Excalibur #96
“Fireback”
Writer: Warren Ellis
Pencils: Carlos Pacheco
Inks: Bob Wiacek
Colours: Ariane Lenshoek and Malibu’s Hues
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Editor: Suzanne Gaffney
Original publication date: April 1996
Mav’s lost in the multiverse this week but we’re holding down the fort in his absence with the able assistance of podcaster extraordinaire Matt Lazorwitz, hyping Hellfire and scolding smarmy pets in Excalibur #96, “Fireback”! Featuring the return of Alistaire Stuart and a certain diminutive draconian who’s got it in for one Pete Wisdom plus a whole lot of characters with same-y faces and! Kurt debuts a new look! Which is very different and dated but we kind of love it…?
On writing for your artist:
“It occurs to me Ellis might be adding things Pacheco wants to draw… Mountjoy serves no purpose in this arc other than he’s a Pacheco character, and he likes drawing him.” -Matt
On characters:
“My working theory is that Ellis treats characters the way I treat books—where you buy a bunch of new ones before you finish the other ones.” -Andrew
On allegories:
“I love the idea of associating Brian with the Hellfire Club and exploring that as a way to comment on his privilege.” -Andrew
On conspiracies:
“To me, the introduction of the London Hellfire Club extends from Ellis’ X-Files fandom—let’s connect the Hellfire Club to Black Air and make the conspiracy go even deeper.” -Matt
On sentient (?) draconians:
“My original reading of this scene was that Lockheed is just talking to Pete Wisdom to f*ck with him.” -Matt
On fashion:
“Kurt’s fashion is outrageously dated here, and I love that about it. Kurt’s often been shown experimenting with clothes as an aspect of his identity… it makes sense for him play with contemporary fashion.” -Anna
Want more Matt Lazorwitz?
Matt Lazorwitz is a writer, editor, and podcaster at ComicsXF. He somehow thought it was a good idea to co-host two weekly podcasts: WMQ&A, a creator interview show with his long time best friend Dan Grote, and BatChat with Matt & Will with Will Nevin, which may or may not be the Batman version of Battle of the Atom. He’s not telling.
Find him on Twitter @mattlaz1013.
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
Pacheco wasn´t very happy about this work relation with Ellis. It was professional but it was a “you do your part, I do mine”. Pacheco pitched including a villain for the team to face time after time (ala Magneto for the X-Men) but Ellis just wanted to write his ideas and not much else.