Cosmic X-Men title SWORD welcomes former Young Guns artist to replace Valerio Schiti

SWORD #5 variant cover
(Image credit: Stefano Caselli (Marvel Comics))

Former Marauders artist Stefano Caselli will be taking over Marvel Comics' SWORD title with July 28's SWORD #7. 

SWORD #7 cover by Valerio Schiti (Image credit: Valerio Schiti (Marvel Comics))

"THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE… The Hellfire Gala is over... but not all the guests have gone home," reads Marvel's description of SWORD #7. "Victor Von Doom is staying for dinner. He's chatting to an old friend in a very new setting - about thrones, empires, magic, Mysterium...and the LAST ANNIHILATION!"

SWORD #7 is the beginning of this X-Men cosmic side's tie-in with 'The Last Annihilation' event with series writer Al Ewing's other cosmic title, Guardians of the Galaxy.

'The Last Annihilation' is an upcoming crossover in which several of Marvel's cosmic titles such as SWORD and Guardians are pulled into the proverbial orbit of an incoming threat that Ewing describes as "an enemy nobody ever suspected readying an attack that'll either cement all those frail alliances or tear them to pieces."

"We're going to see SWORD acknowledge that threat, address it, and in true Abigail Brand fashion, use it," Ewing told Newsarama recently about 'The Last Annihilation.' "And there are going to be some additional stories showing how this impacts elsewhere in the tapestry of Marvel Space - how do Wiccan and Hulkling deal with it? What about the other space civilizations? It's a big story told from multiple angles - but if you just want to see it from one angle, that's okay too."

SWORD #5 variant cover by Stefano Caselli (Image credit: Stefano Caselli (Marvel Comics))

With SWORD #7, Stefano Caselli will replace the original series artist Valerio Schiti. Schiti is moving over to be the lead artist of the event series Inferno by writer Jonathan Hickman - although Caselli and RB Silva are also listed as drawing portions of the fall event.

Caselli is a veteran Marvel artist, working pretty much exclusively for the company since 2006. In 2008 Caselli was named one of Marvel's 'Young Guns' artists - a moniker describing the company's self-appointed future stars. He recently finished up a run on the X-Men spin-off title Marauders, and previously worked on West Coast Avengers, Invincible Iron Man, Avengers, Avengers World, Amazing Spider-Man, Secret Warriors, and Avengers: The Initiative. He recently drew a variant cover to SWORD #5, seen here.

SWORD #7 goes on sale July 28. There's no SWORD issue planned for August.

Keep track of this and all the new X-Men comics, graphic novels, and collections in 2021 and beyond.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)