Excalibur #112
“Survival”
Writer: Ben Raab
Pencils: Pete Woods
Inks: Scott Koblish
Colours: Kevin Tinsely
Letters: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Editors: Matt Idelson & Paul Tutrone
Original Publication date: August 1997
This week, Pete and Kurt get clubby and Colossus and Meggan get chilly as we all try to survive Excalibur #112, “Survival,” in which Meggan forgets she can fly and pays the horrible price of becoming an unwilling participant in Piotr Rasputin’s hurt/comfort holodeck fantasy. Thankfully, a fresh-faced new guest, games and comics scholar Matthew Poulter, is here to help us die from exposure to tropes! Plus—digressions on bear attacks and… public transit?
On the importance of comics studies:
“Why comics studies? Because it’s interesting, because it’s everywhere… If it’s popular and people like it, it’s probably worth looking into.” -Matt
On continuity:
“I think this is a good comic in isolation and a bad comic in continuity.” -Andrew
On tropes:
“I wish the roles had been reversed here… Piotr reckoning with being less powerful, and Meggan taking the lead to save the say, would have made so much more sense with the journey each character has been on.” -Anna
On logic:
“I’d be okay with it being trope-y if it made sense. But everything we know about Meggan says that this shouldn’t happen.” -Mav
On masculinity:
“It can be interesting to see two characters who embody very different types of masculinity interacting and playing off each other.” -Anna
On themes:
“If I had to name a theme for this issue, it’s pairing up characters who haven’t really been paired up as much as they should have been.” -Andrew
On difference:
“Rahne gives Douglock this peptalk about how it’s okay to be different… and then she turns into a regular human person who can pass.” -Mav
Want more Matthew Poulter?
Matthew Poulter is a fifth-year PhD student in the Communication and Culture program at York University, with a previous background in Film Studies at Carleton University. His primary research is on Japanese media, along with the evolution of fan culture, narrative in video games, and sexuality in comics. His current doctoral research is on the depictions of weaponized sexuality in Japanese popular culture.
Find him various spots at the social media handle @TheOvermatt and on the Doctor DC Podcast!
And! Andrew and Matt have written stuff together! Check out, “‘Cowboy Bebop’: Groundbreaking anime series earns a Netflix remake for iconic artistic fusion.”
Also! Find Austin Gorton’s writeup for ComicsXF about the interactive fan-con The Uncanny Experience right 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