EXCALIBUR #81 – September 1994

Beginnings Middles & Endings

Credits: Scott Lobdell (plot), Chris Cooper (script), Klebs, Jr. & Paul Abrams (pencils), Pepoy/Carani/Champagne (inks), Dave Sharpe (letters), Chris Matthys (colors)

Summary

Britanic and Meggan talk about the experiences he had while lost in the timestream. Despite the changes they’ve gone through, they reaffirm their love for one another. Kitty Pryde takes Douglock to a pub and tries to figure out how much of Doug Ramsey is inside of him. She shows him a picture of the New Mutants but he doesn’t seem to remember them. After Kitty stops a violent college student from assaulting an old lady, Douglock identifies the people in the photo and tells her that he doesn’t want to be alone anymore. She invites him to join Excalibur. Professor Xavier and Moira MacTaggert take time off from their Legacy Virus research and go to Paris. They briefly kiss and then laugh it off.

Continuity Notes

Britanic and Meggan return to Excalibur’s original lighthouse headquarters. It was destroyed in issue #50 and reappears with no explanation.

Meggan tells Britanic that her “elemental bond” with nature gives her total awareness of her surroundings, allowing her to shape the environment around her. In the previous issue, she manipulated the magma that was flooding Stryfe’s underground base. She says that answering Britanic’s call from the timestream pushed her powers to the “ultimate degree”.

I Love the ‘90s

Professor Xavier mentally disguises Moira as Princess Diana while they’re dining at a fancy restaurant.

Review

It’s another one of the “quiet” issues that surround the crossovers. Scott Lobdell plots the story, so it’s not surprising that it reminds me so much of the talky issues of Uncanny. Chris Cooper’s scripting actually isn’t bad, so he’s able to create adequate conversations between the various characters. The two artists handling this issue couldn’t be more different, as the first artist turns in flat, amateur work, and the second does a nice job that reminds me of Adam Hughes. Considering the low quality of the preceding issues, I wasn’t looking forward to reading this at all, but it’s surprisingly okay. Like a lot of the quiet issues, it doesn’t advance any of the storylines and feels like it’s treading water, but there are worse ways to kill time before a crossover.