{"id":4834,"date":"2019-10-31T22:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T22:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4834"},"modified":"2019-10-31T22:57:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T22:57:56","slug":"excalibur-1-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=4834","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #1 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXCALIBUR<\/strong>: This is the fourth volume of Excalibur<\/em>. The first volume ran from 1988 to 1998 and featured a British-based superhero team initially made up of Captain Britain, Meggan and some X-Men who had been separated from the main team (Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers \/ Phoenix). It tended to go in for lighter antics than the rest of the X-books. The second volume is a largely-forgotten four-issue reunion miniseries from 2001. The third ran for 14 issues in 2004-5, and involved Professor X rebuilding in the ruins of post-massacre Genosha; aside from being an X-book, it really has no connection with the previous series. There’s also New Excalibur<\/em>, another UK-based team, which ran for 24 issues in 2006-7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This version of Excalibur features no members of the previous teams; the connection lies in Psylocke, Captain Britain’s sister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> The team pose for us. Left to right, that’s Gambit, Jubilee, Apocalypse, Psylocke \/ Captain Britain II, Rictor (who doesn’t appear in the story) and Rogue. The background seems to be Krakoa, but in the foreground is what looks like the Otherworld scrying pool from the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGE 2:<\/strong> A data page, with the text of Apocalypse’s message to the world’s most powerful magicians, sent on the same day as Professor X’s message to the world in general. Apocalypse seems to be claiming that Krakoa will not only be a rebirth and a fresh start for mutants, but also for magic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Magic:<\/strong> While magic hasn’t been central to the X-books, there have always been a few prominent magicians around, like Amanda Sefton and, well, Magik. Jonathan Hickman has dropped several references to the demon-based Inferno storyline from the 80s, and evidently that side of the franchise is going to be Tini Howard’s focus in Excalibur<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse as a sorcerer:<\/strong> Apocalypse’s established origin story has him as a mutant from ancient Egypt who later gets additional powers and resources from Celestial technology. He’s not normally portrayed as a magic user, but House of X <\/em>and Powers of X <\/em>seem to be setting up a retcon of his history to turn him into a mythical figure from the dawn of time. Having said that, Apocalypse “introduces” himself to his fellow sorcerers here, which implies that he isn’t already part of their community. And we’re not told here that Apocalypse is a particularly notable or accomplished magician – merely that he is<\/em> one, and that he’s been around since a time when magic was more prominent in society. Of course, the hostility to conventional technology on Krakoa creates a space for magic that might not otherwise be there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sorcerers whom Apocalypse contacts aren’t identified here, but note that it’s a small group rather than magicians in general. And why is he contacting them – simply to stake a claim to part of the world of magic, or with something more in mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse’s epiphany:<\/strong> Apocalypse says that while he used to believe that the persecution of mutants made them strong, he now believes that Krakoa is going to bring them true strength and bring a new flowering of magic. Some of this seems to be the typical damascene conversion that so many characters appear to have undergone upon being exposed to Krakoa – and we can’t assume that everything Apocalypse says here is necessarily true. But it’s worth remembering that in Age of X-Man: Apocalypse and the X-Tracts<\/em>, Apocalypse did seem to undergo a genuine conversion of some sort, after being compelled to live as a father and flower-power guru for a while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is the domain of the Superior”: <\/strong>Homo superior<\/em>, ie mutants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-4.<\/strong> Camelot, in Otherworld. Arthur is missing and Morgan Le Fey is in charge, with the castle under siege by “the White Witch”. Morgan’s scrying pool has become clogged with “weeds” – Krakoan flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camelot and Otherworld:<\/strong> In the Marvel Universe, Camelot used to be a real place in the normal world (as seen most obviously in the 1950s Black Knight <\/em>series), but after its fall, it was transported to Otherworld. The X-Men haven’t generally had much to do with Camelot, but the Siege Perilous was an Arthurian concept, and the redshirt in Powers of X <\/em>was called Percival, apparently in reference to the knight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Otherworld is principally a Captain Britain concept. Though his first origin story simply had him choosing a magic artefact and getting powers (more of that later), a later retcon made him and his siblings half-Otherworlder, with Otherworld itself run by Merlyn and his daughter Roma. Otherworld has been portrayed in an assortment of inconsistent ways. For a while it was mainly an omniversal hub associated with the Captain Britain Corps, but more recently it’s also been used as a repository of British myth and suggested source of all magic. In other words, by moving to Otherworld, Camelot is transformed from a real event into a collective myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marvel Universe King Arthur similarly started off as a regular old pseudo-historical king, but he was brought back in Otherworld to be the ruler of Camelot – after all, it’s not the mythical Camelot without him. This all happened in the Black Knight strip that ran in the Marvel UK Hulk <\/em>comic circa 1980. As best I can tell, Arthur’s last non-flashback appearance was in Journey into Mystery<\/em> #641 (2012), when he was indeed still running Otherworld’s Camelot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Gaheris:<\/strong> Gaheris is indeed one of the traditional Knights of the Round Table – he’s Arthur’s nephew and Gawain’s brother. Morgan refers to his “pretty wife” and “precious babies” – as best as I can figure, the mythical character did have a wife (Lynette), but the kids seem to be an invention. Then again, if they’d been around since Arthurian times they wouldn’t be babies, would they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morgan le Fey:<\/strong> Another character from Arthurian legend who was imported into the Marvel Universe decades ago. Morgan is Arthur’s half-sister and almost invariably a villain in the MU. She had a long run recently ruling a kingdom on Weirdworld, but I believe she was last seen (outside flashbacks) in the second Marvel Rising <\/em>miniseries, where she made it back to Earth. That series is only half-complete on Marvel Unlimited and I’m certainly not buying the rest just for this, but presumably it leaves her free to return to Otherworld at the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Witch:<\/strong> Morgan’s name for the person in charge of the attacking forces, who we don’t see. Of course, she might be attacking precisely because <\/em>the villainous Morgan is regent, but Gaheris seems to accept that she’s a genuine threat to the realm. The best-known White Witch is a villain from Chronicles of Narnia<\/em>, but that doesn’t seem terribly likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 6:<\/strong> The usual recap and cast-intro page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 7:<\/strong> Credits. The title is “Verse I: The Accolade of Betsy Braddock”. An “accolade” is the ceremony where the monarch gives somebody a knighthood by tapping them on the shoulders with a sword. The small print reads “As above, so below – greater secrets exist.” More of that later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 8-9:<\/strong> Betsy Braddock says goodbye to the Braddock family before heading through a portal to Krakoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braddock Academy:<\/strong> A school formed by Brian Braddock to train young British superhumans to become heroes. It was introduced in the 2013 series Avengers Arena<\/em>, and it’s barely been mentioned since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braddock family:<\/strong> Other than Psylocke herself, we’ve got Brian, his wife Meggan, and superhumanly precocious infant Maggie. Maggie was introduced in last year’s X-Men Gold Annual<\/em> #1, and yes, she’s meant to be drawn like a baby while talking like a much older child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Eat-Pray-Love conversation”: <\/strong>Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia <\/em>by Elizabeth Gilbert (2006), or the poorly received 2010 movie, in both of which a rich woman goes on a journey of spiritual self-discovery. Or that’s the idea, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I never thought I would see the Betsy I grew up with again.” <\/strong>You almost certainly know the back story already, but it’s not explained very clearly in the issue and it’s essential to understanding some of the scenes, so:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke is Brian’s twin sister, and like him, she started off caucasian. In Uncanny X-Men<\/em> #250 (1989), the remaining X-Men, including Psylocke, decided to disband and went through the magical Siege Perilous to start new lives. In Uncanny X-Men <\/em>#256, Psylocke reappeared in Hong Kong where she was transformed into an Asian ninja by the Hand; the precise mechanics of it were left vague, since most of the issue was a surreal dream scene. Then, in the early nineties, somebody appearing to be the original <\/em>Psylocke showed up alleging that the ninja version was an impostor. Eventually, after some back-and-forth retcons, it was established that Psylocke actually had her mind swapped with an assassin called Kwannon, though they also had their minds mixed up a bit as well, explaining Psylocke’s personality change as a ninja. Kwannon then hung around for a while as “Revanche” before conveniently dying of the Legacy Virus in X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #32 (1994). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This remained the status quo until the recent Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor<\/em> miniseries, in which Psylocke’s body was destroyed and she re-created herself in her original form – a plot development that came out of nowhere in what seemed to be a filler miniseries, but may have been part of the pre-House of X <\/em>deck-clearing. Soon after, apparently as a side effect, the ninja body reappeared too, seemingly a resurrected Kwannon. It’s all tremendously convoluted – but this is what Brian is referring to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamie:<\/strong> We’ll come to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibiza:<\/strong> I’m not sure what connotations Ibiza has to Americans, but in Britain it’s heavily associated with nightlife and dance music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pete Wisdom:<\/strong> The guy in the black suit handing around on page 9 seems to be Pete Wisdom, a member of the original Excalibur from the Warren Ellis run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 10-12:<\/strong> While Psylocke arrives on Krakoa, Apocalypse and Trinary investigate the strange gate from Krakoa to Otherworld. It’s not entirely clear whether this gate appeared spontaneously, or whether Apocalypse engineered it somehow. Apocalypse somehow knows that the gate connects to Otherworld but believes that the people on the other side have built a barrier wall, which they’ll “need a champion” to get past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Krakoa:<\/strong> Looks as much like an excessively-perfect Elysian field as ever. The vibe of trying too hard is strong. Visible in the crowd, other than major X-Men characters we already knew were there, are Maggott<\/strong> and a wolf-like character who’s probably Wolfsbane<\/strong>, back from the dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trinary:<\/strong> A technopath from X-Men Red<\/em>, whom we saw briefly in House of X<\/em>. Her powers aren’t exactly well suited to the all-organic Krakoa, but she seems to have found a niche as Apocalypse’s lab assistant and PA. To be honest, her role here is pretty generic compared to her X-Men Red <\/em>character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse’s name:<\/strong> Apocalypse now wants to be called… er, however you type that. Given his speech at the start of the issue, it’s understandable that he would want to disavow the “Apocalypse” name, but note that Psylocke also talks about her name as soon as she arrives on Krakoa. There’s also a standard magic trope of names having power. (Because symbols have power over reality, and names are symbols and… basically, a lot of this stuff boils down to the observation that labels and presentation and rituals and such forth affect the way people see the world and the way they act, and this is one way of affecting reality.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apocalypse seems to suggest later that he’s changed name before upon “a new evolution”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gambit:<\/strong> He’s conspicuously sceptical about Apocalypse, particularly when he’s making grandiose speeches about the superiority of mutants. Gambit was briefly a Horseman of Apocalypse circa X-Men<\/em> vol 2 #183 (2006), and as you can imagine, it didn’t go well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 13: <\/strong>Another data page, this time about Krakoan magic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As above, so below.”<\/strong> This phrase is commonly associated with magic, and seems to have originated in the Emerald Tablet, a popular text among alchemists. In Isaac Newton’s translation, it includes this: “That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below.” The point is meant to be that everything repeats on different scales, and that the patterns seen on a cosmic scale will be replicated in events on a mundane level – hence things like astrology, where the patterns of the stars supposedly allow predictions about individual lives. Tini Howard’s explanation, however, takes the phrase rather more literally, as being about rotational symmetry – thus allowing the claim that there is some great magical symbolism in the very-symmetrical X, accessible to mutants (and only mutants) following the “paradigm shift” in House of X<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removing the surrounding circle from the X-logo is also somehow supposed to increase its powers – though at least on the cover, most of the team are still wearing traditional X-logos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 14-16:<\/strong> Morgan appears to a coven of worshippers in Yorkshire and tells them that they need to destroy the gate to Otherworld or she will not allow them to channel Avalon’s magic again. This is, as the coven try to explain, a completely unrealistic request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witchbreed:<\/strong> Mutants, obviously. The term comes from Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Matter of Britain:<\/strong> This is the name of the story cycle in which King Arthur and Camelot appear; what exactly it means to be “committed in service to” it is unclear. One view would be that the stories of Arthur are part of British identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 17-20:<\/strong> On Krakoa, Psylocke is unexpectedly reunited with the revived Jamie Braddock, and Apocalypse asks for her help in accessing the Otherworld portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kwannon:<\/strong> The woman who walks past Psylocke at the start of this scene and doesn’t say anything is evidently meant to be Kwannon, given dialogue later in the issue – though she’s not very recognisable from the art, since she’s got rid of the purple hair. Incidentally, just to her right in the second panel is a woman who seems to be former X-Force member Feral<\/strong> – if so, she’s been restored from back-up, since she was murdered by Sabretooth in Wolverine <\/em>vol 3 #54 (2007).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jubilee:<\/strong> One of our regular cast, though she doesn’t get much to do in this issue. Before the reboot and Age of X-Man, Jubilee was a teacher at the X-Men’s school; she was a vampire for a good few years, but that was cured during the last run of Generation X<\/em>. The kid she’s carrying, Shogo, is an orphan who she adopted in early issues of Brian Wood’s X-Men<\/em> from 2013; through the miracle of Marvel time, he’s still in a baby carrier six years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Goldballs:<\/strong> Now calling himself Egg, obviously in reference to his role in producing the eggs that are used to regrow bodies for dead mutants. It’s a step up from “Goldballs”, at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamie Braddock:<\/strong> The older brother of Brian and Betsy, who was a supporting character in Captain Britain <\/em>dating back to 1976. Originally he was the roguish businessman and race car driver who ran the family company, but he became more and more criminal over time until eventually winding up as an imprisoned slave trader. In the original Excalibur<\/em>, his mutant powers to control reality emerged and instantly drove him mad, leading a string of stories where he stumbles around playing with his surroundings randomly. He was more stable in later appearances, and seems relatively balanced here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamie was last seen in the X-books in Uncanny X-Force <\/em>vol 1 #23 (2012), an Otherworld story in which Betsy killed him in order to stop the universe from unravelling. However, he also showed up in last year’s Infinity Countdown: Black Widow <\/em>one-shot, and got killed again there. Interestingly, that story was by Gerry Duggan (writer of Marauders <\/em>and so part of the X-books’ loop), it acknowledges that Jamie’s meant to be dead (“I dreamt that my sis killed me… maybe she did”), and it shows him taking an interest in black magic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most purposes, Jamie is a demented liability – but he was listed as an omega level mutant in House of X <\/em>#1, which probably explains why he’s been prioritised for return. That issue gave his codename as Monarch, a name he’s never actually used in a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“After mum and dad died…”: <\/strong>The Braddock siblings’ parents were killed by Mastermind, a computer that James Sr had created, as shown in flashback in Captain Britain<\/em> vol 1 #14 (1977).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Psychic interference can affect the eggs”: <\/strong>Might be worth making a note of that, mightn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captain Britain’s amulet:<\/strong> The Amulet of Right, from Captain Britain’s origin story. Until the Otherworld retcon, this involved Brian Braddock fleeing baddies who’d attacked his workplace and being offered a choice between the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might. Later stories establish that all new Captain Britains are presented with this choice – they become Captain Britain either way, but choosing the sword dooms them to a rather less pleasant life. This story seems to assume that Brian carries the amulet around with him as a source of power, but that’s not how it’s normally shown. In fact, it was last seen in Captain Britain & MI-13 <\/em>#2 (2008), when it was treated as being a magical artefact stored in Otherworld and used to empower new Captains. This looks like a continuity error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 21-23:<\/strong> Psylocke returns to Braddock Academy to tell Brian that Jamie is back, and finds him heading off to Otherworld to help the other<\/em> side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like pretty much every non-mutant we’ve seen, Brian is a little surprised that the X-Men are so relaxed about hanging out with A-list villains these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The woman whose life I stole”<\/strong>: Kwannon, obviously. But this isn’t really fair; none of it was Betsy’s choice, and she always claimed to be a transformed Betsy Braddock. Betsy is on more reasonable ground worrying about the consequences for Kwannon of things she did during their body swap, though even on that count, there was only a brief window between Betsy learning about Kwannon and Kwannon’s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 24-26:<\/strong> Back on Krakoa, Rogue, Gambit, Trinary, Apocalypse and Jubilee gather at the other side of the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogue & Gambit:<\/strong> Coming to us direct from the pages of Mr & Mrs X<\/em>, where they got married and Rogue obtained the power-dampening bracelet that she mentions here. Rogue was powered-up during that series and started absorbing people who were just in her general vicinity, but if she’s not wearing the bracelet here, she must have got that under control again. Rogue is suggesting that they have children, in accordance with the third law of Krakoa from House of X <\/em>#6 (“Make more mutants.”) Since she’s not willing to bring her power-dampening bracelet onto Krakoa (perhaps because it’s technology), this might suggest that Rogue and Gambit have held on to their apartment in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gambit (and Jubilee) show little interest in working with Apocalypse; Rogue is much more on board, and is even willing to call him by his unpronounceable name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 27-34: <\/strong>Psylocke and Brian fight Morgan, who enslaves Brian; Betsy destroys the gate, and Brian is able to give Betsy the amulet so she can become the new Captain Britain. And something comes through the portal to do weird things to Rogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psylocke as Captain Britain:<\/strong> She’s been Captain Britain before, in the 1985 Captain Britain<\/em> series. It didn’t last long, and it didn’t work out well for her – she was blinded, and stayed that way until Mojo gave her new eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogue:<\/strong> There’s a definite fairy-tale \/ Sleeping Beauty vibe to Rogue’s coma, though she also seems to go pale blue for some reason. No doubt we’ll find out more in issue #2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 35: <\/strong>Coven leader Marianna Stern joins Coven Akkaba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marianna <\/strong>is the leader of the coven from earlier in the issue, and she evidently killed the others in a sacrifice to Morgan – we saw them with her in the previous scene. She’s carrying some sort of glowing magical thingies in her bag, but it’s not clear what they are. However, Apocalypse was using some of them to try and test the Otherworld gate earlier in the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coven Akkaba<\/strong>: The “Coven” bit is new, but these are worshippers of Clan Akkaba, the cultists normally aligned with Apocalypse. But based on the next page, they seem to be on Morgan’s side here…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 36:<\/strong> Data page about Coven Akkaba. The thrust of this is that humans are the real magicians because they can experience “the humility of the powerless”, while mutants are “cursed” to lack that humility and thus never to know the magic of Avalon. The gist of all this seems to be that you can only become a great magician (in their view) if you start from a position of weakness, and mutants are too inherently powerful to really do that. Obviously, this is not a view to which Apocalypse subscribes, so what this lot have to do with Clan Akkaba is a bit of a mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 37-38: <\/strong>The trailer reads: “NEXT: SEE THE GREAT FLAME BLAZING”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers are from the digital edition. EXCALIBUR: This is the fourth volume of Excalibur. The first volume ran from 1988 to 1998 and featured a British-based superhero team initially made up of Captain Britain, Meggan and some X-Men who had been separated from the main team (Shadowcat, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-annotations","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4834"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4836,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4834\/revisions\/4836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}