Marvel's Version of Game of Thrones Has Begun, and It Promises to Be Huge
Superhero comics have always been open to genre-hopping. Follow one team for long enough and you're likely to see them battle with a villain right out of heavy science-fiction, time travel their way through a period piece, and then barrel headlong into some sword and sorcery fantasy - all while enjoying romance and mystery subplots on the side. On the whole, though, classic fantasy storytelling tends to be the exception rather than the rule, which is why it's so interesting to see Marvel repeatedly invest in creating new settings and characters so reminiscent of works like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones was the type of media juggernaut that only comes along every few decades - a high-fantasy mega-series that grabbed viewer attention in 2011 and held it for eight years, influencing everything from political discourse to everyday speech. While the Westeros-based series didn't exactly stick the landing, it did change the face of what was considered mainstream entertainment, so it's understandable that Marvel (and new owners Disney) would be interested in breaking into the fantasy market. That interest has taken many forms in the last few years, but few have seen the same level of creative investment as was shown in X of Swords: Creation #1.
So, what's so special about X of Swords: Creation? First, the vast transformation of Marvel's Otherworld. While this setting has always been a home for Marvel's more magical stories, Hickman has applied his characteristically intricate world-building, creating a sprawling setting packed with ancient houses, feuding religious bodies, and shifting power structures. Hickman is renowned for his commitment to world-building in his stories. His Fantastic Four run saw him constructing whole sci-fi worlds of alien races and undersea cities, his time on Avengers centered on the interplay of complex fictional religions, and his recently concluded East of West (created for Image Comics with artist Nick Dragotta) mixed these previous themes with byzantine political machinations at the end of the world. With X of Swords - and his larger stewardship as Marvel's "Head of X" - it seems that Hickman is continuing his growth, mixing it all together once again, but this time dropping in a heavy dose of high fantasy.
Marvel now has a setting as big as the mundane Earth itself filled with castles, dragons, and sword-fighting. While Otherworld has fallen to technology before - both in Marvel's Secret Invasion event and during its war against the Manchester Gods in 2012's Journey into Mystery - it tends to have an unpredictable effect on man-made devices, making it a place not just devoid of sci-fi technology but actively resistant to it. It also has a close relationship to magic that makes it particularly unpredictable - in Excalibur #2, X-Men stalwart Jubilee enters Otherworld with her young son and he's instantly turned into a dragon, mostly due to the inherent magic and imagination children bring with them into the realm ("the Mother of Dragons" indeed.)
With Marvel's ongoing Excalibur series focusing on the politics and battles of Otherworld's controlling houses - and locales such as Blightspoke, Dryador, and the Floating Kingdom of Roma Regine - it seems like Hickman just dropped a fantasy setting to rival Westeros or even Middle-earth into Marvel's lap.
This isn't the first time Marvel has engaged with high fantasy, or even ideas that seem directly lifted from Game of Thrones. Its Weirdworld setting - a land in which feudal warriors fight off strange monstrosities - was championed in two short-running 2015 series - Weirdworld and Black Knight: The Fall of Dane Whitman - neither of which succeeded in attracting sufficient reader interest to continue (or really reappear in other series.) Marvel's Conan the Barbarian comics - and his use as the centerpiece of the sword and sorcery Savage Avengers series - was another avenue into Game of Thrones-esque fantasy storytelling, while the superlative limited series Siege: Battleworld (by Kieron Gillen and Filipe Andrade) told the story of The Shield - a huge wall manned by conscripted superhumans, intended to protect the larger Marvel Universe from a horde of zombies (and robots, and alien insects) that lurk beyond.
With Savage Avengers continuing to attract interest and Marvel preparing to launch a series of prose stories about the ancient adventures of Thor's Asgardian brethren, it certainly seems like Marvel is looking for inroads into some form of ongoing fantasy property. The Otherworld depicted in X of Swords: Creation is exactly that - a vast setting accessible from the mainstream Marvel Universe but complete with its own rules and characters.
Excalibur's depiction of Otherworld's magic has hinged on the eldritch motto "as above, so below," and that's a phrase that's equally applicable to the relationship between Marvel's comics and the MCU. While the MCU has a tendency to redefine Marvel canon - fixing certain members of the Guardians of the Galaxy as essential members, for instance, or making Hank Pym surplus to requirements - the comics also influence the movies, with constant rumors that elements of Marvel management consider the comics a test bed for new cinematic ideas.
While Disney have plenty of major properties, there's an opening for the next big fantasy along the lines of Game of Thrones - something audiences have proved they're open to in a big way. It's here that the Black Knight and the brief bloom of Weirdworld come back into play. While Otherworld is a distinct location with a much more fixed set of rules than the anarchic Weirdworld, it's worth noting that the Black Knight was Marvel's first choice as a modern emissary into the world of dungeons and dragons-esque fantasy. With the character set to appear in the upcoming MCU movie Eternals - played by Kit Harington, no less, of Game of Thrones fame - alongside a cast of characters whose most defining trait is inspiring modern myths of gods and monsters, it may be that the establishment of Otherworld in the comics is a sign that Marvel are gearing up to pursue the fantasy market in a big way.
Whether or not that's the case, fantasy fans can enjoy the sprawling political machinations and sword-and-shield battles still unfolding in Hickman's X of Swords, though perhaps while keeping in mind that if the event does as well as it might, that could be a huge step towards Marvel and Disney bringing the world its next genuinely huge cinematic or televisual fantasy adventure. Move over Game of Thrones, Marvel is ready to enter the great game.