{"id":5174,"date":"2020-03-04T23:14:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-04T23:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5174"},"modified":"2020-03-04T23:14:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-04T23:14:36","slug":"excalibur-8-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=5174","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #8 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1.<\/strong> Cullen Bloodstone in hunting gear, with the heads of Excalibur as trophies on the wall behind him. Don’t worry, this does not happen in the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 2-3.<\/strong> Cullen calms down and invites Excalibur to talk over a meal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cullen behaves as if he thinks he’s acting perfectly reasonably; even though he’s in monster mode, his threat is basically to call the police. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 4-5.<\/strong> Credits and recap. The story is “Verse VIII: The Unspeakable and the Uneatable II” by Tini Howard, Wilton Santos, Marcus To, and various others. (Four inkers – the deadlines must have been pressing…)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

PAGES 6-7.<\/strong> Cullen tries to sell Excalibur on the great tradition of the hunt.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cullen comes across as completely out of touch with reality here. At any rate, Betsy seems willing to play along if it keeps him on side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cullen considers his “power” – which is more of a parasitical monster that he has partial control over – to be analogous to mutant abilities. This is reasonable enough in a broad sense, and his point is clear enough – he wants everyone to refrain from using superhuman abilities in the hunt. As Jubilee and Betsy see it, Cullen’s powers are not part of him, and so suppressing them doesn’t have the same connotations that it does in their case. Cullen evidently thinks that his attempt to find common ground has been rebuffed, and you can see his point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 8.<\/strong> A data page, or rather, the text of a letter from Coven Akkaba to Cullen trying to form an anti-mutant alliance with supernatural allies. The author, Reuben Brosseau, is the bearded guy that Captain Britain and Pete Wisdom met with in issue #4. His statement that “we are not burdened by many of the same concerns of diversity” is clearly intended to position Coven Akkaba as (at best) reactionary patriots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 9-11.<\/strong> Rictor finds Cullen phoning Coven Akkaba.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rictor <\/strong>apparently likes being in contact with the ground now. He seems to be sharing a room with Jubilee. (No idea why he bothers waking her just to tell her that he’s going out, though.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cullen <\/strong>apparently hasn’t responded to Coven Akkaba before now, so presumably we’re meant to take it that the mutants’ insistence that he is Not One Of Them has freaked him out a bit. From the part of this call that he overhears, Rictor seems to infer that Cullen is planning to set them up – but the whole dialogue suggests that Cullen truly is worried that something might happen to him. Cullen also says that he doesn’t “necessarily agree with all the stuff your coven says” – that could simply refer to their religious and philosophical views, but in context the implication is clearly that he thinks they’re racists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cullen has another attempt at bonding with a member of Excalibur over a minority characteristic that he thinks they have in common – this time, Rictor’s sexuality. This time he’s much, much more clumsy about it, and Rictor unsurprisingly makes his excuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“My last boyfriend was super ancient and Celtic.”<\/strong> This is a character from Avengers Arena <\/em>called Anachronism – a teenage boy who had wound up with the body and spirit of a Conan-like warrior. As Cullen acknowledges, it would be more accurate to say that he had an unrequisited crush on his best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGES 12-13.<\/strong> Rictor persuades Betsy to stop playing along and go after the Warwolves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an odd scene. Rictor is basically right in what he says about Coven Akkaba, though it’s much less obvious that he has any reason to think that Cullen is planning<\/em> to frame them (as opposed to being dangerously unpredictable, which he clearly is). Betsy remains inexplicably minded to play along with the madman who hunts sentient beings in his back garden. I think<\/em> the idea is that she’s at home in the aristocracy and overly minded to give Cullen the benefit of the doubt, but it’s weird.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 14.<\/strong> Excalibur start hunting for the Warwolves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warwolves<\/strong> do indeed wear the skins of the people they kill, and impersonate them. But shouldn’t the powers that Rogue absorbed from the Warwolf earlier in the day have worn off by now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The theory that time away from the Mojoverse had weakened the Warwolves minds was raised in the previous issue as well. Once again, though, we’re reminded that Excalibur are hunting and killing sentient creatures for no very good reason beyond “Apocalypse asked us to”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PAGE 15.<\/strong> Cullen realises that Excalibur have betrayed him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song he’s singing seems to be “Do You Want To” by Franz Ferdinand. The implication is that he’s absurdly convinced that his exchange with Rictor went well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n