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S.W.O.R.D. #10 confirms which ally of the X-Men is the sneakiest spy, and their actions may have secured a important victory for the mutants.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #10, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
The Marvel Universe has never been bereft of brilliant minds. Plenty of gifted tacticians have been pitted against one another over the years in shadow conflicts and proxy wars, all with the intent of changing the rules of international espionage towards their preferred plans. But one mutant, in particular, has repeatedly proven to be far ahead of the competition in numerous ways.
In S.W.O.R.D. #10 (by Al Ewing, Jacopo Camagni, Fernando Sifuentes, & VC’s Ariana Maher), Abigail Brand makes an undeniable case for her being Marvel’s single best leader by running circles around a dangerous puppet masters and his plans for Krakoa.
After being established as the mutant space program, S.W.O.R.D has been contending with multiple threats. One of the most pressing issues was the infiltration of space station by a traitor who was keeping the government agent Henry Peter Gyrich abreast of the latest secret developments in the mutant community. The previous issue ended with the revelation that the team’s resident tech genius, Wiz-Kid, was the double agent, and issue #10 cements the fact. He attacks Cable, and disables the Peak’s defenses, seemingly bringing down S.W.O.R.D’s primary base of operations at the behest of Gyrich and the anti-mutant organization Orchis.
However, the final pages of the issue reveals that this betrayal was actually a trick, and that Wiz-Kid has been secretly a triple-agent for Krakoa, using his faked “betrayal” of S.W.O.R.D to secure him in Gyrich’s good graces and give a Pym Particle assisted Brand the chance to infiltrate Orchis. Brand’s even found a way to communicate with her agent while they’re both undercover. It’s an impressive showing from Brand, who has repeatedly proven herself to be among Marvel’s greatest spy-masters.
Brand’s been involved in plenty of unseen conflicts, originally in her position as Nick Fury’s opposite in the space-focused S.W.O.R.D before transitioning into different roles. She’s proven to be perfectly conniving when she needs to be, outmaneuvering almost all of her enemies with multiple layers of strategy. In doing so, Brand might have set herself and Wiz-Kid up to do more damage to Orchis than any of the groups on Krakoa have recently been able to manage.
The Quiet Council has been unable to launch a successful assault on Orchis, while Abigail Brand appears to have secretly found a way to infiltrate the anti-mutant organization. With any luck, Brand and Wiz-Kid will find a way to gain access to Nimrod or any of the other technologies Orchis are trying to perfect, either subverting the plans of their enemies or outright destroying them in the process. It’s a good reminder that Abigail Brand might quietly be one of Marvel’s most brilliant tactical minds.
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