WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Excalibur #1 by Tini Howard, Marcus To and Erick Arciniega, on sale Wednesday, Oct. 30.
House of X and Powers of X did more than just establish a new mutant nation for the X-Men. The dual series also saw the X-Men call a truce with their greatest enemies, with many accepting an offer to live together on the island of Krakoa.
The most prominent villain of the group was undoubtedly Apocalypse. House of X and Powers of X revealed Apocalypse had a secret history with Krakoa, and he saw his return to the island as a long-overdue reunion. The X-Men even gave Apocalypse a prominent seat on Krakoa's Quiet Council of leaders, seated next to Charles Xavier and Magneto.
Apocalypse will join the new Captain Britain (Betsy Braddock), Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee and Rictor in Excalibur. Aside from Apocalypse ditching his Celestial armor and tubes for the comfortable loose clothes of a shaman, a preview of Excalibur #1 reveals the former villain is making himself right at home on Krakoa by adopting a name taken from the island's new mutant language.
The preview begins with Betsy packing her things and saying goodbye to her family as she permanently moves to Krakoa. After arriving, Trinary meets with Apocalypse to discuss a problematic gateway. Instead of being greeted as "Mister Apocalypse," he responds with the Krakoan language Cypher created in House of X #1.
Of course, regular humans can't read Krakoan without the use of a cipher to decrypt it. However, the letter in the middle of the cipher appears to be the letter A, meaning it's quite possible Apocalypse is still going by his codename, except it is now pronounced in Krakoan. "Sure. I can pronounce that," she says. Debuting in X-Men: Red #1, Trinary was created by Tom Taylor and Mahmud Asrar and has the mutant ability to control all forms of technology. Though her concentration is on technology, all mutants on Krakoa are telepathically given the ability to read Krakoan, so it makes sense that Trinary would be able to pronounce Apocalypse's new name as well.
Apocalypse goes on to give Trinary a speech regarding mutants celebrating and dancing instead of running. His personal study is called the Grove of Theoretical Gates, which is where Apocalypse studies where a gate connects to. The running theory is it doesn't connect anywhere on this plane, meaning it connects to another dimension. And since Excalibur stars Captain Britain, the most likely destination is Otherworld, which serves as a stand-in for the Kingdom of Camelot.
The first story arc in Excalibur will take the team to Otherworld, and Apocalypse should play a major role in aiding the team during their journey.