Review: Excalibur #13 (2020)

Excalibur #13
W: Tini Howard
A: R.B. Silva
Publisher: Marvel
Arc: X of Swords Part 9

The X-Men are still gathering their swords, and the Braddock siblings work together to get 2 more spots taken care of.

At this point, we have 5 of the 10 swords accounted for: Cable, Storm, Wolverine, Cypher, and Magik.

The issue starts with Monarch, Captain Britain, and Captain Avalon (Brian) meeting at Starlight Citadel to help Captain Britain find her sword. Saturnyne is wanting to keep the sword away from Britain so Brian can retake the mantle of Captain Britain. Since there is a little friction between Betsy and Brian dating back to his abduction earlier in the series. Betsy wants Brian to join the fight in the tournament but he’s doesn’t want to draw his sword unless its in defense. After some bickering, Brian leaves with Saturnyne. Jamie and Betsy decide to save him, but it was all an elaborate plan by Jamie for Brian to get Betsy the Starlight Sword. Betsy get her sword and Brian accepts that he’s one of the 10 combatants in the tournament. And then there were 7.

I’ve been pretty vocal that this has been one of my least favorite Dawn of X titles; and this has been my least favorite book of the X of Swords storyline so far. It’s nothing about Howards writing, but the story was a little hard to follow at times. There is also the fact that Rogue, Gambit, Rictor, and Jubilee showed up as Captain Britains; I remember them getting some of the Captain Britain powers, but them randomly showing up here made no sense to me.

As part of the bigger narrative, it did what it was supposed to. We have 2 new combatants with their swords. I just wish the storyline would hurry up with the acquiring the swords and get to the tournament. We haven’t hit the half way point yet, so there still is a lot of time for the battles.

The art was pretty good though; you could definitely tell what was going on in the panels. I also like the design of Captain Avalon and Captain Britain. It was probably the redeeming qualities of the book.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5