X-Men: Die by the Sword

X-Men: Die by the Sword. Written by Chris Claremont Illustrated by Juan Santacruz

First, let's start with an explanation of the X-Men. The X-Men are the students of Charles Xavier, Mutant heroes who are sworn to protect a world that fears and hates them. Despite the title, this book has nothing to do with them, but is a cross over volume of two spin off titles; Excalibur and Exiles.

Excalibur is a British Super Team, allied with the X-Men. Its one constant is Captain Britain, Brian Braddock. (He is a member of the Captain Britain Corps, a cross dimensional bastion of order dedicated to protecting the Multiverse) His twin sister is the former X-Man Psylocke. Betsy is currently hanging with the Exiles, a team of Supers drawn from many cross dimensional superhero teams, dedicated to fixing causal damage to the time stream of the multiverse in order to prevent large scale disasters from sweeping all know universes. This book is a cross over from these two teams.

This pairing makes sense, in as much as both teams deal excessively with multidimensional threats. I just think the X-Men in the title is misleading, even though seven of the eleven team members have been members of a incarnation of that team.

Recent events in the Marvel Universe have created an enormous wave of cross dimensional energy that tore the fabric of reality into a new shape, and then snapped it back (House of M, Decimation) to the way it was; almost. A few things are different.

One of those things is James Jaspers. Jaspers was once the Prime Minister of the U.K. until he traded politics for omnipotence. His reality warping powers make him almost unstoppable, and incredibly annoying. He had been killed after a battle with Captain Britain and Roma, the Guardian of Order, and Sovereign of the Captain Britain Corps. Actually, he had been killed by Fury, an ultimate doomsday weapon from a defunct timeline, but Jaspers chooses to blame Roma and Captain Britain. And he plans his revenge.

There is a giant battle, and the Captain Britain Corps is decimated (well, what that word has come to mean; 90% death rate) and things are only getting worse; Jaspers converts several of the Captains of the Corps into Furies, and turns them on their friends.

Meanwhile, back on Earth 616 (the mainline Marvel Universe) the Exiles are visiting so that two of their members, Sage and Psylocke can let their friends know what is going on, so they won't worry. Psylocke is visiting her twin, but there are other reunions. First, Thunderbird, newly recovered from his mortal wounds received as an Exile, is reunited with Nocturne, ex-Exile, current Excalibur. The other reunion is not as sweet. Dazzler, (Excalibur) is delighted to see her husband Longshot is not dead, (though this may throw a wrench in her budding romance with Pete Wisdom) but Longshot (Exiles) has no memory of his previous life.

At a party, Brian is assassinated by a mysterious figure called Rouge Mort. Her backup call themselves the Janissaries. Together, they intend to destroy the Captain Britain Corps.

It does not take a hyper genius like Sage to figure out that all these things are related, and only the tip of the iceberg. The question is who is behind it, and what do they want?

There is a further mystery, and one I intend to explore, and to solve, so warning, there will be spoilers.

There appears a couple; no spandex, older, a man and woman, obviously in love, observing the heroes, usually in their quieter moments, and talking in rather fatalistic terms, things like passing of the torch, etc. They appear in several issues, just a quick cameo, a bit of dialogue, how much they care for our heroes, how are they going to manage? That sort of thing. Ominous without being sinister. Who are these people?

Here there be Spoilers

The people watching our heroes are Dave and Paty Cockrum. Dave Cockrum was the artist who drew the relaunch of the X-Men title, starting in Giant Size X-Men # 1, and continuing in the series, Issue 94. With Chris Claremont, he created such Icons as Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler. I remember reading those thrilling tales. I was at All Saint's Episcopal School, and I and my friends would sit around and pass the comics back and forth, admiring the writing and the art, my friends lewdly admiring Storm's exotic beauty, I silently admiring the musculature is silver metal, the dark allure of navy blue fur and a tail. Cockrum wrote for the X-Men for a short four years, 75-77 and 81-82. But he will always be THE ARTIST for X-Men to me. Everyone else is judged by how close they get to his style.

Dave passed away from complications from Diabetes on November 26, 2006. These ghostly apparitions are the homage of fellow father of the Modern X-Men Franchise, Chris Claremont. Together, these men birthed legends.