Fun Facts From The X Of Swords Handbook

I love the Marvel Handbooks. Really, any sort of reference guide to fictional universes is my jam, as they combine my affection for big, sprawling, narrative mythologies, history books, and pedantry. Back in the Olden Times, the first iteration of the Marvel Handbooks (specifically, the second, deluxe, edition) was my guide to a Marvel Universe I could only otherwise experience through affordable (ie cheap) back issues and the scant few trade paperback collections in print. Nowadays, of course, something like the Marvel Handbook is largely superfluous in the face of highly-specific, carefully-curated Wikipeda pages, deep & expansive reprint programs, and the availability of countless back issues at our digital fingertips. 

But even putting aside my nostalgic affection for the Marvel Handbooks, there’s still value to be found in this sort of thing today, in being able to read all the insane twists & turns of the ongoing saga that is the Marvel Universe highlighted, summarized, & contextualized in one place, with a sheen of authorial (or at least, editorial) authority placed over it. Not only can it serve as a handy, self-contained, official recap for new readers or a refresher for lapsed/forgetful existing readers, it can also, by dint of which story points are included or highlighted (and which aren’t), suggest the bits of backstory most important to the current creative teams, while also helping tie seemingly disparate-threads together into a (more) cohesive whole, and possibly even fill-in some gaps in the narrative. At the very least, a refreshed Marvel Handbook entry can remind even the most careful & memorious readers of intriguing, befuddling, or significant moments in characters’ histories. 

And so, as a fan of data-driven reference material for fictional stories, I was overjoyed to see Marvel, after a few years away, dust off the classic Handbook format, give it a slight facelift, and start once again chronicling the various goings-on of the Marvel Universe, beginning with an Empyre-themed Handbook a few months ago. But as an X-Men devotee, I was even more excited to see Marvel’s merry mutants made the subjects of the second such Handbook update, released this week. In honor of the Handbook, then, here are the plot twists, retcons, and big character swings from the newest X-Men iteration which may have been forgotten by fans, or subtly changed in the recounting, or are otherwise notable for their inclusion (or omission) in this chronicle of (fictional) history. 

Apocalypse

Much of the early days of Apocalypse’s life detailed here comes from the Rise of Apocalypse miniseries, written by Terry Kavanugh and published in late 1996. It’s inclusion is notable simply because there’d been some rumblings that it was going to be retconned out/ignored in light of the changes to Apocalypse’s early history and his relationship with Krakoa/Arakko, but the broad strokes of the story are represented. 

Also, for as big a shadow as Apocalypse casts as a character, it is sometimes forgotten that he tends to pop up for a big story, then disappear (such as when he was brought back to life in “X-Cutioner’s Song”, then killed off again by the end of the story). To that end, the last appearance of the original, “main”, Apocalypse (not a clone/progeny/alternate future incarnation) prior to X-Men: Black in 2018 was in Peter Milligan’s final story in X-Men (vol. 2), “Blood of Apocalypse” way back in 2006 (the same story which gave us Deadly Fart Power Gambit). In the conclusion of that arc, Apocalypse is taken by the Celestials, looking for payment regarding all of their tech which Apocalypse has been using throughout his history. The details of that subsequent confrontation, and how Apocalypse escaped from the Celestials to appear in the X-Men: Black backup stories, remain unknown, something this Handbook issue shruggingly admits. 

Broo

Broo wears glasses not because they’re needed, but to “make himself appear less frightening”, a detail I love and am very glad this Handbook took the time to point out. 

Captain Britain – Brian Braddock 

Remember when Brian Braddock, then operating as Captain Britain, carried around the secrets of the Starlight Citadel in his wounded eye socket? Wild. 

Captain Britain – Elizabeth Braddock

The role of the Siege Perilous in the transformations of Psylocke & Kwannon is omitted from the main write-up (it didn’t actually change Psylocke but did leave her in a state that enabled all the Kwannon stuff to go down like it did), which is curious, especially given its ties to Avalon/Otherworld/Arthurian mythology (her trip through the Perilous is referenced, however, in the “vital statistics” portion of her entry, in the discussion of her armor, which is correctly attributed to the extradimensional law firm Landau, Luckman, and Lake, a name I never expected to see referenced in anything X-Men-related in the year 2020). 

Betsy’s attraction to Cluster (the female incarnation of ⅓ of Fantomex’ powers & personalities) is explicitly mentioned, which is appreciated. 

Cypher 

Just taking this opportunity, as the Handbook did, to remind everyone that the real name of the Ani-Mator, the villain who first killed Doug Ramsey, is Dr. Frederick Animus. 

Also, who else consistently forgets that Selene has a last name, and it’s Gallio? 

The brief period circa Hunt for Wolverine when Cypher was depicted as being addicted to the internet reads as random and jarring here as it did when first published. 

The mystery of why Doug is wearing Warlock as a sleeve through “Dawn of X” is very much highlighted in his write-up, for what it’s worth (this is clearly a mystery we’re meant to be puzzling over). 

Gloriana  

If you didn’t read Captain Britain and MI-13, a series from the late 00s in which Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom, and other British (and British-ish) characters fought, amongst other things, Dracula, then you missed a couple notable nomenclature developments for Meggan, including the fact that her given last name is “Puceneau”, and that she adopted the codename “Gloriana”, which is how she’s listed in this issue. 

Gorgon

I either never knew or completely forgot that Mariko Yashida was resurrected by Gorgon (which helps make her brief recent appearance in Wolverine #6 make a lot more sense…).

Also, the Handbook references an event in which Gorgon joined Earth’s telepaths to defeat the Shadow King, which is a deeply oblique reference to Astonishing X-Men (vol. 4) #12, the climax of “A Man Called X”, in which Psylocke and Xavier-in-Fantomex’ body join with all the telepaths in the world to lock away the Shadow King. Gorgon appears as one of the disembodied telepath heads in the splash page depicting that union, which apparently merits inclusion in this entry. 

The Handbook is careful to note that it remains unrevealed if, post-resurrection, Gorgon still does not possess a heartbeat. Seriously, the Handbooks are the best. 

Krakoa 

Obviously, Krakoa gets a pretty big update (I’m not even sure it had an entry in previous editions of the Handbook) due to the additions to its backstory and its role in the HoXPoX/Dawn of X era. Thankfully, it’s time as a prisoner of the Stranger and subsequent release by Quasar are referenced. I just like it when Quasar gets remembered. 

Also, it’s noted here that all the various Krakoa offshoots that seem a little odd given what we now know about the island (like the Krakoa that was the grounds of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in Wolverine and the X-Men) are technically spawn of Krakoa and the not the same as the real deal. 

Moira MacTaggert 

Like Krakoa, Moira gets a significantly revamped entry, and like Krakoa, her entry includes a footnote attempting to reconcile contradictions in past depictions relative to the newly-added information (in this case, the appearance of Moira “ghosts” in stories set after her apparent death in X-Men (vol. 2) #108, despite the retcon that she didn’t actually die in that issue, which are attributed to the Shi’ar golem we now know she used to fake her death). 

Also, while understandable given the necessary brevity of each entry, it’s still worth noting that the vast majority of Moira’s pre-HoXPox history is more or less omitted, so pour one out for the Machine Gun-Toting Housekeeper Moira of her first (published) appearance. Hopefully, new readers will still discover her on their own. 

Magik 

Props for the use of “Rasputina” as Illyana’s last name throughout her entry. 

Similar to Apocalypse’s return following “Blood of Apocalypse”, the transition from “Illyana absorbs all of Limbo into herself” to “the X-Mansion resides in Limbo now” during Jeff Lemire’s Extraordinary X-Men run is explained with a shrugging “somehow”, while her resumption of a human form between the end of Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men and the start of HoXPoX gets an explanation of “undisclosed means”. 

I love that in Magik’s aliases, “Red Flagg #133” is included; that was the designation, by the Russian government, of her (now deceased) younger counterpart (who emerged during “Inferno”) in the rarely referenced Soul Skinner story from X-Men (vol. 2) #17-19 (a story which mostly served to pile on Colossus by killing his parents and putting Illyana in a position to be at the X-Mansion when she dies from the Legacy Virus, all part of the X-books’ “make Colossus one of Magneto’s Acolytes, briefly” plotline during their 30th anniversary celebration). Points to the Handbook writers for thoroughness with that inclusion. 

Wolverine 

Don’t we all wish that the Romulus nonsense wasn’t referenced in this Handbook entry? 

The “Quarantine” story which closed out Matt Fraction’s run on Uncanny X-Men gets recapped in surprising detail; perhaps a nod to the times in which we find ourselves?  

Remember when Wolverine lost his healing factor and wore a suit of armor to compensate, and the armor was created for him by Spider-Man, but at the time, it was actually Dr. Octopus, whose mind was in Spider-Man’s body? Comics, everyone! 

The Handbook also remembers that around that same time, Wolverine pursued a relationship with Storm, which is good, because I’d completely forgotten it. 

Whether or not Wolverine still has “hot claws” is, per this Handbook, “unrevealed”. 

The X-Men 

The whole of the X-Men’s Silver Age adventures, between when they went into the future (and came back), and the formation of the “All New, All Different” team, is skipped over, as is most everything from when the original X-Factor rejoined the team to “E is for Extinction” and the start of Grant Morrison’s run. 

The whole Psylocke/Kwannon business gets a second callout (after featuring in the Captain Britain – Elizabeth Braddock entry) in this section. 

The oft-forgotten Forgetmenot is highlighted, and the easily-overlooked Lucid from the Lemire run as well, which is nice to see. 

Remember how Marvel Girl had to telepathically change Angel’s mind to get him to stay in the past with the rest of the time-traveling O5 X-Men?

Really love that someone felt the need to point out the pun here:  

While listed as “Scout” in the official roll call of new team members who joined since the last Handbook entry, the X-Men write-up itself does refer to Gabrielle Kinney as Honey Badger. #HoneyBadgerLives

In a testament to Marvel’s “let’s feature a slightly-different roster of X-Men in every X-book” strategy over the last couple of decades, this entry is filled to the brim with shots of the various incarnations of X-Men labeled “sub-teams”, and the “members” section is just a glorious mass of text with breakouts for all the different sub-teams and unofficial groupings. 

For what it’s worth, Fantomex and E.V.A are not considered X-Men; they apparently never accepted full membership, whatever that constitutes. Similarly, the various Uncanny X-Force teams are not official X-Men sub-teams despite having some X-Men on their rosters, nor are the “Lovable Losers” of Christina Strain’s Generation X considered official members of the X-Men-in-training sub-group. 

Seriously, that’s the kind of nitpicky minutiae I adore about the Handbooks.