Excalibur #6: Spoilers

[JB]

haha, Jamie is an omega level mutant who can warp reality, a bit crazy, and truly afraid of his sister. She is the only one who has ever gotten away with yelling at him. I actually think Jamie really loves Betsy, she may be the only person in the world that he actually loves, so she is the only one who can get him to do anything.

I do hope going forward we get some family moments with Betsy, Brian, Meggan, Maggie, and Jamie.

I like this too, and even at this point I think Apocalypse's main motives are to get control of all magic and bring his original four horseman back. But after that, honestly, he may end up leading the charge against the demons that are infesting Arrako. Right now only a part of Arrako has returned to Earth, the Arrako Coral, which is probably like a coral reef from the other island. I actually don't think Apocalypse is going to go all villain in this, I think he has his own motives, and I also think he will probably get some people hurt in his single minded race to get his original four horseman back. I expect Apocalypse is going to drag Excalibur into some really big conflict and there is a good chance some of them may die and have to be resurrected, but I think he won't be doing it for any desire to hurt Krakoa, he's just a completionist and he wants his four horseman back, and I think he wants to recover Arrako and unite the islands again, because that will make the mutant nation even more powerful in the world.

Agreed and agreed. Jamie loves the attention Betsy gives him, even if it does come with a slap and a boot heel. He cares for her deeply.

The horsemen are holding back a demon horde and have been doing so for an untold amount of years. The Summoner said soon the walls will break and Arakko will fail.

•-[A]-• is shoring up those walls. Otherworld was the first step. If people choose to ignore this colossal situation and its connection with Excalibur, they have that right. We will be enjoying the ride in the meantime.

[JasmineW]

I thought the ending was Apocalypse making Morgan into a horseman?
Does anyone know the Krakoan for the last data page and the next month page?

I really enjoyed this whole arc, I think the book it great and can't wait to see what happens!

[Foon4000]

I read this on an iPad and somehow missed Gambit's ass. Damn technology.

[Veitha]

I'm a bit late to the party here, but I loved this issue! I didn't think I would like it as much as I actually did.

Art was amazing, more than usual.

Rictor was holding A's arm hehehehhe.

Monarch as the king of Otherworld is going to go wrong in so many ways. His pornstache is hawt tho.

I mean, it was hot before the hot tub scene with Rogue turned me straight. The art again was too good! And I like that she's not pregnant, but I'm pretty sure that this was "foreshadowing" that she actually will be in the future. I hope not.

Brian's costume is super good looking, I wish Betsy had an outfit on the same level. He should go by Lionheart now while she's Captain Britain.

I wonder what he's doing to Morgana.

[Michael Watkins]

Apocalypse gettin' in them guts

[Knightmare]

The only thing worth mentioning about this issue, is that there is not such thing as mutant magic. Apocalypse is creating it by harvesting data from those who have magic. Which makes you wonder, why does he even want it?

[pkingdom]

Agreed and agreed. Jamie loves the attention Betsy gives him, even if it does come with a slap and a boot heel. He cares for her deeply.

The horsemen are holding back a demon horde and have been doing so for an untold amount of years. The Summoner said soon the walls will break and Arakko will fail.

•-[A]-• is shoring up those walls. Otherworld was the first step. If people choose to ignore this colossal situation and its connection with Excalibur, they have that right. We will be enjoying the ride in the meantime.

We've actually gotten very little detail on what the hell is up with Arakko. Demons and hell are pretty common knowledge, so if that's what's coming, why hasn't anyone just talked about it? Why go through such a duplicitous and manipulative way and not tell anyone what's going on? We don't even have confirmation that Apocalypse has told the Quiet Council what's up. If the hordes of Arakko are such a major threat, then this was probably the worst way to go about preparing for it. Far from shoring up their power, this is just going to cause a distracting war with the UK, as solicits confirmed today.

[JB]

We've actually gotten very little detail on what the hell is up with Arakko.

And that, friend, is the point.

[Malachi]

Ok lets do an actual review of this. The scoring will go from 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Five categories: Art, Characters, Plot, Theme and Dialouge&Pace. The last category very much being a working title in this new structure. 2 points max per category.

Art: Marcus Too knows how to paint some beautiful characters. In general the colors work better in nighttime setting since the past issues have felt a bit to plastic and shallow. Missing a sense of depth. Otherworld though just lacks imagination. Nothing about it looks interesting. The design for Brian is bad. It reminds me of the old DC character the Beefeater. Famous during Giffen&DeMatteis JLI run. I'm also picking up those streaks of comedy that Marcus seems to enjoy injecting. Perhaps he would like to try drawing a more comedic book sometime in the future?
A big minus is extremely diaspointing use of mutant powers. We get Rictor doing some groundbending but that is it. With a cast of such interesting powers we get such a vanilla display that I will call it diet vanilla. For people not comfortable with mutants using mutant powers. Heck Gambit didn't even use his powers.
I could dock 0,5 for design and 0,5 for lack of interesting visual use of powers(it's a freaking super hero book!). I will give it 1,5 because I'm gernerous and it's hard to judge how much of the power useage that falls on To.

Points - 1,5

Characters: Oh my what a mess. Lets just do this fast. Rictor is full on druid-mode witch I get a sense that Tini enjoys and is more comfortable writing. Rogue has a very odd bathing moment where she goes against previous established points, some as recent as months ago. Betsy is still passive and has a horrible judgement. Jubilee isn't there, not really. Shogo on the other hand has an actual function. Gambit is off. It seems Tini has this archetype molds that she is throwing around that just either leads to bad fits or unfullfilling portrails. In Gambits case it's the most obvious. None of the complexitity of his character or past. Instead it's generic nice guy boyfriend and worried boyfriend who just goes around talking about his girlfriend or with his girlfriend. Oh must add. Morgan is hardly here. No substance to that character or sense of threat.
There are arguments that can be made for a 0 here. Yet it's not complete rockbottom with all characters. So a 0,5 it is.

Points - 0,5.

Plot: It's coming togheter now and overall there are less jumps and more coherent storytelling here. A nice jump for Tini in this department. Finally we are seeing some clues on what her Mutant Magic is suppose to be. Overall it's not bad but generic. A lack of imagination on the whole plot and too little focus on the big battle. The jumps between Jamie and -A- worked and that part was given the correct amount of pages. Still the actuall battle between Brian and Betsy was dull. If you want to do a swordfight you need to upp for game. It's been done so many times. Even with Jamie's manipulations beeing the big point.
Yet there are moments where some things are conviently forgotten just to further -A- and his game. With Betsy putting things aside for Brains sake it works. With the rest of them trusting -A- any further then Jubilee can throw him it doesn't. There isnt' any actual demonstration on why Morgan can't be just smashed on the spot and her arrow(I repeat Arrow!) shooting minions be taken down. There dependenace on -A- and his machinations after Rogue is free seems redunant and doesn't paint the characters in a good light.

A pretty solid 1. Some obvious problems but not the worst.

Point - 1,0

Theme: So many things aren't stated but implied. Some times good like the vivisection or drainage scene with Morgan. It fits nicely with the fuss -A- made about using bones before. The use of characters to fit roles she wanted to further the greater themes are a bit haphazard. Morgan is wasted. She can represent so many things but in this story she seems more like an afterthought.

Lets give it a 1,5 since I'm actually getting more intrigued.

Point - 1,5

Pace and Dialouge: Dialouge isn't Tini's strong point. It flows a bit uneven in places. Sometimes just bad. "Lies are beneath me" Is bad if it's not considered as an attempt of -A- joking. The shouting out of strategy in a very battle manual way isn't doing any favors. These are seasoned X-men. Please treat them as such. "I don't think Apocalypse would have you just kill your brother" says Rogue to Betsy about the man who epotimize the survival of the strongest through deadly battle. Overall I find her flow is better when writing more dramatic high wrought speaches. See Rictor here. She just seems more inspired and at ease with that.

Point - 0,5

Summary is 5. A very mediocre number. Some strong points offset with some strong negative points. Overall this and issue 1 has been her best issues.

If characters are important for you stay away from this. On the other hand if you don't have any problems with disregarding that more then half of the cast is way off in some other realm of characterisation then there are stuff to enjoy here. The title still has potential. On story and theme that is.

[Ferro]

The only thing worth mentioning about this issue, is that there is not such thing as mutant magic. Apocalypse is creating it by harvesting data from those who have magic. Which makes you wonder, why does he even want it?

thats not what the data page says, its says magic comes from community and 3 is not enough, he sees something dark in morgan, something he researched before and says its a danger to outworld and somewhere else, wich is probably arrako, connecting the darkness he saw before to morgan.

The updates to the methodogy go as follows: the omega is "monarch " , the mutant of advanced age is exodus, and components of krakoa, its a change of how to tap into said power that is available now with the gate, its is not stating its not realy or stolen.

And also rogue even states to betsy she has a hold over the power she drained after the gate, and thats mutant magic.

other thoughts, betsy telekinetic head wack is iconic, brian is an angel and I overall enjoyed this conclusion to the morgan/evil brian arc.

[Su_Whisterfield]

thats not what the data page says, its says magic comes from community and 3 is not enough, he sees something dark in morrigan, something he researched before and says its a danger to outworld and somewhere else, wich is probably arrako.
and the notes say his theory is updated with other specific needs : the omega is "monarch " , the mutant of advanced age is exodus, and components of krakoa.

rogue even states to betsy she has a hold over the power she drained after the gate, and thats mutant magic.

other thoughts, betsy telekinetic head wack is iconic, brian is an angel and I overall enjoyed this conclusion to the morrigan/evil brian arc.

Morgan Le Fay, not The Morrigan, different mad Celtic bitches, trust me on that.

[Ferro]

Morgan Le Fay, not The Morrigan, different mad Celtic bitches, trust me on that.

sorry my bad, corrected

[Su_Whisterfield]

sorry my bad, corrected

Wouldn’t wish The Morrigan on anyone.

[Ferro]

another interesting bit, component Y that apoc found in morgan has a source that he says must be contained, very very interesting

[JB]

another interesting bit, component Y that apoc found in morgan has a source that he says must be contained, very very interesting

Yup! Requires "containment both here and at the source".

•-[A]-• is saving the world.