The Smooch Heard 'Round the Otherworld in Knights of X #4

The Knights of X finally make it to the Siege Perilous but may each lose themselves in its reflection. Thankfully, the Rainbow Is Enough in Knights of X #4 written by Tini Howard, drawn by Bob Quinn, colored by Erick Arciniega, and lettered by Ariana Maher.

Nola Pfau: Karen! Is it just me or do things seem a little brighter? The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the rainbows are fiercer…

Karen Charm: I feel like I’ve awoken to a better day. The pain is gone, Nola, and I know what love feels like.

Nola: KoXToX has truly come through for us once again.

Playing for the Advantage

Nola: The thing I find really noteworthy about the way this Gambit death is being used is Tini’s formalism is coming in again. I know I’ve beaten this drum a few times, but I just really enjoy the way she uses it here. As we know from chess and other strategy games, a gambit is an opening sacrifice for later advantage, and she’s used that interpretation for the character here, while simultaneously playing with the meaning; #3 of a five-issue series obviously isn’t the opening of the story, but his death made a literal opening happen — the way to Mercator.

Karen: Oh ho, thank you for reminding me that words have meaning! That is a very exciting read. This issue doesn’t give us the reveal I might have been expecting, but there are subtle hints sprinkled throughout. One of my favorites in the opening scene is when a distraught Meggan demands to know whether Betsy knew they would lose Gambit based on the way the Captain is talking about his loss. Rictor jumps to Betsy’s defense, “no of course she didn’t know,” but we never get an actual answer from Betsy. Did she know? There are so many secret plans stuffed into this book, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Nola: Meggan’s emotions really got to me in this scene, too. One, because I buy this kind of concern from her, she’s notoriously compassionate, and two because I enjoy the way the whole conversation kind of lampshades the way this book and Excalibur have worked. When Betsy and Rictor are talking about Gambit’s sacrifice, they’re not being dismissive, they’re also speaking formally, as in they’re referring to the quest itself. Because they have to explain this to Meggan, it does unfortunately come off a little silly in that they’re explaining an Otherworld thing to an Otherworld native, but if there’s a character here for whom it makes sense to focus more on the direct loss than the meaning of it, I again buy that it’s Meggan.

Karen: The scene at the Crooked Market felt a bit jumbled for me, to be honest. The amount of expositional heavy-lifting the dialogue had to do made getting back into the story more turbulent than I’d like. I’ll admit I mistook Jim Jaspers for Jamie Braddock for a moment, despite his trademark cockney, largely because I’m used to his having a pronounced receding hairline. I’m loving Bob Quinn on this book, but there’s a bit of danger in making the two British reality warpers look so similar.

In any case, Gambit’s sacrifice does give the rest of the Knights access to Mercator, so they beat a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, Arthur’s forces are hot on their heels and get in through the portal after them. That’s the trouble with traveling by magic portal.

Nola, am I alone in noting a bit of a tone change in Arthur’s yelling? He doesn’t sound quite as bloodthirsty for Mordred’s head as earlier. I wonder what’s going on in his head…

The Sludge Perilous

Nola: So it turns out, when you give something like the SIege Perilous to a guy like Mister M, you get a Swamp of Sadness straight out of the Neverending Story.

Karen: This whole series of sequences is really fantastic and my favorite parts of the issue (besides the obvious… there’s just a lot to like here, OK?). Absolon Mercator’s entrance is quite cool – “Traveler? Oh no no no. This is my home.” When he shoves his beautifully drawn shoe into Arthur’s face to drive him back into the mud, I appreciated that.

What follows is a “hand-written” note (was this you, Ariana Maher?) from Arthur to Merlyn, severing their alliance and betraying a loyalty to his son Mordred that we haven’t really seen until now. I wonder what’s going on here as the mysteries continue to stack up throughout the issue.

We then see each of our X Knights, separated from each other but playing out roughly the same scene opposite an individually significant character. We have learned that the land of Mercator has somehow been subsumed by the Siege Perilous, so what we’re seeing is a literalization of what happens to whoever passes through the Siege.

Nola: Loved the very explicit callback to UXM #251 with Betsy here. Other than that, while I like the idea of the Siege being part of Mercator itself, I don’t know that I love the … implementation? There’s a marked shift here from its history, in that as each Knight faces their individual challenge, it’s all very personal. Each is a challenge about their lives, their past, featuring friends and loved ones. I guess I’m curious how one gets from this to the Siege’s output, which is an entire erasure of that identity from a person’s mind. Maybe that’s the deal? Convince them they’re a failure so they want a way out?

Karen: It’s incredibly fascinating! In effect, it feels like a very familiar story beat for X-Men – being distracted or discouraged by an illusion that represents your deepest fear or greatest desire (Hi, Dani), and needing to work through it to get to the real prize at the end.

I love the visions we get, thankfully one for each character to really highlight who these people are and why we care about them. I also love how we continue to only see fragments of -[A]-, as his presence continues to haunt Rictor even as we never get to see him fully. The page transition of his hand pulling Rictor out of the mud to it being Brian’s with Meggan was fantastic. We also get Mordred versus an Arthur straight out of Warcraft/hammer, Betsy facing down the Captain Britain Corps, Shatterstar back in the ring against Spiral and X-Treme, Bei back at the altar with Doug, and Kylun witnessing the death of his beloved Sat’neen at the hands of the evil Necrom. Throughout, Maher’s lettering really shines (love what she does with the Shatterstar page). Not only is this good emo food, it’s also candy for continuity nerds (raise your hand).

Meanwhile, Rachel is very busy.

Nola: I love that Rachel’s specific nature, not just as a telepath but as a time- and dimension-displaced one (as well as, apparently, a multiversal anomaly?) gives her a kind of resistance to the Perilous’ whole deal. Even more than that, though, I love that all it takes is for her to hear Betsy’s in need before she busts out, not just telekinetically but flaming like a Phoenix, to rescue the woman she loves. Dropping everything to chase her gay crush? Absolutely classic, note-perfect Rachel move.

This Kiss (THIS KIIIIIIISS)

Nola: It’s centrifugal motion!

Karen: It’s perpetual bliss!

Nola: It’s that pivotal moment!

Karen: It’s, ah, unthinkable!

This moment has been such a long time coming, building up slowly over the course of Excalibur and now, here we are. You’d forgive us for becoming resigned to thinking we’d never see Betsy Braddock and Rachel Grey-Summers express their obvious infatuation for each other in the pages of a Marvel comic book. It feels good.

I’ve had a kind of private joke with myself whenever we see The Gay Kiss™ in these comics, how over the top they can be regardless of the context, but with this scene it feels warranted. Cue the string section, release the rainbow butterflies! We’ve both admitted to not having read District X, so thank you Connor of Cerebro for sharing that rainbow butterflies is actually just part of Mr. M’s thing, and what we see here is a wonderful bit of serendipity.

Nola: Honestly, everything here feels so earned, which is my favorite thing about how Tini writes. It’s always so methodical, so careful, everything laid in place. I absolutely cannot wait for this book to drop as a collected volume so I can read it through again.

Karen: I’m definitely going to want a full Tini Howard Omnibus including the Excalibur stuff and whatever comes next. An epic tome, if you will! The splash page of Rachel and Betsy can be the cover.

I am really curious what kind of ulterior motives Saturnyne and Roma have for our heroes. I am doubly curious what Merlyn is after with this whole thing – is he after Shogo specifically? We’re heading into the final issue with a whole lot left to be revealed. On a separate note, it’s a real shame that books like this keep succumbing to Suddenly A Miniseries disease, as the ambition of the storytelling gets squeezed a bit in the process. I’m heartened that there’s more to tell after #5, and given the developments with Rachel and Betsy, I hope our Mother Askani has a lot to do with what’s coming.

X-Traneous Thoughts

Petition to get a Siege Perilous emoji.
It took me a couple reads to realize that the Siege emoji was on a poptart. Brilliant.
Mr. M is a great ally.
Gambit was not at the Hellfire Gala this year, so his sexy outfit seems to have been a misdirect.
Love that Rachel is quite literally flaming during that kiss. Good work, KoX crew.