Excalibur [20] : Review and Spoilers

[Hulkout42]

Was there a point to having Rogue and Jubilee there? And can someone please tell me when this damn gala is supposed to happen? I feel like it is dragging on and the pay won't even be worth the wait.

[Rang10]

Was there a point to having Rogue and Jubilee there? And can someone please tell me when this damn gala is supposed to happen? I feel like it is dragging on and the pay won't even be worth the wait.

Rogue and Jubes are just background, just ot be there.

The Gala will be on June

[CGAR]

Honestly if we really think about it. Out of all the writers in the X-stable. I'd argue th ones that have done a great job at juggling multiple characters are Zeb Wells, Al Ewing, and Vita Ayala. Everyone else does the thing where they focus on one character or 2-3 charaters at a time.

I still think this series needs a refresh after the HFG. Just a shot of something fresh and new.

At least a new artist. Give us some change. Also its time to focus on Gambit and Rogue and retire Jubiliee to be the mother to a baby (thats been a baby since Brian Woods run)

Also is it true that the Krakoan at the end read: Breaking Up. Did someone translate it?

[Master of Sound]

Best Excalibur issue of this volume, I loved it.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I thought this issue was... OK? I mostly enjoyed it and found a number of things to like, namely the interactions between Betsy and Kwannon, the girls going through dresses for the Gala, and Marcus To's art.

I've actually always been fascinated with Malice and was always curious to see her backstory explored (more in connection to her hinted-at relationship with Lorna to be honest, but oh well), but I think this is where Howard is showing her limitations as a writer. Alice's backstory is absolutely bland and uninteresting and we're not given a single reason to care about her in this issue, and it's really hard to justify feeling any sympathy for her.

I guess you could argue you can still explore her in the following issues however I say you need to hook the readers a bit when you have the chance, give them a reason to care and want more, and I feel Tini has failed to do that with Alice, and arguably with most of her cast too.

It's a shame because there are a few things to enjoy here and there but for the most part Tini really struggles with making most of her characters likeable, and possibly adding a new one to her plate when she's already undeserving her existing cast is not going to help things.

[Rnap22]

The bits with Malice and the way Xavier reacted seemed odd. Malice never acted like a suicidal teenager in the past. Sinister tricked her into taking over Polaris because they shared the same frequency and that’s why they were bonded. I’m wondering how we came to this Malice origin story from the Malice that we have seen in the past, who was Sinister’s field leader for the Marauders. Xavier wanting to put her in the hole is odd because Malice wasn’t out there killing humans. At worst they would stick her with the Hellions, which would be a great idea as Kwannon would be watching her and it would put her under Sinister again.

Tini seems to want to go somewhere with the body dismorphia thing, depression & the angry suicidal bratty stuff, but I think she’s just pulling this out of nowhere and fumbling it.

Where Betsy mentions not really like the her old body... uh that’s the body Betsy recreated so wouldn’t Betsy have created a form she was comfortable in as well as looking as herself? I think the only scene that played out well was when the dresses didn’t fit because they fit Kwannon, but weren’t Kwannon’s style.

As much as I liked the interaction and hopefully future interaction with Betsy & Kwannon, there’s a bunch that didn’t work

Also, Malice’s real name is “Alice”? Malice Alice? Insert groaning noise here

[Hulkout42]

Honestly if we really think about it. Out of all the writers in the X-stable. I'd argue th ones that have done a great job at juggling multiple characters are Zeb Wells, Al Ewing, and Vita Ayala. Everyone else does the thing where they focus on one character or 2-3 charaters at a time.

I still think this series needs a refresh after the HFG. Just a shot of something fresh and new.

At least a new artist. Give us some change. Also its time to focus on Gambit and Rogue and retire Jubiliee to be the mother to a baby (thats been a baby since Brian Woods run)

Also is it true that the Krakoan at the end read: Breaking Up. Did someone translate it?

Honestly? It feels at this point, in this run, that if there was a list of bad comic book moms she'd be on it.

And wasn't he a toddler at some point? I mean i know we got to see him as an adult but i could swear he stopped being a baby at some point right? I mean would it killed them to have the kid grow up or is there some appeal to have him remain a baby?

[Hulkout42]

Honestly it feels like they put Malice in there as filler and didn't know what to do with her aside form some convoluted origin story that she was an angry teen with issues, i mean why didn't just put her in the Hellions book when they brought back the Marauders? Why did it have to be this specific book? To somehow elevate Braddock and also give Kwannon some screen time?

[Uncanny X-Man]

The bits with Malice and the way Xavier reacted seemed odd. Malice never acted like a suicidal teenager in the past. Sinister tricked her into taking over Polaris because they shared the same frequency and that’s why they were bonded. I’m wondering how we came to this Malice origin story from the Malice that we have seen in the past, who was Sinister’s field leader for the Marauders. Xavier wanting to put her in the hole is odd because Malice wasn’t out there killing humans. At worst they would stick her with the Hellions, which would be a great idea as Kwannon would be watching her and it would put her under Sinister again.

I always figured Claremont intended for Malice to be much more long-lived and experienced than Howard is presenting now. Certainly it's hard to picture this issue's Malice leading the Marauders like she did.

Not sure what you mean by Malice and Lorna having the same frequency... paraphrasing from Sinister at the time, he said Lorna had a lot more "malice" in her than she herself suspected. I always took it to mean that either Lorna had a strong potential for evil (and it's certainly something we've seen after that) or that there was indeed a connection between her and Malice to explain why the latter couldn't unbind herself from Lorna.

Tini seems to want to go somewhere with the body dismorphia thing, depression & the angry suicidal bratty stuff, but I think she’s just pulling this out of nowhere and fumbling it.

Where Betsy mentions not really like the her old body... uh that’s the body Betsy recreated so wouldn’t Betsy have created a form she was comfortable in as well as looking as herself?

To be fair Leah Williams was the first to introduce this in her Age of X mini. I think it's a decent enough topic to possibly explore and doesn't necessarily contradict anything we know about Betts. I think you can dislike your body but also not want to get rid of it completely the first chance you get to recreate it out of psyonic energy but rather remake it with whatever cosmetic changes you'd want to make (thinner waist? Bigger boobs? More muscle mass?)

[KylunFan]

Really enjoying these last few issues after being pretty meh on Excalbur pre X of Swords. Really enjoying the new Kwannon/Betsy dynamic and hope Kwannon can show up every so often in future arcs so Tini can explore it more.

Have never cared for Malice before...but she must be the first Marvel character to be a 30 minute drive from my hometown. So now I'm weirdly identifying with her for being a Donny lass.

Don't really get the constant swipes against Betsy from other characters about her being unpopular in Britain.

I haven't read loads of Marvel UK comics but Brian was never much of a 'national hero' outside of the name in the things I've read. It all feels a little forced, hope that plot point gets resolved soon so we can get back to more interesting things in Otherworld.

[ZephyrSurf]

The concept of this issue is nice.

The execution is not.

They never address why Alice is suicidal. They never even really hint at it.

And then they kill her and just resurrect her and go "Job well done." and it's like... what?! NO SERIOUSLY WHAT?!

[davetvs]

I liked the interaction between Betsy and Kwannon and them seemingly being able to use each other's powers (or whatever that was), but other than that, meh. I think Jubilee had one line, what was the point of her even being there? I don't mind Malice getting more backstory but she's never read as bratty teen, I'd expect her to have been a lot older.

[Kingdom X]

Honestly? It feels at this point, in this run, that if there was a list of bad comic book moms she'd be on it.

And wasn't he a toddler at some point? I mean i know we got to see him as an adult but i could swear he stopped being a baby at some point right? I mean would it killed them to have the kid grow up or is there some appeal to have him remain a baby?

He was a toddler in Generation X and poor guy got de-aged. I guess Tini really wanted him to become a dragon... but I’m pretty sure toddlers have active imaginations too.

[Basilisk]

Enjoyed this issue. Though this wasn’t the origin I expected for Malice I thought it worked. Just hope that now that they have brought her back she is explored further and not just left to drift into the background. Would love to see how she uses her mutation when she isn’t trying to manipulate or possess another person for malicious purpose. How long could she leave her body and possess someone before her body dies. She would be a great operative for X-force as she could possess an enemy and gain intel.

As to her age I always imagined her to be much older than sixteen but going by her origin story that is the last physical body that she had so it doesn’t surprise me that would be the body that was made for her. Just hope that if they do use the character more that they show a personality that is much more mature than she had been before.

The Betsy in this episode seemed much more confident in her role and for that I was glad. Hopefully she has finally accepted her position as Captain Britain and we can now move on to exploring some of the additional members of the supporting cast. They now have a role at least of defending those mutants that go through the gate which is separate from Betsy which is good. Would

[Rang10]

The concept of this issue is nice.

The execution is not.

They never address why Alice is suicidal. They never even really hint at it.

And then they kill her and just resurrect her and go "Job well done." and it's like... what?! NO SERIOUSLY WHAT?!

This whole serie has agreat ideas, but execution is always awful