Excalibur #8: "Verse VIII: The Unspeakable and the Uneatable II"

[superboyprime]

Comments

[shakalooloo]

This two-parter was so weirdly paced. The first part ends with Excalibur about to fight Bloodstone, but thern they stop and all have dinner before resuming the hunt and ending up in a fight again. Why not have the dinner first and just have one fight? This could have been wrapped up in half the time.

[buttz]

Some incredibly lazy background art here.

[shadowseeking]

This writer continues to be entirely unable to write LGBT characters without entirely screwing them up.

[silverhammerman]

Love to keep an infant member of a sentient species with a mysterious condition that hampers their intelligence as a cute pet. Like a puppy! I kid, but it's a weird look.

They're really leaning hard on the mutant metaphor here, huh? As usual, it only kind of works. Betsy's whole "it's a little different" thing though does remind me that I've long thought there's something to the idea that mutants are kind of like the First Amendment open carry nutjobs of the Marvel Universe. Because they won the genetic lottery it's their god given right to walk around able to kill everyone around them at a moment's notice, and if anyone who has a problem with that is oppressing them.

[jlbarnett]

I disagree pretty completely about them being open carry types, and a good chunk of them didn't win the genetic lottery

[silverhammerman]

Ha, well I can't say I'm not being a little facetious about the whole thing.

That said, I really do think that characters who have truly harmless/useless mutations are few and far between. It's a side effect of the genre, but nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of mutants who we actually see have potentially dangerous powers. I suppose that really it's one of those cases of applying the logic of the real world to a fictional universe with vastly different rules. In a universe where there are alien invasions and the government has constructed multiple waves of genocidal robots, distrusting the government and wanting to keep the ability to fire deathrays from your face is marginally more reasonable. So it's less that mutants are a bunch of libertarians than it is that the Marvel Universe is libertarian. I kid, but only slightly.

I just feel like it would be an interesting motivation for an anti-mutant villain to essentially say "I don't have a problem with you on a personal level, I just don't see why you need to have the ability to kill me with your mind, or why you expect me to be comfortable with you having that ability."

[jlbarnett]

in these realities though anyone can gain abilities like that

[silverhammerman]

True, but mutants are generally the only ones for whom it gets tied up in identity and politics like in the scene above. If, in this metaphor, Spider-Man is a normal gun owner, Jubilee in the scene about comes off like someone saying their gun is an intrinsic part of their identity. You're right though, the whole thing doesn't quite work when actually put in the context of the Marvel Universe, it's more just a fun observation.

[scorntx]

-"If we're going to trust A"-
...
Yeah, you can trust the guy who has repeatedly abducted your friends, including your former lover, and tried to turn them into brainwashed mass murder machines so he could commit mass murder.
And who has set up a whole event revolving around beating people to death so they're "worthy" of resurrection.

Oh, right, the only person who objects to trusting En "Mr. Rodgers" Sabah Nur is Gambit.
(Who I can't notice has been staying away from farmers and open flames recently...)
Because actually, Apocalypse is a total misguided cinnamon bun who's just not a morning person.

Sooner or later there's gonna be a "Hans, are we the baddies?" moment and it would almost be funny to see that.

[deh_tommy]

No one’s saying A is Mr. Rogers or that he’s even that great a person: in this book alone this ritual for his new Brand X magic is fuelled by the genocide of a race, he’s put a madman on the throne of Camelot, and next issue implies whatever he’s got his eyes on the Starlight Citadel and whatever he’s cooking up threatens the balance of the omniverse thatself.

However, he hasn’t broken any of Krakoa’s fundamental laws yet, and no one’s really in a position of authority to actually do anything to him on the off chance he might do something bad. Plus, given how the Quiet Council’s been portrayed so far, do you really think anyone on there (other than Nightcrawler and maybe Mystique) would honestly have any real objections to his plots so long as they put Mutants on top?

[jlbarnett]

that suggests a flaw in Krakoa's fundamental laws

[lbd_nytetrayn]

No one’s saying A is Mr. Rogers

Hmm, now wait a minute here... both wear a lot of blue, and feature the letter "A" prominently...

Are we sure Apocalypse isn't Captain America? Have we ever seen them both in the same place at the same time?

[silicondream]

"a mum with your brand of psychic control" is not a phrase I can imagine saying to Rachel without receiving a punch in return, given her history. But I guess this is still kind of an alt-universe so whatever.

So is this going with the Warwolves being genetically evil and requiring a psychic lobotomy to function in larger society? Because...okay.

[sarahnewlin]

I was going to post that kiss but decided against it.

Jeez the representation is not going well at all. I recall Cullen was also creepy in.....was it Avengers? He kissed another guy and it made him uncomfortable.

I'm still wondering why they had to have Rogue essentially be the TLJ Leia by having her out of commission for several issues and then finally bringing her back. I hope she gets to take center stage at some point but I doubt it.