The ten kingdoms of Otherworld must decide: Are Excalibur heroes of the realm, or witchbreed to be put to the stake? The peace brought to Otherworld by their X of Swords victory comes to an end in Excalibur #24, written by Tini Howard, drawn by Marcus To, colored by Erick Arciniega and lettered by Ariana Maher.
Dan Grote: And so once again have I answered the call to cover Excalibur, only to find my beloved son, Peter Winston Wisdom, is playing the role of Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Comic. But all is not lost, dear readers, for I am joined by a powerful ally. Normally she works behind the scenes, sweeping up errant commas and forging blades of SEO steel, but this week Andrea Ayres is here to guide me through Otherworld and keep me on task.
Andrea Ayres: I mean, let’s be honest, I am trying desperately to live up to the editorial standards you have set. It’s great to be writing with you, Dan. I hope to fill some of that Pete Wisdom-sized hole in your chest as we embark on our Excalibur #24 adventure. Let us proceed.
Show Mordred, Don’t Tell Mordred
Dan: This issue pushes Otherworld further to the brink of its second war in as many years. But instead of fighting invaders from the hell dimension of Amenth, this appears to be an internal skirmish over the presence of mutants in Otherworld, with Captain Britain defending Saturnyne and the Starlight Citadel against the armies of Merlyn and King Arthur.
At the center of this war is Mordred, the son of Arthur, who is destined to betray his father and whom we are now told is a mutant, which the bad guys believe is the motivation for his betrayal.
But here’s the problem: We don’t see Mordred. He’s nowhere to be found, people are fighting over things he is destined to do, they claim to know what he’s thinking and who his friends are, but the dude ain’t here, man. Not being an Arthurian scholar, am I gonna care when Mordred finally shows up?
Andrea: I am no Cat Purcell (my Arthurian legend guide and mentor), but it’s hard to imagine caring about Mordred at all. I am trying. As you have suggested, Dan, Mordred doesn’t appear, which feels strange because the tension of the issue hinges on what Modred might do.
Excalibur #24 opens with Betsy and the Countexes of Sevalith doing that thing soap operas do after a weekend where they bring the audience up to speed by going over essential plotlines from the weeks prior. It’s not that I don’t expect comics to do this. Here, however, it slows down an issue meant to be ratcheting up the stakes.
The reader is meant to feel the threat of the impending trial, Merlyn’s meddling and Mordred’s reveal as a mutant, but it doesn’t come across. This pains me to say as someone who is a fan of Betsy’s corseted boob window evening gown. Still, even that can’t distract me from a kind of ho-hum beginning.
Dan: You’re right. It calls back to a small moment in the prior issue more than it moves the larger story forward.
Which is interesting, because there’s an attempt here to make the stakes seem bigger than X of Swords, with Merlyn dismissing that event as Saturnyne’s “mutant card game,” but I’m not buying it. Otherworld is a big, sweeping realm with lots of nooks and crannies that worked as a story engine for a bit, but now that Inferno’s here, it feels somehow smaller, more trivial in the face of what’s being explored of Hickman’s original ideas. Who cares about the Fair and Foul Courts when DESTINY’S BACK, Andrea?
Andrea: You have nailed it, Dan. Compared to the other X-books, this one just can’t hold a candle. The joy of Otherworld is the nooks and crannies and exploring them, and I don’t believe we need to pretend or create tension for the sake of it by trying to be what Excalibur decidedly is not. At least not by my readings. I love a palace intrigue deep dive, I don’t love faux-tension. Excalibur can be one or the other, but when it tries to be both, it fails for me because it isn’t laying claim to what made it great in the first place.
It’s the End of the Otherworld as We Know It, and I Feel Fine
Dan: This is where I’m gonna be completely honest: I think I probably get more out of this book than others, but I find it hard to follow sometimes. Especially when it comes to the Otherworld stuff. And sometimes the shifting nature of Otherworld — the way kingdoms rise and fall, often off panel — feels like a cover for that fact.
A perfect example of that is the trial of the “ersatz” Captains Britain. Created out of splinter realities by Jamie Braddock in a fit of dicking around, they first appear in issue #10, in what may be my least favorite issue and the greatest example of this book’s occasional opaqueness. They’ve since flitted in and out as the creators have remembered them, and now they’re back to, I guess, resolve a dangling plot thread in the mad rush to wrap up every book before January.
I don’t even remember when the Jubilee Captain Britain got “exploded by Monarch,” as she puts it — a great reminder of the value of “*It happened in issue #??” boxes — but that’s a nitpick compared to the larger question I want to ask.
Andrea, can we give Otherworld a rest for a while? Or does Excalibur keep too many “core” mutants in play for it to simply go away?
Andrea: It isn’t just you. It’s hard to keep up with all these dang-nab-it narrative threads. The characters consistently have to remind one another of what has happened before or say things like “We’ll fill you in,” as they do on Page 12. It takes us out of the moment and releases the buildup of tension.
We have to reorient ourselves to recall specific plot threads, which is why this book feels tired. So I wish we could give these characters and this series a bit of a rest for a minute. Even the sweet moments or funny moments ring hollow and forced.
Take, for instance, Mad Jim putting Gambit in a maid uniform. I know I am supposed to laugh, but the moment doesn’t hold any humor. Ha-ha, male appearing in traditionally feminine attire, isn’t that funny? The joke feels outdated, so much so that I was surprised to find it here. Maybe I’ve lost my funny bone. Either way, It doesn’t stop me from thinking the issue could have started on Page 15.
Dan: I see your point there. Lotta throat clearing in those early pages.
And I was genuinely curious what your take was on Gambit in the maid costume, so I’m glad you brought it up. That panel felt like a callback to Claremont-era Excalibur and its explorations of gender and identity bending, something more ably discussed by CXF staffer Dr. Anna Peppard and her colleagues on the Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast.
But, again, that’s a callback to a dated (though thoroughly enjoyable) comic with dated ideas of gender.
Andrea: I totally agree. That discussion feels ideally situated for Dr. Anna’s podcast. Does gender-bending lose its shine at some point? I have a lot of thoughts about all of this, but that’s another article.
A Shogo No-Go
Dan: Otherworld rantings aside, I do appreciate that this issue allows enough time to check in with some of the non-Betsy characters. We get some good character moments with Gambit in the Crooked Market and Rictor, Shatterstar and Bei the Blood Moon blasting across the alkali flats of Dryador.
But let’s talk about that Jubilee scene.
This one made me nervous. The clothing-allergic Roma has presented Jubilee with an offer to raise her son, Shogo, in her fae kingdom, where he appears happiest in his dragon form.
Wanna de-fang Jubilee? Great. Give her her powers back via some Phoenix nonsense? Let’s effing go. But this? This is not a status quo reset I’m cool with. I’m willing to give Tini Howard and co. the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve seen too many superheroes de-childrened over the years not to be skeptical. Shogo gives Jubilee dimension and something to fight for in an era where she could easily be set adrift. To quote Bobby Evans: The kid stays in the picture.
Andrea: Listen, Gambit handing out a Pop-Tart was some primo comics fodder for me. Like the older woman in the panel, I am mystified by its frosted deliciousness. I feel you deeply, however, on the Jubilee business. This is NOT the reset I want for Jubilee, but maybe it will turn out fine? I don’t know.
When we (finally) get to the trial, did you well … did you feel any particular kinda way about it? Let down is perhaps the best way I have to describe my sentiments. The only nice thing I have to say about the trial is Saturnyne’s trial outfit. I never knew a jabot and bench wig could be sexy, but here we are, Dan. Here we are.
Still, how much hoopla was there about the trial and then it’s like two pages before Merlyn storms his ass in to be like, “I have things to say!”
Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy Arthur showing up and what this portends, but overall, I feel somewhat meh. Howard doesn’t have an easy task here; however, it’s a book attempting to tie together disparate bits as the focus shifts to Mordred.
Because it seems like that’s the area where Excalibur #24 wants to focus on anyway, the pacing feels much smoother after Page 18. The clunkiness dissipates and we finally prepare for the “Witchbreed War,” as Merlyn so lovingly puts it. How’d you feel about the later part of the issue?
Dan: First of all, thank you, THANK YOU. I was honestly dying to hear your thoughts on Opal Luna’s judge attire, and you did not disappoint.
As for the trial (Man, mutants be judiciating lately), I felt no way about it, because I’ve never been given a reason to care about the Captain Britain-Excalibur mash-up characters. Now, if you put that Captain Britain swan on trial or her raptor buddy? I’ll be the first one to burst through the doors yelling, “This whole court is out of order!”
It’s funny, though, how we keep moving the goalposts through this issue of exactly when the good stuff starts. First it was Page 15, now Page 18. I think we just want this arc to be over. Might as well lean into the fact that the X-traneous Thoughts header is directly below this paragraph.
X-traneous Thoughts
- Not to harp on this, but we really have lost sight of the Pete Wisdom-resurrected STRIKE-Coven Akkaba subplot.
- Shatterstar refers to Brian as “new friend,” but they’ve met. If you’ll refer to Exhibit A directly below this bullet point, in X-Factor #106, part of “The Phalanx Covenant,” here they are standing RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER.
- Krakoan reads “The one true king returns.”
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
Andrea Ayres is a freelance writer and pop culture journalist.
