InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "The worms crawl in"

Matt (angelophile) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-10 14:27:00

Entry tags:

char: pete wisdom, char: shadowcat/kitty pryde, creator: casey jones, creator: warren ellis, publisher: marvel comics, title: excalibur

Pete Wisdom and Kitty Pryde: Romance and socio-politics whilst kicking people in the face
I wish this pairing had lasted longer.

I don't want it back. There's no point trying to recapture past glories, but, damn, did Kitty and Pete sparkle for a while there.

And I just love this sequence from Excalibur #102.

Nothing finishes a breakfast better than being attacked on the way out of the pub.

Oh, Pete, you old romantic, you.

(Post a new comment)

	icon_uk 2009-08-10 02:36 pm UTC (link)
	Fun though this is, as a Scot I have to ask what the hell is that that Pete's being served as breakfast in a Scottish pub? It looks like a muffin! Fried bread? No problem. Popover? THAT's a problem. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-10 03:20 pm UTC (link)
	A Scottish pub that looks like that, no less. I choose to believe it's an Alabama theme pub. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-10 03:32 pm UTC (link)
	Indeed, it's the same one they went and got blootered in a few issues beforehand (Moira getting drunk and becoming incomprehensibly Scottish is worth it all by itself). (Reply to this) (Parent)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 06:20 am UTC (link)
	Those things on the side look like muffins to me, but I'm guessing the thing he's mopping up the egg with is toast. Either way, he's a glutton. Incidentally, do they not serve muffins with breakfast in your neck of the woods, or just not in pubs? I would have called them a very breakfasty sort of food, myself. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-11 08:47 am UTC (link)
	I've never seen a muffin served with breakfast anywhere I've been, but you never know with the Scottish. They deep fry Mars Bars, after all. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 08:17 pm UTC (link)
	Well, all I know is that a muffin, to me, is a breakfast food. Not a particularly NECESSARY breakfast food, but a breakfast food nonetheless - it's certainly not something you'd serve with lunch or dinner. Also - they WHAT?! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nezchan 2009-08-10 02:36 pm UTC (link)
	The characterization during that whole breakfast scene is fantastic. The whole thing is brilliant, who did the art? I would love to read the originals of these. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-10 03:27 pm UTC (link)
	The art's by Casey Jones who did a fair bit on Excalibur, as well as Spider-man and Fantastic Four. Apparently he's not really that active in the comics field now, he appears to have mostly been working with Disney since the 90s. Although he did do all the covers for Marvel's Jubilee miniseries. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	neuhallidae 2009-08-10 03:04 pm UTC (link)
	Did he squish toast in fried egg yolk? If so, I gotta side with him over Kitty on this one. Best breakfast ever. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	readeriif 2009-08-10 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	No, look at the panel where they're being served. That's some sort of muffin, and therefore I'm on Kitty's side. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-10 03:21 pm UTC (link)
	Whatever, he washes it down with beer, which makes him a prime candidate for this week's Men of Genius theme. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	vignettelante 2009-08-10 03:20 pm UTC (link)
	"But a bit of applause and general worshipping couldn't hurt, too." She was definitely destined to be written by Joss Whedon, all right. (Reply to this)

	sir_razorback 2009-08-10 03:27 pm UTC (link)
	Bah... I was relieved when Wisdom wasn't part of the picture any more. Really don't care for the guy. that said though, this was an entertaining fight. (Reply to this)

	drsevarius 2009-08-10 03:53 pm UTC (link)
	Who are the conservative icons Wisdom is referring to? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-10 04:00 pm UTC (link)
	This was just after Onslaught, so I've guessing the Fantastic Four, Captain America and Iron Man who were all busy being Liefelded in Heroes Reborn. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lynxara 2009-08-10 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	A truly grim fate. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	novoadonai 2009-08-10 04:27 pm UTC (link)
	i think i just threw up in my mouth a little. again. by now it's a pavlovian response to anything pertaining to Liefeld and comics. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sandoz_iscariot 2009-08-10 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	Love these fierce bitches. (Reply to this)

	scottyquick 2009-08-10 05:55 pm UTC (link)
	These two are FIERCE! And looks like tons of fun. -writes down to get this- (Reply to this)

	liliaeth 2009-08-10 07:10 pm UTC (link)
	I loved this relationship. Kitty was so much more interesting when she was dating Pete, than she was with Piotr. Though a huge part of it is that Warren Ellis didn't try to write her as a kid. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-10 08:09 pm UTC (link)
	A happy, adult relationship without whiny angst? In the X-men titles there was no way it was every going to last. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	fashi0n_mistake 2009-08-10 08:34 pm UTC (link)
	happy sigh Thank you for reminding me why these two are one of my Marvel OTPs. (Reply to this)

	ashtoreth 2009-08-10 11:17 pm UTC (link)
	The age thing is squicky. Other than that, lovely writing/art. (Reply to this)

	shanejayell 2009-08-10 11:30 pm UTC (link)
	LOL I own that issue. :) (Reply to this)

psychop_rex
2009-08-11 06:16 am UTC (link)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Kitty, like, 17 or so here? I'm hoping this was a 'platonic until it's legal' sort of relationship.
That being said, they play off each other very well. But she's absolutely right about his eating habits - anyone who wolfs two plates of breakfast foods and then washes it down with a mug of beer can do it far away from me, thank you. (Then again, my preferred meal back in college was chocolate milk and a doughnut, with occasionally a sausage or two, so who am I to WAIT JUST A MINUTE THERE, I'm one to talk because that was GOOD, this is disgusting.)

(Reply to this) (Thread)

angelophile
2009-08-11 08:53 am UTC (link)

Warren Ellis has said that he thought Kitty was 18+ and depicted her as such, so she was an adult. The age gap was still significant, but she was certainly intended as legal age. So, no, the relationship certainly wasn't platonic and although Pete was, presumably, at least 10 years older than Kitty, it was a proper, grown-up, relationship for both of them, a real partnership, not a skeevy older man and his jailbait.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychop_rex
2009-08-11 08:31 pm UTC (link)

Hrrm. I think this is likely a case of 'people being confused about the age of teenagers'. I'm pretty sure that Kitty was, what - 14? - when she came to live with the X-Men, and given the extremely slow march of comic book time, no more than about three years or so could've passed between then and the Kitty/Wisdom years, in my opinion (especially considering that her characterization in Excalibur PRIOR to that was as a 17-year old at MOST - she always struck me as more like 16). This is also taking into account that, a number of years later, after Colossus's brief 'death', she briefly left Xavier to go to a standard college - and while doing such a thing in your twenties is far from unheard of, in the one issue I have of that event, she was going out for pizza with a group of other students, mostly upperclassmen, and she looked there like she was younger than them - I'd have said 19 at the most, while they were all in their early twenties, 22 or 23. So I'd say that, if she and Wisdom WERE having an adult relationship, it was more a case of her going 'eh, close enough', and fudging her age. (She still shouldn't be allowed in a bar, though.)

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

angelophile
2009-08-11 10:18 pm UTC (link)

Legal age for drinking in the UK is 18, and Kitty made a reference to being old enough to drink in Excalibur #91, so think it can be accepted that she was 18 when she started seeing Pete. It's not like aging in Marvel comics has been consistent. It's worth noting that the author said she was at least 18, the editors at the time presumably had no problems with depicting her in a sexual relationship without being worried about alerting the moral majority, so she was, to all intents and purposes 18 for this period.

Of course, later on there was a throw away line in an Alan Davis issue of Uncanny X-men which stated she was 16, while Claremont stated and showed she was below legal drinking age in the US in X-Men Unlimited. In the latter respect, she could still be 18/19 and the idea that she's only about 17 NOW strikes me as unlikely.

So, really, there's little point of trying to keep track or expecting consistent aging, but for the purposes of these stories, when she was with Pete, she was 18.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Have you considered that she may have been fibbing? (And I think that she IS 18/19 now.) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-11 11:45 pm UTC (link)
	And Warren Ellis was fibbing too? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-11 11:56 pm UTC (link)
	No, he was laboring under a misapprehension. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nezchan 2009-08-12 02:57 am UTC (link)
	Are you suggesting Kitty lied to Warren Ellis? In a lot of ways, that would be awesome. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-12 05:48 am UTC (link)
	No, I was suggesting Warren Ellis lied to Warren Ellis - as in, he went 'yeah, OK, she's 18', and didn't bother to double-check. But you're right, that would've been awesome. And hey, maybe I'm wrong - maybe she showed him a false ID. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	angelophile 2009-08-12 11:42 am UTC (link)
	So, he went "okay, she's 18". And so she was. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychop_rex 2009-08-12 08:31 pm UTC (link)
	Until she went back to 17, then forward, then back again... Comics are not kind to teens. Imagine coming of age, then coming OUT of age, then back in, then out again... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	One thing to bear in mind though.. steverodgers5 2009-08-11 07:15 pm UTC (link)
	Well, the age of consent in the Uk is 16. Though I'm not sure how or if that applies to US citizens when they're in the UK.. So even if she was 17, and it actually went that far, an arguement could be made that it was all perfectly legal.. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: One thing to bear in mind though.. psychop_rex 2009-08-11 08:35 pm UTC (link)
	Hurrm. You may have a point. Considering that she'd be a minor in America, though, would she then become a legal adult just by traveling to another country? Somehow, I don't think it's that easy. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: One thing to bear in mind though..

stratosfyr
2009-08-12 03:23 am UTC (link)

Age of consent isn't the same as age of majority, legal drinking age, or minimum age for various other things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_majority

So, while she as an American might not be an adult (if she's under the age of majority), you wouldn't be able to prosecute Pete Wisdom for having sex with her if she's over the age of consent where they had sex. For the same reason all my classmates used to dash over to Quebec for a drink when the legal drinking age in Ontario was still 19.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: One thing to bear in mind though.. psychop_rex 2009-08-12 05:49 am UTC (link)
	Aha. OK, that makes sense. (Reply to this) (Parent)