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

The Final Battle of X of Swords Begins in Excalibur #15 [XH]

Published Thu, 26 Nov 2020 16:30:40 -0600

by Jude Terror

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Welcome to the Thanksgiving edition of X-ual Healing. To give thanks for getting to take an actual day off from writing about nonsense like comics and pro wrestling, I saved up two weeks' worth of X-Men recaps to publish on Thanksgiving while I'm gorging myself on Turkey, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and multiple versions of pie. That means there are six chapters of X of Swords recapped this week in X-Force #14, Hellions #6, Cable #6, X-Men #15, Excalibur #15, and X of Swords: Destruction #1. And take my word for it, my opinion on this beast of a crossover will change from one article to the next. In addition to that, there's Juggernaut #3.

But first:

Hey Bleedingcool, have been a follower since 2015, but what kind of reporting is this? Is this sarcasm, satire or just poor writing? Really hard to understand.

-A Twitter Follower complaining about a Fanboy Wrampage column

Why can't it be all of them at once?

Alright, enough yammering. It's recap time!

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. Still, 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 for lovers of soap opera drama.

[MULTINAV]

EXCALIBUR #15 XOS
SEP200554
(W) Tini Howard (A/CA) Mahmud Asrar
A game abandoned, but a great gamble remains.
A Tower answers.
Rated T+
In Shops: Nov 25, 2020
SRP: $3.99

Excalibur #15 Recap

In Otherworld, Annihilation has brought the hordes of Amenth to attack as she faces Apocalypse in the final battle. She's about to kill him when Storm strikes her with lightning. The mutants try to convince Apocalypse to retreat. Meanwhile, on the Arakki side, The White Sword takes his 100 warriors and leaves, saying this isn't' the fight he came for. And Bei the Blood Moon appears to defect to Krakoa, running off to find her husband.

In the Starlight Citadel, Saturnyne sites down with the dragon Shogo and has her fish lady attendant dump out a box containing what appears to be pieces of the shattered Betsy Braddock. Outside, the Krakoans battle the demons of Amenth. Bei the Blood Moon shows up, grabs Doug and runs off. The remaining mutants are surrounded by demons when all o a sudden, Jubilee comes out of a portal with a bunch of those forest priestesses she was staying with, and they join the mutants. The priestesses head up to the Citadel while the mutants remain on the ground to hold off the demons.

Elsewhere, Cypher convinces Bei to join the X-Men, and they return to join their friends. Isca, Pestilence, Pogg Ur-Pogg, and Annihilation arrive on the scene too. In the Citadel, Saturtnyne completes her puzzle. It's a stained glass mosaic of Betsy as Captain Britain. It seems that she was casting a love spell, and the idea was to call Captain Britains, the Brian Braddock version, from across all the realities to come to her aid. But it's Betsy who is the true Captain Britain now and the true guardian of Otherworld. And now Captain Britain Corps of Betsies is on their way.

This is the middle chapter for this week, and I have to say, it's a good thing that three issues have been coming out each week because if we were getting this crossover one issue per week, it would have dragged out way too long. As it is, it's been stretched to way too many issues, but at least the shipping schedule has made it go by quicker. It's good to see the pieces falling into place for the big finale, which is the next issue. I'll reserve the rest of my thoughts until then.