Excalibur #95
“Amplified Heart”
Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Carlos Pacheco
Inks: Bob Wiacek
Colours: Joe Rosas
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Editor: Suzanne Gaffney
Original publication date: March 1996
All that simmering tension had to come to a head sometime, and what better time than this time, in a comic about the most emo Omega mutant? Adam Reck, writer, artist, and co-host of the Battle of the Atom podcast, descends from the heavens to cross swords and shoot psi-blasts at Excalibur #95, “Amplified Heart,” talking Pacheco influences, rad sequences, 90s pursuance, and where Nate Grey ranks on the list of worst X-Men.
On reframing:
“It feels like they’re retelling the story of the X-Men franchise to frame the entire universe around X-Man and it’s such a hilarious project.” -Anna
On negative traits of Nate:
“We’ve been joking a lot about X-Man, but seriously–probably the least interesting part of the Age of Apocalypse storyline he came out of is him.” -Mav
On different types of 90s:
“Cable and X-Man are both definitive 90s characters, but where Cable is all 90s excess… Nate Grey is that Gambit-type of broody emo guy with floppy 90s hair.” -Anna
On the appeal of Pacheco:
“I know a lot of people have a lot of affection for this era of Excalibur, and I think Carlos Pacheco’s art is a big part of that.” -Anna
On sympathy for our heroes:
“I do really feel bad for the Excalibur team here that they have to deal with Nate.” -Adam
On Pacheco Influences:
“Artists like Pacheco brought a sense of design, fun, and approachability back into superhero comics with a cartoonist sensibility… choices are made to breathe life into the drawing and make you want to be a part of the image as opposed to marveling at its proficiency.” -Mav
On Pacheco's style:
“Carlos Pacheco is more expressive than Jim Lee but also has a good sense of anatomy and perspective… he uses interesting camera angles and when he draws an outstretched hand, you can see every single like joint in the fingers.” Adam
Want more Adam Reck?
You can find him on Twitter (@arthurstacy) and ranking all the X-Men stories that are fit to rank with Zachary Jenkins and a bevy of big-name guests over at the Battle of the Atom Podcast.
Adam also makes awesome art and comics! You can often find him contributing lewks to ComicsXF’s redesign series, featuring new costumes for old favs! Adam also does commissions; hit him up on Instagram to learn more!
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
This comic´s spanish edition (Excalibur number 9, 1997, Comics Forum) included an interview with Pacheco. He commented that he intentionally emulated Steve Skroce´s style because this was a crossover with the X-Man collection. And he wanted some artistic consistency for the readers of both titles.
He was just that level of awesome.
I can see some of Steve´s style in the character´s eyes and the general “animerica”-vibes of the pencils. Carlos was far more academic in his anatomy than it is here.
That’s fascinating and makes so much sense! I always wondered why Pacheco’s style looked so different in that particular issue.
Well, he did an Avengers ’98 annual where he tried to incorporate some George Perez into his style who was, at the time, the penciler for the regular Avengers title. You can see it more clearly in the “veins” around Thor´s arms (a weird artistic choice done by Perez that Pacheco replicates for the annual but never again when drawing Thor).