Excalibur #23
Writer: Tini Howard
Art by: Marcus To
Cover by: Mahmud Asrar
The Story:
The Call of Doom!
As guardians of the gate, Excalibur has sworn to safely escort those who quest to the Otherworld within, but their duties are tested to their limits when Doom returns to Avalon.
In Stores: September 8, 2021
“For so long, my life has been out of control. Chaos and serendipity, wrapped in insanity. I have suffered, I have lost. Not just my life, but my very soul, my self. But no more. Now I know who I am.” – Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Braddock, daughter of Otherworld, mutant, telepath, telekinetic, defender of the realm and, above all, X-Man.
33 comments:
Dang the art looks great. Love seeing Betsy in casual clothes and also seeing her stand up to Doom is very cool.
Interesting... that first page seems very precog-y...
Would the writing gotten better near the ending is set up. No one is terrible at doing writer's work so might be fixed bad from the start.
Looks like a pre-cog flash to me 👀 no future seers allowed on Krakoa though...
Just a nightmare...
I like the idea of Betsy having precognitive dreams. I wonder if this means she will have a role to play in Hickman's Inferno miniseries... or if it means she'll be completely absent from that story, with Excalibur's arc keeping her outside Krakoa during the time Inferno takes place. Hopefully it will be the first case.
It's really nice that Tini Howard is bringing Betsy's precognition back.
Giving Betsy precog powers again would help further set her apart not only from Kwannon but other telepaths too. Not sure if she's just dreaming the events again because everything in her dream already occurred. Plus she didn't see her old friends brought back in her dream. We will see..
True. Also, it seems Malice is also shown in the dream, and it's unlikely that she'll return to this book (though it's not impossible). Still, the precognition would help a lot to set her apart from other telepaths (just like how Leah Williams restored Rachel's time-manipulation powers).
Since Excalibur is based on magic kingdoms and all, it could also be interesting to have Betsy develop some kind of magic ability (I don't think there's any other character with both psychic and magic powers). Then again, this could make her overpowered, and characters that are too powerful usually aren't interesting protagonists.
But, assuming Betsy's dream is really a precognition, could the appearance of the Quiet Council of Krakoa be a sign that she may be joining them in the future? After all, Apocalypse's and Jean's seats are now vacant (and Storm's may be vacant, too, now that she's queen in Mars), so they need to find new representatives... and she's basically the ambassador between Krakoa and Otherworld, so she should be important enough to be considered for it.
Then again, some people think that Inferno may end up with the Quiet Council being dissolved and with Krakoans getting a new government, so the dream could be also an indication of that (though in that case, Betsy has been so detached from the Krakoan society that learning that the power will move from X to Y should hardly matter to her).
@Psi-Girl, if my memory serves, she had another precognitive flash after that during the blue/gold era while in Kwannon’s body. It was the storyline with Omega Red, Sabretooth, Fenris, and Maverick. She warned Piotr and Scott to get out a building before a bomb went off as she saw. I think that was her last precognitive episode.
@Randy, I have BEEN hoping since we learned of Moira’s decree in HoX/PoX that Hickman, Howard, White, and company recalled that this was her primary mutation and would factor it into the greater story. Specifically, that Moira and Charles and Erik maybe decided that because it was so random, uncontrolled, and unmanifested in years that they figured she was fine to let on Krakoa. Plus, she was already alive unlike some other slain precognitive mutants, so they decided to not cross a line by assassinating her. If she died though, and they refused to bring her back via resurrection that would raise a lot of eyebrows.
Since Hickman remembers a lot of obscure lore from X-books and Marvel in general, including STRIKE (which he folded into ORCHIS), I would hope he would remember that Betsy was precognitive during her STRIKE tenure and would not overlook that no matter how random and infrequent her power displayed. Especially, now that the STRIKE psi-unit is back and established as mutants.
Unless the writers and editors decided that Betsy’s precognitive ability is too obscure for anyone to recall and thus irrelevant to the larger Moira story. That would suck as it would be a golden opportunity to give Betsy something better to do than the ongoing D&D storyline of Excalibur and tie her directly into the holistic story of the mutant sovereign nation.
I have a feeling we may get the precog ability back! This is not the first time we see Betsy dreaming in Excalibur. Remember her dream about Apocalypse when Rachel was trying to help her and then again in #16 before she woke up in the Queens body.
I may be wrong because the obvious has not come to fruition in Howard's run so far but I can hope! And while it is an obscure ability for Betsy I can see it easily be reintroduced without much issue especially it making sense that her precog re-emerge now that she's in her true body.
Plus, despite our (many) criticisms regarding Howard's run, she does seem to be quite familiar with the Captain Britain mythos: her Otherworld includes several notable figures from Roma to Mad Jim Jaspers, she recently brought back the deceased telepaths from STRIKE, there was that arc with the Warwolves (even though it was hardly memorable)... so she should be aware that Betsy had precog powers back in her days as Captain Britain's supporting character.
And while we're all insulted by the way she projected her "white people guilt" over Betsy when there was no context whatsoever for that, I do believe that Tini likes Betsy (and she possibly even believed that having Betsy deal with her "white woman guilt" would be ultimately a good thing for the character - even if we know this idea was wrong in every possible way). So I guess she will try to bring this power back and try to elevate Betsy in this next (and maybe last) arc.
Now I hope she also pitches this idea to Hickman so that he brings Betsy to the Inferno storyline.
Betsy had been writen so lame that something so random like a nightmare gives us/you false hope that they care about her ...
Marcus To adds quality to Excalibur Betsy is magnifique in civvies.
False hope says much the butterfly mind blasts and visions are pieces of Betsy's mutation. Betsy hasn't been written good for years. Last time she was awesome was in Uncanny X -Force.
And Julio finally looks Mexican.
Randybear fact Mahmud Asrar keeps giving Betsy her butterfly in every Excalibur cover. I'm reduced to tears love the guy he got guts.
Facts. Asrar and Dauterman both respect Betsy as the rightful owner of the butterfly
She hasn't been in anything as epic since UXF by Remender. I remember highly anticipating each issue and each page was so exciting. IMO the xmen havent had as good a story since then but I also really enjoyed Betsy in Cullen Bunn's Uncammy with Magneto and Sabretooth etc that was great! Especially at the end of that run where Betsy kills Magneto in a 1one1 fight. I miss epic Betsy :(
Those both were really good comics. I also loved her solo mini series. I liked her in the Astonishing one as well. I always found it interesting how she seemed to be second in command to both Magneto in one and Xavier (X) in the other lol. I guess supposedly she's the leader of Excalibur now, but I feel like we never really see it.
To be honest, I enjoyed her (and the overall story) in Spurrier's X-Force run a lot, too.
Under a well-suited writer, I am looking forward to an Elizabeth Braddock story or stories in an ongoing where she is intelligent, fierce, savvy, sardonic, and kickass without the baggage of the Acts of Vengeance plot. All the books that you, Fsaker, X-Man, and Randy have mentioned are all good Psylocke books, but the one thing that unites all good Psylocke stories is the tired spectre of the forced body switch. Now that Betsy is wholly herself, I look forward to a real, meaty story that is solely about her. Even great books that featured her always either directly or indirectly had to address her mental state being jacked up due to being in another woman's body. The one thing I can say that I like about what Tini is doing since she and Kwannon reconciled their issues is that she has moved away from all the body madness. That being said, I still am far from sold on the story and her characterizations of most characters in the book.
What I am looking forward to is a writer who will take this clean slate we are now at and recall that Besty has so many other formidable traits (powers, skills, intellect, etc.) and give us a relevant story that is tied to the greater geo-political mythos of Krakoa and the X-Men. I applaud Tini for finally severing the codependence of Betsy and Kwannon completely, but now I am ready for the the Excalibur arc of Elizabeth Braddock to end.
To be honest, I'm not mad at her passing on the Psylocke codename. it never made sense to me that she kept it. Not sure that I want her to remain the Captain either, but I hope I do see something new and audacious for her before I stop reading comics for good, which I think is coming soon. (Comics just don't engage me the way novels do as I get older... Mostly due to poor editing, continuity, retcons galore, characters constantly changing entire personas based on who's writing, etc. Plus, I like the finality of stories in novels and even indie comics that franchise superhero comics don't have, which is part of why I think they have all the aforementioned issues. Novels and indie comics don't have to constantly retcon or write characters out of character, because they don't keep using the same characters perpetually.)
Yes! I often forgot that book was criminally underrated and over shadowed by Humphries absolute garbage tier run on UXF. Spurrier XForce was so smart and everything came together neatly and so cleverly done. He also wrote each character fantastically IMO
"What I am looking forward to is a writer who will take this clean slate we are now at and recall that Betsy has so many other formidable traits (powers, skills, intellect, etc.) and give us a relevant story that is tied to the greater geo-political mythos of Krakoa and the X-Men. I applaud Tini for finally severing the codependence of Betsy and Kwannon completely, but now I am ready for the the Excalibur arc of Elizabeth Braddock to end."
THIS.
Though to be fair, some of the good runs involving Betsy didn't really address the body swap as far as I remember (like Spurrier's X-Force or Gillen's Uncanny X-Men).
And I share your opinion about the finality of stories, even though we both know this will likely never happen with Marvel's heroes (or DC's, for that matter). Recently I finished reading the Higurashi series of visual novels, and it was a breathtaking experience - but then I found out that apparently the author decided to create new stories for video games, animes and other media... maybe they're good stories, and the revelation in the beginning of Higurashi's penultimate visual novel does allow the possibility of creating new stories, but I don't see a purpose for these new stories when the original visual novels already gave the story an ending that answered all questions.
@FSaker,
I think I would enjoy superhero comics WAY more if characters retired, grew old, died, etc. and there were subsequent generations of new characters in the same universe to take on the story and continue it. Instead, what Marvel and DC do is just keep adding more characters to overinflated, bloated universes and then sidelining all the characters they have no clue what to do with. I have no problem with characters coming and going, which currently happens, but I think the reason why we have so many regurgitated stories, as well as so much retroactive continuity across the Marvel and DC universes is, because of their refusal to retire/end characters and larger stories. As I get further into adulthood, I realize that causes quite a bit of hedonistic adaptation for me, where the novelty of much of these characters and their lore has worn off. I think that is why I now enjoy the MCU (including What If...) way more than I enjoy Marvel's books as they diverge quite a bit and seemingly (knock on wood... WON'T RETCON and THEY RETIRE CHARACTERS through permanent death and other means). I am currently reading Hickman's indie book, Decorum and I love it. I'm actually curious to see if I will like Tini's work on his upcoming indie project, Substack. I also cannot wait for Saga to finally return. I have removed everything from my pull list at the store I buy from save for X-Men, SWORD, and Inferno. And I have a feeling once Inferno ends, I will stop reading superhero books for a while again unless something really standout that feels like an adult indie (as HoX/PoX did) catches my interest. I'm finding that I gravitate toward novels (non-graphic) than I do comics and graphic novels more and more and get more satisfaction from the dept of storytelling there.
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