Excalibur #22 Review/Spoilers - Treasures of Britain

[JB]

Holy blast from the past!
And Gambit did some cool stuff.

We start with the preview scenes on Blightspoke. Sheriff Whitechapel questions what the group is doing and Beast explains he’s only taking 3D scans of the material and doesn’t need to take anything. Sheriff is good with that, pets dragon Shogo, informs them that “witchbreed” are very unpopular in Otherworld right now and that Betsy should head to the Citadel. Seems like she may be an ally in the future.

Sweet Meggan returns to Krakoa to be present for Wisdom’s resurrection. She breaks the news that the UK is tearing down the gates, mutants cannot return and Morgan is free. Wisdom is distraught and I actually felt bad for him. The art is gorgeous and his nakedness is done tastefully.

We’re now at the Citadel where a meeting is taking place with all the leaders of the kingdoms. Merlyn is basically over the “witchbreed” and the influence mutants have over Otherworld. Nice cameos by Famine and Pestilence who say Merlyn needs to get over it, mutants are here to stay. Other kingdoms are unhappy with Jamie and mutants in general. Meryln warns Saturnyne that she better properly defend the Citadel from mutant influence or else.

After the meeting Saturnyne tasks Betsy with finding out why Merlyn is being so aggressive and what he has up his sleeves. They have a fun exchange and I get the Betsy sass I live for.



Wisdom has resorted to heavy drinking, wandering around Krakoa and Braddock Isle, drinking away his sorrows.

Data page, a letter to Betsy from Karma and Dani giving her Intel from their trip to Merlyn’s kingdom. They inform her that there are fairies being held prisoner by Merlyn.

In Fae, the team are now rescuing fairies, setting them free. They reach Merlyn’s locked chamber and Gambit, using a stolen tarot card with Longshot on it (hmm), breaks open the lock. There’s a strange well in the room and Betsy can hear voices/whispers at the bottom. But before they can check it out Merlyn arrives like Gandolf all pissed and scary. He launches spells at them and Rictor opens up a hole in the ground and digs a tunnel down to the bottom of the tower.

They find an abandoned train underground and Gambit does the coolest thing he’s done in years. He charges the train and off they launch.



Back on Krakoa Egg tells Wisdom the deceased people he asked about are indeed mutants and they have their backups on file. They’ve been resurrected and Wisdom greets the reborn S.T.R.I.K.E!! Dude, these characters go way back and Lennox was Betsy’s lover way back when. They were part of the Psi-division and it turns out their psychic abilities were due to their X-Gene. Wisdom tells them they can’t return to the UK but he plans to do something about that.

Merlyn is in his now empty dungeon annoyed that his prisoners are gone. He tears back a sheet that was hiding a cage with a prisoner inside that Excalibur missed. He casts a spell on the seemingly mentally absent prisoner, telling him to remember who he is. The prisoner speaks… “I… I am… ARTHUR.”

Woooo! I love this issue. The art was beautiful especially the Wisdom panels and Merlyn and his chamber.
I'm stoked to see S.T.R.I.K.E. again!

[JB]

The death of Tom. Betsy is gonna be over the moon to see him and the others!

[jwatson]

This is getting gooooood. I felt bad for Pete wisdom and i really don't know much about him but now i'm interested to see how gets back at the cult knowing they sacraficed him and also interested to see how he reacts to basically having to start over as he was one of the few mutants that actally did put country over Krakoa.

Merlin's voice i find very interesting. Not like he personally dislikes mutants but more matter of fact like "i've seen more powerful"

It was also nice to see some of Apocalypse children here. This issue was pretty much everything in what i was expecting when i thought of this book.

If i had to sum it up this felt like the best final fantasy game but with Xmen. 10/10 for me. The art and colors were on point too.

It just feels fresh again.

I am so glad i read this AFTER way of X and not before because it brought my energy back up.

[Devaishwarya]

I'm just going to say it...I have no clue as to who or what STRIKE is but...as a HUGE Piers Anthony fan...Kevin Mulhearn aka Xanth is already my favourite.

[JB]

This is getting gooooood. I felt bad for Pete wisdom and i really don't know much about him but now i'm interested to see how gets back at the cult knowing they sacraficed him and also interested to see how he reacts to basically having to start over as he was one of the few mutants that actally did put country over Krakoa.

Merlin's voice i find very interesting. Not like he personally dislikes mutants but more matter of fact like "i've seen more powerful"

It was also nice to see some of Apocalypse children here. This issue was pretty much everything in what i was expecting when i thought of this book.

If i had to sum it up this felt like the best final fantasy game but with Xmen. 10/10 for me. The art and colors were on point too.

It just feels fresh again.

I agree completely with it feeling fresh. It's like Tini got a second wind and really mixing the old (STRIKE) and the new (•-[A]-•'s children) nicely. It's starting to feel like a fight is brewing between the mutant kingdoms and the others.

And I personally loved how Betsy came off. Not as grumpy but more confident.

[JB]

I'm just going to say it...I have no clue as to who or what STRIKE is but...as a HUGE Piers Anthony fan...Kevin Mulhearn aka Xanth is already my favourite.

Xanth is such a wonderful series. Good call!
I can't wait to see our old/new friends in action.

[jwatson]

I agree completely with it feeling fresh. It's like Tini got a second wind and really mixing the old (STRIKE) and the new (•-[A]-•'s children) nicely. It's starting to feel like a fight is brewing between the mutant kingdoms and the others.

And I personally loved how Betsy came off. Not as grumpy but more confident.

yes! it's like forget it, let me show them this mutant magic. lol.

I am absolutely in love with the idea of Gambit being able to charge artifacts or items with kinetic energy to give them the power they need to activate, like the luck tarot. It makes me think he could proably store many typles of magical energies into items to be used later or for various magical effects.

I'm also loving the dimensional politics.

[jwatson]

I just needed to add this book was almost as visually stunning as xmen# 1. credit where it is due.

the train scene. The panel of pete wisdom sitting on the hill with it receeding into the sky. the rictor escape through the floors. the entrance from merlin. The diplomatic arena. the red skys and thunder. This was a very beauitiful book.

[Exodus]

what the X-Men comics really need: even more psy talents. ;-)

[jwatson]

what the X-Men comics really need: even more psy talents. ;-)

Pete just caused a problem. One of Alison Double, after looking them all up, is clairvoyance by looking at someone's aura. lol.

Psi's may seem redundant but i'm more interested in how their powers will translate in other word. That ability to read auras could be especially useful.

[JB]

Pete just caused a problem. One of Alison Double, after looking them all up, is clairvoyance by looking at someone's aura. lol.

The absolute drama!
I agree with you about the art. I was in awe of the Wisdom panels especially. I could *feel* his sorrow.

[jwatson]

The absolute drama!
I agree with you about the art. I was in awe of the Wisdom panels especially. I could *feel* his sorrow.

Me too i don't know much about the character but i felt i was taken the journey through grief with him. This issue just felt so cinematographic.

[jwatson]

You know tini also opened up a world of resurrections for long dead ambigious characters. Looking up the Strike characters nothing said they were mutants but nothing said they were. I wonder if other characters will be brought back in similar ways or if this will be just the rare one off.

[king of hybrids]

While Merlin is a racist jackass, I feel like the continued presence of the guys who butchered an entire kingdom of Fae and are still gloating about it does somewhat undermine the opposition to his point

[carmoc1234]

While Merlin is a racist jackass, I feel like the continued presence of the guys who butchered an entire kingdom of Fae and are still gloating about it does somewhat undermine the opposition to his point

yea its not like with earth where mutants are born and live there, making there own nation or mars where they terraformed a uninhabited world to live on, this is a place where people already live and mutants have invaded and taken over 2 separate kingdoms. sure with avalon they took it from le fay who was obviously bad but they just gave to jaime and he seems to be creating problems as well.