The Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast

Excalibur #38: “Out on a Limbo”

Join Anna, Mav, and Andrew plus special guest Lisa, Nocturne's BFF and co-host of the Nightcrawler-centric Simply Amazing podcast, to talk Kurt/Wanda, Wanda/Vision, histories of fandom, Wolverine & the X-Men, Nightscrawlers, Talia Josephine Wagner, Dave Cockrum's saucy stash, Real Housewives, “Age of X-Man,” Earth-2182, Exiles, roleplaying games, Days of Our Lives, Chuck Austen dramas, and maybe, just maybe, a little “Promethium Exchange” in this episode that is technically sorta kinda about Excalibur #38, “Out on a Limbo.”

  

Excalibur #37: “House Call”

The sages foretold: lo, there will come a story, told in three parts, in which jokes are stale and motives are baffling. Nobody likes it; nobody wanted it. Yet it exists. And thus, Anna, Mav, and Andrew must discuss it. But the sages also foretold a savior: a shining beacon of righteous insight destined to cleave "The Promethium Exchange" in twain, and create from the sum of these parts something better, worthy of the mantle of Excalibur. That savior is Nola Pfau, two-time Eisner Award-winning Editor-in-Chief of Women Write About Comics. In other words: here's an hour-and-a-half of awesome talk about a not-awesome comic formally known as Excalibur #37, "House Call." Feel free to skip the comic. But skip this episode at your peril. 

Excalibur #36: “Xs and Os”

We're (still!) back and so's our first returning guest, Dr. Michael Hancock, talking what makes a bad comic re: Excalibur #36, "Xs and Os!" It's a teamup/throwdown with Silver Sable and the Outlaws, featuring dubious understandings of civil rights, Rachel's sexuality, and nuclear power (it involves clones and monsters, right?). We didn't love this comic as much as Brian Braddock loves nuclear power, but we have a lot of fun anyway, parsing the mess and setting up Anna for a lengthy tangent about the gender and sexual symbolism of everyone swallowing Sandman.   

Excalibur #35: “Heartbreaker”

We're back! And debating the merits of punchable problems in Excalibur #35, "Heartbreaker," with comics scholar Dr. Jocelyn Sakal Froese! With their help, we apply a graphic medicine framework to an issue in which a kidnapped girl and a despair-hungry demon named—naturally—D'Spayre force Rachel to revisit her defining trauma (again), with some new and not-always-welcome twists, including the first appearance of Father Kurt Wagner. We talk visualizations of grief, medicalized gazes, and intersections of gender and trauma in an comic we found interesting if not always good.          

*Note: We had a few sound issues on Mav's channel in this episode. We did our best to clean it up and appreciate your patience! 

Excalibur #34: “School Spirit”

Well, this is it. The end of "Girls' School from Heck" and the Claremont era of Excalibur. But we're going out with a bang and our pom-poms raised high, as Anna, Mav, and Andrew are joined by Dr. Julia Round, an expert in all things gothic and girls' comics, to talk exploitation vs character growth plus memories, hopes, and regrets in Excalibur #34, "School Spirit." In which the Fenris Twins prove they're no match for a motivated Phoebe Huntsman with a field hockey stick and Anna's job is easy because Nightcrawler's fur, fangs, and prehensile tail sell themselves to the teen girl demographic.

Excalibur #33: “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”

This week, Anna, Mav, and Andrew are going back to school (again) with Excalibur #33, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” part two of “Girls’ School from Heck!” And now that we’re here, talking leather, lingerie, kung fu, jelly donuts, and why Kitty’s always mad at hot girls with artist extraordinaire Valentine M. Smith—we may never want to leave. Plus, Kurt spends a bunch of pages wearing a speedo. We talk about that, too—and how it's all connected and extremely character-driven! 

Excalibur #32: “Someone Will Die for This!”

A little late for "Back to School" but just in time for the comics studies + girlhood studies + Excalibur matchup of your dreams, it's Anna, Mav, and Andrew discussing Excalibur #32, "Someone Will Die for This!" with comics scholar Dr. Charlotte Johanne Fabricius! We're bringing our A-game (and our very best penmanship) to the opening salvo of the "Girls' School from Heck" storyline, talking aim at the power, possibility, and danger of Kitty's journey out of (or into?) girlhood. Plus soft men, weird curves, and hard balls... Did we mention this story features subtext?     

Excalibur #31: “No Man is an Island”

Don't let the title fool you—some men are islands, and those islands claim Krakoa as a father and have sworn revenge on Nightcrawler! That's right—it's time to talk Kurt Wagner vs Vega-Superior, The Son of Krakoa! And also, the X-Men...??? Anna, Mav, and Andrew are joined by superhero scholar John Darowski to talk adventure story tropes, Kurt's investment in problematic fantasies, and the multilayered objectification of monstrous/beautiful male bodies in a comic where most of Kurt's blue fur is on display most of the time.

Excalibur #30: “‘Twas a Dark and Stormy Night”

Sink your teeth into an early Halloween spectacular as vampire expert Dr. Cait Coker, editor of The Global Vampire, joins Anna, Mav, and Andrew to talk Excalibur #30, “‘Twas a Dark and Stormy Night,” in which Meggan's got new fangs and birthday boy Alistaire forgets Kurt's always had them. We talk gender, sexuality, magic, and—yes!—vampires, sorting through the significance of Meggan biting Kurt, Kurt being locked in the closet, Meggan making it to the end, and Brian being confused about everything. Co-starring Dr. Strange and the always memorable Rintrah. (Not as podcast guests, unfortunately!)   

Excalibur #29: “Dream a Little Dream”

It's a dreamy pod-friends reunion as the multitalented Wayne Wise, co-founder and co-host of VoxPopcast, joins Anna, Mav, and Andrew to say "weird" a dozen plus times about Excalibur #29, "Dream a Little Dream," in which the dreams are nightmares and the nightmares involve anthropomorphic horse assemblages with very human breasts. It's not the Excalibur + Power Pack crossover of our dreams, but we make the most of what we've got, discussing Kurt's insecurities and Meggan's desires, plus good, bad, and ugly puberty metaphors!