X-Lapsed, Episode 015 – Excalibur #1 (2019)
X-Lapsed, Episode 015
Excalibur (vol.4) #1 (December, 2019)
“Verse I: The Accolade of Betsy Braddock”
Writer – Tini Howard
Art – Marcus To
Colors – Erick Arciniega
Letters – VC’s Cory Petit
“Verse I: The Accolade of Betsy Braddock”
Art – Marcus To
Colors – Erick Arciniega
Letters – VC’s Cory Petit
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Jonathan Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White Cebulski
Cover Price: $4.99
On-Sale: $4.99
Cover Price: $4.99
On-Sale: $4.99
We continue “forging” our new Dawn with a look at the first issue of Excalibur. We got more Braddocks than you can shake a shiny sword at… and a fun little team of mutants along for the ride. Next stop: Otherworld!
Prepare for LARPers, witchbreeds, sleepy flora, and my many attempts at imitating Mallory’s boyfriend Nick from Family Ties! (please listen anyway)
Also: Some great listener mail, which is helping me learn to see both the forest AND the trees!
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@acecomics / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
chrisandreggie.com
chrisandreggie.podbean.com
Excalibur is a difficult book for me.
I have a certain amount of affection for some of the characters and I like to see comics set in the UK. But a lot of the characters in this team have been broken by continuity.
Rogue was one of my favourite X-Men right up until that Jim Lee issue where she throws herself at Gambit at the picnic. I know I lost this battle decades ago but I really can't see the Rogue I knew falling for Gambit.
I really enjoy the Captain Britain mythos. The Alan Davis issues where Betsy became the Captain and lost her eyes were fantastic. The idea of her reclaiming that role and succeeding this time is very appealing.
Apocalypse has been fascinating in HOXPOX so I wanted to see what happened next.
Jubilee had been slightly rescued in the Generation X run by Christina Strain where they removed her vampire curse but also manoeuvred her into a mentorship role.
Marcus To is a great artist. I remember seeing his early work thinking "here's another sub-Madureira manga stylist " but he's really grown into a phenomenal talent. Tini Howard has written stuff I've enjoyed, too, so that was hopeful.
Unfortunately they fell into every trap I saw ahead. I become more and more convinced that Americans should not be allowed to write comics set in the UK. Creating stories that combine Arthurian legend with the modern UK is not easy. Paul Cornell managed it with MI:13 and Kieron Gillen managed it with Once and Future but most fail. Even Alan Davis chose to make Merlin and Roma into sci-fi characters to make it work.
I have to admire the bravery of attempting to try and combine all these things but I just can't accept stories where my homeland is presented as being a place where the Queen and Captain Britain are keeping us safe from evil witches and druids.
By the way, I demand that you keep saying Apocalypse's new name like that. I like to imagine he's using his shape changing powers to do the most enormous Fonz-esque thumbs up every time you say it.