What is S.A.B.E.R. in ‘The Marvels’ and how is it different from S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D.?

It’s safe to say Secret Invasion didn’t set the world alight. After a promising start it descended into absolute nonsense, with the season finale ending up as the worst-reviewed thing Marvel Studios has ever released. But it’s onwards and upwards for Nick Fury, who ended his adventure by heading back up to his cozy S.A.B.E.R. space station ready for The Marvels.

But we already have S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D., so what the heck is S.A.B.E.R.?

What is S.A.B.E.R.?

Spider-Man: Far From Home wrapped up with a confusing tease of Fury aboard a space station, after it’d been revealed that the character we’d seen throughout the movie was a Skrull in disguise. In Secret Invasion, we learned Fury had made his home on the S.A.B.E.R. station in orbit around Earth. In that show, President Ritson described it as “the most complex aerospace defense system in the history of mankind.”

In the comics, S.W.O.R.D. stands for Sentient Weapon Observation and Response Division, deals with any intergalactic threats the Earth might face and is a direct partner to S.H.I.E.L.D. (the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division), who deal with Earth-based problems. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t around in the MCU anymore, but you’re right to scratch your head and wonder where S.A.B.E.R. fits in.

What’s the difference between S.A.B.E.R. and S.W.O.R.D.?

The MCU already has a division that deals with extraterrestrial and extra-dimensional threats in S.W.O.R.D. (as seen in WandaVision) so how is S.A.B.E.R. distinct? S.A.B.E.R. is unique to the MCU, has never appeared on the pages of a comic book, and we don’t even know what the acronym stands for, but it’s Ritson’s comments indicate it’s there to defend Earth from events that arise in space rather than extra-terrestrials already on Earth.

So, S.H.I.E.L.D. will handle Earth, S.W.O.R.D. will handle anything from space on Earth, and S.A.B.E.R. will be proactive in protecting the Earth from space in general.

We’ll see S.A.B.E.R. in action in The Marvels later this week, so hopefully some more specifics on how it operates will soon be apparent. Here’s hoping it can fulfill its mission, as space in the MCU looks like a perilous place. And, well, let’s hope they’ve got a file on their systems somewhere marked “Galactus”.