Knights of X ending with issue #5 BUT...

[JB]

Is Betsy really close to Kwannon? I didn't read all of Fallen Angel's but Kwannon didn't seem like she was going to be sending any holiday cards anytime soon. Are they close or just accepting of one another?

And as for her powerset I still don't know what her power are after 29ish issues.

They're on good terms and got along well while helping Malice. But probably not particularly close aside from sharing a mind and all that.

[jpmst17]

This series has just been awful, like Excalibur. If it's being canned after only 5 issues, I'm not the only one who feels this way

[Grunty]

So either Excalibur 1.0 was doing fine, but Excalibur 2.0 did something so wrong that it failed extremely quickly to sustain a paying (supporting) audience, or Excalibur 1.0 allready failed and rebooting it as Knights of X did not help it to regain enough of the sustaining audience, or something is going on in the X-office that they couldn't plan out new titles around the aftermath of Judgement Day before it had to be canceled early in order to to fit the new status quo (or they didn't care and send Knights of X in spite of that).

If it's just the last one, i can understand why the writer might want to hype up the next version. But if the former two are closer to the truth, it would seem that either the story or the writer did not work out in the long run, which would suggest that it might be better to end the story or replace the writer, instead of trying to continue with the same combo and thinking it would do better the third time.

Otherwise it's "Did i ever tell you the definition of insanity?"

[Kurolegacy]

This series has just been awful, like Excalibur. If it's being canned after only 5 issues, I'm not the only one who feels this way

Wasn’t this one planned to only be 5 issues? I mean, yea, both series were awful but I could’ve sworn Knights of X was mentioned around here to only be a limited series.

[CGAR]

It was never officially announced as a mini. The only reason some of us brought it up was because of the Amazon listing showing it as 1 of 5.

I think they would have made it a on going if the sales were there but I guess they werent.

And with the paper shortage I guess its gone.

The only way I can see her next series succeeding is if she actually takes the constructive criticism of all her series have gotten and implements change AND they give her a really good artist like Pepe or RB Silva.

Going by X-Corp and KoX the sales arent there.

[OBrianTallent]

It does seem as if they could have just kept the series as Excalibur with this story arc being "Knights of X" however, we all know Marvel's tendency to cancel a book only to relaunch it with a new #1 in an attempt to inflate sales.

[a moment closer]

I'm a bit surprised! I thought the relaunch went really well. Knights finally feels like the book it should've been all along! I hope five issues are enough for the story but I'd understand if nothing actually gets resolved. Leaving plot lines dangling isn't always a bad thing.

I'm really interested to see what comes next, with the Siege Perilous in play I always suspected a complete shift at the end of this series. I just wasn't expecting it so soon.

[JB]

So either Excalibur 1.0 was doing fine, but Excalibur 2.0 did something so wrong that it failed extremely quickly to sustain a paying (supporting) audience, or Excalibur 1.0 allready failed and rebooting it as Knights of X did not help it to regain enough of the sustaining audience, or something is going on in the X-office that they couldn't plan out new titles around the aftermath of Judgement Day before it had to be canceled early in order to to fit the new status quo (or they didn't care and send Knights of X in spite of that).

If it's just the last one, i can understand why the writer might want to hype up the next version. But if the former two are closer to the truth, it would seem that either the story or the writer did not work out in the long run, which would suggest that it might be better to end the story or replace the writer, instead of trying to continue with the same combo and thinking it would do better the third time.

Otherwise it's "Did i ever tell you the definition of insanity?"

That's the thing, I always felt like this was a finite story once Merlyn was defeated and then would shift (or get completely canceled) into whatever happens after Judgement Day. I didn't think it would go on as "Knights of X" once the quest was over and Otherworld was secured. With the Mercator thread having started at the very beginning it always felt like a planned out long game.

I'm a bit surprised! I thought the relaunch went really well. Knights finally feels like the book it should've been all along! I hope five issues are enough for the story but I'd understand if nothing actually gets resolved. Leaving plot lines dangling isn't always a bad thing.

I'm really interested to see what comes next, with the Siege Perilous in play I always suspected a complete shift at the end of this series. I just wasn't expecting it so soon.

I agree that this has been a lot better than Excalibur. I'm also very curious about what's to happen with SP involved. She mentions a "big pivot" so we shall see.

[Dream Boy]

I'm surprised too as I have been enjoying this far more than I did her Excalibur. I think she has the right mix of characters and had really gotten into her groove.

[Rnap22]

Give Betsy to Ewing. This is ridiculous already.

[rcaguy]

Probably wouldn't need those #1 sales if you added Hellion to the cast, Howard.

Nah, It would've just sank faster.

[Spiderfan001]

Uh free Betsy ASAP

[Solitaryhawk]

I actually don't mind the way Howard writes Betsy, I think she has had the best characterization of the cast. The only issue with her is that with the Cap powers added to her existing powers she should have a lot more impressive feats than she has had, but that's not a huge problem for me.

I do really dislike every decision she has made with Rictor though. Hate the Apocalypse stuff, hate the druid stuff, hate the magic stuff, hate that Howard hasn't really bothered to do the work in the text to make any of those decisions make sense. I like that she has had Rictor and Star reconnect in KoX, but their reunion was terribly written, and even in KoX their dialogue together is weird, why does she have Star speaking like a Shakespearean actor?

I should be loving the building Betsy/Rachel pairing, but Rachel's personality is being sacrificed to prop up Betsy, and I don't like that. And speaking of props, every other character in these Howard books are little more than props to help Betsy along with her story. And I generally just don't enjoy Howard's writing style.

Anyway, I most likely will not be reading any books by Howard, I hope the characters I like make it through undamaged, free Rictor, etc

I've gone back and reviewed my issues of Excalibur and have come to the conclusion that this was never a team book: It was a Betsy Braddock adventure tale with guest stars and cameos of other characters pulled in to defend the plotlines that oscillated around other ongoing projects happening concurrently in the X-Office. If I'm left questioning or disappointed after an issue or series, then the blame lies on the author. Lemme tell you, with more than 30 years of reading comics under my belt, if I tell you an author sucked, they sucked hard and Tini seriously dropped the ball on this title. The only reason it lasted 26 issues was Marcus To's glorious art.

To Dante Milton's point, I'm similarly left scratching my head on how badly Rictor was written. He was manipulated by Apocalypse. How? Because (wait for it) "He listened." Listened to what?!? We'll never know. It happened off panel, like so many events left under Tini's purview. And as happy as I was to see Shatterstar return, the feeling was brief because this wasn't 'Star; This was some background character seemingly pulled from The Princess Bride. The dialogue in that last issue should have made me ecstatic: It was the first time on panel the pair ever admitted their love for each other out loud, and it came across as a poorly written Harlequin romance novel instead. Ung. And since when was Bei an anchor? How? Again, we'll never know.

Five issues of this torture is plenty long enough.

[Handsome men don't lose fights]

Is Betsy really close to Kwannon? I didn't read all of Fallen Angel's but Kwannon didn't seem like she was going to be sending any holiday cards anytime soon. Are they close or just accepting of one another?

And as for her powerset I still don't know what her power are after 29ish issues.

They are not close. One of Kwannon's happiest experiences in Hellions, was getting to kill a Betsy facsimile hundreds (If not thousands) of times.

There's still beef there.

[Marvelfan1992]

So who do ya'll think is going to remain with Tini and Betsy in whatever the relaunch/continuation will be?