{"id":6566,"date":"2021-04-08T20:30:02","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T19:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6566"},"modified":"2021-04-08T20:30:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-08T19:30:02","slug":"excalibur-20-annotations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=6566","title":{"rendered":"Excalibur #20 annotations"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>EXCALIBUR vol 4 #20
\n“No Pity From Your Friends”
\nby Tini Howard, Marcus To & Erick Arciniega<\/strong><\/p>\n

COVER \/ PAGE 1:<\/strong> Rogue, Captain Britain and Psylocke are menaced by Malice.<\/p>\n

PAGES 2-5:<\/strong>\u00a0Flashback – the origin of Malice.<\/em><\/p>\n

Teenager Alice McAllister is found by her mother in her bedroom, having apparently committed suicide as threatened. The suggestion here is that Alice doesn’t actually commit suicide, but rather that her astral form spontaneously leaves her body, and that she chooses to stay that way rather than attempt to return. Quite\u00a0why<\/em>\u00a0she leaves her body isn’t clear here, since there’s nothing obvious to trigger it. It might just be her powers emerging, though she’s a bit old for that.<\/p>\n

Alice is wearing the familiar Malice choker when she comes in, though the art largely keeps it obscure, presumably to avoid spoiling where the scene is going. It’s visible in page 2 panel 3, though.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The time frame is given simply as “Way back when”. The title of this issue, “No Pity From Your Friends”, is a lyric from “Disorder” by Joy Division, the opening track of their 1979 debut album “Unknown Pleasures”. Joy Division’s frontman Ian Curtis committed suicide in May 1980, after which the remaining band members became New Order. On the other hand, the nightclub scene later in the issue seems to vaguely suggest that Betsy and Alice were going to the same nightclubs, and Malice is compared to an angry teenager, all of which would imply this was meant to be more recent. Like a lot of things in Marvel continuity, it’s probably best thought of as conveniently indeterminate.<\/p>\n