Excalibur #62

[suzene]

Title: Excalibur #62 - "Of Birth, Death, and the Confused, Painful Bit In Between" (1993, Marvel, 22 pages)
Creators: Alan Davis (writing and art)
Availability: Out of Print (at least until Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis v.3 hits)

In the course of investigating strange happenings at St. Oswald's church, Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Cerise are ambushed by a group of strange individuals calling themselves the Seraphim. Rather than actually get beaten down, Kurt plays 'possum and allows himself to be taken to the Seraphim's base.













Almost two decades later, and that last page is still twenty different kinds of "Hell yeah!" But I do tend to have a soft spot for righteous "my powers were only holding me back" thumpings.

Comments

[suzene]

I can't get too upset about the title getting the ax. Ben Raab was on writing duties for Excalibur at the time (as well as a baffling number of other projects, considering he was essentially proto-Austen in terms of talent), so it was essentially a mercy kill.

That business with making Kurt a priest however...

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, that was just unnecessary. It's fine that Kurt is religious, but good grief, religion doesn't have to be the ruling force in his life; there are lots of other things for him (and the writer) to focus on. It's the same reaction I had to the movie version of him being covered with religious symbols, one for every sin - for cryin' out loud, why must he be a fanatic? If you MUST emphasize his religion, having him crossing himself every now and then and briefly muttering a prayer would do the trick nicely.

[icon_uk]

Never mind the fact that training for the Catholic Priesthood is a seven year process, you can't do it by correspondence over a few months.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, there's that, too. (Of course, there's always the possibility that he HAD been training by correspondence for a number of years prior to the actual event, and we just never saw it - it's not like we've ever seen the contents of Kurt's mailbox.)

[victory_or_death]

That's why I called the International Correspondence School and got my degrees in Theological Studies of Cthulhuism and Gun Repair all from the comfort of my own home!

Now I'm a Dark Priest of Our Lord Cthulhu AND making more money!

Now if I could just past that damned art test...

[liliaeth]

well the whole Kurt becoming a priest thing was shown long before this in one of Rachel'st Days of future past flashbacks, where she remembers being sent after Kurt, whom she refers to as father Wagner.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yes, but that's supposed to be set far in the future, which allows for the team breaking up in the interim - if the X-Men are no longer a going concern, then I can imagine Kurt choosing the priesthood as a possible career; it's just a rather ridiculous thing for him to be doing while he's still actively involved in saving the world every other week.