Originally Posted by
AppleJ
Excalibur's sales for September looked solid and it's still being heaped with praise by most of X-Twitter. I really don't see why, but to each their own I guess. So it doesn't seem this book is going anywhere soon.
Which I wouldn't even care a bit about Excalibur's success or lack thereof if Gambit and Rogue weren't trapped here and could just get moved to another book or even have an appearance somewhere else. I'm not even buying X-books anymore, as Excalibur has left me so uninterested in the current plots. It seems like the same 9 or 10 favorite characters are getting multiple appearances and key roles across several books, while Gambit and Rogue are playing second fiddle to Betsy and Apocalypse in Excalibur.
They could easily leave this book and never be missed. They hardly contribute anything. Even though Gambit has some obvious ties to the supernatural through the Thieves Guild and other stories from his solo series, none of that is used or referenced a bit. Even though he's considered one of the top characters for hand-to-hand combat, Tini has him clumsy, tripping over himself and whining while all the action sequences mostly take place off panel anyway. Clearly she has no interest in writing him properly. He's just a foil to prop the other characters up. And though Rogue has led her own X-teams and her own Avengers team and has no trouble thinking for herself and going against orders, she's somehow happy to follow Betsy around (who has been a terrible leader so far) and do all of Apocalypse's highly questionable bidding. Even the Council was all, you did what? Wth? Rogue isn't a killer and she isn't an idiot, but in Excalibur she seems to just be swept along in this mess.
Can anyone tell me why Gambit and Rogue are on this team? What is their motivation, as characters, to be here? It's not doing anything for them. It's not funny, it hasn't built on their continuity, we don't get to see them contributing anything significant or even just being amazing as the team muscle ... what about this book is fun or interesting for fans of these two characters? We've gotten a few cute or sexy scenes, but far.and in between them being kind of awful. I just don't get it. Like probably 90%+ of the Gambit and Rogue fans I know dislike this book and have completely dropped it. It's basically killed this thread which used to be full of enthusiasm and excitement. All we have is the beautiful Marcus To art.
I'm so over this book and trying to be patient with it. What is my incentive for picking up the issue after XoS? That MAYBE we'll get an issue without Apocalypse and Betsy sucking all the air out of the room? That maybe Tini will bother to read up on her other characters and write them with any little bit of accuracy or enthusiasm?