As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

EXCALIBUR vol 4 #23
“In the Service of Lord Doom”
by Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega

COVER / PAGE 1. Dr Doom leading a somewhat reluctant Excalibur. The composition loosely echoes the cover of Excalibur vol 1 #1.

PAGE 2. Betsy dreams.

Braddock Isle is now “several kilometres off the coast of England”. Last issue it was “Just off the coast of England” and the art showed the distance to be pretty much swimmable. Maybe Rictor’s been moving it.

Betsy’s dreams show a mixture of images from the series to date, most of them fairly generic. Merlyn and Morgan Le Fay are at the top. The woman emerging from the golden egg is probably meant to be Malice, upon her reincarnation in issue #20. The group above Betsy’s head are all members of Krakoa’s Quiet Council (from left to right, Magneto, Mr Sinister, Nightcrawler, Kate Pryde, Mystique, Emma Frost, Storm and Professor X). To her left is a silhouetted image of Pete Wisdom being killed by Marianna Stern of Coven Akkaba in issue #21. To her bottom right are her brothers, Brian (Captain Avalon) and Jamie (Monarch). And bottom left are Stern again, with fellow Coven leader Reuben Brousseau.

PAGES 3-5. Dr Doom demands access to Otherworld.

“This is not the first time I have sought Excalibur’s aid.” Doom is referring to Excalibur vol 1 #37-39. The details of the arc don’t matter – it was a story about Limbo.

“My intelligence tells me Morgan Le Fay has left Otherworld.” Doom’s sources on Otherworld are evidently a bit shaky, as we see throughout this issue. Morgan was deposed as regent of Avalon in issue #6 through the machinations of Apocalypse. Publicly, she was allowed to leave Otherworld, but in reality she was imprisoned. Doom’s source is evidently aware of the public story, but has also taken quite some time to pass on the message.

“Do not speak to me as an equal, acolyte.” Either Doom is taking Rictor’s “I know magic too” line at face value, or he’s aware of Rictor’s status as a rookie magician. More likely the latter, and probably because Doom’s own magical abilities let him pick up on clumsy neophytes.

“I had heard you were an assassin, woman. That you were a mind taker and a killer.” Doom seems to be confusing Betsy and Kwannon, which is perhaps understandable given their convoluted shared history and their generally low level of relevance to his schemes.

“… leave Shogo with Kyle while I’m at it.” Kyle Jinadu, Northstar’s husband. He was also mentioned as Shogo’s babysitter in X-Factor.

PAGE 6. Recap and credits. The recap refers to Reuben Brousseau as “the new Otherworld ambassador”, which seems wrong – he was the UK’s ambassador to Krakoa at the Hellfire Gala. It’s hard to see how he can be the “ambassador” to a place he can’t get into.

The recap also states that Coven Akkaba have freed Morgan Le Fay (which happened in issue #21) and that they’re trying to stir up anti-mutant sentiment in “Avalon”. That’s not really what we saw last issue, where Merlyn was indeed promoting anti-mutant sentiment throughout Otherworld generally (not specifically Avalon), but there was no mention of him being in league with Coven Akkaba in doing so. This seems to be new information.

PAGES 7-10. Doom and Excalibur in Avalon.

“Don’t you like big bad men?” Captain Britain is referring to Rictor’s relationship with Apocalypse in the first year of this title, which certainly seemed to have romantic aspects at least on Rictor’s side.

“Brian says … that you ought to visit S.T.R.I.K.E.” The mutant agents of S.T.R.I.K.E. were resurrected at Pete Wisdom’s request at the end of last issue, but this is the only mention of that plot thread in this issue. They’re mostly teammates of Betsy from back in the 1980s Captain Britain comics published by Marvel UK. She seems strangely unkeen to see them, for reasons that aren’t really addressed.

“She took the throne when Arthur abdicated.” In issue #1, Morgan did indeed claim that she had taken the throne after Arthur had already left, and in order to lead the defence of Avalon against an invading force. She appears to have been telling the truth. It’s not clear why Captain Britain claims that Arthur abdicated, when all we’ve heard before is that he vanished – and last issue, we saw him as a prisoner of Merlyn. Bluntly, it may just suit her to believe this because it helps to legitimate the mutant colonisation of Avalon.

The Valley of Wailing Mists. This is not an authentic part of the Arthurian mythos; it comes from Iron Man vol 1 #150 (the one where Iron Man travels back in time to Camelot), and it’s been mentioned sporadically in later stories. As Doom says, Morgan’s castle was located there.

“He went to pick up his ex-girlfriend’s stuff.” Doom and Morgan’s unlikely and short-lived relationship was seen in Mighty Avengers vol 1 #9, and their acrimonious break-up was the springboard for the first arc of Dark Avengers.

“Where sits Merlyn? And Mordred?” Last issue finally acknowledged that Otherworld as seen in Excalibur differs markedly from previous depictions; all of this seems to have passed Doom by, somehow, despite his interest in Morgan-related affairs. It reads as though we’re meant to find this odd.

The version of Mordred’s history given by Captain Britain – where he’s the son of Arthur and the villainous heir – is a genuine version of the story, though in earlier versions he’s a traitorous nephew. In the Marvel Universe, Mordred was a villain in the 1950s Black Knight series, with the origin given here. He was last seen, very recently, as the villain in Black Knight: Curse of the Ebony Blade (but that’s only up to issue #3 on Marvel Unlimited, so don’t ask me how it ends).

PAGE 11. Data page, with another extract from the Crooked Market’s newspaper.

Josh, who wasn’t given a surname, was the mutant who Mirage and Karma followed to Sevalith in New Mutants #16-17. The other two vox pops are new characters.

PAGE 12. Data page. As already mentioned, the version already given here is standard, but the bit about him being an illegitimate son of Arthur is a later development (maybe a case of piling on the villain-associated things once the character already existed). Geoffrey of Monmouth has him as the legitimate son of King Lot, who usurps the throne after being asked to take care of it while Arthur is off fighting a war. The traditional version of the May Day Massacre has Arthur killing not only Mordred but all other children born on the same day, with Mordred miraculously surviving. Lovely chap, Arthur. As this data page rather indicates, Mordred’s back story by this point is so over the top that his status as an icon of treason becomes a little odd.

PAGES 13-23. Doom and Excalibur in the Crooked Market.

Doom recognises Jim Jaspers as the villain from the 1980s “Jaspers Warp” storyline. We’ve never been told how he ended up here. Betsy suggests that Jaspers should recognise Doom from “your former home reality”, but doesn’t make clear whether she’s saying that he’s from Earth-616 or from some other world that had its own Doom. Later on in the issue, Jaspers claims to have created the first Fury – if so, this is Jim Jaspers of Earth-238, the first one that Brian encountered in the Jaspers Warp arc.

It’s less than clear why Betsy waits this long to object to whatever it was that Doom was trying to achieve. You’d have thought that she’d have raised any concerns long before this point.

Gambit is still using the cards he got from Saturnyne, as in the last issue. Arcana seems to be some sort of generic Otherworldly poker-analogue using tarot cards and dice.

Uath, Getal and Oir are words, but also the names of the symbols on the dice (which are Ogham). Meggan is right about Getal and Oir being killing and gold, but “Uath” just means “horror” or “fear”. There was a figure of speech about a pack of hounds being Uath, which is probably where Meggan is getting confused.

“The world knows Doom needs no bride…” Alluding to the recent arc in Fantastic Four where his planned marriage to Victorious was called off.

“Friends of Mordred.” Apparently a euphemism for mutants, as we see later on in the story – the idea being that Mordred was a mutant who was wrongly ostracised for that reason. (Or, I guess, who just happened to survive the boat thanks to that.) It seems to be an echo of “friends of Dorothy”, which is a bit weird considering that the Furies are using it.

PAGE 24. Doom opens his box, and Betsy and Meggan talk.

The box apparently contains Morgan’s castle itself. The scrying pool inside, which Doom mentions here, is perhaps meant to be the one we saw in issue #1, though that scene was identified as taking place in Camelot.

PAGE 25. Trailers. The Krakoan reads NEXT: KINGDOMS OF BLOOD.

PAGES 26-32. This is a 9/11 anniversary story which appears in all this week’s Marvel comics.