, Red Hood and the Outlaws, World's Finest and Action Comics. For Marvel, he has worked on War Machine, Spider-Man and the X-Men, Nova and the James Patterson adaptation Max Ride: Ultimate Flight. Silva's Powers of X collaboration with writer Jonathan Hickman established him as a comics superstar, a status confirmed by his subsequent work on Fantastic Four and Captain America: Symbol of Truth.

Italian artist Matteo Lolli kept Marvel's all-ages series fresh and exciting with his lively pencils on titles including Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, Marvel Adventures Iron Man and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes. He brought his talents to the regular Marvel Universe with Marvel NOW!'s first Thunderbolts Annual, then followed one of that team's members into a showdown with an Avenger in Hawkeye vs. Deadpool. Lolli's flair for the Merc with a Mouth soon led him to the ongoing Deadpool series.

Viktor Bogdanovic is a Swiss artist who started his career with DC Comics. After a long run on Batman: Arkham Knight, he worked on DC titles including Action Comics, The Silencer, Aquaman, The Terrifics and New Super-Man, which he created with writer Gene Luen Yang. His first work for Marvel was 2099 Alpha, followed by his current run on Wolverine.

With a background in illustration for Fantasy and RPG magazines, Rod Reis began his comic-book career as a colorist before becoming known for his exquisite artwork on titles including Winter Soldier, New Mutants and Dark Web: X-Men, as well his gallery-worthy Marvel Comics covers.

A former Disney animator who worked on films including The Lion King and Pocahontas, artist Phil Noto started in comics with DC's Birds of Prey and Jonah Hex, and DC/Wildstorm's Danger Girl. For Marvel, he has worked on titles ranging from Black Widow to Uncanny X-Force, and he explored the Star Wars galaxy with Chewbacca and Poe Dameron. Also an accomplished painter, Noto has been exhibited in solo shows in New York, Los Angeles and Paris.

Spanish artist and Marvel Stormbreaker Carmen Carnero captivated readers with her exquisite illustrations for Captain Marvel and Miles Morales: Spider-Man. In addition to eye-catching covers, her fast-growing list of Marvel credits includes such titles as Cyclops, X-Factor, Hellions and X-Men Red. Carnero has helped usher in a new era of shield-slinging adventure on Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty.