{"id":6223,"date":"2021-01-30T15:51:38","date_gmt":"2021-01-30T15:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6223"},"modified":"2021-01-30T15:51:38","modified_gmt":"2021-01-30T15:51:38","slug":"excalibur-17-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6223","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #17 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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

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EXCALIBUR vol 4 #17<\/strong>
“QEIII”<\/strong>
by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The title is short for “Queen Elizabeth III”, presumably referencing the cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II<\/em>, often known as the QE2. (The normal abbreviation for the Queen is ER II, standing for Elizabeth Regina.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Betsy – or perhaps her counterpart – as queen of an alternate England, complete with the orb, sceptre and crown from the Crown Jewels.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Reuben Brousseau visits Pete Wisdom.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The building shown here is presumably meant to be the MI6 Building<\/a>, headquarters of the British security services, though it actually winds up looking far more subdued than the real thing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

We last saw Reuben Brousseau and Coven Akkaba in issue #9, where they were carrying out human sacrifices in order to try and make contact with Morgan Le Fey in Otherworld, and had plans to provoke Jamie Braddock into doing something or other. We know from earlier issues that he has the sort of contacts to be able to waltz in to the building.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The photos that Brousseau shows to Wisdom depict Jubilee, Rictor, Rogue and Gambit as the Captain Britains of pocket universes created by Jamie Braddock in issue #10. We last saw them in issue #13 when they were trying to kill Jamie, at which point they just vanished from the plot without explanation. How Brousseau ended up with a photo of them is unclear, but it seems to be a plot point, as Wisdom certainly has no idea who these people are.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Brousseau does have a point in some narrow senses – Betsy has<\/em> gone missing, Krakoa is<\/em> an obvious place to look, and Pete Wisdom is<\/em> uniquely well placed to do so. He’s conspicuously avoided Krakoa so far – and very clearly does not regard it as his national identity – but he’s not really discussed why that is. More generally, the divergent Captain Britains are an absurdity and completely incapable of serving any sort of symbolic role to represent the nation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGE 4.<\/strong> Recap and credits.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGE 5.<\/strong> Data page – a note from the actual Queen Elizabeth III of this dimension. Basically, this version of Britain (England?) is a refuge for mutants and Betsy is to go home before she does anything to muck it up. Quite why<\/em> Betsy has wound up here is never really explained in the issue – perhaps her Queen counterpart was just summoned to fight in “X of Swords” like various others, but why anyone would be preparing for the highly specific scenario of being replaced by a counterpart Captain Britain is a bit odd. Especially since the Captain Britain Corps was only just re-created, so…<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Let’s be honest, there are a whole bunch of plot problems with this issue. Some of them might potentially be explained in later issues, but at the very least Betsy ought to be asking questions about them. If the Captain Britain Corps were only just restored, when did the Queen become Captain Britain? When did she write this? Is the idea that all these Captain Britains were retroactively written into history, or that their entire worlds were created retrospectively or… what? The story later assumes that Betsy is possessing the local Betsy’s body – why does anyone assume that? Why was anyone anticipating this scenario and planning for it? If they think Betsy’s body-hopping, why do they assume that throwing her into a portal will set things right? If the Queen and the Prime Minister both know about this plan, why is it necessary to sneak into their own facility in order to put it into effect?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 6-8.<\/strong> Betsy and Warren discuss the plot.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“My being American is so complex politically.”<\/strong> Maybe in that world, but for us, it’s not particularly problematic for the monarch’s partner to be foreign. There’s more of an expectation that they should be a member of an aristocracy, admittedly. But if the reference is to Wallis Simpson, the perceived problem there wasn’t so much that she was American – it was that she was divorced, and the King was the head of the Church of England, which at that point still didn’t recognise divorce for religious purposes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“We were together once…”<\/strong> Psylocke and Archangel were a couple throughout the 1990s, although that was when Psylocke was in Kwannon’s body.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGE<\/strong> 9. <\/strong>Betsy is introduced to Kwannon.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Betsy has still never had a proper discussion with Kwannon about the period where she was living in Kwannon’s body (more because Kwannon didn’t want to have one). Obviously, part of the point of this issue is to engineer a situation where she can do that.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This world’s Angel has been in relationships with both Psylocke and Kwannon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 10-12.<\/strong> Excalibur prepare to move into the Lighthouse, and Pete Wisdom looks to join them.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The cats<\/strong> belong to Rogue and Gambit, who got them in Mr & Mrs X<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Otherworld.<\/strong> Rogue brings Pete up to speed on the problems with resurrection that were established in “X of Swords” – though it’s doubtful that Pete’s plans really place that much weight on getting resurrected in Krakoa. Pete evidently knows in general terms about “X of Swords” third-hand or so, and finds it completely unintelligible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“She did no such thing…”<\/strong> Rogue is wrong. Wisdom said that Betsy “took the job and vanished”, not that she took the job and deserted it. Objectively, she did<\/em> vanish. Rogue’s claim that Betsy fought for both England and Krakoa is also frankly dubious, except inasmuch as England is located in the world. (And her country is meant to be Britain, not England. The clue’s in the name.)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The kid who shows up to offer Wisdom a lei is perennial background character Curse<\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGE 13.<\/strong> Data page on the “Lighthouse”, an intelligence facility on the other world. “King James III” is apparently a version of Betsy’s father, Jamie Braddock Sr.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If we’re being technical about this, and if the history of these two worlds is broadly similar, he ought to be James VIII – there have been two previous King James in England, but seven in Scotland. The official line of the UK royal family is that where the numbers differ, they use the higher one.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Lighthouse’s unseen director Alysande Stuart is the counterpart of a character from the original Excalibur<\/em>, who had the somewhat similar job of running the Weird Happenings Organisation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 14-15.<\/strong> Betsy and Kwannon arrive at the Lighthouse.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Betsy can’t resist trying to find out a bit more about this world. It’s really not obvious why asking these sorts of questions poses a threat to the world, though it might be better for Betsy’s mental health not to think too closely about the number of alternative versions of her out there.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 16-18.<\/strong> Excalibur defend the Lighthouse<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Apparently, the Coven’s plan is to force their way into the Lighthouse and then destroy the gate inside. Quite what they think that’s going to achieve in the long run is anyone’s guess.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 19-22.<\/strong> Kwannon answers Betsy’s three questions.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As already mentioned… why is it even necessary for them to fight their way to this portal? Even if they want to keep the Queen’s disappearance a secret, all they have to say is that they’re sending the duplicate back to Otherworld.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“I’ll be with a woman who will likely be grateful to have her body back.”<\/strong> Kwannon seems to assume that Betsy is occupying the body of her world’s Queen. The evidence for this isn’t entirely clear, to put it mildly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

“How’s my brother?”<\/strong> This doesn’t make sense as a question – Betsy has two brothers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As so often with this book, the basic thrust of the characters makes sense – Betsy can’t resist taking the opportunity to talk to Kwannon about what happened, and Kwannon is understandably repulsed by the whole thing – but the plotting is just confused.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGES 23-24.<\/strong> Betsy shows up back at the Lighthouse.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Her appearance has obvious lady-of-the-lake overtones. Apparently Excalibur were actually losing to Marianna and her crew before she arrived. It’s played as if Betsy’s arrival is game-changing, but given that the Coven don’t like or respect Betsy, why would her arrival and immediate passing out give them any particular concern? I suppose you can argue that they recognise her office enough<\/em> to defer to it to some extent.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: WHO’S THERE.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. EXCALIBUR vol 4 #17“QEIII”by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega The title is short for “Queen Elizabeth III”, presumably referencing the cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II, often known as the QE2. (The normal abbreviation for the Queen is ER II, […]<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6223","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\/6223","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=6223"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6331,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6223\/revisions\/6331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}