Excalibur #58
Troll Call
Credits: Alan Davis (plot); Scott Lobdell (script) (Script), Joe Madureira (Pencils), Joe Rubinstein (p. 1-19); Hector Collazo (p. 20-22) (Inks), Kevin Tinsley (Colors), Ken Lopez (Letters).
Summary
While Cerise and Feron try to reverse the transmutation of Captain Britain and Meggan, the other members of Excalibur and the X-Men aren't as dead as they looked last time, instead being held captive by the Troll Associates. Nightcrawler seemingly betrays his friends and sides with the rebelous Fairie Folk, who want to kill the human race and take control of the planet. It's a ruse, of course, and it pays off once Nightcrawler fetches Feron to break the magical chains holding the two teams, and battling the Trolls. With some help from Tom Jones , the mutant who caused this problem in the first place, the teams are able to take it to their captors. In the end, Tom and his mother are freed, the Trolls are defeated, and the remaining Fairie Folk are transported to the Crazy Gang's Wonderland to live in peace (revealing the narrator of the story to be the Jester).
I Love The 90s
Jubilee says she couldn't have more fun if she was watching "90210."
Review
A nice conclusion to the previous issue, even if it does cheat a little bit with the explosive cliffhanger, with Jester simply explaining that superheroes -- mutants in particular -- are notorious difficult to kill. Nightcrawler's turn is pretty blatantly a ruse, to the point where Kitty and Cyclops discuss the fact that he has to up to something. The "betrayl" leads to some funny moments, including Nightcrawler teleporting Feron in front of some bewildered Trolls, who assume that the mystic "has slain the elf," and then Nightcrawler and Cerise's reconciliation, where the Shi'ar once more partakes of her favorite Earth custom, the "lip massage."
Madureira's pencils are slightly better this time out, although there is one panel of Gambit "raging" which is so bad, I'd almost think it was intentional. The action flows nicely and never gets too confusing. Still not my cup of tea, and a huge change of pace from the usual smooth Davis art, but acceptable enough, especially considering the use of the X-Men. In the end, a fun little two-parter, hampered most by the excessive use of continuity footnotes (I, for one, like footnotes, but this is a bit ridiculous) and the unusual-for-the-title-but-not-for-the-era artwork. A novice Excalibur fan could read these two and not be too lost, but might wonder what the heck all the footnotes are for.
2 comments:
I'm glad you looked at these issues, because I had no idea Alan Davis plotted them and that they tied into the storyline in any way. I remember those trolls from their first appearances in X-Factor, drawn by Art Adams.
Yeah, I was not expecting much from these issues due to the X-Men appearance. I thought it was another full-on Lobdell issue, my opinions of which I think you are fully aware of. So in that sense I was pleasantly surprised.
I have never read the Trolls first appearances, as I got into X-Factor more with the second team than the first. Although, I guess that those early issues are available in Essentials format now, so maybe I will check them out at some point (I have such a backlog of phonebook trades at this point it's not even funny!).
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