Writer Warren Ellis
Penciler Casey Jones
Inker Tom Simmons
Colors Ariane Lenschock
Separations Malibu
Letters Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Cover Dated February 1996
Days of Future Tense
Inspired by Days of Future Past by Chris Claremont and John Byrne and Days of Futures Yet to Come by Alan Davis.
This is our final issue of Excalibur during Days of Future Past Month.
I forgot how cartoony Jones’ style is, but it works.
Issue opens with the familiar gravestones – Ben Grimm, Charles Xavier, Scott Summers, Bobby Drake and Kurt Wagner.
The concept of this issue is, what was happening in England while Days of Future Past was happening in America.
The nice thing about the opening is that Ellis tries to tie where Excalibur is now to where Kitty and Colossus need to be to still make Days of Future Past work.
The Sentinels have made a pact with Black Air, the British Security Service (and the upcoming issues big foe that leads to the big issue one hundred!). Black Air has started making Europe and Great Britain a living nightmare for mutants.
We are treated to a page with two images. The top image is a group photo Excalibur as it should be circa 1996. The bottom image is the burn version of the above image, which is a very nice way of showing dreams being burn to the ground. Excalibur is clearly a team that would take annual pictures.
Excalibur, at this time, has the most members it would ever have – Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Colossus, Daytripper (Amanda Sefton), Captain Britain, Meggan, Wolfsbane, Douglock, Pete Wisdom, Moira MacTaggert and Rory Campbell.
We are told the tragic history of what happened to these characters. Kurt went back to America, and died holding his mother’s, Mystique, hand. Which also was not shown in Excalibur 35 but that’s okay too. Also, not shown in Rachel’s flashback in issue 52. Once again, I like the idea of whenever a new glimpse of Days of Future Past occurs, that the timeline from the last time to the present time are all consider so Days of Future Past is constantly being changed. So in Rachel’s mind, she remembers the big life changing moments but the small details change. Or, at least, that is how I make it work in my mind.
Kitty and Colossus also go back to America, so that they can get married.
Amanda gets killed by her mother, Margali, which makes sense.
Douglock vanished one day.
This issue then continues with what is left of Excalibur.
Under Braddock Manor, is a cave system, and here is where Excalibur makes their home. Wolfsbane is on monitor duty, she always is. The visions she has seen, don’t even make her blink anymore.
We learn that the RCE is still a resistance force. I do like how Ellis takes care to try to set up Davis’ Days of Futures Yet to Come as that story takes place largely in 2015. Black Air is slaughtering people and leaving their bodies in designated locations.
Psylocke is a member of this Excalibur. She is regretting not going with Angel back to America. Wolfsbane tells her if she did, both of them would have been killed, instead of just Warren.
There is an ad for UltraForce toys.
The next member of Excalibur shows up, and the true connection to Davis’ story, Tangerine, in a different costume than she will later adopt. The war must be still fresh as they haven’t decided to start dressing like heroes yet, just survivors. I get the impression Psylocke and Tangerine are not friends as Tangerine asks if Psylocke still has dreams of burning feathers. Which is cruel to bring up.
Tangerine tells these two ladies that the boss is ready to see them. They all walk into another room and we get two more members of Excalibur.
Captain Britain and Meggan! I like how dark his costume is, it is on the cover, it is nice touch to the design to show how dark the world has gotten and how much darker a symbol has to get. Meggan has a buzzcut.
Through Meggan’s dialogue, we learn that their leader doesn’t like having the entire team in one place at any given time, it has been months since the last time they were all assembled. We also learn that Brian and Meggan are married in this future timeline.
They enter the final room and we get the last two members of the team. Karma, is the right hand woman to their leader – Pete Wisdom! Who, of course, is bald and in a wheelchair.
In the captions, we learn about Pete Wisdom and how he loved a woman but never told her so, which is naturally Kitty Pryde. He has also lost friends in Kurt, Amanda and Moira. To make matters worst, Black Air cost him his use of his legs. We are left to imagine what it could have been.
We learn about Karma’s current status. No one knows if she has lost anyone due to either the Sentinels or Black Air.
Karma tells the team that Pete has a mission for them. He snaps at her as he can tell them himself. There is clearly something being hinted at there but who knows what it is!
Wisdom has located Douglock, or what is left of him. Wisdom wants to end Excalibur to the location so that they can get any information that Douglock has been able to obtain over his years of captivity.
Karma wants to know who is going to be her ride. She has perfected her powers to the point where she doesn’t have to fully possess someone, she can just tag along and see what they see and relate that back to Wisdom. She chooses Captain Britain and it causes him a bunch of pain.
There is an ad for DC vs. Marvel, it is okay.
Future Excalibur is still using their plane, the Midnight Runner. Captain Britain and Meggan jump out of the plane and break through the ceiling of Blackwall. Then rest of the team follows.
Rahne notices the smell to the place. It smells like how Douglock use to.
Then the walls start attacking them! The walls are made of the same material Douglock is, and they have taken on the shape of the Brood. Meggan is grabbed and Captain Britain helps her out.
Tangerine gets to a lock door that is powered by a brain in a tube (?). Telepathically, it is calling her rude names. Psylocke makes a comment about a girl doing a woman’s job and she throws a psychic knife into the brain and the door opens.
The door opens and all we see is Douglock’s head in the middle of the room as the rest of his body has been stretched into miles of thread. Douglock has become the operating system of Blackwall.
While the team is in shock of the horrors, we get the captions of Black Air came in afterwards and taken the team. I can only imagine the team dies here. Maybe Tangerine escapes.
In the Present, Brian wakes up from a nightmare. There was a storyline where he got trapped in the timestream and kept bouncing from the beginning of time to the end of time and back and forth for months.
One of the ways his mind copes with what happened to him is that it spills out memories like these from time to time.
This issue is mostly a way to set up how big of a threat Black Air is as that is where the title and the team are heading towards.
Next issue begins Carlos Pacheco’s run as Penciler on the title.
On the back cover, is an ad for Bio-Dome.
. . .
Got my second DCBS shipment. This time it went three day priority, which is great!
I got :
Original Sin 2
All New Doop 2
Uncanny X-Men 21
Shadow and Flame with Magik 