Height: 6'3"
Weight: 180 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown
Andrei Rostov was a college boyfriend of Natasha Romanoff before she became the Black Widow.
SWORD OF JUDGEMENT
Membership: Achmed, Agamemnon (Andrei Rostov), Youssef, and an unspecified number of unidentified operatives
Purpose: The Sword of Judgement is a well-funded multi-national, multi-cultural terrorist organization. In Agamemnon's words, they are "revolutionaries, the avenging sons of all the exploited peoples of the world, gathered to wreak bloody vengeance on our oppressors."
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), Protectorate (Powersurge/Illarion Ramskov, Starlight/Tania Belinskaya, Vanguard/Nikolai Krylenko), S.H.I.E.L.D., Thing (Ben Grimm)
Base of Operations: Mobile; formerly Operation Poseidon
First Appearance: Marvel Two-in-One I#10 (July, 1975)
History:
(Marvel Two-in-One I#10 (fb)) - The past of the Sword of Judgement terrorist group is unrevealed. Along
with conventional firearms and explosives, they also possessed laser
pistols and sonic rifles, which could stun or destroy targets. They
somehow acquired or built advanced aircraft, as well as a floating
ocean base and the world's most powerful thermonuclear device (see
comments) -- their plan was to lower the bomb into the Atlantic Ocean
and detonate it, to create a huge radioactive tidal wave that
would destroy North America's eastern coastal cities.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#10 (fb) - BTS) - The Black Widow somehow became aware of the Sword and their plans, and she began investigating them.
(Marvel Two-in-One I#10) - A team of five Sword agents (including Achmed, Youssef, and an unidentified Frenchman) pursued the Black Widow in a car-chase through Central Park. But the Widow wrecked her vehicle when she accidentally hit a pedestrian -- the Thing, who was taking a walk with Alicia Masters. The Thing was knocked unconscious, and the Widow herself was stunned by the sonic rifle of one of the Sword agents. The incapacitated Black Widow and Thing were loaded into a pick-up chopper, and the Sword agents transported them to Operation Poseidon, the group's North Atlantic base.
When the pair revived, Agamemnon, the Sword's leader, showed them around Operation Poseidon -- he informed them of the Sword's catastrophic objective before locking them in an electrified cell.
However, the Thing and Black Widow escaped captivity, and during their struggle with Sword operatives, Agamemnon tossed a grenade at the bomb's winch mechanism; the resultant explosion snapped the cable that was lowering the nuclear device into the ocean, and the bomb went into free-fall. But the Thing managed to grab hold of the broken cable before the bomb dropped any farther -- as he slowly and strenuously pulled the nuclear device back up, the Widow defeated the Sword's agents; afterward, the pair called S.H.I.E.L.D. to come in and arrest the terrorists.
(Darkstar & the Winter Guard#2) - After repelling from a hovering aircraft, agents of the Sword of Judgment (see comments) attacked St. Petersburg, Russia; but they were thwarted by the Protectorate.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, Bob Brown, and Klaus Janson.
It's spelled "Sword of Judgement" in the MTIO issue. Those who prefer the arguably standard American "Judgment" spelling should take it up with the original author.
It was later spelled "Sword of Judgment" in the group's next appearance (see third image)--Ron Fredricks
The Sword of Judgement did not appear before MTIO I#10. Since they owned a floating base and a huge H-Bomb, they obviously were incredibly well-funded. It seems unlikely that all the group's operatives were on the North Atlantic base; for that matter, we don't know whether Agamemnon led the entire Sword, or if he led just Operation Poseidon. If any Marvel author needs a unique terrorist organization, the Sword of Judgement seems ripe for a comeback.Maybe their Operation Poseidon base and H-Bomb, along with the rest of their exotic weapons, were originally provided by They Who Wield Power -- a bomb with the explosive force of hundreds of gigatons would have transmitted a heckuva lot of violent geophysical activity through the earth's crust, which is what They needed to power their Sacred Flame of Life.--Ron Fredricks
New images and more by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by SQUEAK.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Sword of Judgement has no known connections to:
Agamenon (Andrei Rostov) has no known connections to:
Operation Poseidon has no known connections to:
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Height: 6'3" Andrei Rostov was a college boyfriend of Natasha Romanoff before she became the Black Widow. |
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A self-described kind and gentle man, Andrei became an ardent revolutionary following an unrevealed trauma, and he joined the Sword of Judgement as Agamemnon. He led Operation Poseidon, which involved the undersea detonation of a mammoth H-Bomb, to create a giant radioactive tidal wave that would destroy the east coast cities of North America. When the Thing and Black Widow interfered with his plans, Rostov threw a grenade at the winch mechanism that was lowering the nuclear device into the Atlantic Ocean; the cable snapped, and the bomb went into free-fall, but the Thing managed to grab hold of it before the bomb's timer was triggered. While the Thing worked at pulling the bomb back up, Agamemnon confronted the Black Widow, and he was about to strike her with his sword; however the Thing used the other end of the bomb's cable to strike Agamemnon with a whip-lash, and he was presumably arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. (Comment: Agamemnon got a brief 1/3 page profile in the 2004 Marvel Encyclopedia#6: Fantastic Four. It is unrevealed if Rostov was the leader of the assault on St. Petersburg in Darkstar & the Winter Guard#2 [see third image of main profile].) --Marvel Two-in-One I#10 |
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Operation Poseidon was used to refer both to the Sword of Judgement's floating ocean base in the North Atlantic, and to their whole program of detonating the huge H-Bomb. |
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The bomb supposedly had an explosive yield in the hundreds of gigatons. It was to be lowered into the Atlantic Ocean to a depth of 3.5 miles, at which point a hydrostatic trigger would arm it and activate its timer; an hour later, the bomb would detonate and unleash a ball of man-made hellfire far hotter than the surface of the sun. From that fireball would come a tsunami, 1000 feet high and moving 500 miles an hour. The United States would bear the brunt of the radioactive tidal wave as it swept over the country's east coast, leaving only an irradiated wasteland in its wake. But the Thing and Black Widow battled Agamemnon and his Sword of Judgement operatives. When Agamemnon used a grenade to destroy the winch mechanism that was lowering the bomb, the Thing used his superhuman strength to pull it up manually. After all the Sword of Judgement's operatives were defeated by the Thing and Black Widow, the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D. were called in to secure the facility. (Comment: What did S.H.I.E.L.D. ever do with the floating base? It must be still out there somewhere, being used for something. And what about that giant H-bomb?) --Marvel Two-in-One I#10 |
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images: (without ads)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p4, pan6
(Sword of Judgement operatives capture Black Widow and Thing)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p4, pan3 (Sword of Judgement operative with
sonic rifle)
Darkstar & the Winter Guard#2, p2, pan2 (Sword of Judgement
operatives attack St. Petersburg)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p6, pan1 (Agamemnon holds Black Widow hostage)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p7, pan2 (Agamemnon tells Thing and Black
Widow about Sword of Judgement's mission)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p17, pan4 (Agamemnon, about to strike Black
Widow with his sword)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p17, pan6 (Agamemnon, struck by bomb's cable)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p6, pan3 (Operation Poseidon's
base)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p7, pan3 (Agamemnon shows Operation Poseidon's
bomb to Thing and Black Widow)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p8, pan1 (Agamemnon explains Operation
Poseidon's purpose)
Marvel Two-in-One I#10, p8, pan3 (Agamemnon predicts result of bomb's
detonation)
Appearances:
Marvel Two-in-One I#10 (July 1975) - Chris Claremont (writer), Bob
Brown (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Len Wein (editor)
Marvel Encyclopedia#6: Fantastic Four (2004) - Jeff Youngquist
(editor)
Darkstar & the Winter Guard#2 (September, 2010) - David Gallaher
(writer), Steve Ellis (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Jordan D. White
(editor)
First Posted: 07/03/2007
Last updated: 08/19/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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