I've never been a podcast listener, but I have recently enjoyed the Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast, where they're trying to read an issue of Excalibur every week, for over 126 weeks. It's a more academic look at the books, and a good listen; although I worry they are in for some tough weeks in there later...And, since Quasar is finally getting a Marvel Legend this summer, we'll probably hit more issues of his book between now and then.
Quasar's mentor Eon had warned him there was a massive threat to the entire universe coming (but when isn't one?) and here he's chasing a pair of underwater aliens. I think it's Marrina and the Plodex, but Quasar doesn't even get close enough to get a look at them; and he can't match their speed underwater without causing environmental damage. (It was the same for him in earth's atmosphere; Quasar could travel fast, but was limited by not wanting to create massive sonic boom damage, burn off the atmosphere, what have you.) He has to back-burner the underwater aliens, figuring they probably weren't a "cosmic" level threat; but then encounters some one else speeding on the surface of the ocean. With it outracing him, Quasar tags it with a light-construct parachute, bringing it to a skidding halt, and he finds what appears to be a costumed runner face down in the ocean when he gets there. Worried over accidentally injuring the runner, Quasar rushes him to the Avengers' West Coast base for treatment.
Meanwhile, in England, four-fifths of Excalibur had returned from their "Cross-Time Caper," Kitty was still missing. (They don't realize it, but I think Kitty had got back home before they did! Maybe she could've left a note...) While the rest of the team seems to be relaxing regardless, Rachel is still pretty bent out of shape about it, which may leave her open to suddenly being possessed by one of Captain Britain's old foes! Then, sort of a weird use of time here: Quasar drops off the injured runner, who Wonder Man recognizes as the Eternal Makkari. Quas then has to get to New York to make an appearance at work, which takes him an hour to cross the country...I still feel like he could've done that faster without blowing a hole in the ozone or whatever, but okay. At Four Freedoms Plaza in his civilian identity, Wendell walks into a weird scene: an unusual job applicant, a Ms. H.D. Steckley. (The "H.D." is a clue!) Wendell tries to turn her away, since his new security firm didn't have enough clients; H.D. says she will bring in five new clients within a week. He figures that's impossible, but agrees. Wendell then checks in with Eon, which was always a weird looking thing; and while tracking extraterrestial activity on the globe they see the Phoenix force flare up. Could this be the big threat...?
So, how much time has passed since we last saw Rachel? In England, over a sheep field, Phoenix tries and fails to fight off the mental control. Then, the controlled Rachel opens a portal to Otherworld, releasing Modred the Mystic! Modred wasn't always a villain...enh, maybe 70% of the time, but today he is, pissed at getting banished by Captains Britain and America in Captain America #306. When Quasar arrives, Modred immediately sics Phoenix on him. Quasar is able to defend himself against the Phoenix-force, which is pretty impressive; then completely vulnerable to Modred's "magicks," as he's trapped by a spell Doctor Strange made classic, the Crimson Bands of Cytorrak! Modred leaves Quasar to be crushed by them, as he had to free his master Chthon and wage war on Merlin. Busy day. With the squeeze on, Quasar calls his lifeline, but while Eon may be largely omnipotent, he doesn't necessarily have the answers off the top of his weird-shaped head, and tells Quasar he'll get back to him. Blinded by the bands over his eyes, Quasar remembered that iron disrupted magic, and was going to try and magnetize some over to him before he was crushed, when he's rescued by Captain Britain. After a quick intro to Excalibur, they set off after Modred.
Quasar quantum-bands up a little ship to carry Excalibur, faster than they could've flown, and catches up to Modred and Rachel, as Eon finally calls him back! Quasar wraps up Modred in his own version of the Crimson Bands, then has to create a funnel to keep Rachel's energy blast off of him, and here we see him hit a limit, unable to maintain focus on three "quantum-feats" simultaneously. His ship dissolves, dumping Excalibur into the ocean. Modred breaks his bonds, then Quasar redirects the funneled energy into him, until Modred screams for Rachel to stop. Quasar traps him in a quantum bubble, at least for the moment, and Nightcrawler and Widget step up to the plate: Kurt teleports up, as Widget opens a dimensional portal somewhere, and Kurt shoves him through it. That kind of feels like dumping your problem on somebody else, unless Widget somehow knew Modred was going somewhere 'safe.' And Widget was very rarely (if ever) that functional: he wasn't like a garage door opener, getting him to do anything was usually longer and more involved, but we only have a page left, so...
With Rachel back to normal, Quasar takes Excalibur home, with Eon still trying to contact him about magic. Still, this was a kick in the teeth to Quasar's confidence, as he's left convinced Eon made a bad choice for protector of the universe. Hey, we all have bad days, man.
While Quasar's plots keep advancing here, this is pretty inconsequential for Excalibur: Rachel isn't upset about being mind-controlled later, this isn't even brought up in their book. Still, it's probably my favorite of the fistful of guest-spots they made around then: couple issues of Thor this same year, 1991's Sensational She-Hulk #26, 1992's Spider-Man #25 and Dark Angel #6. You'd have thought they would've shown up in more of the Marvel UK books there...
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