X-Solicits for December 2021

	Excalibur #26 Tini Howard (W) • Marcus To (A) Cover by: Mahmud Asrar Variant Cover by: Betsy Cola Otherworld Falls! Merlyn and King Arthur have taken the Starlight Citadel. Saturnyne still lives – but not for long. Betsy Braddock must decide once and for all where her loyalties lie. It’s all been building to this – the fantasy ends here and reality rushes in. There is no haven for the witchbreed. Can they hold on to their champion, here at the twilight of an age?
	Inferno #4 (of 4) Jonathan Hickman (W) • Valerio Schiti (A) Cover by: Jerome Opeña Variant Cover by: Pepe Larraz Variant Cover by: Davi Go Variant Cover by: Jeff Dekal Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko Variant Cover by: Iban Coello Variant Cover by: David Baldeón Variant Cover by: Oscar Vega Foreshadow Variant Cover by: TBA Hidden Gem Variant Cover by: Udon To Embers! Jonathan Hickman’s time on X-Men ends with the dramatic conclusion of one of the first and best mysteries he brought to the line. Valerio Schiti returns on art to help bring down one of the foundations of the era.
	X-Men #6 Gerry Duggan (W) • Pepe Larraz (A/C) Variant Cover by: Pepe Larraz Trading Card Variant Cover by: Russell Dauterman Whatever Happened to Captain Krakoa? There’s a new hero on the X-Men. Who is he? Why is here? And why does Cyclops not want him on the team?
	Marauders #27 Gerry Duggan (W) • Matteo Lolli (A) Cover by: Russell Dauterman Variant Cover by: Dike Ruan The Sun Sets on the Marauders. The Marauders’ first tour comes to a close as the shake-ups within the Hellfire Trading Company crystalize. Will any of the inner circle remain standing? And can the crew survive the changes happening around them?
	New Mutants #24 Vita Ayala (W) • Danilo Beyruth (A) Cover by: Martin Simmonds Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko New Status Quo for the New Mutants! The New Mutants regroup in the aftermath of the Shadow King’s attack! What will become of Amahl Farouk? Why is Warpath…crying?! How many snikts can fit into one panel? What happens to the Lost when they find one another? All this and more in a single issue—plus the setup for the next big arc, a story too magical to be believed.
	X-Force #26 Benjamin Percy (W) • Robert Gill (A) Cover by: Joshua Cassara Variant Cover by: Stephen Segovia Eruption! Domino, Kid Omega and Wolverine head back into the thresher to recover the precious cargo stolen from Krakoa! If the team can survive the volcanic eruption and stormy seas, there’s still the organization behind the plot—the reveal of which will have major ramifications on the next issues of X-Force! And the debut of the next wave of Mutant technology! Move over, Blackbird jet!
	Hellions #18 Zeb Wells (W) • Zé Carlos & Stephen Segovia (A) Cover by: Stephen Segovia Variant Cover by: Philip Tan Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko Variant Cover by: Kael Ngu Variant Cover by: Inhyuk Lee Hellions No More! Orphan-Maker has committed a horrible crime. As he faces the ultimate penalty, the cracks in the HELLIONS team are on full display. Secrets, betrayals, alliances and loss all come to the surface as the fallout of Orphan-Maker’s actions threatens to end all the Hellions have worked toward! Plus: The return of a fan-favorite X-character in a decision that will rock the foundation of Krakoa!
	S.W.O.R.D. #11 Al Ewing (W) • Jacopo Camagni (A) Cover by: Stefano Caselli Variant Cover by: Paul Renaud The Final Frontier? Sword Station One is crashing to Earth. The Lethal Legion is poised to destroy the diplomatic zone. Abigail Brand is ready to make her move. But how far ahead did she plan? How many losses will she accept? And how many bodies will she leave in her wake?
	X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #5 (of 5) Leah Williams (W) • Lucas Werneck & David Messina (A) Cover by: Valerio Schiti Variant Cover by: Dan Jurgens Variant Cover by: Terry Dodson Justice is Served. The mystery surrounding Magneto and Scarlet Witch is resolved. The guilty will be judged, the innocent absolved, the victims avenged…and all shall endure their own trials.

Excalibur #24 Variant Cover by Rian Gonzales

Excalibur #23 Art

Excalibur #23 Spoilers

Spoilers: Dr. Doom visits the Braddock Lighthouse and requests passage to Otherworld through the Krakoan gateway. Doom hopes to use a Latverian mutant child to cross the gate and retrieve an item that belonged to Morgan Le Fay. After a brief discussion, Excalibur volunteers to guide Doom to Avalon instead. In Avalon, Meggan catches up with Excalibur while Doom leads them to the Valley of Wailing Mists. On their way to Castle Le Fay, an assassin from Sevalith engages in an assassination attempt, but his plans are foiled by Captain Britain. After the assassin disappears into the mist, Gambit remarks that relations between Avalon and Sevalith are tense these days. Meggan thinks it’s best to shapeshift into a brunette just in case. Doom is furious to learn that Castle Le Fay no longer stands on where it was supposed to. Meggan and Rictor use their powers and find out that the castle was magically taken away. Doom is enraged and demands to know the whereabouts of Morgan, Merlyn, Arthur and Mordred, Arthur’s son, while Jubilee learns from the fairies that someone took the castle to sell it in the Crooked Market.

Excalibur guides Doom to the Crooked Market. While Betsy and Doom seek an audience with Mad Jim Jaspers, Gambit takes Meggan, Jubilee and Rictor to a gambling den to have a little fun. Doom asks Jaspers for Morgan’s palace. Jaspers warns him that a box is all that was left of Morgan’s belongings. Jaspers and Doom aren’t able to reach a deal regarding the price and engage in an altercation, while Betsy is suspicious of Doom’s intentions. Suddenly, and army of Furies from the Everforge kingdom attacks Jaspers’ office specifically targeting Captain Britain and all “friends of Mordred”. Jaspers hands the box with Morgan’s belongings to Doom and tell them to leave.

Elsewhere, while Meggan, Jubilee and Rictor watch, Gambit gambles with a few locals and takes the opportunity to cheat using one of Saturnyne’s cards. While the locals reprimand him for being a thief, the place is also attacked by Furies. Excalibur flees from the Furies and ends up reuniting with Betsy and Doom. The Furies warn that they have sworn their allegiance to King Arthur and that all “friends of Mordred” must die. Captain Britain argues that attacking her is an attack against the Starlight Citadel itself and that the Furies have also sworn to abide by the Citadel’s laws. After a brief battle, the Furies decide to leave to discuss the conflicting programming with the Fury leader, Forgemaster Federal.

Back on Earth, Doom sends a letter to Betsy warning that the box from Jaspers contained a shrunken Castle Le Fay. As a token of appreciation, Doom sends the Waters of Otherworld from Morgan’s scrying pool to Betsy in the hope she is able to obtain answers regarding Arthur and Mordred. Betsy asks for Meggan’s help and Gloriana deduces that Arthur cast out his son Mordred because he is a mutant, which means that a “friend of Mordred” means mutant.

Excalibur #23 Preview

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

Excalibur #23 Teaser

X-Solicits for November 2021

	Excalibur #25 Tini Howard (W) • Marcus To (A) Cover by: Mahmud Asrar Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko The One True King Returns! And he’s here to exterminate the witchbreed! King Arthur and his army turn Otherworld into a battlefield—again. Backed into a corner, Betsy Braddock makes a desperate choice that will reshape the realm—and mutantkind—forever. The fate of the Starlight Citadel is at stake, and if the Citadel falls...so falls all reality.
	Inferno #3 (of 4) Jonathan Hickman (W) • R.B. Silva (A) Cover by: Jerome Opeña Stormbreaker Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko Variant Cover by: Russell Dauterman Variant Cover by: Jeff Dekal Variant Cover by: Peach Momoko Variant Cover by: Oscar Vega Variant Cover by: Giuseppe Camuncoli Nimrod Strikes! Krakoa’s troubles don’t attack one at a time. Jonathan Hickman reunites with his Powers of X collaborator R.B. Silva for the penultimate chapter of his X-Swan Song.
	X-Men #5 Gerry Duggan (W) • Javier Pina (A) Cover by: Pepe Larraz Native American Heritage Month Variant Cover by: Maria Wolf Stormbreakers Variant Cover by: Iban Coello Variant Cover by: Jamie Mckelvie Enter: Doctor Stasis! The X-Men’s new nemesis finally makes himself known to them, bringing his creations to bear. Mutants may have conquered death, but their foes are all too living...
	Marauders #26 Gerry Duggan (W) • Matteo Lolli (A) Cover by: Russell Dauterman Variant Cover by: Meghan Hetrick How to Fight Your Dragon! While a new representative of Krakoa hits the international stage, the Marauders find themselves face-to-snout with He-Whose-Limbs-Shatter-Mountains-and-Whose-Back-Scrapes-the-Sun, Fin Fang Foom himself!
	New Mutants #23 Vita Ayala (W) • Rod Reis (A) Cover by: Martin Simmonds Native American Heritage Month Variant Cover by: Maria Wolf Fall of The Shadow Children! No more New Mutants. Now there are only shadows—and the beast that’s stalking them through infinity. Amahl Farouk executes his master plan—but is he the one in control?
	X-Force #25 Benjamin Percy (W) • Robert Gill (A) Cover by: Joshua Cassara Native American Heritage Month Variant Cover by: Maria Wolf A Deadly Turn of The Tide to Mark 25 Issues of X-Force! The island paradise of Krakoa has no shortage of beautiful vistas, but Wolverine’s tastes run toward the coves with the deadliest waves in the world! It will take more than a healing factor to survive this thresher as a previously unknown threat to mutantkind splashes down! Plus: A sea change for Kid Omega and Phoebe Cuckoo!
	Hellions #17 Zeb Wells (W) • Stephen Segovia (A/C) Action Figure Variant Cover by: John Tyler Christopher Rampage! Feelings are hard. Orphan-Maker doesn’t like feeling that he’s not Nanny’s little boy anymore...and what more sensible, mature action is there to take than to storm the fortress of their enemies THE RIGHT in a bid to get back in her good graces? Before the day is through, there will be some dire consequences...
	S.W.O.R.D. #10 Al Ewing (W) • Jacopo Camagni (A) Cover by: Stefano Caselli Variant Cover by: Inhyuk Lee Station Down! As Storm battles the Lethal Legion on Mars, there are explosive problems on the Peak – as the mole in S.W.O.R.D. is revealed! Meanwhile, Wiz Kid and Cable find themselves face-to-face with the one foe they never expected! And where is Abigail Brand?
	X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #4 (of 5) Leah Williams (W) • Lucas Werneck (A) Cover by: Valerio Schiti Variant Cover by: Paco Medina Variant Cover by: Scott Forbes Double, Double Toil and Trouble! A Wanda divided cannot stand... but there are many other things she can do. Chaos comes to Krakoa.

Hickman Leaving the X-Men, X-Books to Relaunch in January

EW: X-Men comic fans have been fearing this day, but alas, it has arrived. EW can confirm that Jonathan Hickman, the writer behind the celebrated 2019 comics House of X and Powers of X (illustrated by Pepe Larraz and R.B. Silva) that relaunched Marvel's mutants with a radical new status quo, will be departing the X-Men line after his upcoming Inferno series wraps up.

"Oh, plans have changed entirely," Hickman says. "When I pitched the X-Men story I wanted to do, I pitched a very big, very broad, three-act, three-event narrative, the first of which was House of X. And while this loosely worked as a three-year plan, I told Marvel upfront that I honestly had no idea how long the first part would last because there were a lot of interesting ideas that I had seeded that other creators would want to play with, and so, we left this rather open-ended. I was also pretty clear with all the writers that came into the office what the initial, three-act plan was so no one would be surprised when it was time for the line to pivot."

Hickman continues, "However, I also knew that I was cooking with dynamite, and it was very possible that what I had written in House of X, and the ideas contained within, was not actually the first act of a three-act story, but something that resonated more deeply and worked more like Giant-Size X-Men, where it would represent a paradigm shift in the entire X-Men line for a prolonged period of time. So, during the pandemic, when the time came for me to start pointing things toward writing the second-act event, I asked everyone if they were ready for me to do that, and to a man, everyone wanted to stay in the first act. It was really interesting, because I appreciated that House of X resonated with them to the extent that they didn't want it to end, but the reality was that I knew I would be leaving the line early."

"Marvel doesn't really pay me to just write ongoing monthly books, there's an expectation for me to write bigger books that have a wider reach than that," Hickman tells EW. "In an effort to facilitate both things, we've all spent the last six months or so reorienting the line, me creating Inferno to assist with that, and then bringing in some new writers to add to the existing team, and then plan for the next several years of X-books. So after Inferno, I'll be leaving to go work on my 'Next Big Marvel Thing™' and starting in January the X-Line will rocket forward starting with a weekly series that leads into the very cool, refocused, line of books. Yes, it's taken us a little while to get everything assembled correctly, but the end result — everything that's coming after Inferno — is going to be pretty great."

As it happens, EW has been interviewing Hickman and these collaborators — writers Vita Ayala, Gerry Duggan, Al Ewing, Tini Howard, Benjamin Percy, Si Spurrier, Zeb Wells, Leah Williams, and artist Pepe Larraz — about the past two years of radical new X-Men comics. Check that out below; hopefully it will assuage some of the sadness from Hickman's coming departure.

Solving the Psylocke paradox

EW: One of the most popular X-Men characters from recent decades is also one of the most complicated. The mutant telepath Psylocke, a.k.a. Betsy Braddock, started out as the English sister of Brian Braddock, a.k.a Captain Britain. But in 1989, Betsy's mind was transplanted into the body of a Japanese ninja assassin, later established to be a mutant named Kwannon. Despite the complicated situation of a white woman's mind in an Asian woman's body, the resulting character became immensely popular. Psylocke starred not just in X-Men comics, but also video games and even 2016's big-screen blockbuster X-Men: Apocalypse, where she was played by Olivia Munn. Finally, in 2018's Mystery in Madripoor comic by Jim Zub and Thony Silas, both Betsy and Kwannon were returned to their original bodies. But it fell to the new X-writers to reckon with all that baggage, as Betsy took up the mantle of Captain Britain in Excalibur and Kwannon (now taking the name Psylocke in her own right) became the field leader of the Hellions.

TINI HOWARD: That's something that we talked about from the very first X-meeting I was in. Even before we started forming our own stories, we talked about, 'what are some things that are really important to us, some things we want to set up the way they deserve'? One of them was a resolution to that Psylocke situation that wasn't just these two characters fighting until they got along. It was important not just to us creators but to fans, especially Asian fans and all female fans, who felt bothered or hurt by some of the ways that had been handled over its 30 years. Here's this problem that's really tangled and had also become important to people in various ways, so it was really necessary to resolve. This was something I took really seriously, and had my nerves about. But Zeb is incredible as a collaborator, he does such incredible work with Kwannon.

ZEB WELLS: I thought a way I could build off what Tini was doing and honor the character, was to make Kwannon the most compelling character apart from all of that as possible. To show that there was a super interesting tragic character under all of that this whole time.

She gets put into this situation where she has to lead this team and keep an eye on them and become a leader. The goal was to make that as interesting as possible and to make her as defined a character as possible. The Fallen Angels miniseries had taken a great first step, digging into the tragedy of her assassin background. With the brave new world of Krakoa, I thought we had the chance to take all of that together and make a very compelling character.

TINI HOWARD: We just kind of developed these women having these separate fears and thoughts about each other until they could come together. It ends up being extra fun and satisfying because one thing we can do in these books, because we have so many different books going, we can have conversations feel different or look different or include different details. If you read Hellions, you know Kwannon basically had a psychic therapy session where she killed Betsy Braddock a bunch in her mind. I don't think Betsy knows that, I don't think she's supposed to know that. It's not important to her to know that, that was Kwannon's therapy, that was her working through stuff.

Betsy working through stuff was completely different, and she needed Kwannon to help her out of it. It was based on guilt and complicated stuff. Some of that was scary to write, because a lot of it is my own experience being a bumbling white lady. That's an experience I can write about. It's not even like she was being thoughtful about it like 'i'm trying to get out of this,' sometimes you get emotional and you're nervous and you're gonna do something that doesn't make any sense because it brings you some kind of catharsis. No, white lady; get in your portal!

Children of the Atom #6 Art

Captain Britain commission by Romina Jones

Romina Jones