X-Lapsed, Episode 075 – Excalibur #10 (2020)
X-Lapsed, Episode Seventy-Five
Excalibur (vol.4) #10 (June, 2020)
“Verse X: A Crooked World”
Writer – Tini Howard
Art – Marcus To
Colors – Erick Arciniega
Letters – VC’s Cory Petit
Design – Tom Muller
Head of X – Hickman
Edits – Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $3.99
On-Sale: June 10, 2020
Welcome to the landmark seventy-fifth episode of X-Lapsed – which, is also, as luck would have it our third monthiversary, having started this little journey back on September 1!
Today, we’re dealing with altered realities, Otherworld, and That Weirdo Jamie Braddock – and, somehow – I managed to have a really good time with it! I also talk a bunch about the “Protect and Survive” PSAs from the late 70s/early 80s a whole lot.
Plus – Our usual x-cellent mailbag section!
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“Protect and Survive” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6U9T3R3EQg
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@acecomics / @cosmictmill / weirdcomicshistory@gmail.com
I completely fell for the opening of Excalibur 10. There is a bit of a fashion for opening up with a big event and then filling in the back story in comics so I was just expecting a text page to explain the gap. As you say the story is fun. I love the way the nonsense plot is twinned with character moments. This is what lifts it above the first storyline which was more focused on explaining Otherworld than on characters. The idea of an alternate reality being caused by sibling rivalry is fun.
I can confirm that Ecchs of Tens is more like this story than the initial Excalibur story. Characters are very much the focus even when Otherworld world-building is going on.
Sadly I missed the Protect and Survive information films. I started school in 1979 and didn't really get any education about the possibility of nuclear war until the mid 80s. By that point we were into the post-Threads era and were just expecting to die when the bombs fell. My home town was only 20 miles from London so we would inevitably die in the initial explosion so we didn't have to plan for what to do after. Our teachers main advice was to pray for peace between the US and Russia but that's Catholic School for you. We did get some horrific public information films as kids there was a particular one about not playing with fireworks that I'm sure is responsible for me being terrified of fireworks to this day.
It's fascinating hearing Andrew's recollection of the times when he walked away from the X-Men and how 2 of them were the exact same issues where I jumped off as you'll know by the time you read this.