Issue(s): Excalibur #87
Cover Date: Jul 95
Title: "Back to reality"
Credits:
Warren Ellis - Writer
Ken Lashley - Penciler
Tom Wegrzyn - Inker
Suzanne Gaffney - Editor

Review/plot:
After an issue devoted to nothing but set-up for this plot, and then a 4 month pause (due to AoA), what we have here is a very anticlimatic conclusion. The team had been sent to learn the origins of bullets that were being used in Genosha; Captain Britain learns in the most undramatic way possible that the bullets were created by his (deceased) father.

When it was hinted last issue that there was a "Braddock connection" to the bullets, i assumed it was due to Captain Britain's arms-dealing brother. In any event, Excalibur don't really seem to do anything about the bullets.

Then they go to a computer lab to get more details, but - in what is practically a repeat of a scene from X-Men Prime (despite this clearly being a different event), the investigation is halted by an explosion set off remotely by Sugar Man.

This time it's a computer, not a mutate, that is blown up (and they're investigating the bullet, not the origin of Mutates), but it's the same basic thing. Almost like the original idea was to duplicate the scene but they changed their minds.

And that's basically it. We see some of the Black Air people lurking in the background and a To Be Continued blurb...

...but next issue begins back at Muir Island and kicks off a three part story focused on Pete Wisdom. Which does continue the Black Air stuff, but we're seemingly done with everything that was set up regarding Genosha.

For completeness, i'll note that we do see the conclusion to last issue's cliffhanger, where Excalibur's plane was shot down (spoiler: they're fine) and a little bit of the civil war between humans and Mutates, but it's all done as a flashback taking place "two weeks" ago.

Everything here is competently done from a basic script/art perspective, but it feels like the storyline got aborted, possibly due to the interruption of Age of Apocalypse.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The "two weeks" that pass since last issue (and this issue's flashback portion) are the same "two weeks" that have passed in X-Men Prime.

References:

• Sugar Man caused a Mutate to dissolve in X-Men Prime.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A