Maybe it’s a “meta-message.” Osborn and the Avengers are the big-time Marvel book, so they’re linked to the greater reading public. Which doesn’t know that SWORD existed. Oh, that Bendis – always subtle!

HEY-OOOOOOO!

Greg — I like that idea, but Bendis probably wrote this script so long ago that it seems unlikely…

aww! not fair! I know!

That’s funny. And it’s unfortunate that it is funny.

Maybe it’s alluding to future events? Yet another mind-wipe for old Normy?
~sigh~ Yeah, I doubt it also. Just Bendis being lazy and not updating an ancient script probably.

Maybe Agent Brand is using hyperbole?

I think it’s beyond ridiculous to accuse Bendis of being lazy.

A classic “rimshot followed by cricket sounds, followed by an explanation (‘you know, because it’s not selling too well…’)” style joke.

I don’t get it.

The comic, I mean.

We’ll be here all night, ladies and gentlemen.

Well, nobody did.

That’s why SWORD got canceled.

(Osborn doesn’t know about an operation, living on a big satellite in space, with the ability to shoot lasers at Earth? And people thought pre-9/11 security was lax…)

Ba-Dam-Ching!

Haha! Very well done.

Brilliant. Tragically.

Spider-Woman was clearly written months, if not a year ago. They are still using Yelena Belova as the leader of the Thunderbolts. That book is so slow and almost nothing happens.

And the worst part is how much Bendis has bitched and whined about how much he loves the Spider-Woman character. I suppose it’s gotta be the downside of his doing 50 books a month.

Sick Burn

Aren’t editors supposed to prevent mistakes like this?

I miss the days when Marvel books would pay attention to what happens in other Marvel books, even the ones nobody was buying.

Aren’t editors supposed to prevent mistakes like this?

You mean by adding a note to the recap page explaining when this issue takes place with respect to other titles?

SWORD has a book, now?

I mean the editor is supposed to notice if a story contradicts another series and order the writer to make changes.

Does anyone remember the first time Norman is confirmed to actually know about S.W.O.R.D.? He clearly knows about them as of the current S.W.O.R.D. series, but as someone touched on above, the Thunderbolts lineup includes two characters who are no longer on the team, and omits two characters who joined something like nine months ago. I’m pretty sure Spider-Woman is supposed to be set within a few days to a week of the end of Secret Invasion, certainly before Osborn assigned Gyrich to S.W.O.R.D. – it’s possible this story was set before Norman Osborn found out about S.W.O.R.D. at all, but if he’s shown knowing about them during Secret Invasion and I just forgot about it, then, um, never mind.

“SWORD has a book, now?”

Not anymore.