Excalibur #26: The Fantasy Is Over

[superboyprime]

"Regrettaby, Excalibur leaves me with the distinct impression that Tini Howard has no real understanding of British identity, and no real interest in the topic either. Since her core theme seems to be some sort of battle against reactionaries, I suspect the idea that Britain is withdrawing from dealing with mutants and so forth is meant to be some sort of Brexit allegory, but what it amounts to in practice is the baffling idea that – without any explanation – meaningful political influence attaches to a weirdo who is openly a member of a mystical coven. Which… again, what? What does any of this have to do with the iconography of the British right? The iconography of the British anything? If Reuben Brousseau is meant to represent Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage or Jacob Rees-Mogg… I mean, that’s like claiming that Dr Druid symbolises Donald Trump. You can say it, but it’s bollocks. And if Reuben’s not meant to represent that then… why does he matter?" - Paul O'Brien

Comments

[deh_tommy]

Brexit was a load of nationalistic nonsense with easily dismissible propaganda. What we’ve seen with our own eyes (or however you read comics) accidentally proves Mr. Mystic Tory almost totally right. Why the fudge is Betsy okay with calling her team Excalibur and using the title and powers created by Merlyn if she hates Arthur so much?

Even putting my feelings regarding our heroes’ morality and actions aside, I can’t agree that this is a good book because too much important stuff happens offscreen or between issues that we’re just supposed to accept or immediately understand and no one apart from the Braddocks are ever really allowed any kind of significance to the story beyond their utility for fight scenes. I liked the first arc at least, and that one with Malice’s backstory was pretty neat.

[alliterator]

"Brexit was a load of nationalistic nonsense with easily dismissible propaganda."

And yet it caused people to vote for Brexit, even against their own self interest.

"What we’ve seen with our own eyes (or however you read comics) accidentally proves Mr. Mystic Tory almost totally right."

How so? Mr Mystic Tory felt that ALL mutants were bad for Britain and had his coven sacrifice Pete Wisdom (without knowing he would come back) in order to bring back Morgan le Fey. Pete Wisdom who, by the by, has always shown loyalty to England over mutants until, you know, they killed him.

"Why the fudge is Betsy okay with calling her team Excalibur and using the title and powers created by Merlyn if she hates Arthur so much?"

Because Arthur doesn't wield Excalibur and hasn't for the longest time? I don't understand this question. She was okay with calling the team Excalibur because the previous teams with Captain Britain were all called Excalibur. That's it.

Now that Merlyn and Arthur have taken over Otherworld, however, she isn't calling it Excalibur anymore -- hence the changeover to "Knights of X."

[deh_tommy]

Reuben here was right that Captain Britain has done jack-all for Britain since the first arc, the most she did in Britain or Earth’s defence was plug a problem her team helped cause (and even then she couldn’t help but sabotage the plan to fix it because of her entitlement over keeping the Captain Britain title). Betsy didn’t even give a proper defence against him, he was like “Krakoa has seized control of Avalon for themselves” and she was all “hey, we’re treating it alright, we love it like it were our own”, completely missing the point of his complaint. A smart book might have him use these as legitimate points to make his stance on mutants reasonable by comparison and recruit people to his cause like how real life hate groups do, maybe give Betsy some drama over how she felt she could have done better and how her actions might look to the outside world, but the book is staunchly against everything he says without actually doing anything to prove him wrong and firmly and uncritically in favour of everything Betsy has done even though we’ve seen ourselves over the prior 20 issues or so that he largely hit the nail on the head and everything she says in defence of herself is just driving it further into the coffin.

I know full well who’s got Excalibur (the sword) now. But the sword and the myth are too intertwined to ever be separate no matter who wields it now. The job of Captain Britain was even created by Merlyn himself, they’re all inextricably forever linked to Arthurian myth from the meta perspective. And until she was forced to give up the name of her team, she was pretty hellbent on keeping it. That’s not exactly textbook cultural appropriation since that’s too fantastical to be in any textbook, but I think it fits the bill of cultural appropriation well enough.

[alliterator]

"Reuben here was right"

I'm going to stop you right there and say, no, he wasn't. I know you're trying to make a point about Captain Britain doing things for Britain (somehow), but he was actually arguing all of that in bad faith. We know this because if Reuben ACTUALLY cared about Britain, again, he wouldn't have murdered Pete Wisdom in order to bring back Morgan le Fey. Remember: Pete Wisdom HAS been a member of MI-13 and has NEVER accepted Krakoan citizenship until after he was killed.

So while Reuben says all of these things, his actions betray him for the actual villain he is.

Also, please tell me, what did Brian Braddock do for Britain during the original Excalibur? Captain Britain has always had a tenuous connection to Britain itself. Hell, at one point, Excalibur's base was on Muir Island, which was Scotland.

[deh_tommy]

That’s part of my point! That’s how these hateful ideologists work, they mix the truth with lies and their own agendas to provide a simple, convenient target and make said agendas seem the right way to go about things. But the book doesn’t seem interested in this, they dismiss everything he says as lies even though we’ve seen otherwise ourselves. That’s especially bad since Jamie and Å were knowingly keeping Morgan le Fay hostage in conscious stasis and friggin’ vivisecting her for a mix of cruel experiments and general entertainment, and at least one of our heroes knew.

You do know Scotland’s part of the U.K., right? I’m a relative newcomer to the Captain Britain mythos as you know, but during his Excalibur days we got to see his team adjusting to life there, fighting off different villains and hopping along and helping out wherever. The only help this Excalibur has done has usually been entirely out of Krakoa’s or Å’s nationalist interests.

[alliterator]

"But the book doesn’t seem interested in this, they dismiss everything he says as lies even though we’ve seen otherwise ourselves."

Because everything he says IS lies. I don't know how you can misunderstand this.

"That’s especially bad since Jamie and Å were knowingly keeping Morgan le Fay hostage in conscious stasis and friggin’ vivisecting her for a mix of cruel experiments and general entertainment, and at least one of our heroes knew."

Jamie and A are bad guys. That's just who they are. That doesn't mean removing Morgan le Fey from power was the wrong thing, it was just Evil vs Evil. Jamie and A, however, have shown that their evil is in service of a better ideal -- making sure mutants are safe -- while Morgan le Fey's evil is, you know, just generically evil.

"You do know Scotland’s part of the U.K., right?"

That would make sense if his name was Captain UK, but it's not. That's a completely different character.

"The only help this Excalibur has done has usually been entirely out of Krakoa’s or Å’s nationalist interests."

That's also completely untrue. They have helped plenty of people in both Krakoa and in Otherworld without those ulterior motives.

But apparently it only counts if they help British people. Which is just silly.

[blues32]

"Knights of X"? Why does Xavier get all the credit? X-Gene, X-Men, Age of X, Dawn of X...does he really deserve all that?

[tinygaylaura]

"The X in X-men isn't for Xavier

It's because I view you all as eXpendable

I mean if we're being honest

I've made plans to murder you all when the time comes"

- Xavier in The X-Men Files, the most honest depiction of him as a character in any medium

[alliterator]

Actually, the theory is that the X is actually meant to stand for the letter 10 (much like Powers of X was Powers of Ten and X of Swords was Ten of Swords). We know there are supposed to be ten characters in the book fighting against the oppressive regime of Merlyn and Arthur, we just don't know who the last two are.

[tinygaylaura]

Oh that's cool! :)

I'll be interested to see who all ten are