In Review: Excalibur (2019-) #15

Synopsis: This month in Excalibur. A game abandoned, but a great gamble remains. A Tower answers.

The Story

Picking the story up from the last issue. Things are looking grim for Apocalypse and the X-Men. Betsy Braddock the campion of Krakoa has been killed. Additionally, Apocalypse has defeated his wife Genesis, but the armies of Arakki refuse to surrender. Now let by Ica they are intent on taking, the Citadel, Krakoa, and Avalon. While the battle rages. Saturnyne holes up with Jubilees son. The Dragan Shoge. Apocalypse and Brian Braddock lead the mutants in a final push to defeat the forces of Arakki. Help is on the way.

The Artwork

Mahmud A. Asrar is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to the art featured in Excalibur. In this issue, he gets a lot of battles to draw and manages to convey the grim feelings that the Mutants must be having. The panels of Saturnyne and Shogo are nicely done. You can literally see that Shogo is desperate to get away from her. So he can help Jubilee and her friends. Also well delivered is the panel in which Jubilee rejoins Apocalypse and Captain Avalon as they prepare for the final battle to come.

Overall. Some really cool art.

Overall

Tini Howard’s epic Excalibur story arc draws near to an end as this penultimate issue takes us up to the beginning of the end. I loved the dialogue between Captain Avalon and Apocalypse where Avalon talks about their losses. Of course, Apocalypse has seen it all before having fought in many of these campaigns and his response is as pragmatic as you’d expect.

The moments in the Citadel with Saturnyne and Shogo are juxtaposed brilliantly with the chaos of what is happening as the Mutant army and its lowering numbers continue to battle the Arakki forces.

Overall. This was a solid penultimate issue.

You can pick up your own digital copy of this issue of Excalibur as well as all back issues at ComiXology.