{"id":6360,"date":"2021-02-10T22:04:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T22:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2021-02-10T22:04:12","modified_gmt":"2021-02-10T22:04:12","slug":"excalibur-18-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6360","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #18 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>EXCALIBUR vol 4 #18
\n“Mad Women”
\nby Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Rogue, Jubilee, Gambit and Rictor look mournful, while members of the Quiet Council (plus Cypher and Krakoa) are seen in the background. This doesn’t have much to do with the content of the issue, and feels like it was meant to cover an issue set before Betsy’s apparent return. The solicitation for this issue read “As the Council makes moves to protect mutants in the Otherworld, Excalibur must determine the fate of Betsy Braddock”.<\/p>\n

PAGE 2.<\/strong>\u00a0Saturnyne receives a petition from Krakoa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Saturnyne has three empty wine glasses at her feet and apparently hasn’t been eating, given Ryl’s comments. She’s clearly still annoyed that her scheme to get Brian back as Captain Britain didn’t work, and that she’s now stuck with an entire corps of Betsies, as seen in “X of Swords”. It’s not immediately clear what’s littering the floor around her – it might be the shards of the mosaic she constructed in “X of Swords”, and which she used to reconstitute the new Captain Britain Corps, if she smashed it again after its work was done.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

PAGE 3.<\/strong> A data page with Saturnyne’s reply – basically refusing to entertain any submissions unless they come via Earth-616’s Captain Britain, who she says is presently absent. We saw last issue that Betsy apparently returned to Earth, but this story suggests that it’s not her after all. It’s not clear whether Saturnyne is unaware of Betsy’s return, or aware that it’s the wrong one.<\/p>\n

Mainly Saturnyne is just getting rid of the Krakoans. If she really wanted to deal with them directly, she would – as she did in “X of Swords”.<\/p>\n

This is one of the better signature fonts to be used for letters, though unfortunately Saturnyne’s name seems to be mis-spelled.<\/p>\n

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

PAGES 5-6.<\/strong>\u00a0Rogue and Rachel discuss Betsy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Betsy is apparently still just standing around sullenly and looking out to sea after two days, but Rachel verifies that she does have the memories of the “real” Betsy. Rogue interprets this as a sign that it’s not the real Betsy; Rachel, the experienced telepath, interprets it as the real Betsy with mental health problems. The story seems to indicate that Rogue is right, but if so, this is a very convincing impostor.<\/p>\n

PAGES 7-8.<\/strong>\u00a0Emma Frost shows up to complain about being kept out of the loop.<\/em><\/p>\n

Emma’s telepathy seems to be represented here with symbolic diamonds, which isn’t normally a thing. She’s been alerted to Betsy’s return by Cerebro, and (given Saturnyne’s response to Krakoa’s petition) wants her to do her job and approach Saturnyne. The Council’s concern, apparently, is to do with the plot point from “X of Swords” that characters who die in Otherworld can’t be resurrected; attempts to do so bring them back in a drastically changed form, effectively as alternate versions of themselves.<\/p>\n

Quite why this is such a concern is debatable. At the end of the day, it just means that mutants can be killed in Otherworld, just like every non-mutant on Earth, and just like mutants themselves pre-Krakoa. You might reasonably ask what the big problem is, beyond the fact that it doesn’t fit with the Krakoan national narrative that they’ve conquered death. Of course, you might well want to bar people from going to this dangerous place for their own safety, but that’s another matter.<\/p>\n

If Rictor was involved in this exchange, he would doubtless be complaining that any suggestion of cutting off mutants from Otherworld betrays the agenda of his beloved Apocalypse, who actively wanted mutants to (in effect) colonise Otherworld. Of course, Apocalypse’s interest in Otherworld was largely to do with the possibility of using it to reach Arakko, so he might well now think that its value is spent.<\/p>\n

“Keep calm and carry on”<\/strong> was a poster from World War II which was rediscovered in recent years and became something of a catchphrase. Although it is genuine, and large quantities of it were printed at the outset of the war, it was intended to be used if and when matters deteriorated. While a few copies did make it to public view (there are photos to prove it), the vast majority of the print run was recycled in 1940 due to paper shortages.<\/p>\n

PAGES 9-10.<\/strong>\u00a0Maggie Braddock discovers Betsy and summons the Braddock<\/em> family<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Self-explanatory. When Jubilee says they’re not all sure that it’s really Betsy, she seems to be referring specifically to Rogue, given Rogue’s relief in the next scene when Brian appears to agree with her.<\/p>\n

PAGES 11-13.<\/strong> “Betsy” gets rid of Brian, “tags” Rogue and heads to Avalon.<\/em><\/p>\n

The “Coven Akkaba freaks” were attacking the lighthouse in the previous issue, and apparently just went home in deference on being presented with someone who appeared to be Captain Britain – even someone they didn’t really recognise as such.<\/p>\n

Because Brian isn’t a mutant, Betsy has to walk him to the gate to Avalon. But apparently she doesn’t have to go through it with him – introducing him to the gate is enough.<\/p>\n

It’s entirely unclear why Betsy goes to the trouble of waking Rogue before leaving, but Rogue reasonably infers in the next scene that Betsy wants her to follow.<\/p>\n

PAGE 14.<\/strong>\u00a0Excalibur make plans.<\/em><\/p>\n

A rare example of Avalon’s insane ruler Jamie Braddock actually being referred to in dialogue as “Monarch”, his supposed codename.<\/p>\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong>\u00a0Gambit meets with Jamie.<\/em><\/p>\n

Jamie seems genuinely unaware of Betsy’s return, which is plausible enough given that Brian didn’t know either.<\/p>\n

He immediately takes seriously the idea that this isn’t the real Betsy. The “extras” that he made in the past are presumably the pocket universe versions of Excalibur that he used to start creating a heretical divergent Captain Britain Corps, as seen in issue #10.<\/p>\n

The “extra” Betsy he refers to is the clone that he asked Mister Sinister to make in the previous issue (cashing in the favour that Sinister owed him following the\u00a0Hellions<\/em> tie-ins to “X of Swords”).<\/p>\n

PAGES 16-17.<\/strong>\u00a0Rogue and Rictor discuss mutant magic.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rictor continues to push the magical analysis that Apocalypse was advancing in earlier issues. Various series have shown groups of mutants using their powers in synergy to achieve more than they could do alone, including\u00a0New Mutants<\/em> and\u00a0S.W.O.R.D.<\/em> – Apocalypse, and now Rictor, claim this to be literally an example of a coven. The argument seems to be that the combination of superpowers allows the impossible to be achieved, and therefore superpowers – when deployed in the right way – are indistinguishable from magic, and therefore\u00a0are<\/em> magic. Rictor specifically makes the claim that this allows mutants access to magical power without having to pay any of the price that human sorcerers normally have to pay (“to [humans], magic only comes from what they sell their souls to”). This sounds suspect. Rictor is essentially claiming to have discovered the mystical equivalent of a free energy device.<\/p>\n

Rogue seems entirely unconvinced by any of this, and behaves as though she’s indulging her friend’s questionable new religion. She rightly points out that Apocalypse’s approach was simply to manipulate them all without inviting them to join in his schemes; Rictor rationalises this away as teaching, but this seems wildly unconvincing.<\/p>\n

PAGES 18-19.<\/strong>\u00a0Gambit and Monarch in Castle Avalon.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the base which Apocalypse established after installing Jamie as his puppet monarch in issue #6. The prisoner is Morgan Le Fey, who they deposed. She was promised free passage, and betrayed. Gambit doesn’t seem to pick up on that aspect, but does seem to recognise that imprisoning Morgan will have caused more harm than good. On the other hand, he seems oblivious to the fact that she’s apparently being tortured.<\/p>\n

The obvious implication is that the missing Betsy is the one that resurfaced on Earth at the end of last issue. If so, that begs the question of what happened to “our” Betsy when she seemingly travelled back to our world in the previous issue. It’s\u00a0possible<\/em>, of course, that our Betsy\u00a0did<\/em> return to the clone body that Jamie had waiting for her, which is why it’s escaped, and that the woman who appeared at the lighthouse was something else entirely.<\/p>\n

PAGES 20-23.<\/strong>\u00a0The new Betsy tries to stop Rogue and Rictor from getting near Apocalypse’s will.<\/em><\/p>\n

Asked who she is, the new Betsy describes herself as one of Rogue’s “oldest friends”. This isn’t something to do with Mystique, is it? At any rate, the current Psylocke (Kwannon) shows up to offer her assistance.<\/p>\n

PAGE 24.<\/strong> Cypher’s translation of Apocalypse’s will, which is pretty straightforward. Apocalypse makes clear that he’s making the will not because he thought he could die, but because he expected to be “leaving soon”, presumably for Arakko. He claims that Rictor’s connection with the Earth makes him particularly well suited to deal with magic (and that the importance of Krakoa makes that connection to the Earth particularly important).<\/p>\n

PAGE 25.<\/strong> Trailers. The Krakoan is meant to read NEXT: PSYLOCKE, but it actually reads NEXT: PSTYLOCKE.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition. EXCALIBUR vol 4 #18 “Mad Women” by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega COVER \/ PAGE 1. Rogue, Jubilee, Gambit and Rictor look mournful, while members of the Quiet Council (plus Cypher and Krakoa) are seen in the background. This […]<\/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-6360","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\/6360","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=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6363,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}