Reflections #3 - New Excalibur #5

There's really just one thing I want to discuss, and it's Lionheart throwing a car-sized propane tank at Courtney Ross, who was fleeing in her car at that point. Captain Britain saved Courtney, and Kelsey was clearly stunned by what she'd done when she thought she'd killed them, but I really just didn't buy it. It's not that I don't think she would throw a propane tank at someone; it's that I don't think she would throw it at an innocent bystander, even when she's really angry.

Kelsey is angry with Captain Britain because he's the one who put her in the position of choosing between the sword and the amulet, leading to her choosing the sword, meaning she can't be with her kids again, or even tell them she's alive, since that would somehow lead to their 'horrible deaths'. So he's the one she's after, and just prior to that moment she kicked him through a car and a wall. He's vulnerable, and if she had chucked that propane tank at him I would have been rooting her on. But why chuck it at Courtney Ross? Yes, she's an old girlfriend of the good Captain's, but she had nothing to do with it.

When Kelsey first appeared in The Avengers, she got beaten to death protecting Captain America from a Black Knight pretending to be Thunderball. When she gets these powers and returns to the land of the living, the first thing she does is stab that guy right in the chest. The Scarlet Witch was there too, but Kelsey didn't turn around and try to decapitate Wanda just because the Avengers had been fighting the Wrecking Crew when Kelsey died. Sure, it would have been better for the Marvel Universe if Kelsey had killed Wanda, but that's not the point. I won't deny Kelsey Leigh is capable of great anger and violence, and she's quick to both, probably rather defensive from years of taking abuse from people because of her scar. But she directs that anger at the ones who wronged her, not people who had nothing to do with it.

All this being said, it's done. I'm disappointed because I was actually hoping that Captain Britain would be too bothered by the loss of his wife to lead Excalibur, and Kelsey would join in his place. I'm sure Pete Wisdom could have come up with a situation concerning her children that would have been acceptable (where are her kids? She doesn't have them, and the Avengers were taking care of them prior to "Disassembled"). That would have left Wisdom or Sage running the team, and I'd be comfortable with that. I don't think it would have bothered Claremont too much; he used Sage as a sort of leader in X-treme X-Men. Anyway, now it seems like Kelsey's going to be working with this Albion guy, who is more than likely a bad guy, which she is not. She had another chance to kill Ms. Ross after the adrenaline wore off, and she didn't. She knew Courtney wasn't her enemy. Mostly, I think she's hurt, confused, angry at Brian Braddock for doing this to her, all of which makes her easy prey to be manipulated by Albion, and whoever he's working with. Hopefully, when the big fight goes down, she'll turn on him and get in the finishing shot. *fingers crossed*

One final comment. In the previous issue, Captain Britain told her a person's soul is defined by the choice they make between the sword and the amulet. How the amulet (which he chose) represents the "quest for knowledge. For truth. Violence as a last resort." Hmm. The first time I saw Captain Britain, he came to America as an exchange student, and wound up rooming with Peter Parker, because Peter needed the money, naturally. Brian hears something in Peter's room, rushes in, and sees Spider-Man going out the window. He changes to Captain Britain, chases Spider-Man and. . . starts trying to beat him up. "Violence as a last resort", my ass.