Saturnyne shows a glimpse of the future to Wolverine of what happens if he attempts to kill her: Amenth conquers Krakoa and Earth and massacres mutants and humans alike. Logan gives up on the idea of killing her. Cypher eats the poisoned food intended for Logan and starts choking to death. Isca cuts Doug’s throttle so he can breathe. White Sword chastises War for attempting to cheat the tournament. Disgusted with such cowardice, White Sword heals Cypher. Brian asks Saturnyne to declare Krakoa the winner by forfeit in view of Arakko’s violation of the rules. Saturnyne replies that Wolverine also attempted to murder her. As courses continue to be served, the Krakoans and Arakki get to know each other. Cable and Magik play games with Isca in order to test her invincibility. War and Redroot notice that the Krakoans are far too soft. Once dinner is finished, Saturnyne draws the tarot cards and sets the first battle: Captain Britain vs. Isca the Unbeaten.
Excalibur #14, Chapter 15
In Avalon, Betsy contacts Jubilee telepathically and warns her to stay away from the Starlight Citadel. Isca visits Betsy’s tent and advices her to forfeit the duel and avoid death. Betsy dismisses her remarks. Shortly afterwards, King Jamie Braddock hosts the duel between Captain Britain and Isca. The battle started evenly close; however, the Starlight Sword shatters into pieces and so does Betsy Braddock. Betsy Braddock is no more. Saturnyne have her priestesses retrieve Betsy’s pieces and invites the remaining combatants to a party. Brian accuses her of rigging the duel and playing Betsy.
Arakko 1 – 0 Krakoa
Saturnyne next draws the cards and sets the next duel: Cypher vs. Bei the Blood Moon. Cypher is fascinated by the fact that he can’t understand what Bei speaks; her words are not a true language and cannot be translated. The White Priestesses attend to Doug and start dressing him up in a white robe and a flower crown. Magik visits Doug to check on him and deduces he’s not being dressed for a duel. They soon realize Saturnyne intends to marry Doug to Bei the Blood Moon. Cypher and Bei the Blood Moon both agree to the wedding. Jubilee heads to the Citadel looking for Betsy riding on Shogo, who spits fire on the Citadel. Saturnyne calms down Shogo with her magic and tames him. Cypher and Bei ties the knot, and the Majestrix decides to award a point to both Krakoa and Arakko.
Arakko 2 – 1 Krakoa
Wolverine #7
Magik and Pogg Ur-Pogg head to the Floating Kingdom of Roma Regina for the next duel. As the battle is about to start, Saturnyne rigs the game once more and retrieve their swords. She demands arm wrestling instead of a sword duel. Pogg Ur-Pogg easily beats Magik.
Arakko 3 – 1 Krakoa
Wolverine and Summoner then head to Blightspoke for the next duel. Saturnyne warns that it’s a fight to the death. Logan and Summoner battle fiercely. Wolverine gains the upper hand and stabs Summoner in the eye with his sword. Summoner dies. Saturnyne rigs the game again and declares Arakko the winner because it was a fight to the death, and Summoner actually fought to his death.
Arakko 4 – 1 Krakoa
Saturnyne draws the cards for the next duel: Wolverine vs. Storm. It’s a drinking contest in the Crooked Market hosted by Mad Jim Jaspers. Wolverine and Storm drown their sorrows drinking and flirting a little bit. Since both are Krakoans, the point is awarded to Krakoa regardless of the winner. Behind the scenes, Mad Jim Jaspers strikes a deal with Death.
Arakko 4 – 2 Krakoa
Saturnyne proposes a duel between Solem and War. Solem instead decides to call in Logan’s favor for giving him one of the Musarama blades in Hell earlier. Wolverine agreed to fight Solen whenever he wanted in exchange for the blade and now has to pay the price. Logan is teleported to the battlefield and must face Solem and War together. War learns that Wolverine killed her son Summoner and is greatly upset. Solen watches Wolverine and War battling each other until War stabs Logan in the neck and Wolverine cuts off War’s hand. Saturnyne decides to award the point to Solem.
Arakko 5 – 2 Krakoa
“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.
26 comments:
All the duels are rigged by Saturnyne, that was obvious before the event began...
But the games are way funnier than just people sword fighting...
I need to know what will happen with Betsy though, but technically she didn't die
...Uh... what?
Most of these matches make no sense. And in the few cases where the matches make sense, the results don't. It seems like this tournament is basically an excuse for Saturnyne to be a bitch to everyone, and if Amenth weren't so eager to conquer Krakoa, I guess both Krakoans and Arakki would have already ganged up and killed her.
I suppose Betsy didn't really die (her body shattering into pieces reads more like some magical transformation of her body rather than a proper death), but still, it's a humiliating fate to her. So much for Howard's alleged love for the character.
Unless this story takes a wild turn in the end, I'm honestly surprised that Hickman is one of the main creative forces behind XoS. I expected much, MUCH better storytelling from him.
Oh, also, I hope War isn't dead for good. It's been so long since we had an interesting version of the Four Horsemen, it'd be a complete waste if one of them was already killed off.
Couldn't care less about Summoner, though.
...oops, I just realized Wolverine just cut off War's HAND (I misread it as War's HEAD). My bad; that's what I get for not paying enough attention to what I read.
What a let down. After all that buildup, we get these dumb "fun" fights. Betsy is obviously not dead. What a waste of time.
I'm hoping for a WILD turn at the end
Am I wrong to want the Excalibur change its writer like right away? Betsy to ditch the CB duds and be Psylocke? To want Betsy cut Saturnyne to bits? Rogue crush her head, Remy and Jubilee blow her up to Kingdom Come?
The answer is simple with yes or no.
Not wrong on most tbh.
I was willing to give them a chance... But nope, this issues weren't good, they'll ha to do something quite epic and subvert expectations with what they have left of X of Swords to make things right
*have
I've seen some people defending this week's issues by pointing out these weird tournaments are in line with mythological fae stories, and I guess that's a valid point...
...Problem is, the change in tone was completely out of left field. You don't have an abrupt change in the tone of the story without a proper transition; this is like watching a horror movie that suddenly becomes a comedy (or vice-versa).
And what they did to Betsy was very disrespectful. That's the sort of treatment we could accept for a joke character, like Deadpool or Rocket Raccoon, NOT for someone you're allegedly trying to turn into a major hero. It's the kind of thing that makes me doubt Howard likes the character at all, and if she should be trusted with this character. She may surprise me in the end (and I seriously hope she does), but for now I can't help but feeling very disappointed with her work. And with Hickman for agreeing with this idea.
So, Kiki, I'd say you're not wrong at all, no.
Fsaker did you read the book ?
what a crap. We´ve been fooled by Saturnyne, but it was a shame
I just read it and... REALLY Howard?! The Vargas shit was less pathetic. I was hoping a Mortal Kombat epic duel, and you gave us looney toones's vibes? Ridiculous.
The first half of Swords was such a slow burn and now they've gone through these "battles" so quickly and anti climactic.
This event is so lame.
I knew they haze Betsy. The amount of ridicule I couldn't expect. They turned her confetti for Saturnyne and the opponents to step on. What else? Howard will make sure we learn mean White girl Betsy was conscious and in pain as they stepped on her pieces. Mega shite.
And for the record I'm not mad at all. From the look of the post XoS cover Betsy dressed like a jester queen more people will want her out of the CB duds. Cause this was the first time Betsy showed she ain't rusty at fighting but she needs a good writer to show she means business. Zeb Wells anyone?
Agreed, after the slow burn that was the start and set up for the event, I was hoping for something GRAND
I was really looking forward to Pogg vs Magik but it was literally a arm wrestling contest that ended in 2 pages 😑
lmfao I have been a loyal reader of this website for damn near a decade and I just have to say - ever since Betsy and Kwannon diverged from one another, these comment sections have basically become a festival of continually regurgitated negativity and complaints. Toxic fandoms for the win! Also, as I know some of you will come for me, I literally wrote a dissertation on Psylocke as a complicated representation of how females are written in comic books. The writers ruined her integrity as a complex character when they put her, a white woman, into the body of a woman of color without any critical or thoughtful discussion of what that meant and the implications of suddenly living in a world as a person of color. It is very interesting to me that many of you select a writer or a period of writing that you really liked and suddenly that is true Betsy "canon" and when other writers take her down a different path, it suddenly conflicts with "who she is!!!". Let's be real - we all draw on this character's qualities that we love but she is literally one of the most convoluted constructs in the X-Men universe. I actually admire that Tini is trying to bring Betsy back to her roots and show the implications of what it means to go through all the BS that she has. So many folks want to cling to her "badass ninja Psylocke" personality when, really, she gained those qualities as she inhabited Kwannon's identity and body. And now suddenly, when Kwannon has her own character path, she is stealing everything from Betsy and we should hate her. Just wild!
lfmao Shane does what he complains about: presents his favorite era of Psylocke as the "canon" version and everything else sucks.
Howard hasn't "shown the implications of what it means to through all the BS that she has". On the contrary, Howard has AVOIDED delving into that in favor of her yelling at Apocalypse every 5 seconds. Howard's Betsy is one-dimensional, incompetent, unpleasant, basically irrelevant character with no character depth whatsoever. You can like making Betsy white again, but you don't have to pretend Howard's rubbish is any good.
Betsy was written competent and strong when she got her body back in MiM #4 and during Dissassembled both she and Jean were featured as powerful, skilled psychics.
During Excalibur shes done absolutely nothing of note with her telepathy under Howard. Her only power seems to be the sword and shield. The shield is so dumb too, she cant create TK forcefields anymore? Its so cringey that scene early on in Excalibur when the volley of arrows was shot at the team and Betsy held up her tiny shield and told the rest to take cover lmao
@Shane, to be fair, the only thing most people here seem to complain that Kwannon stole from Betsy is the psychic butterfly effect, which Betsy did have long before the body swap. Kwannon getting the Psylocke codename is actually split (some people hate it, some people are okay with it), and many of us are okay with her getting the psychic knife and the blue bathing suit.
Betsy is a complex character with a long backstory, so it makes sense that each person will have their own opinion on her best era and how she should be now. I, for example, actually like the idea of her being Captain Britain (although I'd prefer that she shared this role with Brian, instead of him having to find a new identity). The point that seems to be bothering everyone here is how her personality is being portrayed, like if she was a spoiled person, when she has never behaved like that, even in her time as a supporting character in Captain Britain's old comic books.
Also, the complaints about Excalibur don't involve just her characterization; many people also dislike the way Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee are being shown in there. Personally, I think with a group of such close friends, they should be shown enjoying themselves (even during battles) much more, rather than bickering with each other. And also interacting more with Krakoa; it's kinda odd, for instance, that there wasn't any scene of X or the Quiet Council talking to Betsy about her becoming Captain Britain and having to pledge allegiance to the United Kingdom, despite all the consequences this could have to the Krakoan society.
That said, you bring valid points to this discussion, and different points of view are always welcome to help us all expand our horizons.
When Betsy recreated her caucasian body and fought Viper's team in MiM 4, I was so glad she was herself again, using her telepathy in creative ways. Then she got her telekinetic weapons and her power set has become just as messy as before. She's been barely using her telepathy since she became Captain Britain. And her TK has been reduced to a sword and shield. It would be nice if writers could explain her powers, show what she is capable of and what not. Also, what makes her powers different from Jean's or Rachel's?
Hey y'all - just wanted to say that I'm appreciating the very civil and thoughtful replies - absorbing your thoughts and will respond soon!
I agree to some extent with what you're saying... But we can't ignore that Tini hasn't been consistent writing Betsy, and that X of Swords as an event has been set up after set up with barely any pay off. The same goes to Excalibur, I can accept sacrificing some character development to set up an event, but there's been barely any developments to anyone but Apocalypse and again, barely any pay off to the set ups, and we're already halfway through the event
Post a Comment