Excalibur #4
“Still Crazy After All These Years”
Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencils/Plotting: Alan Davis
Inker: Paul Neary
Colourist: Glynis Oliver
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski
Editor: Terry Kavanagh
Publication Date: January 1989
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_code _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″] [/et_pb_code][et_pb_button button_url=”https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/8621/excalibur_1988_4″ url_new_window=”on” button_text=”marvel unlimited link” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”14px” button_text_color=”#FFFFFF” button_bg_color=”#ef00db” button_border_width=”8px” button_border_color=”RGBA(255,255,255,0)” button_letter_spacing=”2px” button_font=”Nunito|700||on|||||” button_use_icon=”off” custom_margin=”30px|||” animation_style=”slide” animation_direction=”right” animation_intensity_slide=”5%” animation_starting_opacity=”100%” hover_enabled=”0″ box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”0px” box_shadow_vertical=”25px” box_shadow_blur=”45px” box_shadow_color=”rgba(148,166,191,0.25)” global_colors_info=”{}” button_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_size__hover_enabled=”off” button_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_text_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_width__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_border_radius__hover_enabled=”off” button_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_letter_spacing__hover_enabled=”off” button_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_one_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” button_two_bg_color__hover_enabled=”off” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_button][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”My Books Section” _builder_version=”3.22″ custom_margin=”23px|||||” custom_padding=”100px||100px|” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_margin=”-78px|auto||auto||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.25″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||7px|||” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]In this episode, Anna, Mav, Andrew, and our special guest, romance comics expert Sydney Heifler (@romancecomicbks), discuss Excalibur #4, “Still Crazy After All These Years.” We barely talk about Murderworld, but do talk super-smooches, super-styles, super-symbolism, super-shapeshifting (that’s definitely not Freudian at all), and why it’s super important not to tickle people without consent (looking at you, Kurt).
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]This episode has an enhanced video version! Watch here:
[/et_pb_text][et_pb_video src=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2cntvafejY&list=PLAu_opnK2VxtQMOfDFgKQvxpRxwZToYIO&index=5″ _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][/et_pb_video][et_pb_blurb title=”On the iconic cover:” _builder_version=”4.14.7″ _module_preset=”default” theme_builder_area=”post_content” hover_enabled=”0″ sticky_enabled=”0″]“Anti-climax is the big theme. From this cover, we know this is a book that’s going to undermine the conventions of the superhero genre, while pointing out, quite incisively, the major problematic tropes of that genre.”-Andrew
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="26px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On romance tropes:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_courtney-and-brian.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" sticky_enabled="0" title_text="4_courtney and brian"]“I was going in cold, but we open the issue with romance tropes. I know what this is about. This is right out of a romance comic. But you also get a lot of women alone in panels where they’re not crying about a man. Which you don’t get in romance comics.” -Sydney
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="Newbie first impressions: " image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Image-1.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="Image 1" sticky_enabled="0"]Sydney: “I did not know that Nightcrawler is fine as hell. I feel like I’ve been cheated. Where was that Nightcrawler in the X-Men movies?”
Anna: “My work here is done.”
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="-16px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="But then there’s the inappropriateness of Kurt’s flirting: " image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_tickling.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" custom_padding="0px|||||" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="4_tickling" sticky_enabled="0"]Anna: “Kurt, unfortunately, has tickled people before. This is something of a go-to move for him.”
Sydney: “Tickling to get close is the worst move in the entire world and I hate him in this moment.”
Anna: “It plays into the logic of: ‘I’m not sexy touching you, I’m playful touching you.’”
Mav: “Kurt’s tickled people before, and it gets passed off as cute. But the consent’s not there. It’s weird and problematic in every way, but it feels like we’re supposed to excuse it, because the comic wants us to fall for the idea of Meggan and Nightcrawler.”
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On Meggan as romance heroine:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_Meggan-thought-bubble.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="4_Meggan thought bubble" sticky_enabled="0"]“Meggan isn’t in the same visual rhetoric as the other characters. She also communicates, primarily, in thought balloons. That’s straight out of a romance comic. If a woman is freaking out about a man, it’s always in thought balloons. Speech is constricted.”-Sydney
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="On the character development of Courtney Ross:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_Playboy-costume.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="4_Playboy costume" sticky_enabled="0"]“Courtney gets put in the Playboy costume, in a Good Girl art style. But then she uses a feminine mask to distance herself from the monsters. To take control of the situation through a performance of femininity.”-Sydney
“Courtney announces through thought balloons the manner in which she’s constructed her identity. She calls herself the ice queen. She understands genre tropes. And is allowed to deconstruct them.”-Mav
[/et_pb_blurb][et_pb_blurb title="Kitty and Rachel go shopping! " image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_Kitty-and-Rachel1.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="4_Kitty and Rachel1" sticky_enabled="0"]“This is something you never see in romance comics. These women go shopping, and buy clothes, and it’s not about a man. It’s about them, and the relationship and power dynamic between them.”-Sydney
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_blurb title="More shopping:" image="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_Kitty-and-Rachel2.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="4_Kitty and Rachel2" sticky_enabled="0"]“Brian has suggested that Rachel dress more conservatively. And at first, Kitty buys into that. But Rachel switches Kitty’s clothes and makes the point: my clothes are part of my identity. See how uncomfortable you are when I switch your clothes for mine.” -Anna
[/et_pb_blurb][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" custom_margin="20px|auto||auto||" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_column type="4_4" _builder_version="4.14.5" _module_preset="default" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content"][et_pb_team_member name="Want more?" image_url="https://voxpopcast.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/4_panel-by-panel.jpg" _builder_version="4.14.7" _module_preset="default" link_option_url="https://panelxpanel.gumroad.com/l/PXPNO36" link_option_url_new_window="on" hover_enabled="0" global_colors_info="{}" theme_builder_area="post_content" title_text="#4_panel by panel" sticky_enabled="0"]You can find Sydney Heifler on Twitter (@romancecomicbks).
And! If you want to learn more about her work, check out her recent deep-dive essay into the history of romance comics, published in PanelxPanel!
[/et_pb_team_member][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-107px|||||” custom_padding=”80px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.14.5″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-63px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]And as usual:
You can find Anna on Twitter (@peppard_anna) and on her podcast with Andrew and Michael Hancock, Three Panel Contrast (@3PanelContrast).
You can find Andrew on Twitter (@ClaremontRun).
You can find Mav on Twitter (@chrismaverick) and on his podcast, VoxPopcast (@VoxPopcast).
Enjoy!
-GGW Team
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