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Excalibur #91

“Baby I Love you”

Writer: Warren Ellis

Pencils: Mike Wieringo, David Williams, Jeff Moy, & Mike Miller

Inks: Mike Miller, Mike Christian & Philip Moy

Colours: Ariane Lenshoek & Malibu Hues

Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Editors: Suzanne Gaffney

Original publication date: November 1995

This week, we raise our glasses to a fan-favourite issue, Excalibur #91, “Baby I Love You,” in which our merry mutant misfits take a night off from saving the world to take a tipple, dance on tables, and threaten to kill each other in the bathroom. We also toast everyone’s favourite were-girl with a rough past and a heart of gold with the help of our gracious guest, writer, research, and Rahne Sinclair X-pert, Rebecca Gault! Plus the joys of decompression issues and what’s the new identity of this team, anyway?

On character histories:

“I did a full read-through of Rahne’s appearances for the Cerebro podcast… and there’s a whole 20 years of publication history in there where I’m like—yep, things are happening to this character, for sure.” -Rebecca

On decompression:

“Decompression issues, where the superheroes are just drinking or hanging out, tap into that feeling of—they’re just like me.” -Rebecca

More decompression:

“A decompression issue does two things: it shows how the previous mission affected the characters and establishes emotional stakes for the next mission.” -Andrew

On relatable heroes:

“The thing I like about the ‘Royal Dragon’ episode of Defenders, or a comic like this, is—you can be a titan and still struggle to get along with everybody in your friend group. It matters that those things matter.” -Mav

On relatable metaphors:

“I like the play of the familiar and the strange. I want to watch a show where someone is dealing with insecurity and family trauma, but I want to watch the version of that where the main character is the actual Devil. The flexibility of metaphor makes it easier for me to put myself in that story.” -Anna

On regression:

“Rahne Sinclair is such a rich character, yet her character is often regressed. I’ve watched her experience a lot of  growth, and always think it’s a shame when people take her back to the start of her character arc.” -Rebecca

On monstrous regression:

“Monstrous characters often get regressed in mainstream superhero comics because if writers followed through with their potential, they would become ‘too queer, too deviant’ for this genre to handle.” -Anna

Want more Rebecca Gault?

Want more Rebecca Gault?

Rebecca Gault is an early-career academic from Glasgow, Scotland. She has a MA in English Literature from the University of Glasgow and an MLitt in Fantasy Literature from the University of Glasgow. Their research interests include monstrosity, gender and sexuality studies, LGBTQ+ studies, and modes of fantasy. She is also the cohost of Out To Get You, a queer horror podcast.

You can also find them on Twitter (@phoenixfcrce) and you can find her on Cerebro talking about one Rahne Sinclair here!

And as usual:

You can find Anna on Twitter (@peppard_anna) and at Sequential Scholars (@seqscholars). 

You can find Andrew on Twitter (@ClaremontRun) and at Sequential Scholars.

You can find Mav on Twitter (@chrismaverick) and on his podcast, VoxPopcast (@VoxPopcast).

Enjoy!

-GGW Team