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

[silence.]

I enjoyed this issue, probably more so than last week's offering which is surprising for me.

Can someone explain the magic to me? I didn't quite get how magic has changed, but I gathered that the coven in the end was basically an anti-mutant magic users coven.

[Hi-Fi]

I am curious about the resurrections protocol. Like they didn't even bother to inform Betsy that they were bringing Jamie back. lol

Who decides who's next in line?

I want some data pages on that ASAP.

[powerpax]

It wasn't my favorite book so far (I agree the handling of Rogue, Gambit and Jubilee so far feels a bit blah so far, but they have been thrown together), and I still think the art should be edgier, sue me. But I did like it plenty - I love Betsy, love Apocalypse as the elder priest/wizard, love all the exploration of the magical world. I just think it could be even weirder. Hopefully it will be. I'm also not convinced Rogue or Gambit or possibly Jubilee would be suited to a book like that.

[djoki96]

Selene being in this book would make more sense imo

Yep. But, then again, since Selene pretty much has to drain life force to stay alive, most writers probably don't want to bother with trying to make hero into a nominally anti-heroic type. She would have been great for X-Force, though. Then again, Jean and Hank are in the team, so they're probably going to complain about X-Force's lethal methods.

[powerpax]

I enjoyed this issue, probably more so than last week's offering which is surprising for me.

Can someone explain the magic to me? I didn't quite get how magic has changed, but I gathered that the coven in the end was basically an anti-mutant magic users coven.

I still don't understand how they can be affiliated with Akkaba. I'm not that familiar but the only Akkaba I know has always worshipped Apocalypse.

[Graphicisnovel]

Since when is Apocalypse involved with magic? I don't think it fits the character.

Since they lumped him into the Krakoa origin, with what appears to be Limbo, in House of X.

His science has always been "beyond" the reader so it would make it magic i suppose.

but i dont like this direction for him either. good call on having using Selene instead, woudlda been cool. But I guess if Apocalypse is ancient he woulda dabbled in magic?

[powerpax]

Yep. But, then again, since Selene pretty much has to drain life force to stay alive, most writers probably don't want to bother with trying to make hero into a nominally anti-heroic type. She would have been great for X-Force, though. Then again, Jean and Hank are in the team, so they're probably going to complain about X-Force's lethal methods.

I suspect we will be hearing from Selene very soon.

[Graphicisnovel]

It wasn't my favorite book so far (I agree the handling of Rogue, Gambit and Jubilee so far feels a bit blah so far, but they have been thrown together), and I still think the art should be edgier, sue me. But I did like it plenty - I love Betsy, love Apocalypse as the elder priest/wizard, love all the exploration of the magical world. I just think it could be even weirder. Hopefully it will be. I'm also not convinced Rogue or Gambit or possibly Jubilee would be suited to a book like that.

yeah i was like, these characters dont even have shadows.....

[djoki96]

I suspect we will be hearing from Selene very soon.

I sure as hell hope so.

[jwatson]

I wonder if otherworld is potentially the other half of krakoa. I don't know anything about otherworld.

[Andru]

I find it funny/odd/lazy that a book about "mutant magic" does not include...uh, MAGIK?!

I get that Hickman probably had dibs on her for New Mutants, but maybe include a reason...a simple throwaway line...why someone named MAGIK is not involved in all the MAGIC.

[Romy Ship]

Yeah, I’m confused. She needs a power dampener again? She learned how to control her powers in MMX - which got all jacked up to a wonky level so if Rogue needs a power dampener shouldn’t she be currently absorbing the fuck outta everyone?

So like did Rogue die off panel and get brought back with a memory reset prior to MMX? JFC we’ll never get away from “MAH POWERS!!” storyline with her.

Ugh. I guess. I hope we're wrong. I want to be oh-so-wrong.

Power control is 1 thing that I was sure we won`t see again in next few years. Maybe Tini didn`t check MMX or Rogue is like Archangel.

Yeah this is highly doubtful though, Purp. There's no way "she didn't know or realize"

Yeah, I didn't love this lol.

I feel like the story is interesting (even though I'm not really into the fantasy aspect, the plot did engage me), but I feel like the pacing wasn't really the best and the characters (excluding Psylocke and Apocalypse) had no personality in their voices. Trouble is that, while I love Besty, I don't really care for Brian and his legacy. But I understand that this is on me and not on the writing.

It might be too early to tell, but it looks like Rogue and Gambit are there merely as plot devices (someone to be saved and someone to throw doubt at Apocalypse), and that feeling could very well have been avoided if we've been given some meat to their scenes.

Plus why are Psylocke and Rogue trusting Apocalypse so easily, especially considering what happened to Warren and Gambit by his hands?

It just didn't really work for me.

BUT

I'm very happy for Psylocke's reemergence! It's very deserving and Tini obviously has a great grasp of her voice. That final page was so cool and gorgeous. Marcus To's art is really amazing and I'm so happy he's drawing this book.

I feel like my mind will change with issue #2, when we'll finally have the team together and we'll be able to see more personality in these characters. But so far, I'm kinda sad because I wanted to LOVE this.

Well put my dude. Yeah... wanted to like this so much more than I wound up being able to. I'm sticking it out but damn, I hope things start to feel authentic soon. With Rogue asleep at the wheel at least I won't be annoyed by her robotic existence. I hope we see more of level headed Gambit in the next few issues. I hate his impulsive actions because they usually make him look stupid and I don't want a badly written Gambit, darn it!

[Su_Whisterfield]

Huge CB fan, right from since Alan Moore was writing it, so I loved all the Braddock/Otherworld stuff to bits.
Jamie, being Jamie, and saner than we’ve seen for a while but not safe to have around. Someone remind me, was good old James Jaspers a mutant?
Quite like Apocalypse being all mystical, even though it’s a new slant for him, but unsure where Gambit/Rogue/Jubilee fit in. Good characters, but not magically linked as far as I recall, hopefully the author will have a good reason to use them and tie it all together.
Apocalypse says everyone is off making babies at the big mutant o/r/g/y party, so that’s now canon and we should be knee deep in nappies in nine months time.

[Tenebrae]

I like the strong direction for Psylocke. I like how magic is beginning to be explored though it being associated through Apocalypse is a new one. The dialogue was fine and I thought the characters were mostly written well. I found the otherworld stuff pretty generic fantasy stuff and the convenience of the plot pulling everyone together was not as organic as it could have been. I'm excited by the prospect of magic being explored and connected to mutants but the execution was not that exciting. I'll try out the next couple of issues and see how it goes.

[Glio]

X-Men and Marauders got me hooked but I am very confused with Excalibur. I thought it was a very chaotic comic, I don't know if I haven't read much about Captain Britain before.