Abigail Brand (real name Abigail Thanriaguiaxus) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday, the character first appeared in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #3 (September 2004). Abigail Brand belongs to the subspecies of humans called mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. She is the Commander of counterterrorism and intelligence agency S.W.O.R.D.
Publication history
Abigail Brand debuted in Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #3 (September 2004), created by writer Joss Whedon and artist John Cassaday. She appeared in the 2020 Empyre: Avengers Aftermath series. She appeared in the 2022 X-Men Red series, by writer Al Ewing and artist Stefano Caselli.
Fictional character biography
Origin
Abigail Brand is the commanding officer of S.W.O.R.D., a S.H.I.E.L.D. offshoot that deals with defending the Earth from extraterrestrial threats. Almost no details about her personal life have been revealed, but she is known to be 28 years old as of the Skrulls' "Secret Invasion."
Ord and The Breakworld
When an alien by the name of Ord came to Earth, convinced that a mutant was destined to destroy his planet, Brand intervened to avert interplanetary war. Brand acquiesced to Ord's plan to avert the destruction of his world by allowing him to create a 'cure' for the mutant 'condition'. It was later revealed that the mutant prophesied to destroy Breakworld was Colossus. Furthermore, statements made by Ord suggest that neutralizing Earth's mutant population may have been just one step in an as-yet unrevealed plan.
After her involvement in this plan became known to the X-Men and to then-S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury, Brand faced a board of inquiry to answer charges against her conduct. She defended her actions on the grounds that averting interplanetary warfare was a responsibility so great as to justify courses of action that would otherwise be considered immoral or illegal. This defense seems to have convinced the board as she was subsequently still in command of S.W.O.R.D.
Despite the antagonistic relationship she and Fury demonstrated toward each other, she was considered a Fury loyalist by Fury's then-successor as S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Maria Hill. Brand made no effort to hide her dislike for Hill, and no further contact between the two has been shown.
In a final attempt to draw Breakworld's forces away from the Earth, Brand had the X-Men (including Colossus), Ord, and Ord's ally Danger teleported aboard a S.W.O.R.D. starship and travel to the Breakworld itself. Ord, with the assistance of Danger, was able to contact his homeworld to alert them of Colossus' location, not knowing that this was all part of Brand's plan. Despite their past differences and Brand's continuing high-handed attitude, she attempted to work with the X-Men to find a solution to the crisis. However, Breakworld forces caught up with the S.W.O.R.D. vessel before Brand had predicted they would, forcing the X-Men and the S.W.O.R.D. strike team to use the ship's escape pods to finish their journey to the Breakworld. Once on the surface, Brand and Henry McCoy (Beast) teamed up and became separated from the other X-Men, at which point they were forced to take shelter in a small cave to avoid a device that was altering the weather to subfreezing temperatures. To McCoy's astonishment, Brand used some type of superhuman power to generate enough heat to keep them alive.
After meeting back up with the rest of the X-Men, Brand, Beast, Wolverine, Armor, Shadowcat, and their new ally Danger were part of an assault on the Breakworld's doomsday device before it could be fired at the Earth. During the ensuing battle against Breakworld soldiers, Brand dove into the path of a laser blast meant for Beast. Severely wounded, she explained to Beast she did it since as a genius he had the greatest chance for disarming the weapon. Her last words to Beast before passing out were to "save the damn world already."