Excalibur [01] : The Accolade of Betsy Braddock *spoilers*

[Tenebrae]

They rehabilitated Proteus and Vulcan. Same principle.

Rehabilitated may not be too kind a word. It's more likely Xavier just altered their minds.

[jwatson]

I think witchbreed is simply a nod to how Neil Gaiman called mutants in Marvel 1602. People in the Middle Ages do not have a word for the concept of "mutation" so they call mutants "witchbreed."

Ahhh ok, thanks. that makes sense.

[zinderel]

I liked this issue! Old school Excalibur is one of my favorite X-titles, so I was stoked to hear about this title!

Few things:
- MAN, do I hate the ‘precociously intelligent toddler’ trope. Kids are dumb and cruel and selfish. If you can’t write them like that, don’t create a kid. Stop making toddlers smarter than adults...! It’s stupid! UGH...
- I agree that the man in the suit was likely Pete Wisdom. Or at least, I hope we’ll see him eventually.
- Jamie Braddock being back couldn’t possibly come back to bite anyone in the ass, right...?
- when did Avalon become Otherworld? In the old run, Captain Britain’s power came from the Starlight Citadel, and Otherworld was, though magical, not overly reliant on Arthurian tropes to function, even despite Merlin’s presence. I guess that terrible Mini with Mastermind trying to take over is still canon, huh? Damn...
- Coven Akkaba seems to be at odds with Clan Akkaba. It’s not a case of ‘as above/so below’, but maybe it’s more ‘two sides of a coin’, with the Clan supporting mutants (at least, the ‘strong’ ones) and the Coven hating them? Still seems odd to me, but it’s only issue 1.
- Apocalypse as a mystic works for me. He fought alongside Imhotep against the Brood invasion of ancient Egypt that gave rise to SHIELD, after all, and being as old as he is, with the history of interactions with gods like Thor and monsters like Dracula, ‘Mystic-Priest’ Apocalypse - sorry, • ••[A]•• • - makes sense. He’s never been JUST about brute force, after all.
- Does anyone else worry that Apocalypse is only playing along with Krakoa in order to regain his Horsemen? I am reminded of DC’s push regarding Darkseid joining the Justice League, only to have that turn out inevitably, with Darkseid betraying the heroes as soon as he got the power he was seeking. I’m far more interested in reading En Sabah Nur with a new lease on life than I am in seeing a return to the generic world-conquering supervillain, but I guess we’ll see.
- I’m curious what exactly Rogue absorbed from Otherworld. It’s good to see them establish her role (and thus, Gambits) early, and it also makes me happy that, by taking her out early, we get to see Gambit shine without her for a bit. I hope the writer/editors haven’t forgotten MMX, though.
- Like others, I don’t see a point yet for Jubilee in this title, and think that we shoulda swapped her for Magic for this title, but...it’s early yet.
- I’m excited to see how Rictor will fit in to all of this, and what his and Shatterstar’s relationship is like, post Shatterstar mini.
- It’s amusing -and fitting - to me to see mutants referred to as Witchbreed again. 1602 appears to still be canon-ish! I wonder if ‘killcrops’ will pop up hereabouts too...

[Glio]

Rehabilitated may not be too kind a word. It's more likely Xavier just altered their minds.

With Vulcan it is likely. With Proteus it is specified that his mental instability was a consequence of the burn out to which he subjected the bodies. Now that he has unlimited bodies, the problem is over.

[CGAR]

I dont really see Magik popping up in other magic titles. And I don't find her neccessary going by what's in the issue everything kind of happened real quick. And Magik got years to shine. And although I like her a lot. She is low key OP. And she basically is in charge of Limbo right now. Isn't she?

Apocalypse being into magic makes sense. He's been around forever. So he should be knowledgable in all things.

I would like to see Selene in this but I think she may be in play with other writers.

I do understand the frustrations regarding Gambit and Rogue so I hope the writer takes that into consideration real quick. But I'm glad for now its just Betsy Braddock getting focus for an issue.

I hope people give this a shot and have a little more patience. We can't be told everything right away.

[Filthy Mutie]

It's amusing to see X-Men fans complaining about not knowing the history or continuity of certain things--like Captain Britain and Otherworld--and making that a mark against the book. I've never seen this before. The depth and breadth of continuity is part of what makes the X-Men line.

Same with pointedly ongoing plots, like the witches and Clan Akkaba. Like, it's clear there's more story to be told there in this very book, no?

[jwatson]

It's amusing to see X-Men fans complaining about not knowing the history or continuity of certain things--like Captain Britain and Otherworld--and making that a mark against the book. I've never seen this before. The depth and breadth of continuity is part of what makes the X-Men line.

Same with pointedly ongoing plots, like the witches and Clan Akkaba. Like, it's clear there's more story to be told there in this very book, no?

It's not going to be so amusing when the numbers drop because people can't get into something they want to get into. but eh. This story doesn't feel like it leaped out of the events of Hox and Pox it feels like it leaped out the pages of a story decades ago and is being addressed via the lense of the new status quo.

[Triniking1234]

Where did it say that Rogue lost control of her powers?

Apocalypse is a magic guy now?
Egg.
Brian + Eyelashes = Betsy.
Morgan beat Brian too easy.
That transition to Rogue getting captured by the weed was horrid.

6/10.

[djoki96]

I dont really see Magik popping up in other magic titles. And I don't find her neccessary going by what's in the issue everything kind of happened real quick. And Magik got years to shine. And although I like her a lot. She is low key OP. And she basically is in charge of Limbo right now. Isn't she?

Apocalypse being into magic makes sense. He's been around forever. So he should be knowledgable in all things.

I would like to see Selene in this but I think she may be in play with other writers.

I do understand the frustrations regarding Gambit and Rogue so I hope the writer takes that into consideration real quick. But I'm glad for now its just Betsy Braddock getting focus for an issue.

I hope people give this a shot and have a little more patience. We can't be told everything right away.

This. I know some people dislike being kept in the dark about certain things but it's far better than oversharing. There's a huge difference between exposition and oversharing after all.

[Emesem]

This was a bit of a mess. All the magic occult stuff reminded me of Gerber Defenders but not necessarily in a good way. I’ll be skipping this one for sure for now.

[djoki96]

Where did it say that Rogue lost control of her powers?

Apocalypse is a magic guy now?
Egg.
Brian + Eyelashes = Betsy.
Morgan beat Brian too easy.
That transition to Rogue getting captured by the weed was horrid.

6/10.

I have to disagree here. Morgan is crazy over powered in MU. Her easily beating Brian makes sense.

[Glio]

It's amusing to see X-Men fans complaining about not knowing the history or continuity of certain things--like Captain Britain and Otherworld--and making that a mark against the book. I've never seen this before. The depth and breadth of continuity is part of what makes the X-Men line.

Same with pointedly ongoing plots, like the witches and Clan Akkaba. Like, it's clear there's more story to be told there in this very book, no?

However, I think this could have been explained much better, especially for a number 1. House of X and Powers of X for example, even with drastic changes, only require basic knowledge of the franchise in order to enter. Same X-Men and Marauders.

[jwatson]

Where did it say that Rogue lost control of her powers?

Apocalypse is a magic guy now?
Egg.
Brian + Eyelashes = Betsy.
Morgan beat Brian too easy.
That transition to Rogue getting captured by the weed was horrid.

6/10.

Gambit was talking about getting frisky and rogue said she is not wearing a collar in paradise. She also had to take her gloves off to use her power where we saw in MMX and Captain Marvel she doesn't need to touch the green power signature comes out.

[JamJams]

This is the first book I feel was.....ehhhh? It had a lot of ups for me but also a lot of downs.
The biggest up is Betsy being Betsy. Ever since Uncanny X-Force she's been one of my favorite X-Men and they wrote her with the same level of outsiderness here.
The downs was the magical premise. It feels disjointed from the rest of the Krakoan-era stories that have been heavily focused on technology and science.
But I appreciate that they are trying to go in a new direction with this series and that they tried to ease us into the direction via Psylocke and Apocalypse.
Another down was a lot of the character voices outside of Betsy felt 'off'.

But as long as it remains Betsy-centric I'll keep reading because I did think that was one of the strong suits of the book. It also made me wonder if Rogue and Gambit brought their cats since they didn't seem to have a place to live yet.

[Daedra]

It's not going to be so amusing when the numbers drop because people can't get into something they want to get into. but eh. This story doesn't feel like it leaped out of the events of Hox and Pox it feels like it leaped out the pages of a story decades ago and is being addressed via the lense of the new status quo.

The info is out there just a couple of links away, this not the 20th century anymore.