Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: excalibur, marvel, x-men, X-ual Healing - The Weekly X-Men Recap Column

In This Issue, a Betsy Braddock WILL DIE! – Excalibur #10 [XH]

Published Mon, 15 Jun 2020 17:00:28 -0500

Things are kinda sorta ramping up in the comic book industry, and there were three X-books in stores last week. Of course, while things are kinda sorta ramping up, they're also kinda sorta completely imploding, as DC has split with Diamond and retailers are saying the sky is falling. Of course, I've been warning about how the short-sighted tactics of the comic book industry have put it in danger of being unable to survive even a minor catastrophe, much less a global pandemic, for about a decade now. Still, everyone told me I was ridiculous, and the direct market was the envy of the publishing world! Hmm. Well, I went into more detail about that… in a wrestling article! Go read it here.

Now it's time to get down to business and recap us some X-Men comics, which are, at this point in time, the only comics I'm committed to reading for the foreseeable future. As it turns out, shutting down the comic book industry makes for a great jumping-off point for overpriced, overhyped, and overly-decompressed comic book series. Who woulda thunk?

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but thanks to a corporate merger, a line-wide relaunch, and Jonathan Hickman's giant ego, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in all of comics.

Excalibur #10 Recap

EXCALIBUR #10
FEB200891
(W) Tini Howard (A) Marcus To (CA) Mahmud Asrar
LONDON IS BURNING!
Captain Britain is faced with her hardest decision yet as Britain goes to war with Krakoa. Can Excalibur survive being torn between two worlds?
Rated T+
In Shops: Jun 10, 2020
SRP: $3.99

The issue starts out with a flyer warning London to prepare for war against mutants. The flyer advocates reporting any mutant activity to authorities and says the human race is in peril. Well, their logic may be incorrect, but the conclusion is accurate.

In London, some kind of missile strikes the city, causing an explosion. Captain Britan, Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee are on the scene, and they're confronted by government soldiers pointing guns at them, declaring they shoot mutants on sight. Did I miss something? Weren't Excalibur in Otherworld last issue? Has Marvel decided continuity doesn't matter anymore in the pandemic era?

Rictor climbs out of a hole and takes out the soldiers. Betsy is as confused as I am as Excalibur heads to the site of London's mutant gate to find the gate on fire and giant effigies of Marvel Girl and Professor Xavier burning too. They're trapped. Betsy tries to plant a flower to grow a new gate, but Rictor tells him it won't work. Coven magic has warded the land itself against mutants.

Kate Pryde arrives in a floating, old school wooden ship and tosses a ladder down to Excalibur. How is she alive? What is happening? Excalibur boards and Kate explains that Krakoa launched missiles at London, though the mutant Council denies responsibility. Someone is framing them. Maybe.

Betsy wonders how the boat is flying. That's the thing you're worried about, Betsy? Kate reveals Rachel Grey is powering the boat. Pete Wisdom is on the boat too, but he's dead actually. They're going to resurrect him on Krakoa.

Betsy wants Kate to take Excalibur to the lighthouse, which is where Pete's body was found. She wants to see her brother. Ah, now this is starting to make sense.

Jamie Braddock is chilling at his castle in Otherworld with Morgan le Fay strapped to a table in some bondage gear, gloating about the pocket reality he's created in which the previous scenes have been taking place in. Jamie wants to restart the Captain Britain corps.

As Excalibur approaches the lighthouse, Gambit absorbs a missile heading right for them. Betsy is pretty mad at Jamie over all this, starting a war between humans and mutants and whatnot. Jamie rides up on a unicorn that stabs Jubilee in the shoulder with its horn.

At this point, Betsy just wants answers, so Jamie provides them. She's a different Betsy from the real one. Jamie created this reality as part of his desire to make more Captain Britains. Then her willpower made it real, or something. The actual Betsy and Excalibur are still in Otherworld, where we left them last issue.

Betsy is not pleased about any of this and attacks, but another missile strikes and kills Betsy as the reality starts to shatter. Rogue, Jubilee, Rictor, and Gambit each get an amulet, which names them Captain Britains, and they transform.

In Otherworld, Saturnyne rallies her priestesses (a gender-neutral term) to attack the false Captain Britain Corps. A final Hickmographic page names the events Jamie Braddock is using to shatter reality as "Incursions," explaining that he creates the splinter reality and the characters within it backfill the memories and history to make it real.

The twist midway through this issue was a fun one, and I love that Excalibur gets quirky in that way with its storytelling. And in typical Excalibur style, the mystery was laid out and explained in a single issue, while other books would have dragged it out for five or six. That's another one of the things I have loved and continue to love about Excalibur. It's great to have this book back! Of course, Jamie Braddock trying to totally @#$% over reality is yet another WTF moment for the leadership of Krakoa, who chose to bring him back to life despite the fact that he's a genocidal maniac, but that will all be dealt with in time.

Recaps of New Mutants #10 and Deadpool #5 can be found now or shortly at the link below. See you next time!