>>104082275>>104082351>>104082487>>104082500This arc BTW is one of the biggest fucking dropped storylines of the entire Claremont run.
#21-22 was a rare example of Claremont fucking using Excalibur to advance his main arcs for the X-Books, in this case the Shadow King storyline.
#21-22 was the first time that Claremont explicitly referred to Amahl Farouk as "The Shadow King"; which would IMMEDIATELY carry over to the main X-Books as him being called that exclusively going forward.
Furthermore, these pages lay the groundwork for a MASSIVE twist Claremont was planning for the Shadow King story: that Shadow King was the true master of the Hellfire Club and that Emma Frost, Sebastian Shaw, Selene, Donald Pierce, etc were all his slaves. And that he was the one responsible for the Dark Phoenix Saga and all of the evil shit that the Hellfire Club did.
Also, this story strongly implies that Shadow King had a major role in the mutant apocalypse that is Days of Future Past.
His dialogue with Rachel and the editors note about "Excalibur Special Edition #3 and #4" refers the infamous "True Friends" story that Claremont planned. In it Rachel and Kitty go back in time and team up with Mystique and Destiny to foil an evil scheme of the Shadow King in the 1920s.
The story was supposed to come out in late 1990/early 1991 and be another example of how Claremont was beginning to try and shift gears in terms of making Excalibur relevant to the main X-Books. True Friends would reveal why Shadow King sent Val Cooper to kill Mystique (payback for her foiling his scheme in the 1920s) and even why Shadow King had brainwashed henchmen dressed up as Hounds in #265-267: Shadow King would create the Hounds (and turn Rachel into one in the DOFP future) because he was taken back by Rachel after seeing her in her red hound suit and facial tattoos.
