Excalibur #92

“I Want You”

Writer: Warren Ellis

Pencils: Casey Jones

Inks: Joe Rubinstein, W.C. Carani, Tom Simmons & Mike Miller

Colours: Ariane Lenshoek and Malibu Hues

Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft

Editor: Suzanna Gaffney

Original publication date: December 1995

We want to want Excalibur #92, “I Want You,” and mostly—we do! It’s a savage garden of multitudinous masculinities in which we’re compelled to contend with a colossal party crasher with a figurative colossal chip on his shoulder and a literal colossal chip in his spine, and everyone takes a crack at a PSA about toxic traits. Helping us map the monstrous in our heroes is Dr. Daniel J. Connell, co-editor (with past guest Dr. Esther De Dauw!), of a spiffy book on the subject! We also get back to our roots with lots of Nightcrawler talk, and Anna complains about the devil’s muscles.

“I was attracted by the multiplicity of comics… the way that the ownership of interpretation is passed on to the audience.” -Dan

“This is where I decided Ellis has something to offer the book.” -Mav

“I like the way this issue immediately pays off the melodramatic promise of the end of the last issue, by opening with the big fight. But then the rest of the issue is just talking, mostly about toxic masculinity.” -Anna

“We’re all impacted by toxic masculinity. So for me, what’s valuable about a story that contends with that, is that it gives us an opportunity to reappraise our values.” Dan

“Nightcrawler is often a ‘moral compass’ character within the X-Men. So if you want to say the moral of the story, you have Kurt say it, because he’s perceived as a reliable narrator.” -Anna

“If you cut out the last page (where Kurt covers up Colossus’ attempted murder), I like what this speech says about toxic masculinity, and the way Kurt’s masculinity is being framed as an alternative.” -Andrew

“There’s an implication here that Piotr Rasputin is not able to express his emotions through anything other than anger and violence. And there are consequences to that.” -Dan

“Kitty stepping through the bars is her making it very clear that Colossus can’t hurt her. She’s beyond that now.” -Andrew

You can find him on Twitter (@DanConnell)!

You can also check out his fabulous academic anthology, co-edited with past guest Esther De Dauw, Toxic Masculinity: Mapping the Monstrous in Our Heroes, available wherever fine boks are sold!

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