What’s Covered?
Excalibur V1 # 91 - 95 (Sep '95 - Jan '96)
Roster Watch
Synopsis
Excalibur # 91: Night Out
Writer - Warren Ellis
Pencils - Jam Session
9 members of Excalibur walk into a bar...one of them ducks. No, for real: Nightcrawler, Pete, Kitty, Amanda, Moira, Wolfsbane, Douglock, Brian, and Meggan go out drinking and that's the entirety of this issue. It's not bad, there are some pretty fun parts. Moira is getting wasted because A) She's Scottish and B) She's trying not to think about how the Legacy Virus is fatal. At one point Wolfsbane refuses to drink citing religious reasons and Kitty reminds her that even Jesus drank wine.
The only other part worth mentioning is with Nightcrawler and Brian threaten Pete to never hurt Kitty. I think this is pretty rich for a few reasons. First, Brian was pretty much the worst boyfriend ever to Meggan, so he should shut up. Kurt hasn't been too great either, essentially serving as a womanizer, BUT he does love Kitty so I find it cute. It's also a nice callback to my 6th favorite moment of all time (through 1995) when Wolverine threatens Piotr about hurting Kitty, which is ironic considering he's coming back next issue.
Excalibur # 92: Colossus Beat Down
Writer - Warren Ellis
Pencils - Casey Jones
This is an odd issue. Colossus shows up with a screw lose and completely loses his mind when he sees Kitty snogging Pete Wisdom. He beats the absolute shit out of Pete, causing serious harm to his spine and face which he'll see him recovering from in future issues.
NC is able to calm him down by reminding him of them being members of the original Claremont roster together (he doesn't use those words). He also more or less forgives him and essentially welcomes onto Excalibur. Kitty is not so forgiving.
But the best is when Kitty absolutely bitches out Piotr, giving me Kitty chills for the first time since the 80's:
"I am not your Katya, for God’s sake. If you cared, you’d never have left me for someone else. If you cared, you’d let me grow up and be myself. If you cared, you’d never have hurt someone…”
Excalibur # 93: Reverend Craig
Writer - Warren Ellis
Pencils - Casey Jones
This one is a pretty isolated story about Rahne and Reverend Craig. Meggan uses her (new) elemental powers to project her sight, see psychic connections, and put out a fire. The three ladies (Kitty, Meggan, Rahne) travel to the mainland where they find that a little girl started the first with her new mutant powers. This brings Rahne face to face with none other than Reverend Craig. She confronts him and learns that he was actually her dad! And the little fire girl too. What a twist!
What I really want to get into here is a discussion about how heavy handed the allegory here is to gays and the church. Reverend Craig is talking strong about mutants being abominations and will go to hell. Rahne's big revelation here is that the reverend filled her head with thoughts, but Moira taught her how to find her own information. She even says:
“You offered nothing but indoctrination. But I found education.”
Two lines in a row about how "education" is the cure. This definitely slams religion, pushing hard on the idea that those who are intolerant (and in this case religious) are lacking a proper education, or more specifically that they are ignorant. I'm used to X-Men comics talking about politics, but this is one of the strongest stands I've seen someone take. I even Googled whether or not Warren Ellis was gay but couldn't find anything.
Excalibur # 94: Days of Future Tense
Writer - Warren Ellis
Pencils - Casey Jones
It's far in the future, all the way into 2013, lolz. We essentially get a Days of Future Past story, but in Britain. Kitty and Piotr are married in the USA (so does this foreshadow them getting back together?) Kurt is dead and Amanda has been killed by her mother (let's not forget that she's dangerous). Black Air rules all of Britain.
Excalibur of this time is made up of Brian (who likes like Captain Britain again), Meggan (who is married to Brian), Betsy Braddock is back home (and looks English again), Rahne (who looks punk now and is clearly no longer a prude), Karma (for some random reason she is always brought back for one shots), a new character named Tangerine (a red-headed telepath), and they are led by a hairless, broken Pete Wisdom.
This story follows this new version of Excalibur going to save Douglock, which is the evil operating system of Black Air. They are successful, but then Brian wakes up in the present time, having dreamt it. Whether this is meant to be a dream or the real future, I don't know, and frankly, I can put money on the fact that it will never really matter.
Excalibur # 91: Night Out
Writer - Warren Ellis
Pencils - Carlos Pacheco
This one is a cross over with X-Force, which I'll actually cover more in a later blog (should be two from now), but now I'll just say that Nate Grey shows up (randomly), almost kills Moira, reads everyone's minds and flies out. There, did you like that summary?
My Connections
If you've noticed that my summaries are a bit shorter, it's because these were some really weak issues. Don't worry though, I'm committed to read this comic all the way until the end. One reason is because I love Kitty and want to read everything she appears in. Another reasons is because I'm at 91 here and the whole series ends at 125, so I'm almost there. Also, most of these are on Marvel Unlimited. So, there you have it, I'm going to stick with this (unlike X-Factor), but this surely isn't great. It's not terrible either.