Excalibur #16 Art

X-Solicits for March 2021

	Excalibur #19 Tini Howard (W) • Marcus To (A) Cover by: Mahmud Asrar Poisoned by Her Own Venom! She didn’t mean anything by it...but what’s a girl without a body supposed to do?
	X-Men #19 Jonathan Hickman (W) • Mahmud Asrar (A) Cover by: Leinil Francis Yu Women’s History Month Variant Cover by: Jen Bartel Escape from the Vault!
	X-Force #18 Benjamin Percy (W) • Garry Brown (A) Cover by: Joshua Cassara Deadpool 30th Variant Cover by: Rob Liefeld Welcome to their Nightmares! Quentin Quire returns to Krakoa to find a nightmare creature wreaking havoc on X-Force. But what deadly secrets are X-Force hiding…and who’s trying to unearth them?
	Hellions #10 Zeb Wells (W) • Stephen Segovia (A/C) Funny Games! The Hellions are at the mercy of ARCADE as they face his new psychological Murderworld!
	X-Factor #8 Leah Williams (W) • David Baldeon (A) Cover by: Ivan Shavrin Hey, guys! Wasn’t expecting to see X-Factor torpedo up the resurrection queue priority--. Boneyard’s haunted. WHAT? *Resurrecting murdered teammates* Boneyard’s haunted.
	S.W.O.R.D. #4 Al Ewing (W) • Valerio Schiti (A/C) Variant Cover by: TBA Krakoa, We Have a Problem! The mutants are dying. Their island is dying. Earth itself is dying. All hope for humanity as a species lies in Protocol V. Protocol V isn’t going to work.
	Children of The Atom #1 Vita Ayala (W) • Bernard Chang (A) Cover by: R.B. Silva Variant Cover by: Bernard Chang Design Variant Cover by: Tom Muller Hidden Gem Wraparound Variant Cover by: Jim Lee Variant Cover by: Todd Nauck When Did the X–Men Get Sidekicks?! Now! Don’t miss the debut of the greatest teenage super hero team of all time! They’ve learned from the best, now they’re ready to be put to the test! But who the heck are these kids, and where do they come from? Guest-starring the X–Men!
	X-Men Legends #2 Fabian Nicieza (W) • Brett Booth (A/C) Connecting Variant Cover by: Iban Coello Action Figure Variant Cover by: John Tyler Christopher The Secret of Adam-X – Revealed at Last! It’s the Summers Brothers and Starjammers vs. Erik the Red and the Shi’ar with the fate of the galaxy at stake, as the full truth behind Adam-X’s lineage is revealed in a story nearly 30 years in the making!

Excalibur #16 Spoilers

Spoilers: In Krakoa, Rogue tries to copes with the loss of Betsy while Rictor is devastated about losing Apocalypse. Rogue and Gambit head to the Green Lagoon tiki bar for a drink and fill Blob in on Betsy’s misfortune. Rogue reveals she has contacted X-Factor to investigate Betsy’s whereabouts and prove that she’s dead in order to proceed with her resurrection. Rictor and Jubilee join Rogue and Gambit at the bar. Rictor is upset they’re not affected about the loss of Apocalypse as well. Gambit reminds him that Apocalypse chose to leave while Betsy got played by Saturnyne and deserves justice. Rachel contacts Excalibur to meet X-Factor at the Boneyard. The results of the investigation were inconclusive as there is no proof of death, therefore the Resurrection protocols are out of question. Rogue is upset that no one seems to care about Betsy. Rachel says she loves Betsy and tells Rogue that X-Factor did all they could. Rachel then encourages Excalibur to investigate the crime scene: Otherworld. 

Rogue, Gambit, Rictor and Jubilee travel through the Avalon gate and are welcomed in Camelot by Brian, Meggan, Maggie and King Jamie. Brian and Meggan are desperate to find answers about Betsy as well. Jamie suggests making a new Betsy from scratch but they all agree they’re better off without him mucking about with Betsy again. Meggan is now the Court Sorceress and reveals her connection to Otherworld has grown stronger. Meggan felt a calling coming from the arena site and invites Excalibur to join her while Brian stays behind to look after Jamie and Maggie. Jamie tells Brian he has other ideas to find Betsy and leaves through the Avalon gate. Jamie heads to Bar Sinister and warns Sinister he wants to call in his favor. Jamie commissions Sinister to create a body for Betsy since he promised not to mess with reality. 

Once Excalibur reaches the spot where Betsy shattered, Meggan connects to the land. Following the instructions left by Apocalypse in his Grimoire, Rictor supervises the ritual. They all hold hands and focus on Betsy’s imprint left on the site with Rogue acting as the conduit. Excalibur succeeds; however, their ritual summons the Captain Britain Corps. Meggan asks for their help and tells all about Betsy-Prime missing. As the faeries have told Meggan that Betsy is not in Otherworld, one Captain Britain theorizes she must be lost in one of their realms. All Captains Britain agree to search for her. 

Meanwhile, our Betsy Braddock-616 wakes up in what appears to be an alternate earth where she is Queen Elizabeth III. Betsy is startled when she sees an alternate Warren Worthington III serving breakfast in bed to her. Warren calls Betsy the queen of his heart.

Excalibur #16 Preview

Excalibur #16

Writer: Tini Howard

Art by: Marcus To

Cover by: Mahmud Asrar

The Story:

The sword is sheathed!

The team is left changed in the aftermath of 'X of Swords'... and some things lost cannot be replaced.

In Stores: December 23, 2020

Captain Britain by Alberto Navajo

 Alberto Navajo

X-Men Monday #86 – Jonathan Hickman & Tini Howard Answer Your X of Swords & Reign of X Questions

AiPT!: It’s always an event when Jonathan Hickman steps through a Krakoan gate to join us here at X-Men Monday, and in true, unpredictable Hickman fashion, he brought along a special guest: fellow X of Swords mastermind and Excalibur writer Tini Howard! 

AIPT: Jonathan, you’ve used the Captain Britain Corps in stories pre-X of Swords. What do you two like about the Corps and Otherworld the most, and what new addition to their lore are you most excited about moving forward? 

Tini: I love Alan Moore’s story work on Captain Britain so much–that moment where he zooms out from the earlier stuff and makes the national hero trope (which can seem clumsy at times, in general) into a defender of all reality? That’s it for me. I’m excited that I feel like we’ve gotten to do something similar with expanding Otherworld and changing the Corps. The Captain Britain Corps is so fundamentally weird that these sort of inside-out flips of the whole concept don’t feel disrespectful to the original, they feel in line with it. It’s fun. 

Jonathan: Yeah. And as for what it gives us moving forward, the answer is a lot. We actually built each of those Otherworld kingdoms as a separate story engine that feeds into one or more of the other kingdoms. So there’s a progression baked in. And a good bit of that mythology leans toward Tini’s main book and the evolving Captain Britain drama.

HeroClix X-Men House of X: Captain Britain Revealed

The next HeroClix set, coming in December, is X-Men House of X and features Betsy Braddock as Captain Britain. Bricks will be sold at your favorite local game store, or you can pre-order through the WizKids online shop.

Cerebro Podcast: Tini Howards Talks Betsy Braddock

In the episode of the CEREBRO podcast dedicated to Saturnyne, Connor Goldsmith and Marvel writer Tini Howard talk Betsy Braddock, Captain Britain!

Cerebro: One of my favorite parts [in Excalibur #13] is where Betsy is in the dungeon and she’s trying to focus her energy and the butterfly almost appears. There’s been a lot of controversy about the butterfly.

Tini Howard: I’ve talked a lot about how this story is about loss and failing and the stakes, starting from a bad place and being in a bad place. Betsy split up with someone she lived with for a very long time and maybe when she was heading out in a rush, she forgot some things that were really important to her. It’s not an accident, it’s not a marketing thing. The feeling of loss you’re experiencing when you see her without [the butterfly] is on purpose. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Cerebro: I think it will come back eventually, and when it comes back it will be for a reason. The fact that she doesn’t have [the butterfly] right now is purely a character beat.

Tini Howard: Right. I think that I want people to feel that way. If you were a Betsy fan and if you lived on Krakoa and were her friend, you’d go to her and ask “Where is your butterfly? You’re not yourself without it.”

Cerebro: And she hasn’t quite been herself.

Tini Howard: Right. I love Betsy so much. I don’t put you guys through anything that I wouldn’t like to go through myself. I’m taking these characters through journeys I think it’s the right one, even if it’s not the easiest.