Light and introspective character moments surround a deeper look at the nature of forgiveness and redemption as well as posing questions about the overall foundations of the Krakoan nation. This is all presented in a moody and energetic style as the art team continues to go above and beyond to nail every single visual aspect that brings this story to life. Read Full Review

Excalibur #20 ends with real hurt, pain, and character growth felt across multiple characters. If you're a fan of character development, especially for these characters, you'll find this highly enjoyable. It may be heavy on dialogue and light on action, with most of these scenes focused on characters standing about and chatting, but the end result is good. Excalibur serves as a good-looking ghost story with a mutant twist. Read Full Review

Overall this was an interesting read but nothing outstanding. If you're a fan of this series or of the mutant Malice you'll want to check it out. Otherwise it's not a must-read at all. Read Full Review

There's plenty of good to be pulled from this new arrangement, much like the reset between Kwannon and Betsy, but the execution here pushes that opportunity into the future rather than seizing it. Read Full Review

Howard knocks it out of the park again. The characters she doesn't write too well are nowhere to be seen or just appear briefly and I loved Betsy and Kwannon's team-up against Malice. Speaking of Malice, I don't recall her origin ever being touched on before, so it's cool getting a bit of backstory for her. These last few issues of Excalibur have been good and I really hope Howard can keep it up with this quality.

I actually really enjoyed this one, although I'm not sure how this piece fits in the puzzle of the larger narrative. Does Tini Howard have plans for Malice, or is this just a nice parallel for Betsy?

Betsy takes an issue to capture and try to redeem Malice, with some hefty support from Kwannon. This premise is ideally suited to the author's tastes and talents. Ambiguity becomes an asset in sketching out this mature character study and sewing together the themes of alienation and possession shared by the main characters. I also admire the smart way the plot develops -- the redemption offered to Malice is not as conditional as it first seems, and her resistance to it does not disappear in a facile way. The writer maneuvers to a happy ending without forcing any of her characters to make stupid choices. Back this beautiful script with some outstanding art and you easily have my favorite issue of the title so far.

This was the best book I read from this week's drop. A seance, a misunderstood goth girl, and a swordfight in the astral plane. Plus Professor X tried to throw the book at another mutant not named Sabretooth? Yeah, this was as cool as Emma Frost popping up in her White Queen gear in her subconcious & having an empathetic moment about her past riddled in victimhood.
Until the next issue of Hellions, it looks like this is where the action is at, surprisingly, because just like Psylocke - I did not just come to the beach, that is Excalibur, for nothing.
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Excalibur
Volume: 4, Issue: 20
“No Pity From Your Friends”

Publisher: Marvel @marvel
Writer: Tini Howard @tinihoward
Artist: Marcus To @marcusanthonyto
Colors: Erick Arciniega @erick.arciniega
Letters: Ariana Maher
Cover: Mahmud Asrar @mahmudasrar & Matthew Wilson @colornmatt

Malice, the evil mutant psychic entity, has been released upon Krakoa. Sensing the pain and loss within her, Betsy and Kwannon confront Malice and offer her a new opportunity. Rejecting them, Malice is killed only to be resurrected by Xavier and the Five. For the first time since childhood, Malice now has a body of her own. Offered mercy, Malice is officially welcomed into Krakoa and given a second chance at life.

This was a really good issue. Like I did the previous arc, I anticipated multiple issues of the team chasing Malice from person to person, and I’m really happy that Tini Howard went a different direction, keeping it short and sweet. It was really cool getting to essentially see an origin story for Malice, as characters like her don’t normally get that luxury. Furthermore, I loved the compassion of Betsy, Kwannon and Emma.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5)
Reviewed by: @meanadam of The Comic Book Club of Instagram
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I guess we fixed suicidal ideation?? Big if true.