Issue(s): Excalibur #30
Cover Date: Oct 90
Title: "'twas a dark and stormy night..."
Credits:
Dana Moreshead - Writer
David Ross - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Another fill-in for Excalibur. This one is by Dana Moreshead, who i don't know anything about except that she wrote just a few scattered things for Marvel, of which this is the first. This one starts off with a pretty hilarious scenario. Alysande Stuart is making her way to Excalibur's lighthouse to join a birthday celebration for her brother, Alistaire, and noting that it's the first time in a while that anyone threw a party for him. But when she gets to the door, Meggan flies out in a half-bat form. She's chased by Captain Britain, Lockheed, and Widget. Alysande then goes inside to find Rachel Summers knocked out and Nightcrawler locked in a closet on the grounds that he might be a vampire. Moreshead and artist David Ross do a good job of depicting the zany chaos of the salutation.

Captain Britain picks up on Meggan's trail when he runs into Dai Thomas. It seems Meggan has caused someone to have a heart attack.

He then pursues her to a park, where she turns back into human form, tricking others into thinking that Captain Britain is beating up on a helpless woman. And when he catches up with her again, she's about to eat a puppy.

Meanwhile, Alistaire calls Dr. Strange for help. When Strange shows up, he confirms that Nightcrawler is not a vampire.

Widget has teleported Meggan from the park to the lighthouse basement, and the scuffle expands to include the Train Dragon.

Dr. Strange says that Meggan has become a bat because of energies that Marie Laveau released from the Darkhold.
Strange is able to zap the bad energies off of Meggan.

And that's basically it except that Strange suggests that Excalibur do something about the dimensional nexus in their basement and that Nightcrawler take a vacation to recuperate from his injuries.

Normally "zany" is fnord-speak for "i didn't like it" but this is an example of a zany story that is actually fun. It definitely fits the tone that's been established for this book (even though David Ross is no Alan Davis). That said, Meggan caused a woman to have a heart attack (i don't care if she "will be fine") and almost killed and ate a doggie! It was a more serious situation than it's made out to be.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place "several days" after Marie Laveau released energy from the Darkhold. We'll have to interpret "several" to mean "lots of", i think. The Marie Laveau story begins immediately after Acts of Vengeance. But Excalibur's Cross-Time Caper ends with issue #25, five issues ago, and the team have a crossover with Quasar #11 pretty much as soon as they get home. Quasar #5-6 were his AoV tie-ins. We can look at Excalibur's tie-in with Power Pack #62 last issue in the same way (Power Pack's AoV issue was #53). Dr. Strange also says that Meggan could have been affected because Varnae may have come to England, so maybe Varnae didn't come to England right after Doctor Strange #14-18, and it was his proximity more than Laveau's actions that triggered the effect in Meggan. I should also note that the MCP has all of Dai Thomas' Knights of Pendragon appearances between Excalibur #41 and #44. A quick perusal of Excalibur #44 and Knights of Pendgraon #18 doesn't show anything acknowledging Knights of Pendragon, and Knights of Pendragon #7 shows Dai back on the regular Scotland Yard, which is what his status is in this issue, too. So i have this between Knights of Pendragon #6-7 for now; it may require adjustment when i get to future issues in more detail. Nightcrawler will take Dr. Strange's advice about the vacation next issue (but he won't get much rest at first).

References:

• Alistaire knows about Dr. Strange from the magazine excerpt from Doctor Strange #9, and Nightcrawler confirmed that he was real.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

We never did see any issues where Varnae is in England- instead he doesn't reappear until 1993.