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Excalibur: One-Shots
Excalibur: Weird War III
Excalibur finds itself in an altered Earth where the alternate, Nazi-controlled reality they recently visited has merged with their own. The Third Reich in control of this new reality is experimenting on mutants. With Hitler a cripple under the care of the Red Skull, Charles Xavier is the de facto head of the Reich. Excalibur must keep themselves alive in this horrifying new world and find a way to separate the two realities to restore their home.
64 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1990
50 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 12, 2024
(Zero spoiler review) 3.5/5
Read as part of the Excalibur omnibus volume two, these graphic novelisations of yesteryear rarely fail to scratch my comic loving itch, and Weird War III is no exception. The premise alone is enough to earn it brownie points for simply being something that would never get published these days. I'm surprised they reprinted it in the omnibus a couple of years ago, to be honest. The dated art and colours may not be everyone's biscuit, but it just adds to the charm for me. It may want to be 'God Loves, Man Kills', and it isn't that good by any stretch. If anything, I wished this was expanded into a mini series, delving deeper into the ideas put forward. With a broader perspective and a more tight and focused narrative, this could easily sit amongst more hallowed company in the X lexicon. But for now, this remains a quaint little curiosity and a pleasant nod to the creative freedom of the past. 3.5/5
OmniBen.
Read as part of the Excalibur omnibus volume two, these graphic novelisations of yesteryear rarely fail to scratch my comic loving itch, and Weird War III is no exception. The premise alone is enough to earn it brownie points for simply being something that would never get published these days. I'm surprised they reprinted it in the omnibus a couple of years ago, to be honest. The dated art and colours may not be everyone's biscuit, but it just adds to the charm for me. It may want to be 'God Loves, Man Kills', and it isn't that good by any stretch. If anything, I wished this was expanded into a mini series, delving deeper into the ideas put forward. With a broader perspective and a more tight and focused narrative, this could easily sit amongst more hallowed company in the X lexicon. But for now, this remains a quaint little curiosity and a pleasant nod to the creative freedom of the past. 3.5/5
OmniBen.
April 1, 2024
No recordaba que tenía este libro porque se me había traspalelado entre otros ya catalogados. Estaba barato pero la edición era medio endeble, debería volver a revisarlo.
March 21, 2017
2.4/5
Jesus Christ, this starts off on a really dark note and never gets any lighter. Normally, the X-Men comics were at least a little bit more subtle in their racial discrimination themes than the opening to this graphic novel, in which mutants are literally burned to skeletal crisps on the second page in a Nazi death chamber.
The plot is a mess despite its straightforwardness. Two alternate realities have combined. Xavier is now the evil, walking talking 'Herr Xavier;' stealing command of the Third Reich from the clutches of an aging wheelchair-bound Hitler and his sidekick, the Red Skull. Xavier's plan, which is made clear very early in the story, is to create the ultimate 'X-Man,' a divine being whose power apparently can only be taken from millions of mutants by draining their psychic energies through the aforementioned death chambers. Moira McTaggert is also an evil pawn in this game, but somehow becomes good enough to help the team of Excalibur after they fight their sinister counterparts, the 'Reichsmen.'
Uh-huh. Well... it definitely lives up to the 'Weird' portion of its title.
Silly, nonsensical plot aside, the artwork is just okay. It serves a dark story like this one well, but it's not a style I can say I'm all that fond of. The dialogue is awful; speech balloons filled with explanations on the histories of different characters during conversations, and thought bubbles of a certain character describing to the readers how he survived an explosion, be in a 'psychic blast' or some other concussive mutant power we can only expect from these comics of old.
Its pace is far too fast for anything to sink in. The cartoon from the 1990's--hell, the Spider-Man cartoon from the same era--had slower pacing than this. It's like Higgins just wanted to get it over with--a feeling that I shared after about twenty pages in.
Jesus Christ, this starts off on a really dark note and never gets any lighter. Normally, the X-Men comics were at least a little bit more subtle in their racial discrimination themes than the opening to this graphic novel, in which mutants are literally burned to skeletal crisps on the second page in a Nazi death chamber.
The plot is a mess despite its straightforwardness. Two alternate realities have combined. Xavier is now the evil, walking talking 'Herr Xavier;' stealing command of the Third Reich from the clutches of an aging wheelchair-bound Hitler and his sidekick, the Red Skull. Xavier's plan, which is made clear very early in the story, is to create the ultimate 'X-Man,' a divine being whose power apparently can only be taken from millions of mutants by draining their psychic energies through the aforementioned death chambers. Moira McTaggert is also an evil pawn in this game, but somehow becomes good enough to help the team of Excalibur after they fight their sinister counterparts, the 'Reichsmen.'
Uh-huh. Well... it definitely lives up to the 'Weird' portion of its title.
Silly, nonsensical plot aside, the artwork is just okay. It serves a dark story like this one well, but it's not a style I can say I'm all that fond of. The dialogue is awful; speech balloons filled with explanations on the histories of different characters during conversations, and thought bubbles of a certain character describing to the readers how he survived an explosion, be in a 'psychic blast' or some other concussive mutant power we can only expect from these comics of old.
Its pace is far too fast for anything to sink in. The cartoon from the 1990's--hell, the Spider-Man cartoon from the same era--had slower pacing than this. It's like Higgins just wanted to get it over with--a feeling that I shared after about twenty pages in.
March 9, 2021
Really enjoying going back through and reading this series, but this graphic novel is a miss.
March 24, 2022
With the July, 1989 issue of Excalibur (#10), the world was introduced to the 'Cross Time Caper'. A pac-man shaped robot that was an inter-dimensional gate along with a time traveling train took England's answer to the X-Men through time and space. The first alternate world the mutants visited was one in which the Nazis won World War II.
Over the course of 12 issues, Excalibur's ranks grew by one when they visited King Arthur's court and added the tiny purple dragon Lockheed. They then took on some Silver Age members of the Marvel Universe, discover a UK inhabited by Cowboys and Indians, participate in a madcap grand prix and revert to alternate versions of the X-Men; all the while narrowly avoiding a group of extra-dimensional bounty hunters called Technet.
With the conclusion of issue #24, the caper was over. Or was it?
In 1990, Excalibur would return to the world that started it all, Earth-597. The world where the Axis powers win the war! Hitler is now confined to a wheelchair with the Red Skull by his loyal side. Not confined is Charles Xavier. In the role of Goebbels and Hauptmann, this Charles Xavier is making a play to overthrow the Fuhrer by experimenting on mutants and turning their life-force into unlimited psychic power.
During the 'Cross Time Caper', Excailbur battled their evil selves. In Weird War III, the heroes have melded into one with their evil halves. Earth 616 and 597 have synced together, possibly as a residue aftermath of said Caper. Thus, as reality bleeds together, the two worlds become a bit of a chaotic mess.
I am a big fan of the 1988-98 regular series version of Excalibur. It was wacky fun by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. With writer Michael Higgins' (The Infinity War) take on the 'Cross Time Caper', the story is incredibly dark and serious. I understand that Nazis aren't funny. But Weird War III felt more like a continuation of X-Men's 'Days of Future Past' than anything in the Excalibur repertoire. The same goes with the artwork by Tom Morgan. It's gritty and gangly. Very similar to Morgan's work on West Coast Avengers and Punisher 2099.
Overall, this story just doesn't feel like Excalibur. This is more like a Marvel MAX tale. And for fans, the results can be rather jarring. While the regular series relishes in the weird, Weird War III is not the right type of weird. Nor is it a proper spin-off.
Over the course of 12 issues, Excalibur's ranks grew by one when they visited King Arthur's court and added the tiny purple dragon Lockheed. They then took on some Silver Age members of the Marvel Universe, discover a UK inhabited by Cowboys and Indians, participate in a madcap grand prix and revert to alternate versions of the X-Men; all the while narrowly avoiding a group of extra-dimensional bounty hunters called Technet.
With the conclusion of issue #24, the caper was over. Or was it?
In 1990, Excalibur would return to the world that started it all, Earth-597. The world where the Axis powers win the war! Hitler is now confined to a wheelchair with the Red Skull by his loyal side. Not confined is Charles Xavier. In the role of Goebbels and Hauptmann, this Charles Xavier is making a play to overthrow the Fuhrer by experimenting on mutants and turning their life-force into unlimited psychic power.
During the 'Cross Time Caper', Excailbur battled their evil selves. In Weird War III, the heroes have melded into one with their evil halves. Earth 616 and 597 have synced together, possibly as a residue aftermath of said Caper. Thus, as reality bleeds together, the two worlds become a bit of a chaotic mess.
I am a big fan of the 1988-98 regular series version of Excalibur. It was wacky fun by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. With writer Michael Higgins' (The Infinity War) take on the 'Cross Time Caper', the story is incredibly dark and serious. I understand that Nazis aren't funny. But Weird War III felt more like a continuation of X-Men's 'Days of Future Past' than anything in the Excalibur repertoire. The same goes with the artwork by Tom Morgan. It's gritty and gangly. Very similar to Morgan's work on West Coast Avengers and Punisher 2099.
Overall, this story just doesn't feel like Excalibur. This is more like a Marvel MAX tale. And for fans, the results can be rather jarring. While the regular series relishes in the weird, Weird War III is not the right type of weird. Nor is it a proper spin-off.
June 10, 2021
This is a spin-off graphic novel from the Excalibur series from the 1980s, which itself was a spin-off title from the X-Men after the Mutant Massacre event, where it seemed a lot of the X-Men died, but they were really just hiding. Personally I always thought the Excalibur was an excuse for Chris Claremont to play around with a lot of Alan Moore’s ideas from his run on Captain Britain - those first twenty issues and the initial graphic novel certainly used a lot of his ideas. It was made up primarily of Shadowcat, Captain Britain, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and the rest.
Some people loved this title, some hated it. It certainly tended to be a lot more light hearted and tongue in cheek than most X-titles - which was not a bad thing. This story is an addition to an early Excalibur story line, The Cross-Time Caper, which ran from issues 12 -24. Apparently it was originally slated for nine issues, but another three were tacked on, along with this graphic novel. In the original Cross-Time Caper, the heroes mainly fought with their alternative universe - Earth 593 - counterparts from a world where the Nazi’s one and Charles Xavier was one of Hitler’s top men.
In this story, somehow both universes - 616 and 593 - are merging and Excalibur finds their personalities fused with their evil counterparts. The team must first discover what is happening to both worlds, and then discover a method of separating the realities. The art is great, kinetic, and full of energy, but the story has a few plot holes and seems a bit rushed. They could’ve used another ten pages to make things really flow. But it was still a decent enough story, just not the most memorable one.
Some people loved this title, some hated it. It certainly tended to be a lot more light hearted and tongue in cheek than most X-titles - which was not a bad thing. This story is an addition to an early Excalibur story line, The Cross-Time Caper, which ran from issues 12 -24. Apparently it was originally slated for nine issues, but another three were tacked on, along with this graphic novel. In the original Cross-Time Caper, the heroes mainly fought with their alternative universe - Earth 593 - counterparts from a world where the Nazi’s one and Charles Xavier was one of Hitler’s top men.
In this story, somehow both universes - 616 and 593 - are merging and Excalibur finds their personalities fused with their evil counterparts. The team must first discover what is happening to both worlds, and then discover a method of separating the realities. The art is great, kinetic, and full of energy, but the story has a few plot holes and seems a bit rushed. They could’ve used another ten pages to make things really flow. But it was still a decent enough story, just not the most memorable one.
April 23, 2022
In between proper books I am rereading the first series of Excalibur from 1988. It is kind of like binge watching; it gives a different experience from the original monthly doses. The series, created by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis, deftly mixes adventure, romance and healthy doses of humor (I adore the comical covers on some of the early issues). I'm enjoying the ride for the most part.
One of the early storylines was The Cross-Time Caper, where Excalibur gets lost in alternate timelines. This graphic novel sort of revisits one of those (or there was some sort of merging of realities; I really couldn't follow). It really wasn't a trip that needed to be taken, at least in a prestige format. When Marvel first began their "graphic novel" series, it was for special stories and events like the death of Captain Marvel or the introduction of the New Mutants. This story doesn't qualify as an event or special story. The plot by Michael Higgins (who did some fill-in stories in the main title) is confusing, the dialogue is robotic and expositive and the art is not up to the level that Tom Morgan would deliver on Iron Man a few years later.
This tale should have been a fill-in in the main title, and Claremont and Davis should have given us a new story in the prestige format!
One of the early storylines was The Cross-Time Caper, where Excalibur gets lost in alternate timelines. This graphic novel sort of revisits one of those (or there was some sort of merging of realities; I really couldn't follow). It really wasn't a trip that needed to be taken, at least in a prestige format. When Marvel first began their "graphic novel" series, it was for special stories and events like the death of Captain Marvel or the introduction of the New Mutants. This story doesn't qualify as an event or special story. The plot by Michael Higgins (who did some fill-in stories in the main title) is confusing, the dialogue is robotic and expositive and the art is not up to the level that Tom Morgan would deliver on Iron Man a few years later.
This tale should have been a fill-in in the main title, and Claremont and Davis should have given us a new story in the prestige format!
October 30, 2019
Truly terrible artwork. The story itself was simple. This was just a love letter to the "Lightning Squad" version of Excalibur from an alternate reality in which the Nazis won. We visited that reality during the famous "Cross-Time Caper" in the early days of Excalibur, and someone was so nostalgic they put together this little abomination.
The only good thing about this story is its sense of nostalgia. Which clearly it wouldn't have had back when it was first published in 1990. And beyond that, I'm grateful Rachel played such a pivotal role, and was still receiving proper accolades as a supremely powerful mutant. (Unlike today, where Hickman is publishing a short list of omega mutants and saying there are no others beyond those on the list; not including Rachel, even though she is the first person the term "omega" was ever used to describe.)
The only good thing about this story is its sense of nostalgia. Which clearly it wouldn't have had back when it was first published in 1990. And beyond that, I'm grateful Rachel played such a pivotal role, and was still receiving proper accolades as a supremely powerful mutant. (Unlike today, where Hickman is publishing a short list of omega mutants and saying there are no others beyond those on the list; not including Rachel, even though she is the first person the term "omega" was ever used to describe.)
July 17, 2023
Una rilettura a distanza di quasi 3 decenni dalla prima lettura mi ha riportato alla mente tutto quello che mi piaceva e non mi piaceva di questo super gruppo, ed in particolare di questa non proprio riuscita storia. All'epoca era osannata, ma non da me.
Oggi posso solo dire che è un intrattenimento sufficiente.
2 stelle
Oggi posso solo dire che è un intrattenimento sufficiente.
2 stelle
April 1, 2024
Libro de historietas sin ISBN propio. Edición española ya descatalogada que pese a tener lomo y ser oficialmente un libro contró con ISSN: 1130-9024.
September 3, 2024
Chrises on Infinite Earths: On No, My Bean
Read for an initially disturbing and ultimately bonkers Nazi alternate Earth story.
Read for an initially disturbing and ultimately bonkers Nazi alternate Earth story.
October 15, 2009
A really disturbing, horror story staring Excalibur.
Want to read
September 12, 2016Edición española, tomo especial.
April 6, 2019
loved the idea but not this !!!!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews