Disability & The Mutant Metaphor In SWORD #10

Why would Taki betray SWORD? Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni, Fernando Sifuentes and Ariana Maher deliver the truth in SWORD #10.

Nola Pfau: Well, Corey, are you finally ready to delve into the first big event of the Krakoan era?

Corey Smith: Nola, buddy, I could not be more excited to finally jump into this issue… 10 of S.W.O.R.D.

Nola: Let’s do it!

Taki

S.W.O.R.D. #10 | Marvel | Camagni, Sifuentes

Nola: First, called it. That last-page reveal last issue was too clever to be anything but a fakeout.

Second, this is easily the most attention Taki’s ever gotten in comics, and wow, what an issue it is. I think the thing I appreciated most to the in depth examination of what living with his disability is like is the care of it. He never feels like a victim or like he needs pity, he’s just living his life. I really enjoyed the way he was sharing his perspective in the narration, how much of it revolved around the people around him seeing what they expect to see instead of him as a complete person.

Corey: I’m coming at this issue as someone whose experience with physical disability is relatively easy to mask, but is a lot more open about mental disability. That said, my initial impression of those first few pages was a whispered “…damn,” and that hasn’t changed upon rereading them. For as much as the mutant-as-minority-metaphor is a cornerstone of the franchise (and even more so according to fans who give it a lot more credit than it historically deserves, myself included), it’s not often that we get a genuinely respectful look at instances where both fictional and real-world minority statuses intersect, and collide. A big draw of the Krakoan era for me, and for a lot of other readers that I’ve seen, was the idea that we’d finally be exploring more of that, and I think it’s fair to say that the fact that we largely haven’t has led to some disillusionment among marginalized readers.

While I think that’s still largely the case, and I very much want more voices and perspectives in the room, sequences like this are why I’m genuinely glad that Ewing is part of the line. It honestly seems like no matter what perspective I see him write from, the fact that he genuinely cares about people and wants to do right by them comes across effortlessly.

That shone through all of Taki’s narration in this issue, which was genuine to the point of being uncomfortable. Being disabled, having mostly disabled friends, damn near every word he said was something I’ve either said myself, heard from someone I care about, or both. The progression from that to his final thoughts about bringing everyone up to his level, even if he had to drag them there?

…well, I’m probably getting ahead of myself, there’s the whole rest of the book to discuss.

Nola: I’m absolutely right there with you—I don’t often need mobility aids, but I do need them, and my history with mental disabilities is…well. Dyslexia isn’t one I personally deal with, but lord do I wish I had some Krakoan medicine for the rest. Ah, well, that’s a topic for another day.

I think you nailed it though, and that’s why this was so moving for me as an issue. For all that mutants are supposed to be About The Metaphor, they mess up on it really, really often. One particular panel that really took the wind out of me in this issue was the reference to Xavier and the observation that he’s walking. It really shone a light on the intersection between disability and other forms of marginalization—namely, that the white guy has been in and out of his chair multiple times since the last time Taki was allowed to even appear in a comic. It’s not something Taki says outright in his narration, but it’s also not something he has to. Ewing just has him make the point, and lets the readers infer the rest from there.

Corey: Exactly! I’m sure we’ve all seen the memes pointing out how any given incarnation of the Xavier School is nothing but stairs, but it does speak to how little attention is ever actually paid to Chuck’s disability. He brought up a similar issue with Apocalypse as well— while we all love him now that he’s Hot Wife Guy •-[Å]-•, the dude has devoted his entire existence on a Reddit-level understanding of “survival of the fittest.” Between the two of them, and Mister “Actual Nazi” Sinister as founding members of the Council, that shit’s gotta be exhausting. Can you imagine what it’d be like being represented by government officials who range from finding your pride in yourself as incomprehensible to actively calling for the deaths of everyone like you? That would be wild.

Just.

Fucking.

Wild.

Nola: No kidding. It sure is a good thing that only happens in the fictional world, and not the real one! Right? …right?

Cable

Nola: Y’know, it’s funny that we don’t really examine Cable much through the lens of disability. His body’s been ravaged by a chronic, incurable disease, he’s got multiple prostheses, and his mutant power is tied up by keeping his own disease in check, which honestly is a take on disability from a purely mutant perspective that I could stand to see more investigation of. It’s too bad we don’t get that here, though. We don’t really get much of him at all outside of Taki’s narration of their friendship when Cable was his younger self. Old Cable, now that he’s back, has only been in the book for a couple of issues, and he’s mostly haunted the margins.

Corey: Admittedly my thoughts on disability and the entire Grey-Summers-(Pryor) line could probably fill a book (every single one of them is autistic, in this essay I will…) and admittedly I might be giving Ewing too much credit here, but I definitely thought there was an intentional parallel between Kid Cable staring at Taki’s chair, and Taki focusing on Nate’s prosthetics. Like you said, both of them have aids that are tied into their powers, but it’s really rare for it to be acknowledged as Cable’s deal, at least in the things I’ve read with him. Considering how cheerful Nate was, even compared to Ewing’s own Cable: Reloaded, I couldn’t help but read it as him letting his guard down around someone who gets it. I’m absolutely projecting like an optic blast here, especially keeping in mind that he clearly felt something was up, but I’d be genuinely interested to see how they interact beyond here.

Nola: I am too. It’s interesting that you mention Cable’s guard being down with Taki, because that’s very much what I picked up on, too. Cable got a lot of solid characterization in the post-Liefeld years, and he’s not quite the hard-edged distant soldier folks see him as, but he does still have plenty of reservations around other mutants. It’s also worth noting that while this is “old” Cable, it’s not the same old Cable in a lot of ways; Kid Cable’s characterization for the time that he was around seems to have had a measurable effect. I’m curious to see how that translates to his future interactions with Taki now that his trust has been taken advantage of.

At any rate, Taki only disables him long enough to keep his plan on track. Cable’s able to recover in time for the evacuation of the SWORD station, which is good. I mean it wouldn’t be the first time he’s crashed a space station, but it’s best not to tempt fate, you know?

Corey: Definitely. It’s not a skill that you really want to practice any more than you absolutely have to.

Lethal Legion

Corey: Rounding out the issue, of course, we have the continuation of the Lethal Legion’s assault from last month. It was very nice getting to see Frenzy do her thing, and even though I’m not overly invested in these mooks, their status as a mass produced product was almost funny. What did you think of this section?

Nola: Almost funny is exactly right. I think the one thing I objected to was the organization behind them explicitly selling “terrorism,” like that’s on their ad copy. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it in fiction, but I never like seeing it. It never rubs me as clever or funny when it happens, and even though I know it’s important to lay down the truth about things like that, I just feel like there are ways to do it that are less “nudge nudge wink wink,” you know?

Other than that, there’s something I deeply love about a mass-produced, teleporting cyborg horse. His name should be Deathclop. I also appreciated the irony in calling the ersatz Fatal Five, a team of Legion of Super Heroes villains, the Lethal Legion. That is the kind of nudgy humor I can get behind.

Corey: I feel you — that’s exactly the sort of unease I was feeling with the presentation. I will say that the “thank you for choosing our product” got a laugh out of me though, and was fairly delightful as far as battle cries go. At the same time, it’s hard to take “the same mooks, but more of them” seriously as a threat at this point — sure, they knocked off a few of the Imperial Guard, but let’s not pretend they didn’t have a hard time against pre-Archangel Warren, so that’s a great big shrug emoji. In all honesty, considering the mercenary nature of the Legion, and Mutandkind’s newly minted Mysterium blockchain, I’d be most surprised if the conflict isn’t resolved by Arakko simply buying them out. What are your thoughts?

Nola: Buying them out is definitely a possibility, but I doubt the Great Ring would look favorably on that option, honestly—some kind of failure to prove their strength or something like that. If anything, I keep thinking that part of the Great Ring is specifically in charge during times of war…

X-Traneous Thoughts

Storm deserves a nap after this. Back-to-back-to-back arena fights followed by this brawl. It’s too much! Give her back her nice attic with her plants. Let her relax.
It’s always impressive when Brand isn’t the most self-confident person in the room, but Taki wears it well!
Krakoan: PLANETFALL

Lex Smith

Lex Smith is probably tired right now. They're definitely trying not to think about everything they have to write! When they're not staring at a blank Word document, odds are they're tweeting, playing Pokémon or wondering how they ended up with such a smart-ass kid.