Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free advance review of Excalibur #1, which releases on Wednesday, October 30.
Another week brings another new addition to Marvel’s growing Dawn of X relaunch. This time it’s Excalibur up to bat, with writer Tini Howard and artist Marcus To crafting a new take on a familiar X-Men-adjacent franchise. Excalibur #1 isn’t quite the home run Marauders #1 was last week, but it does find similar success in terms of offering readers something that’s both very different from Jonathan Hickman’s work while still feeling like a cohesive addition to the line.
Unlike Marauders, which has basically nothing to do with the original band of mutant killers employed by Mister Sinister, Excalibur does dabble in some of the expected tropes. This series is heavily centered around the Braddock family in general and Psylocke in particular. It’s also heavily steeped in the mythology of Camelot and Otherworld and even features Morgan le Fay as a major antagonist. But in other ways, the new series is a major deviation from the norm. Most of the old Excalibur mainstays are ignored in favor of a new team that includes iconic X-Men characters like Gambit, Rogue and Jubilee. And that’s to say nothing of the central role played by Apocalypse.
Source: IGN.com Excalibur Puts a Fresh Spin on a Familiar X-Men Spinoff