Knights of X #1 Brings Us Swords Out In Otherworld!

Captain Britain gathers her ten best friends on a quest to stop Merlin from conquering all of Otherworld in Knights of X #1, written by Tini Howard, drawn by Bob Quinn, colored by Erick Arciniega, and lettering by Ariana Maher.

Nola Pfau: Karen! I’m so excited we’re getting to go on this journey together. It feels a little like coming home? I mean I started writing about Excalibur at CXF, and—wait. This isn’t Excalibur.

Karen Charm: Hi Nola! You know, I fell for the same thing. I distinctly remember walking through the Excalibur-shaped door to get here, only to find Knights of X written all over everything. It does feel nice though, familiar, and I’m overjoyed to be in your company so let’s say we just roll with it. A lot has changed in Otherworld last I’d checked.

Worlds Gone Wild

Captain Britain and Saturnyne have harsh words.

Nola: So in our Not-Excalibur, we have Otherworld! We have Captain Britain and the Captain Britain Corps! We have…Meggan. We…we have Rachel Summers? We have a purple dragon. Are we sure this isn’t Excalibur?

I kid, honestly. Tini Howard’s Excalibur ended with the accession of Merlyn to the throne, as well as the title of Omniversal Majestor. King Arthur (yeah, that one) is his right-hand man, which is a setup that honestly feels very similar to Morgan Le Fay’s use of Brian Braddock at the beginning of Excalibur. Arthur, of course, lacks Brian’s appeal. Betsy, Brian’s sister and current bearer of the mantle of Captain Britain, is trapped in Otherworld, unable to access Krakoa, and has hidden the former Majestrix, Saturnyne, in the Lavender Keep, home of Roma, Merlyn’s daughter and friend overall to mutants and the X-Men (and relations of X). That about sum it up?

Karen: I’d say that about covers it, aside from the detail of what dying in Otherworld means for mutants. While Krakoa has unlocked on-demand resurrection, the magical, polyvalent nature of Otherworld nullifies that process. So when we see Sentinel-sized Furies tearing through Avalon hunting mutants who have no chance of escape (aka witchbreed, aka friends of Mordred), we know the situation is grave (pun intended).

The opening to this issue is legitimately kick-ass, doing a wonderful job of place-setting as well as introducing us to new series’ artist Bob Quinn. Quinn served previously on Way of X and let’s just say I’m happy to be reading his work here*. There’s a continuous sense of movement in his draftsmanship and compositions that is a perfect fit for a cold open like this. Colorist Arciniega returns from Excalibur, his palette much darker in fitting with Quinn’s heavier use of black and, frankly, how grim things have become.

*Quinn also drew the Death of Dr. Strange: Black Knight & X-Men tie-in that’s tangentially related to Knights of X…

As to what’s actually happening here – well, our friend Josh is hiding from Furies in the elfen village of Jackdaw’s Nest when he is rescued by…

Nola: Captain Britain! Wait, no. Captain Bretland! One of Betsy’s multiversal alternates. She gives him basically the rundown we’ve given you here, so you’re welcome, dear readers. From there the scene transitions to Betsy herself arguing with Saturnyne. Y’know I always knew that Saturnyne was one of the multiversal incarnations of Courtney Ross, but has she ever actually just been called Courtney before this? Given the penchant for castles and knights, does this make her…Courtley Ross [Ed. Note:I can(‘t) believe you did this]?

I’m with you on Quinn’s art here. I got turned on to his work at ECCC a few years back, when I was snagging zines left and right, and even then I was impressed with his dynamism, as well as his visual storytelling. He’s a great fit for this book, and I’m excited to see what he’s capable of.

At any rate, Saturnyne’s issue is that Betsy isn’t retaking the Lunatic (nee Starlight) Citadel fast enough, despite the fact that even with the Corps at her back, Betsy is incredibly outnumbered. Betsy’s issue is that she needs an army, but failing that, she’ll accept a team, which is exactly what Roma is there to help her get. Should we dive into the roster?

Listen Up Fives, A X Is Speaking

Karen: Captain Britain needs an army, so she turns to Roma who remains a friend of X despite whatever hard reboot Saturnyne subjected the former Omniversal Guardian and her father to post-Secret Wars (2015). The new Roma is a little too blissed out on vibes and oxytocin to help directly, but she will give Betsy a quest. We’ve seen glimpses of Roma’s domain in X of Swords but this is the first time we’re given anything close to a tour and I really quite love all the waterfalls. Doorway or bookshelf, everything is hidden behind a sheet of rushing water.

The quest’s particular details are elusive at this point, but everyone knows the best part of any quest is gathering your party! The moment Betsy is given her charge, a psychic call is heard by what remains of Excalibur (the team) – Rictor and Shatterstar (together at last), Bei the Blood Moon, Rachel Summers, Jubilee, Shogo, and Meggan. Each comes running to the summoning circle that Polaris constructed out of our dearly departed Rockslide (a nice callback that I missed on my first read-through). How do we feel about this motley band?

Nola: Oh, it’s absolutely killer. We knew Rachel was going to be in this book ahead of time—she was on the early cover art. I wasn’t prepared for Meggan to be joining, and I’m so stoked! I think about a month ago I was doing a Twitter thread about her, how much I miss the way she used to be depicted. She’s one of my favorite characters and I love to see her moving back into the spotlight. Also, that Rictor/Shatterstar panel had me laugh out loud.

When Betsy gives her pitch though, she specifically says she can take ten members. That’s only seven! Eight if you count Betsy herself. Fortunately the “friends of Mordred” have at least one more plan: they’re going to resurrect…Mordred himself. That name’s been bandied about since Excalibur, but X-readers may not be clear on who he is, so here goes:

Mordred is the illegitimate son of King Arthur. He’s a mutant, and he actually predates Marvel’s big shift into superhero comics in the early 1960s, first appearing in 1955. Since that time, he’s basically exclusively been a villain, but largely out of the picture in modern times. He’s more commonly associated with Black Knight, but had a few run-ins with Brian Braddock back when he was Captain Britain. He died in the early 1990s, and has only been back a couple of times since—once in 1998 and again in 2021, for the Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade miniseries, written by Legion of X’s Si Spurrier. Bringing him back in this context is a new spin for him, but pretty in keeping with Krakoa’s general theme of giving mutants a chance to choose whether they still want to be villains, so I kind of like it. How about you, Karen?

Karen: Ah, but you’re not counting little baby Shogo, who plays the part of the purple dragon. Apparently Shogo hasn’t… woken up at all since coming back to Krakoa. I’m really worried about the little guy, that doesn’t seem good! I guess the only answer is to let him keep being a big scary dragon (I’m glad we’re continuing the tradition of having him communicate via crayon scribbled pictograms). Rachel having a prominent role anywhere is a good thing, especially one that puts her as close to her girlfriend Betsy as possible. I’m also quite excited to see more of Bei in action, and she seems poised to get on really well with Shatterstar.

The Mordred of it all has left me puzzled, not fully grasping his existence as a Marvel character until recently. Like you say, he’s historically been a horrible villain, but since all the Otherworldian characters’ alignments have inverted, I guess I can accept a kinder, gentler Mordred. I also found it interesting that they resurrect him via the Five instead of the Waiting Room. I guess when you have magic Otherworld water, why wait? In answer to that question, Mordred’s egg hatches empty. Curioser and curioser.

What I LOVE about this bit, communicated via letterer Maher’s parchment-like narrative captions, is that the team is holding Mordred’s spot open until he reveals himself – a siege perilous, if you will. I’m freaking out!! Leave it to Howard to complete the circle from Arthurian legend to X-Men bs all in one book. But hold that thought, we’ll be returning there soon.

Insert Quest Pun

Nola: Some wild stuff happens as the team prepares to travel back to Otherworld—Jubilee gets tricked by the particulars of fey magic and doesn’t make the crossing. Because the spell that enabled the transport is for team members with a quest, Shogo gets to make the crossing, but Jubes doesn’t, which might be on the record for shortest stint on a team ever? At any rate, Shogo is immediately awake upon the crossing, as well as immediately a dragon, which is handy, since the team is also immediately attacked.

That does reduce the team back down to nine instead of ten, though, which seems at odds with the stated mission of the book. Fortunately, Tini has another little surprise waiting for longtime Excalibur fans…Karen, who is this furry cat guy?

Karen: Oh hohoho you know exactly who this is. It’s our favorite little boy turned legendary hero of Ee’rath, Colin McKay AKA Kylun!! He can recreate noises. Kylun was a part of Alan Davis’ Excalibur run back when I started reading comics, and while I may or may not have had his action figure, I had the trading cards. A warrior-born in the mold of Shatterstar and Bei, Kylun shows off some sick moves against Arthur’s forces, assembled from the various provinces of Otherworld. I appreciate how both sides of this conflict have this kind of jumbled quality, like dark mirrors of each other. Arthur, however, also has a retinue of knights at his disposal, so our Knight of IX are still outnumbered.

But wait, who is this dark rider over yon hill? Could it be…?

Nola: It’s Mordred himself! Apparently, when his body went missing during the resurrection process, he somehow ended up directly in Otherworld via means other than Roma’s spell. According to Rachel, he’s very powerful, and a “madman.” Seems hurtful, Rachel.

After the battle, he takes off his helm, and in the smartest creative decision this side of casting that Jon Snow guy as the MCU’s Black Knight, he’s no longer an old scary guy, but he’s a young conflicted guy with long hair and big, haunted eyes. Betsy swings her TK sword around all phallic-like in front of him. It’s all very symbolic, and then lightning strikes! With the ten fully assembled, the quest is revealed, and they’re looking for none other than the Siege Perilous!

This is another pretty big point of X-Men lore, and one that Betsy herself has a big connection to. It’s like a very fancy gem, that also becomes a portal. If you go through it, you’re judged by some sort of mystical process, and given a life that you “deserve.” Back in the late 80s, the X-Men died, were resurrected by Roma, and hid out in the Australian Outback for a while. It was a rough time—the team was in disarray, Storm died, they were being hounded by Donald Pierce and his Reavers, Inferno (the first one) happened, Colossus accidentally caught his sketchbook on fire. When things were at their worst, Betsy essentially mind-controlled the team into going through the Siege Perilous to escape certain slaughter at the hands of the Reavers. It led to some pretty big stuff—namely, the X-Tinction Agenda, a few decades of Betsy in a new body, y’know, normal X-Men stuff.

Karen: Betsy better watch out, is all I’m saying. She just got her Siege Perilous mess all sorted out. I can’t help but be a total mark for this kind of thing and if covers are anything to go on, it’s going to be epic.

The issue ends with the reveal that Merlin, Arthur and all those bad people are spying on our Knights. It made me chuckle that Merlin admits to not being “pure” enough to find the Siege Perilous for themselves, so they’ll just steal it. As if it were a dragon ball! I’ll admit this ending did not grab me as much as the opening did. Quinn and Arciniega make Merlin look amazing here but this cliffhanger didn’t rock me. I wonder if what I’m missing is knowing what Merlin’s motivation is in all this. The Merlin I know is a master schemer, the one who pulls all the strings you didn’t even realize were attached to you. This Merlin is quite different in his goals, a difference Howard has lampshaded throughout the last several issues of Excalibur. She’s a very deliberate writer and this sort of thing almost always comes together in the end. Right now, I can’t help but feel a bit of a void in the adversary department – shocking in a book with Merlin, the Fury, and Jim Jaspers.

Nola: Remind me, Karen, what does the Fury do?

Karen: It signifies nothing, uh, I mean “kills superheroes.”

X-Traneous Thoughts

There couldn’t be a better time for this series to launch than hot on the heels of the Captain Britain Omni~~verse~~bus that just came out. It finally collects all of the pre-Excalibur material, yes, even the Alan Moore stuff. The omni is a wonderful addendum to Howard’s run which has been in conversation with many of these older works since its beginning.
Hot on its heels is the Knights of Pendragon one, which is Captain Britain’s other team. You don’t know them, they go to a different school.
What do you think Mordred’s mutant power is? Being a cutie-pie?
Gambit got stuff to do, but he’s keeping those cards close to the vest for the moment.