Knights of X #5 Art

 

Knights of X #5 Spoilers

Spoilers: Mr. M explains he had the Siege Perilous pulverized to create the realm of Mercator, but that he needs all ten Knights to remake it. While Shogo approaches the Knights bringing Roma and Saturnyne with him, with Merlyn following their trail, the Knights decide to investigate a mysterious card castle. They deduce Gambit might be there and that the castle represents his heart. While investigating, Arthur emerges from a scrying pool and pulls Mordred with him. The Knights just leave them behind to their fates. Later, they come across a number of Gambit statues representing Remy at different points in his life. Rachel uses her chromoskimming powers to find the real Gambit among the different timelines. A manifestation of Wrongslide emerges, and the Knights think Wrongslide represents Gambit’s fear of being resurrected wrong once he goes through the Resurrection Protocols. Gambit appears as his “Death” person and attacks the Knights. After a brief battle, Betsy frees Gambit with her psychic sword. Sunfire appears and cleanse Gambit with fire just like he did when they were both Horsemen of Apocalypse together. Gambit is confused when he suddenly sees Rogue rushing to his arms. With all ten Knights together, the Siege Perilous opened up as a door from Mercator to Krakoa. Many Krakoan mutants come to help the Knights, squashing Merlyn’s army (Yes. The final battle is reduced to a single splash page). Next page is the mutants celebrating their victory. Arthur and Mordred somehow are on good terms. Brian offers to tutor the young Mordred. Betsy tells Rachel that what they did to Gambit can be done by any other telepath and that death in Otherworld is fixed now (It makes no sense). Betsy returns to the Starlight Citadel to meet Saturnyne, Roma and Merlyn. She proclaims herself a free agent now and declines any allegiance to Saturnyne or Roma. As for Merlyn, she sentences him to death by beheading him. With the Captain Britain Corps by her side, Betsy decides to patrol the multiverse for whatever reason and asks Rachel to join her.

Tini Howard’s brilliant, exciting new direction for Betsy, which she described as “Betsy’s greatest ride yet” is essentially New Exiles Part 2. May God help us all in these trying times.

Knights of X #5 Advanced Preview

Knights of X #5 Preview - Final Issue

Knights of X #5

Writer: Tini Howard

Art by: Bob Quinn

Cover by: Yannick Paquette

The Story: Merlyn has finally tipped into full-blown madness: He’s sent his Furies on a campaign across the realm to burn everything in sight, and only those who swear fealty to the mad king will be spared. But there is still hope! A bargain between a powerful new ally and the Knights of X may just secure the Siege Perilous and the future of Avalon. Elsewhere, Saturnyne forges an alliance with a former enemy. But trust is a fickle thing. Will these new allegiances bring triumph or ruin for the mutants of Otherworld?

In Stores: August 31, 2022

"Sins of Sinister" Crossover Announced for January 2023

COMING IN JANUARY 2023... Enter now… the Sins of Sinister. A New World. A New Disaster. Mister Sinister’s plans come to fruition beyond his wildest dreams…AND his darkest nightmares. Can the X-Men survive the experience? Can anyone? Discover how twisted mutantkind becomes when Mister Sinister achieves victory in Sins of Sinister, a new crossover coming to the X-Men..

As we all know, Tini Howard will unfortunately write a new book featuring Captain Britain, which will probably be announced in the coming days. In the meantime, Knights of X became the lowest-selling X-book in July (with the exception of the X-Cellent, which has the benefit of being a niche title). Knights of X #4 barely held onto the Top 80 at #79 in the Sales Ranking. According to Comic Book Revolution: "I have no idea why Marvel Comics thought rolling out the exact same title with the same writer but under a new name would actually trick readers into thinking this was worth reading."

Captain Carter #5 Spoilers & Art

Spoilers: Agent Braddock and Tony Stark kidnap Commander Lance Hunter and let him on about the conspiracy of vampires infiltrating the higher ranks of the British government and law enforcement and the framing of Captain Carter. Agent Lizzie also reveals she might be a mutant. With the aid of Commander Hunter, Harley hacks the security system of the prison where Peggy is detained. Braddock handles the S.T.R.I.K.E. agents by herself and frees Peggy. Captain Carter joins the fight, and the vampire threat is dealt with. Agent Braddock is promoted to Deputy Director General while Captain Carter chooses to resign.

Psylocke | Captain Britain – Unused Designs

This is a compilation of official Betsy Braddock designs, which ended up unused, reworked or altogether rejected by Marvel throughout the years. These unused costumes were edited and colored by us and will be added to our Costume Gallery in the next update.

Captain Britain by Alan Davis (c. 1985)

Alan Davis' original Captain Britain design had slightly different patterns; however, Betsy's wig was supposed to be shorter and wavier as opposed to the long, straight wig of the final design. Alan Davis' plot notes reveal that originally Betsy would become Captain Britain earlier in Captain Britain vol. 2 #9 (1985) during the battle with the Cherub Whirlwind warpies. Ultimately, Betsy's final Captain Britain design debuted in Captain Britain vol. 2 #12. This character design was published as an extra in the Captain Britain Omnibus (2022).

Outback Psylocke by Arthur Adams (dated November 5, 1987)

According to X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1, there was a strong desire to update the X-Men's appearance at the time. Art Adams worked up several takes on those "new looks" and proposed a series of costume designs, particularly for the female X-Men members of the era. For Psylocke, Adams designed a black bodysuit covered by a one-piece bathing suit, with and without a cape/hood. His only note is that it should not be pink. This design eventually evolved into the "Australian Outback Armor", which debuted in Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #232 (1988). These character designs were published in X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1 (2000) and Modern Masters #6: Arthur Adams (2006).

Lady Mandarin by Jim Lee (dated June 22, 1989)

According to X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1, Jim Lee tried a dramatically interpretation of the "new" Psylocke when designing Lady Mandarin. Whereas the first design is similar to the final, approved Lady Mandarin costume, the second design is rather different. According to Lee's notes, it consisted of a black suit, black gloves, a protective "death" mask and weapons concealed within the boot. Both versions had a retractable blade attached to the fist. The final Lady Mandarin costume debuted in the cover of Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #256 and in the pages of #257 (1989). These character designs were published in X-Men: Archives Sketchbook #1 (2000).

Mystery Telepath by Salvador Larroca (c. 2002)

Legend has it that Chris Claremont originally planned for Psylocke's death in X-Treme X-Men to be temporary, with the idea being that when she returned, she would be stripped of the Crimson Dawn plus perhaps even returning her to her original body. According to Claremont's Facebook Group, Betsy was supposed to return as a psychic "ghost" circa X-Treme X-Men #19 where she'd fight the temptation to possess people. Salvador Larroca's notes reveal that Psylocke should have had a black costume, blue hair and yellow eyes. However, this was during a period where Marvel had decided that no characters would return from the dead, so Claremont's plans were squelched. This character design later surfaced online in the mid-2000s. A similar character with blue hair and yellow eyes was introduced by Larroca in X-Men vol. 2 #171 (2005) in Foxx, Mystique's disguise as a student at Xavier's. As for Betsy, she was ultimately resurrected in Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 #455 (2005).

Uncanny X-Force/Marvel NOW! by Kris Anka (c. 2012)

When Kris Anka was approached to redesign the members of the Uncanny X-Force relaunch, he started with Psylocke. According to Anka, as the leader of the team he wanted to nail Psylocke's design first and allow that to be the foundation for the rest of the team. Anka worked up four different designs before the final design eventually picked. Anka published all his designs with notes on his Tumblr page in October 2012.

Design 1 - Anka: “I started off with a straight up tactical suit. The image in my head was her descending out of the ceiling into a dark room to assassinate someone; So I tried to create a design that I could believe in that situation.”

Design 2 - Anka: “With this one I tried to help break up all the black of the costume, and re-implement some of the skin-stripes that are so quintessential to the Psylocke-look. But I didn’t want them to be completely separated from the costume as per the Jim Lee design. I tried to take a page from the design Opeña designed for the first volume of the Uncanny X-force. But add a bit more “me” to the shapes of those cut-outs.”

Design 3 - Anka: “More of the same. Trying to break up the black.”

Design 4 - Anka: “Tried something way more stealth. Visually a lot more effective for an assassin in the dark.”

X-Force/All-New Marvel NOW! by Rock-He Kim (c. 2013)

Artist Rock-He Kim redesigned all X-Force members when the book was relaunched in early 2014. When USAToday announced the book in November 2013, Kim's original character design for Psylocke was revealed. Originally, Betsy's X-Force costume was more detailed with camouflage patterns resembling the leg and arm stripes of Jim Lee's classic Psylocke design. The final, approved design, albeit similar, was simpler, with less camo and less patterns, and debuted in X-Force (vol. 4) #1 (2014).

Mystery in Madripoor/Disassembled by Mahmud Asrar (c. 2018)

Artist Mahmud Asrar was tasked with redesigning Psylocke for Mystery in Madripoor, which would see Betsy reclaiming her original body once more. As far as we know, Asrar worked up two different designs. The design picked, known to fans as the "Disassembled" costume, debuted in Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #4 (2018). A second, unused design was later published as an extra in the Director's Cut of Uncanny X-Men vol. 5 #1. This design was similar to Jean Grey's X-Men Red costume (also designed by Asrar) and resembled Psylocke's Outback armor, with similar elements, such as the hood, a cape and pieces of armor.

Captain Britain/Dawn of X by Marcus To (c. 2019)

Marcus To redesigned Betsy as Captain Britain when she claimed the mantle in Excalibur vol. 4 #1 (2019) as part of the Dawn of X relaunch. To later revealed that he had worked up different designs for Betsy. In April 2020, To published this unused costume on Twitter, which was reused for Brian Braddock in Excalibur vol. 4 #6 (2020). As opposed to the Union Jack design, this costume was mostly red and referenced Brian's original Captain Britain costume, with golden details and a golden Lion Rampant symbol on the chest.

X-Men '92: House of XCII #3 Spoilers & Art

Spoilers: The events of X of Swords are reimagined in the context of X-Men '92. Arkon, ruler of Polemachus, challenges Krakoa to a contest of warriors for the fate of Arakko. Psylocke is enlisted by Apocalypse as one of the ten champions of Krakoa. Betsy duels Deadpool, who teases her about the bodyswap.