From: [j b h] at [er3.rutgers.edu] (Joe Helfrich)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: Excalibur Danglers List, v3.0
Date: 12 Sep 1994 20:25:42 -0700
This is the Official Excalibur Dangling Plotlines List, Version 3.0,
where we cover all the plotlines that have either been completed, those
that we fear are not going to be picked up, ever, and those plotlines
considered by those contributing to be "open," i.e. not resolved, but
resolvable if we could get Chris Claremont and/or Alan Davis alone, with
torture tools handy.
This list was originated by a netter with the username Kitty
Pryde, current address unknown. Originally a "fourth wall" list, it
eventually morphed into a more standard format for version 2.0, which
was kept bu R. Travis Jones (current address unknown). I got the list
from Rich Carreiro, to find that it lapsed with issue 34. Contributers
to version 2.0 include Dani Zweig, Brandi Weed, D.W. James, Ken Arromdee,
Joshua Susser, Rich Carriero, Rob Kracik and Connie Hirsch. I handled v3.0,
with the help of some old posts archived by Rich, with thanks to: Paul O'Brian
for his insights on British law, age of Majority, and Kitty Pryde; and
Eric Chastain, aka T-Rex, for his post on Kitty's phasing abilities. The beta
version of 3.0 was edited and corrected with the help of Ken Arromdee,
Jorge DeLaCruz, Rich Johnston, Stirge, and of course, Paul O'Brien,
who caught most of the mistakes and provided several clarifications or
prodded my own thinking process into action.
Since Excalibur has fallen so far in the last few months, I
doubt that many, if any, of these plotlines will be given any serious
attention in the near future. So, I really don't see the point of posting
this more than every three or four months or so, unless there are some major
and welcome changes.
But then, Warren Ellis is coming.
I will, of course, mail the list to anyone who wants it, at any time.
----------
Special Edition #1: Excalibur: The Sword Is Drawn
(page 1): What is the status of the X-Men in the Marvel Universe? Do they
really have their own comic book?
Yes, but it doesn't sell very well. (Sensational SheHulk 50,
assuming you can actually take it seriously.)
(page 14): We know Meggan's illiterate, is she ever going to learn to read?
Probably not, that would mean charachter development.
Occasional tutoring sessions are seen, usually in plotlines most of
the net wants to forget (i.e. Promethium Exchange)
(page xx): Paul O'Brien complained that not only can Meggan list six
shows that are on TV at the same time, when Britian only has four
channels, but that several of the shows are on the same channel.
Knowing Claremont and Davis, this was another subtle little
hint that the Lighthouse was a space-time nexus.
(page 20): In what way is Rachel a threat to reality?
Being Phoenix and all that. Not to mention the fact that Phoenix,
when manifesting as an indvidual entity rather than a cosmic Force,
drains on, rather than maintains, the cosmic life-pool (at least
according to Galactus, who is admitedly not the best of references.)
There was a great deal of discussion on this point, but we netters
could never come to a conclusive explination of this, as I remember.
Alternately, this could be a reference to the "stress in the time
stream" nonsense that necisitated Rachel switching places with Brian,
but that seems unlikely, since I doubt Claremont was planning "The
Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix" at this point.
(page 44): What did Mojo do to Rachel such that she is unsure of what really
happened? What real events *are* she unsure of anyway?
Mojo didn't do anything. The Phoenix Entity, however, at the
behest of Kate Pryde, blurred Rachel's memories, so that she wouldn't
try to return to her future (Excalibur 52). There were plans for a
couple of Special Editions relating what happened to Rachel in the
Mojoverse, but they never developed.
Special Edition #2: Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem
(general): What's going to happen to Rita and the X-Babies?
Rita, as we know, _did_ become Spiral. (X-Men 32) How she got
caught again after the X-Babies and she returned to Mojo's dimension,
and what happened to the X-Babies themselves is still unresolved.
Special Edition #3: The Possession
(general): Huh?
This was a vision sent to Excalibur by Merlin to prepare them for
the confrontation with Necrom.
Special Edition #4: Air Apparent
(page 2): If SHIELD lent the helicarrier to WHO for this mission, (Ex 55)
why is WHO painted on it's side?
Special Edition #5: Excalibur vs the XMen: XX Crossing
(page 21): You guys thought that Bishop absorbing energy from melting snow
was bad? Here, Lobdell has a T-Rex running around in an artic wasteland.
(general): What did Excalibur do with the Kree time-vest?
Annual #1
(general): Where has Khaos been since this?
Annual #2
(general): Why did this thing even see print?
(page 10): Where'd they get Jamie? Issue 56 clearly shows him being carried
into Sat-ur-^9's transport.
(page 30): Selene seems to be infected by the same mental illness as Emma
Frost...she is completely out of charachter in this story. (Hey, maybe it's
some sort of psychic thing that we can use to explain Selene, Emma, and Mags!)
Excalibur #1:
(page 2-3) Why does Tweedle-Dope want to build Widget?
Fitting that the very first dangler for this book remains unresolved,
don't you think? The general opinion is "Why does Tweedle-dope do
anything," but it still seems to convienient--Merlyn had to be involved
somewhere.
(page 18): Please explain those dimensional warps in their basement! It's
convenient for picking up comics otherwise unavailable, but can also be
a bit of a health hazard.... (Also: # 3, 11, 25, 47-50)
They were slips in the sidereal String, momentary glimpses into
paralell Earths. The became more frequent as the book progressed,
because of a "collapse" of the various realities. Whether or not
Necrom actually caused this collapse was never conclusivly stated.
(page 29-30): What is that glop in the "Fine Old English Humbugs" shop that
holds Rachel so well?
Probably an inside joke.
Excalibur #2
(page 1): Is that kid a Warpie?
No. Kylun calls himself a mutant in issue 63, and he experiences
no power loss as the other Warpies do when the otherworld matrix
collapses.
(page 3): Why does Vixen want him, and how did he get here? What is the
significance ot the company name and slogan (Gateway Technologies, "We
open the door to tomorrow") which we've seen twice now, at the open to both
issues 1 and 2.
(page 4): What exactly are Widget's powers?
Opening gates between diferent portions of the "sidereal string".
According to one version of the Marvel Handbook, he/she/it can
also teleport along Lei lines, but this power has never been seen.
(page 30): *Is* the second Warwolf which died in the Special Edition going
to be around to plague us? (Call this a caption-induced dangler.)
All 6 Warwolves are present in Ex 41, so the answer must be yes.
Excalibur #3:
(page 15): Is Sat-yr^9 the same as Saturnine?
Nope. Sat-yr-^9 is an old enemy of Brian's. Saturnine is an
old flame and security chief of OtherWorld
(page 22): Meggan starts to kvetch about Brian ignoring her. Later to become
a Meggan/Brian/Curt/Saturnyne/Courtney "triangle". Is this ever going to
get resolved?
Yes, in that Kurt gives up, gets Cerise, loses Cerise, and
gets Amanda; Brian realizes his old girlfriend is really a
megalomaniac out to kill him and take over the world; and Meggan
never really had more than a sympathetic He's-doing-what-Brian-
should-and-damn-he's-cute attraction to Kurt.
(general): Why was Vixen at the prison in the first place? Who was she
there to bust out? And did she have a facelift from the last time she
tangled with CB (story in Captain Britain paperback where Psylocke
loses her eyes)?
Excalibur #4
(page 9): Rachel changes Kitty's clothes. Instantly changing
clothes was one of the signs that her "mother"'s power was growing too
much...
Not exactly. Jean manifested that power the day she became Phoenix.
(Of course, that may be "too much" in itself...)
(page 16): What's this about an address? They got that money from a bank
machine.
Sloppy editing.
(page 20): What's Moira so worried about?
Two possible explinations: The fact that Rachel can truly access
the Phoenix Force, or the fact that she is a mutant--i.e. has
powers beyond the TP/TK inherited from her mother.
Excalibur #5:
(page 27): What has happened to Courtney? Sat-yr-9 is wearing items
confiscated from that poor guy in #3 (which everyone seems to have missed).
But is Courtney dead? The zap used to zap her looks a lot like the zap on
page 20 #4, and particularly like the one on page 14 #3, which is very
strongly suggestive that maybe she's transported to another dimension.
Problem is, _Widget_ transported that poor fool to the other
dimension, despite what the book intimated in Ex56 So why did
Saturnine bother with Rupert's gear? Well, since she
presumably left her clothes on Rupert's corpse, she didn't want to
run around naked...The letter page in Ex 60, however, did say that it
was Widget who (inadvertantly? or is this more of Merlin's work?)
released Sat-yr-9.
Excalibur #6
(page 2): Why did Rachel wait an issue to respond to Nate's distress cry?
(pages 8-9): Alistaire and Alysande: the ages are *definitely* wrong. (This
one is an X-Men dangling plot too.)
Can someone fill _me_ in on this one? As far as I knew, this was
their first apperance.
Excalibur #9:
(page 29): Exactly how was the Nazi-Meggan defeated?
Presumably with brute force and/or a little bit of trickery.
And since each Meggan would presumably be attuned to her own
world's "flavor" of earth-magic, Meggan-prime would probably have and
advantage over Meggan-nazi.
Excalibur #10
(page 25): Kitty's barely 15. This means >= 15. So if she has her 15th
birthday soon, as reported on the net, that means she must have been aging
negatively throughout the Cross-Time Caper.
Sloppy editing again. See general charachter danglers at end of list
for discussion of age and Kitty.
(page 30): What's Kitty carrying? It's not Widget, who Alistaire brings next
issue.
Kitty is also seen with the little lump at the start of issue #11.
Presumably, it is Widget, in yet another manifestation of sloppy
editing.
Excalibur #11:
(page 8): Oh boy, a real sword in a stone! Any team named "Excalibur" has
to have one of those. Still a dangler, though. Especially with the letter
column remark in #13 saying that "the story of Ilyanna and Kitty is far from
over."
See Promethium Exchange, dangeler in letter collumn, EX 76
(page 27): Kitty has a case of the "creeps" from Fenborough. I'd call it
mood setting, but Kitty's the only one who comments on it, Meggan goes on
and on about how it was "the site of an ancient fortress, a place of darkest
sorcery." and Kitty did just find the SoulSword on her doorstep at the start
of the issue....
Excalibur #12:
(page 15): What is Meggan's connection to the fairys?
(see Charachter Danglers for possible explination)
Excalibur #14:
(page 13): Rick says that his world's version of Excalibur is also missing.
Why and how, since other versions of Excalibur never have Rachel.
Paul O'Brian's theory: the Impossible Man created all the
inhabitants of that Earth with memories of the Marvel Universe as we
know (distorted, obviously). He never created Excalibur, though -
either he never got around to it, or the task of replicating a
plausible Phoenix was beyond him. So the inhabitants of that world
have a vague idea that there _ought_ to be an Excalibur, and assume
that since they aren't there, they must be missing.
(page 31): Galactus says "As I soon shall with her" Is Galactus really a
cross-time being?
Paul again: As a universal force, this would seem to make sense.
Another possibility is that this Impossible Man is the same
one as in our universe and Galactus followed him across.
Excalibur #15:
(page 6-7): How did they get into this mess??? OK, not a dangler, but I think
I feel some fanfic coming!
(page 12): Ditto
(page 17): Again with the hanging story.
(page 17): Ray and Meggan get their powers messed up. Also: 18,
I have a theory about this. See Charachter Danglers.
(page 26): Another hanging story mixed with a dangeler: How did Meggan just
"become" Captain Britian? Brian is the Captain, after all, because his
father is from Otherworld. Then again, no one said she had anything but the
title.
(page 27): Whatever happened to Doc Croc after this?
Excalibur 16:
(general): What's the conncection between Nightcrawler and Kymari's people?
The physical charachteristics are identical (except for the tail)
Excalibur 17:
(page 26): Meggan access the world-magik--fine, that's what she normally
does--but why does she suddenly understand all this?
Excalibur #19:
(general): Exactly what can Meggan do as far as copying the powers of people
when she changes shape?
Quite a bit, apparently, but we haven't seen this in a while.
(page 22): How does Jamie reach across the timestream?
Excalibur #21
(page 6): This Captain Britian has a tracking ability. Does ours?
Not necessarily--powers could concievably vary from timestream
to timestream. The debate that this caused led to the creation of a
Charachter dangler section for Brian, however. See below.
Excalibur #22
(page 11): Another allusion to the reincarnation of the other two warwolves.
(page 13): What's the point to the Courtney/Kitty mixup?
Excalibur #24
(page 1): Are Saturnyne and Courtney/Sat-yr^9 the same or not?
They're cross time ananlouges of each other.
Excalibur #25
(page 22): Why is Meggan hurt when Alistare uses the gizmo on Galactus?
(page 23): Similar to #9, #17, and #19: what are the extent or Meggan's
powers? She loses her powers outside of Britain after Inferno, but while
within Britain she's a match for Galactus?
Meggan's main power source is the Earth-magic that contributes to
the Matrix, not the Matrix itself, as I previously said. The source
of this Earth magic is located in Britian. Away from there, she can't
tap into it as well.
Excalibur #32
(page 8): Is there any significance to the St. Cyril's / St. Searle's
name mix up?
Rich Johnston tells me that "St Searle's is also a referenece to the
St Trinian's cartoons by Searle." This means that it's probably a
British joke.
(page 12): Why is Kitty permanently tangible while at St.Searle's?
Excalibur #34
(page 11): Why is Alysande Stuart immune to Mesmero's powers?
Unlikely to get resolved, now that she's dead. Unless....
Excalibur #35
(page 17-18): If, as has been stated in several places (Excalibur 52 and
XMen ###, among others) Kurt died during the original raid on the mansion,
how is Rachel hunting him down in the future?
This was explained in a letter collumn (Ex 56) as being a by-product
of Phoenix's fragmenting of Rachel's memories--especially since
this scene takes place in United Germany, when in the original story
the Sentinals were on the verge of expanding past the United States
when Days of Future Past and it's associated story arcs took place.
Scott Lobdell would be a much better writer if he actually read some
back issues once in a while. (Paul counciled me to be fair,
saying that Lobdell was only a fill-in writer, and that it could have
been the artist that didn't do his homework. Gee, and I thought I
defended Scottie a lot. :)
Excalibur 36
(page 15):Meggan's shapeshifting again. Aparently she can copy people down
to the DNA structure, or portions of it, to copy their powers.
Excalibur 37
(page 12): Who is this Lady of The Lake person appearing all of a sudden?
Excalibur 38
(page 6): Is there a connection between Otherplace and England? It seems
too coincidental that it would just happen to need a land mass the size of
England and be focused on that are as well. Then again, it could be just an
excuse to introduce the Lady Of The Lake as a plot device.
(page 21): Meggan uses her shapeshifting to duplicate Silver Surfer's Power
Cosmic. She explains that her powers are boosted from being in a dimension
of pure magic, but really!
Excalibur 39
(page 23): What happened to S'ym after Darkoth swallowed him?
Excalibur 41
(page 1): There are six fake X-Men here, so the other two warwolves must
have regenerated. But how?
(page 9): This is the last apperance of the Storm warwolf!!! For the rest
of the story, we only see five warwolves!!! What happened to it! And what
did it do to Kitty!!!
Excalibur 49
(page 12): Kitty questions wether or not the Kate construct is Widget. Is it?
In Excalibur 66, Tweedledope is visible in the time warp that caused
the fusion of Kate and the new Widget, so it would seem the answer
is yes. See Charachter Danglers for a discussion of the Kate/Widget
fusion.
Excalibur 50
(page 28): The stargate--was it created by Rachel or the Phoenix force?
Presumably the Phoenix force, since it has done similar things in the
past (Dark Phoenix Saga)
(page 42): Last appereance Merlyn, Roma. What are they up to?
Excalibur 51
(page 1): Wilbur Griswald says that they've been in the room for two days.
Considering that they swapped places in Excalibur #9, there's either a
substansial difference in time rates, or our Excalibur's been very busy!
Excalibur 52
(pages 27-28): If, as Phoenix says here, she and Rachel are "irrevocably
merged" and if she has "removed all trace of my (Phoenix's) power from" Jean,
why is Rachel running around relativly powerless in AoC&P and why is Jean
apparently calling herself Phoenix again? (OK, so not an Excalibur dangeler,
but one must note major retcons somewhere.)
Well, Jean took back the name Phoenix in AoC&P 4, at Rachel's
request, since she was "dying." This makes me wonder what
Rachel will call herself when she comes back to be sacrificed
in Excalibur 100.
Excalibur 53
(general): Brian Braddock obviously failed to make the connection between
Peter Parker and Spiderman, but did Peter also miss the obvious?
Excalibur 54
(page 30): Lockheed seems to be gradually learning to speak (i.e. learning
to reproduce human words with his alien vocal chords. There's never been any
doubt that he understood the words.) Also: 60, 61, 64, 66
Excalibur 56
(page 2): What are Sat-yr-9's "special plans" for Kitty?
(page 28): Last appereance, Sat-yr-9, Jamie Braddock. Where are they?
As of Annual #2, Jamie Braddock is in Excalibur custody at Muir Isle.
No explination as to how he got there was given.
Excalibur 60
(page 24): Last appereance of The Knight Errant. Another one of Lobdell's
dissapearing sub-plots
You're complaining?
(page 25): Brian is complaining about losing his powers and _dosen't know
why he did._ This would probably have something to do with the fact that
he's out of Britain and dosen't have his costume with him, something that
has only been explained to him three or four times.
Lobdell and those damn back issues (or lack thereof) again.
Although he apparently did enough research to realize that CB did lose
power out of Britain.
Excalibur 61
(page 18): What _did_ happen to the Mastermind computer under Braddock Manor?
According to Beetroot in issue 62, it was destroyed by a bomb. But
isn't that sort of damage easy to detect?
(page 24): Brian asks Meggan to marry him. She says yes. When's the wedding?
(page 29): Galactus tells Phoenix that she is drawing on the life energy of
the Universe to feed her power. Assuming the Big G is telling the truth
a) How does he know more about Phoenix's powers than she/it does her/itself
b) does it really matter? After all, the Second Law of Thermodynamics states
that a closed system--no! Not another Science and the XBooks discussion!
Excalibur 62
(page 15): In the flashback, the other RCX operatives already know of Nigel
Orpington-Smythe. Was he around before this in the earlier Captain Britian
stories? He is mentioned a couple other times in recent issues of Excalibur
(for example, in Ex 42, he's the government spokesman so busy commending
Excalibur for their work at the train wreck.)
(page 18): Orpington-Smythe talks about a "destabilization crisis." Is this
the Legacy Virus? In the letter page in the same issue, it says "the effects
of 'X-ecutioners Song' will be felt in the Marvel Universe for a long time to
come--and Excalibur is bound to suffer the consequences eventualy.
No--the Warpies were apparently a result of the Otherworld energy
matrix, and the destruction of the matrix causes their reversion.
But why are they dying?
(Note that in the original CB stories, the Warpies were
created by the presence of Sir James Jaspers and the Reality Warp,
which was kept open by Captain UK until she left Earth 616. A
possible explination is that the Reality Warp modified the Warpies so
that they could tap into the Otherworld Matrix. This leads into an
idea of mine that...but that would be telling. Excalibur 2099 anyone?)
(page 20): Brian _is_ losing his powers. But why? He's in Britian.
This was because of the destruction of the matrix also. Roma retuned
his suit to work on the energy of Earth 616 Britan in Ex 65. Does
this mean he needs his suit to keep his powers now?
Excalibur 65
(page 21): Not a dangler, but...A guy with a glowing left eye, slash marks
over his right eye, and a little bit of grey hair, codenamed Wire, makes an
appereance. Snicker.
(page 28): Last apperance of Alistaire Stewart. These last apperance lists
are really starting to sound like a funeral roll.
Excalibur 66
(page 12): According to the date stamps, two years have passed in this time-
line since the beginings of the Kate/Widget fusion. Is that how long it's
been since Excalibur was formed?
Excalibur 67 (The end of the Golden Age)
(page 9): Brian speculates about the parallels between his world 1994 and
Rachel's world in 2015. What is the connection?
(page 14): Kate says that the Sentinal monitor unitevolved to survive the
time warp, and somehow absorbed her. How did the connection to Widget take
place? And is there any Sentinal programming left?
(insert 7):Item 5 is a "penciled pinup for the TECHNET LS by Dwayne Turner."
Was this ever solicited?
(page 29): Last appereance Ahab. But according to the XMen anniversiary
magazine, he's in our timeline, working on Project:Wideawake. Could this
have something to do with the Nimrod program eveolution in recet issues of
XForce?
Nimrod explains in the next issue of XForce that there was a
copy of his personality/programming left in the computer nets, which
then found its way into the Nimrod body. This does not completely
rule out Ahab's involvement, however,
(page 30): Last appereance Widget/Kate Pryde.
According to that XMen anniversiary mag, Widget was trapped in
Rachel's future with Captain Britian. Since Brittaniac is apparently
_not_ Brian, we can assume this is the case.
Excalibur 68
(page 4): Kylun's back in his old costume.
Excalibur 70
(page 12): Last appereance Feron, with the tag line "He will never be the
same again." Apparently, he will never be again at all. Last mention of
Dai Thomas.
(page 30): Last appereance Kylun, Micromax. Where have they been?
Kulun is off with his family, and Micromax is looking for work
in the States. Rumor had it that the annual will cover this
in backup stories, but that didn't happen.
Excalibur 71
(page 10): Kitty comments on the alien technology at Muir Island. I thought
it was just a research center. Where'd all this come from? Not from the
XMen, the technology isn't Shi'ar.
(page 10): Kitty claims legal independance. The great age debate gains new
strength. See Charachter Danglers
(page 18): Kurt's hologram calls up Brian in a new costume (helmet change.)
Quite impressive, considering they haven't seen him in it.
(page 27): How did Rachel know ahead of time that her name would have an
effect on Cable? And how did he actually not know it--he knows just about
everything else.
(page 27): How does Rachel contact him telepathically?
Probably because of the Psychic link she established with the baby
Nathan. But wouldn't Jean have done something similar, either before
he was taken into the future or during Adventures of Cyclops and
Phoenix?
(page 33): Rachel short-jumps herself. We haven't seen this power since, even
though it seems very useful. Then again, we haven't had much chance.
(page 33): Rachel manifests Brian's costume. Why, if it is Brittaniac that
replaces her?
Paul speaks:Since Brian is also acting perfectly sane up until
he reappears as Britanic, I suspect this may be deliberate and not
just bad writing. Even if Lobdell let it slip by, I'm sure it would
have occured to Lashley.
(page 34): Kitty is reducing the density of Colossus' armor, rather than
simply taking it out of phase. This isn't how her power is supposed to work.
I say it again: Scott Lobdell would write much better if he actually
read up about the stories and charachters he's writing about.
(page 47): The splash page includes all the cast-off charachters, including
Kate/Widget and Brian in his new costume (which rules out a colorists error
in the other appereance.) Hopefully, Warren Ellis intends to dosomething
with them.
Excalibur 72
(page 4): Moira recognizes Rory's name from somewhere. Why? He's a
scientist, yes, so she could just have seen it on a research paper.
But then again, this is Marvel, Land Of No Subtlty.
Jorge DeLaCruz points out: In Marvel Presents, before it became a
Wolverine/ Ghost Rider Book, it had a Cyclops story involving
Sentinals; a Young mutant girl named Mary Campbell was involved.
Rory's last name is Campbell.
So maybe they _are_ being subtle!
(page 15): The infamous "potential mutant" statement. Why does Sienna get
points for killing Moira?
(page 25): Rachel complains about the Phoenix Force draining her. What's up?
Before now, every manifestation of the Phoenix Force has directly
involved the Phoenix entity. This is the first time we've seen a
Phoenix Avatar, who accesses the power, rather than who _is_ the
power. (Yes, I know David. Jean Grey died on the moon. :) ) What
her limits are (or were :( ) is unknown.
(page 27): Rachel is hurt by the effect Siena's powers have on the EM field.
Why?
Excalibur 74
(page 20): Sinister can tell that Rachel is from an alternate timeline and
can possibly tell where the divergance occured from her DNA. What did he
find out, if anything?
Excalibur 75
(cover): "Rachel as the Phoenix...for the last time." This seems strange,
since the Phoenix Force has said on two occassions, Ex 52 and 64, that the
two are bonded permenantly. But in Adventures Of Cyclops and Phoenix, Rachel
says that the Phoenix Force left her for "greener pastures"--presumably
because of her aging. This also seems strange, since she could theoretically
reconstruct her DNA and cell structure to counteract the effects of aging with
little more than a thought.
(page 39): Britanic says that he picked up that name during his "trek through
eternity." What exactly did he experience, and where/when?
Excalibur 76
(page 14): What's up with Kitty's father? Also: 79, 82
(page 16): Britanic dosen't know things that no self-respecting Brit would
ever forget.
(page 18): When Brian returned at the end of last isssue, Meggan returned to
her bimbet form. Why's she back to the mystic version?
(page 31): Doug's back. But how did he break free from the Phlanax?
Next issue, Zero says that Douglock responded to his ditress call
because he too is different from most techno-organics in that he has
feelings. That must mean that some of Doug remains.
Excalibur 77
(page 10): Britanic is responding to Zero's call, apparently. Is he a techno-
organic, then?
Excalibur 80
(page 15): When did Meggan develop elemental control? How did it happen?
Excalibur 81
(page 1): Captain Britian's costume is completely wrong. This is either a
editorial error of the first magnitude, or evidence that Brittanic is not
our Brian Braddock
(page 4): Hey, what's with the lighthouse? When was it rebuilt?
(Complete through Excalibur 82)
CREATOR APPERANCES:
Special #2 p30 Chris Claremont, Mike Lake, two others--can anyone id them?
#1 p15 Claremont & John Byrne, X-Men Worst Enemies
#14 p24 Claremont & Byrne, as masters of SillyEarth
#24 p10 Byrne, Otherworld Master ArtistArchivist
CHARACTER DANGLERS:
Widget: What exactly is Widget? He/she/it seems to have two seperate points
of origin--creation of the little head thing in Excalibur 1 by Tweedledope,
and the fusion of Kate Pryde and a Sentinel monitor unit in the year 2013
of Rachel's future. How are the two connected, and how is Merlin involved?
He must have been involved somewhere, since he claimed credit for sending
them on the Cross-Time Caper as a training exercise for their confrontation
with Necrom. This dosen't explain how the two entities became connected,
however. It must have happened before Excalibur 42, since otherwise
Cringebottom and Bert's control chip would have kept it from accessing the
other timeline. The insertion of that chip, however, could have strengthened
the connection between the two, since Widget, trying to clear it's head,
would try to ground itself in one timeline, where before, apparently, it has
existed in several at once. One possible place of connection is in Excalibur
10, when Kitty phases through Widget's gate--Widget may have picked up
Kitty's mental patterns then. When Mr Quinn, in 2013, tried to use the
"temporal residue anomolies" in Kate to recreate the warp that sent Rachel
back to the past, Kate disrupted the process by phasing through the
equipment, casting herself into the timestream. Widget may have locked onto
those patterns, and connected to them. Problem is, Tweedledope is "visible"
in the timestream as this happens, Excalibur 66, page 11. General sentiments
have it that the connection was formed at the orginal point of the head's
animation. While this dosen't answer all my questions, since the ever-
strained Marvel timestream is involved, it's possible that the head was
animated by Kate in issue one _because of_ the contact of Kitty and Widget in
issue 10. Then again, it could just be a retcon, in which case I should
probably stop giving myself headaches trying to explain it.
Kitty: One question is sure to bring howls of anguish from long time members
r.a.c.xbooks--who should be in the XMen movie. Another question that brings
almost the same reaction is the age of Kitty Pryde. Kitty first appeared in
the Dark Phoenix Saga, in 197#. At the time, she was thirteen and a half.
In X-Men Special Edition, Ilyana gives Kitty a surprise 14th birthday party.
In #165, it's said that Kitty's 14th birthday passed in space without her
knowing. A letter in #169 asks about the discrepancy, to which the answer is
that her birthday did pass in space and the Special Edition one was to make up
for the one she missed (and it wasn't really her birthday then).
We've seen one birthday, her fifteenth, in Excalibur 24. Since then, she's
claimed independence, in Excalibur 71, which would imply, at least to those
of us in the States, that she's 18. As Paul O'Brien has pointed out recently,
however, legal rights are granted at different ages in England and Scotland--
16 is the age of majority, with only a few exceptions, and that citizenship
is not necessary to be granted those rights. To be specific, in Scotland,
which is where Kitty is currently living, the major ages of legal capacity
are as follows:
8 - criminal responsibility
12 - capacity to make a will, certain contractual abilities.
16 - age of consent (girls); full contractual abilities
17 - provisional driver's licence.
18 - right to smoke, drink, drive and vote; certain tax rules
So we've established that she's at least 16. The XWriters themselves may
be sure of the answer--in Uncanny XMen 304, Jubilee says that Kitty is
"what, 16, 17?" My personal time estimate of 3 "real" years=1 Marvel year
gives conflicting results--tracing from her original apperance, she should
be 17 or 18, depending on how many summer biweekly arcs there have been since
then, while tracing from Excalibur 24, at 15 issues per year, puts her at
16 as of Excalibur 69 or so.
In Uncanny XMen Annual #18, Kitty says that she can't breathe while phased,
which is distinctly at odds with What Has Gone Before. Rather than explain
it myself, I'll let this fine post do it for me. Take it away, T-Rex.
Well, i just got finished with a long discussion on #comics with Stirge (who
brought this up in the first place) and others. And it appears I may owe
him an apology; we were both semi-correct, just going different ways with
the idea. So, in corroboration with Stirge and others, i've now formulated
a Marvel Physics explanation of Kitty's powers. (da da da DUM!)
Here goes (and keep those flamethrowers on "low", people! :-)
In UXM Annual #18, the statement about Kitty not being able to breathe while
phased is, well, sorta wrong. Now, we all agree that she can't breathe while
phasing through solid matter;she has to hold her breath. Now, as for whether
or not she can breathe while not in a solid object, but while still phased,
apparently she can, and does. While searching for support for the "can't
breathe" case, i ran across UXM #193. It clearly shows Kitty being affected
by gas while phased (much to her surprise; this wasn't a slip-up, it was
explicitly shown and explained). So she obviously can breathe while phased.
It's my opinion that she has to have her lungs, etc. clear of all
obstruction to be able to breathe (this same panel shows her first being
affected after her chest clears the ceiling, not just her head). Now, as
for whether Sabertooth (and Kitty!) were wrong, there are two possible ways
that the sequence in the annual could be valid. A) Sabertooth figured wrong.
Heck, we have a hard time deciding, and we have the chance to check our
back issues! Now, Kitty agreed with his statement (oops), but the point was
made-- who says she told the truth? Would you tell a guy in a fight that
you don't have the weakness he's trying to exploit? B) Sabretooth (which
way do you spell that, again?) was thinking of the "respiratory passage must
be clear to breath" clause above, so he was keeping his "claws above"
(aaack! Bad pun, 'Rex! Bad pun!), intending to constantly keep an arm in her
lungs, head, whatever to keep her phased. Kitty, seeing his strategy, pulled
away earlier than he thought, de-phased, and sucker-punched him. Ta-da!
Marvel Physics (TM) to the rescue! Another x-writer saved!
As an aside: we also solved the "how can she talk when phased" problem.
Aren't y'all happy? If she has to hold her breath while moving through
solid objects, that means she _can_ hold air in her intangible lungs,
right? In other words, she can phase the air in her lungs. So, when she
wishes to talk while phased, she expels the air like you normally would
when talking, and as soon as it leaves her body, it "phases in" and causes
the pressure waves that make it audible. (she has to be in physical contact
with things to keep them phased, remember? So the air would have to unphase
when it left her body) I suppose the reverse would apply to allow her to
breathe in, as long as the air had somewhere to go. Well, it's a sloppy
patch, but it works for me! (Besides, T-Rex have brain size of pea, anyway!)
Eric / 'Rex
--
Meggan: What is she? An empathic metamorph, we know that much. But is she
a mutant? Despite being called one on several occasions, I'd have to say
probably not. Her origin seems to be much to mystic for that. While she was
allegedly born to a gypsy couple, there are other alternatives--she could have
been found, or it could simply be a case of "immaculate conception" or the
like, especially if my theory about her being a force of nature is correct.
She does seem to have some connection to Otherworld, otherwise her variant
wouldn't have been able to become Captain Britian on that dead world in
Excalibur 15--assuming that she actually became CB, and didn't just put on the
suit. She also draws her energy from the Earth 616 energy that contributed
to the Otherworld power matrix.
She also seems to be a fairy creature of some sort--she says the Parallel
Earth Excalibur first lands on in Ex 12 "feels like home" and the faries
welcome her like a "lost princess." She also somehow taps into the world
energy in Excalibur 17, even though Phoenix has to release it. Combine this
with the fact that the two of them keep getting their powers messed up, and
I think that there's something of a connection between the two. Basically,
it seems Meggan is a local-variety Phoenix--where Phoenix is the life force
of the Universe, Meggan is the expression of the life force of the Earth.
I'd say more, but I'd give away my plots....
--
Brian Braddock: The debates caused by the many different Brian Braddocks
we've seen started me thinking: Brian Braddock, as well as Jamie and Betsy,
are the sons and daughter of an Otherworld noble, who was the previous
Captain Britian. It has been said several times that he was _from Otherworld_
and not a normal Earthling tapped for the job. So why do we have alternate
Brians and one alternate Jamie? Did the Otherworld noble take the place of
Earth 616-papa Braddock, and somehow emulate him down to his genetic
structure so that his children were the same? Or did one man live on several
Earths? And how does the dinosaur-Brian from issue 51 figure into this?
---30---
Credits:
Created by:
Kitty Pryde
--the net.cat.who.walks.through.walls
Edited and updated by:
(v2.0)
R. Travis Jones
(v3.0)
Joe Helfrich
[j b h] at [eden.rutgers.edu]
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|jbh | Quotes, quotes, quotes |
| @eden | "I have a proposition for you..." |
| .rutgers| "Very well. I am perfectly capable of simulating Human male |
| .edu | responses--" |
| | "Not like that!" --Kitty Pryde and Douglock, Excalibur 81 |
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