Excalibur #5: Dead Man’s Bones

So the plot took a major leap forward, this week. We’re seeing the effects that a hoarde of murderous monsters has on the UK while various magical factions are warring over the island. It’s all…a little chaotic. To say the least. 

There is a pretty major, story-altering death towards the end of this issue — and that death will have a profound effect on two of the characters, but given the new mutant status quo (death is no longer any sort of barrier) the psychological repercussions of this death on the other members of the team have the potential to be far more interesting than the effects that this will have on the dead person themself. 

I really enjoyed the character moments that were shoehorned in between all of the flashy, flashy violence. Pete Wisdom got to be a roguish jerk, hitting on Betsy and basically concerned with saving his own skin. Rictor and Apocalypse seem to be forging a bond which the latter probably intends to resemble that between a master and a disciple but which could easily be read in other ways. Jubilee was a proud, ass-kicking mother. Remy was still very firmly wedged in his recent role of worried emo boyfriend, and Rogue got to talk to Rachel’s inner fire-dog and make some fun Dolly Parton references.

And, oh yeah, one person dies and another undergoes a dramatic (but probably temporary) physical transformation.

To’s art still annoys me, for all of the reasons that I’ve stated before, but the colorist (Erik Arcineiga) was absolutely at the top of his game, lending an appropriately magical fluidity to mediocre line-work. Ultimately, I enjoyed this issue a great deal. It wasn’t groundbreaking, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was fun. And that’s really all I’m asking from this book.