New Excalibur #8

New Excalibur #8
People don't stare at TJ because she's blue, they probably stare at her because she's so frickin' hot! This art is lovely! But explaining her blueness with a skin condition? I've never heard of a skin condition which is accompanied by only having THREE FINGERS! It sounds to me like her internal monologue is revealing the surface of a social disfunction, or a case of low self-esteem. TJ, repeat after me: "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and, doggone it, people like me." Feel better now? I knew you would.
What does it mean that this issue was written by Claremont and Michael Ryan? Who is Michael Ryan?
Oh my god, Juggy has a crush on Dazzler? Really? Sarcasm aside, it'd be nice to give him somebody he could get close to (like She-Hulk), so that he could finally unburden himself of his guilt over Sammy Pare's death.
Yost's dialogue is very good here, too bad he's not sticking around. Example: Brian to Psylocke: "I'm the champion of the forces of reason. I suppose I'll just have to thump his head until I win."
Pete Wisdom calls Betsy a fake, a phony. Since when is she not real?? I thought Jamie had just manipulated quantum strings to bring her back from the dead! Has it been said otherwise anywhere? That implies that she is real...as real as this reality gets!
I understand Allison wearing a wig onstage - it's part of her glamourous image. But why need this glamour be just an image? Why does she wear close cut pink hair the rest of the time? It looks like somebody else is having self-esteem issues. Maybe it's Claremont. When he's better he should go see a shrink.
Important revelation in this issue: In all the realities...there is only ONE shadow King.
[Edit: I was just rereading this post, and I realized: that was going to be the focus of Claremont's tenure on Exiles. The major villain was supposed to be the Shadow King, across all realities! Let's hope it never happens. Really, can you see anybody pulling that off? Ugh.]
It had been rumoured that Betsy was going to be joining the Exiles, thus explaining her disappearance at the end of this issue after she lobotomizes evil Charley! It must have been Claremont's plan to do so, but now that he's not going to Exiles, Betsy's going to be lost in limbo again. Anyways, this was a VERY GOOD issue. Although it sort of rushed to get to a new page by the end, in order to clear up any lingering plots from Claremont, it did a very adequate job. The same cannot be said for Uncanny on which Claremont also received a helping hand at the end.
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