Once, a long time ago, Marvel Comics made their living off of "The Uncanny X-Men" (which only had one title), "Spiderman" (which had several titles), and any "Wolverine" spin-off they could come up with. They were bringing in so much money that they were able to take a risk on something they don't normally do anymore; a title that was as much a thinker as an eye-feast, that refused to take itself too seriously, with a strong basis in magic and humour as well as action and drama.
And that was, naturally, "Excalibur".
This little gem was co-created by Chris Claremont (long-time X-Men writer) and Alan Davis (a spectacularly talented Brit artist), and together they put a lot of heart into what might have ended up, in other hands, a thoroughly overlookable book. But with these talents, we had the makings for something incredible.
Excalibur was a team-up of five "misfits": Two former X-Men who were injured and left behind when the team apparently "died", two obscure British heroes, and one X-Man from the future who had never quite fit in. The five- Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, Captain Britain, Meggan, and Phoenix- grouped together to form Britain's greatest heroes.
The wonderful thing about this book was that it was so light-hearted. There were few other books at the time which could poke fun at themselves, or have an entire issue where the focus is on the characters moving and the secondary plot is about fighting the Juggernaut. Each of the early issues had a terrific cover by Alan Davis that was almost invariably tongue-in-cheek. In fact, it was the cover which got me interested in the book. My personal favourite, though not the one that got me started buying the title, is a janitor sweeping. As he sweeps, he says, "Cover? You mean with huge muscular heroic males and beautifully erotic females engaging in gratuitous violence against sinister criminal super brains and their ugly stupid henchmen in exotic moody hi-tech subterranean bases in the eternal struggle to prevent the good being washed away in a tide of chaotic evil mayhem... Sorry, mate-- you'll have to look inside for all that!"
I didn't start my collection until issue #13, which was in 1989. The cover got me giggling and I bought it, and soon discovered that the inside got me giggling, too, even though I only knew two of the characters.
But it wasn't all fun and games. Claremont and Davis were going places, and they knew it. They were dropping hints as early as the second issue about events that wouldn't come into play for another fourty issues (not necessarily intentionally, however). What's sad is that things... shall we say... got in the way. First came a barrage of bad fill-in issues by Michael Higgins (I will never forgive Marvel for hiring that man. First he tries to ruin Excalibur, then he takes over "Power Pack" and succeeds at ruining it), then the massively extended "Cross-time Caper" during which Davis quit. Then eventually came Claremont's decision to quit, and the title was left sort of in limbo with authors and artists who knew nothing of Claremont and Davis's plans coming in and taking the book in their own direction.
Fortuntely, Davis returned and took over writing again, along with his art duties. I don't want to think about how long it must have taken this poor man to work out his plots in advance, but they were intense, and FULL of things. With Davis writing, and knowing what he was doing, the book hit its first "glory days" since the first sixteen or so issues. Loose ends were picked up for the first time in years, as we finally got to find out what happened to Jamie Braddock, Courtney Ross, and all our favourites from the first few storylines. Meanwhile, Davis introduced a slew of new characters, as well, and I liked almost all of them immediately.
But, as was bound to happen, Davis lost interest/time/whatever with the title again and left. He either left no instructions, or the person to followup cared absolutely nothing for what Davis had set up, because all loose ends were thrown out- including the new characters Davis had created. They got a new setting, a very lousy new artist, and a bunch of new plots I cared nothing about. I have Excaliburs #1-72 or so, but I consider the true "end" of the series to be issue #67: Davis's final issue. There may have been some good issues since then (I don't know, I no longer read it), but the title will never have the humour and spirit it once had... It will never be the same.To me there is no reason to stick with it, not even out of loyalty.
On the other hand, out of loyalty, I will create a webpage as a tribute to everything that Excalibur used to be. It is now going on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of this comic, which makes me feel incredibly old.... How can it have been 10 years already!? Uh, but anyway... it also gives me the best reason I'll ever have to make a page and let those who missed the original Excalibur know what they're missing, so to speak.
As a side-note, Excalibur finally came to an end in September 1998. Out of sentimentality I picked up the final issue, and I've written out a review of it if you care to read it. (Warning to fans- it's not exactly favourable.;) Pictures are pending as soon as I can get them scanned.
| Captain Britain | Nightcrawler | Meggan |
| Shadowcat | Phoenix | Cerise |
| Feron | Kylun |
The first five, up through Phoenix, are the original members. The next three were added by Davis when he returned to the title for a while.
Welcome to the Zebeckras Zone: Hope you survive the experience!
