X-Lapsed, Episode 144 – Excalibur #16 (2021)
X-Lapsed, Episode One Hundred Forty-Four
Excalibur (vol.4) #16 (February, 2021)
“They Keep Killing Braddocks”
Writer – Tini Howard
Art – Marcus To
Colors – Erick Arciniega
Letters – VC’s Ariana Maher
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: December 23, 2020
Heyyy, it’s an issue of Excalibur from after our X-Tended Stay in Otherworld during #EcksofTens… any guesses where we’re going to be headed today?
If you said “Why back to Otherworld, of course!”… well, I mean – where else would we be going? It’s more squishing of our square-peg X-Characters into the round-magic-hole…
Ahem… we’ve got great mailbag though!
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
Reading Excalibur 16 I find myself wondering if Tini Howard has been listening to X-Lapsed. We see a number of characters questioning the direction of the series and Rictor ineffectively defending it. It is always a bad sign when your characters are criticising your plot. Ultimately the search for Betsy is the first time I have truly felt there is a legitimate reason for these characters to want to go to Otherworld. It's also nice to see Rogue as the leader. I was never convinced by Betsy as a team leader. It seems she was given that role because she was Captain Britain as though everyone forgot that her beautiful blond brother Brian was not the leader of the original Excalibur.
It's interesting to hear you compare Maggie to Valeria Richards. There is definitely an element of her in the character but I saw her as more similar to Winter from Miracleman. Maybe it's the Alan Moore connections between Captain Britain and Miracleman being fresh in my mind from reading your blogs on Captain Britain but I see Alan Moore's influence all over Excalibur.
Of course my main reaction to Maggie is that she is clearly created by Americans as no British person would call a child Maggie as it instantly evokes Margaret Thatcher. People have visceral reactions to that name that would make it a real albatross around the neck of any child.
You questioned the use of the title Gloriana for Meggan. This comes from Captain Britain and MI:13 where Paul Cornell linked her very specifically to Celtic legends. It's a great series but I think it ultimately harmed the concept of Otherworld by tying Roma, Merlin and Saturnyne to Arthurian legend whereas before they had more in common with the sci-fi concepts like the Guardians in Green Lantern. Hopefully the search for Betsy will be a fun hunt through alternate realities and not a D&D campaign.
I should end with the positive. My first reaction upon reading this issue was "what a load of well drawn nonsense" and I maintain that Marcus To is doing phenomenal work. If only he had a better story to illustrate.
Anyway until Mr Sinister goes off capes, Make Mine X-Lapsed!