“Baby I Love You”
Credits: Warren Ellis (writer), David Williams, Mike Wieringo, Jeff Moy, & Mike Miller (pencilers), Mike Miller, M. Christian, & Philip Moy (inkers), Ariane Lenshoek & Malibu Hues (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)
Summary
Peter Wisdom and Kitty Pryde convince the other members of Excalibur to go out for a drink. Moira suggests they go to a bar her father used to own. Wolfsbane is reluctant to go, but is reassured by Moira and Nightcrawler. At the bar, Kitty offers her nectarine juice. Moira asks Kitty and Wisdom what’s going on between them, and they reply that they like each other and want Wisdom to join Excalibur. Later, in the men’s room, Britanic and Nightcrawler tell Wisdom that he can join the team, but they threaten to kill him if he hurts Kitty. Later, Douglock asks Britanic why he drinks, and he responds that he’s drinking non-alcoholic beer because of his past abuse. After Moira gets extremely drunk, the team returns home. As Kitty and Wisdom kiss outside, Colossus approaches.
Commercial Break
There’s an ad from American Entertainment for a limited edition All New Exiles vs. X-Men #0 comic book. The normal version costs $7.50 (plus $4.95 US shipping and $9.95 for international) if you meet the deadline, and $10.00 if you order later. The “limited super-premium edition” costs $29.95 before the order deadline and $39.95 after the deadline. I would love to meet the person who paid over forty dollars for this comic book. I was still enough of a completist to consider the “regular” edition (which would still add up to over twelve dollars), but wisely opted against it. It almost seems as if Marvel was actively encouraging kids to just run away from comics at this point. I imagine that naïve speculators and hardcore completists would be the only people interested in this, and judging by the fact that it features Rogue (who left the X-Men by the time Juggernaut joined the Exiles) it doesn’t seem like it even fits into the continuity that completists try so hard to maintain.
Review
It’s a “quiet” issue, so there’s not a lot to say about it. All of the character interactions are fine, but it really doesn’t feel as if there’s enough here to justify an entire issue (the first ten pages just consist of the team flying to the bar after Kitty and Wisdom individually ask the others if they want to go out). It has a few humorous moments, such as Moira getting wasted and Douglock scientifically listing all of the reasons not to drink, and it does do a decent job of making the title feel more like a team book after three issues of “The Pryde & Wisdom Show”. Ellis also gets points for remembering that Wolfsbane and Brian Braddock don’t drink and using that continuity as actual story points (what exactly Kitty is drinking isn’t made clear, maybe because Marvel wasn’t sure of how old she was supposed to be at this point). The art is covered by four different pencilers for some reason (this book really has a hard time getting consistent artists during this period), but it looks surprisingly consistent for most of the issue.
3 comments:
I've always enjoyed this comic. I had jumped onto Excalibur during Dream Nails, but this was the one that locked me in until the series ended.
I always like the quiet issues, and the few character moments seemed to work (Moira getting so sloshed that her Marvel Scottish accent gets even more incomprehensible; the Bathroom scene with the guys).
I also thought the issue did a good job of really locking in the new team (which had been changing dramatically since Fatal Attraction).
It may have stopped being “The Pryde & Wisdom Show”, but I always felt Wisdom was Ellis' Mary-Sue. Still, this is a good era overall, probably the best after the Davis and Claremont/Davis runs.
I loved this issue. I remember wishing at the time that they would show the mutants hanging out and having fun more often.
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