Excalibur Annual #2
“The Interpretation of Dreams”
Writer: Richard Ashford
Pencils: John Royle
Inks: Phil Moy, Bill Anderson & W.C. Carani
Colours: Ariane Lenshoek
Letters: Janice Chiang
“Black Queen Rising”
Writer: Eric Fein
Pencils: Daerrick Gross
Inks: Bob Wiacek, Terry Austin, Bill Anderson & Andrew Pepoy
Colours: Monica Bennett
Letters: Janice Chiang
“A Change of Worlds”
Writer: Kim Yale
Pencils: Hannibal King & Yancy Labat
Inks: Jason Minor, Keith Champagne & W.C Carani
Colours: Chris Matthys
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Suzanne Gaffney
Original publication date: May 1994
Did you forget about Excalibur Annual #2? So did we for a bit, but not anymore! Anna, Mav, and Andrew are on their lonesome this week, hashing out two decent stories and one that made us mad, featuring the returns of Jamie Braddock and everyone’s favourite vampy mutant vampire, Selene! Plus twin magic, witch-on-witch action, and whether there might be some kinda symbolism somewhere in a lonely teenage boy seeing stars after sharing his body and soul with an angsty outer space robot.
On euphemisms:
“They’re like ‘oh this is where Jamie started to make some mistakes.’ But like—he was stealing from the Red Cross and enslaving people. I don’t think that qualifies as ‘some mistakes.’” -Anna
On misplaced optimism:
“It’s adorable that Brian is imagining the year 2040 in which he’s apparently still Britannic. You had a lot of faith in that idea, huh?” -Mav
On boobs:
“These boobs are drawn by somebody who doesn’t even like boobs.” -Anna
On gender/tropes:
“There’s a reversal of gender tropes here that I enjoy, where Kurt is the damsel in distress, and Amanda is the one who has to be physically and emotionally strong in order to save him from breaking down.” -Anna
On character development:
“Amanda has been around for a long time and we still don’t know who she is. I don’t even know what colour her cape is, because it changes every issue.” -Andrew
On badassery:
“Selene was genuinely terrifying here. Kurt endures one cycle in the spooling chamber and almost dies. Selene’s been in the chamber for who-knows-how-long, yet she endures, because she’s a badass.” -Anna
On teenage diaries:
“It’s Doug’s blog about losing his virginity to his robot friend.” -Mav
On getting the characters right:
“Kurt brings up the pain of being rejected by Kitty, but he’s still the one to hug her when she’s feeling rejected. That was very Nightcrawler to me.” -Anna
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