Excalibur #24

The tension on Mahmud Asrar's cover for this 2021 issue practically radiates off the page — a composed but clearly imperiled young woman sits at a table stained with blood, flanked by two imposing, red-eyed vampiric figures in a candlelit gothic hall, while a mysterious potion vessel and a fallen crown rest ominously in the foreground. "By the Pleasure of the Court" promises the kind of dark, fairy-tale-tinged intrigue that Excalibur does so well, with writer Tini Howard and artist Marcus To bringing their own sensibilities to the Krakoan era. If you've been following this series, issue #24 looks like a particularly atmospheric chapter.