Excalibur Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The Sword Is Drawn

Excalibur Epic Collection

by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis (Contributor), Michael Higgins (Contributor)

A legendary team is born! Meet the United Kingdom's champion, Captain Britain, and his paramour, the metamorphic Meggan! They'll band together with former X-Men Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde when Gatecrasher and her Technet are sent to capture Rachel "Phoenix" Summers! From their lighthouse base, the heroes of Excalibur will tackle the ferocious Warwolves, the unstoppable Juggernaut and Mojo mayhem! Things get wild with Arcade, the Crazy Gang and the X-Babies — and really heat up as Excalibur is drawn across the Atlantic to an Inferno raging in New York! And don't forget Lightning Squad, the alternate Nazi versions of Excalibur! Plus: Who or what is Widget?

Collects Captain Britain (1976) #1-2; Excalibur (1988) #1-11, Special Edition, Mojo Mayhem and material from Mighty World of Marvel #7, 14-15; Marvel Comics Presents (1988) #31-38.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

473 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2017

About the author

Chris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.

Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.

Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original 11 issues of the Excalibur comic presented here, I found endearing, and would highly recommend to any fans of Claremont's work on the X-Men. Sure, Claremont has long since run out of really great ideas and he's really just recycling the style and content of his earlier X-Men run with a brand new set of characters, but that's no bad thing if you want a relaxed Sunday afternoon read. Not exactly an inspired team-up but I'm a big fan of Kitty Pryde and it makes logical sense for her to move on to a slightly mature role. Captain Britain and Meggan are a fresh slate that can be expanded upon and Nightcrawler always provides good comic relief ... so only Rachel Summers Phoenix feels long in the tooth (and, I guess mismatched in terms of power). It's a bit of a shame - and weird - that the storytelling is hampered by Marvel's first of many crossovers, the inferno arc is probably the strongest here (the Arcade one, the most tedious, of course)and I loved the horror movie/slasher sequences with Shadowcat that threwback to that earlier christmas classic. But one keeps feeling that one only has half the picture even though it's mostly presented as a standalone adventure aside from what the X-Men were doing in other comics. Elsewhere stories don't quite stretch out in satisfying ways, but hey, I still dug the light frothy fun with a dose of soap opera on the side. The Warwolves of the introductory storyline were absolutely hilarious and the nazi mirror-universe also a bit of a blast - if a somewhat unoriginal conceit. Alan Davis art is the real start of the show though and rivals the strongest of X-Men productions.

Sadly there's so much "back-material" here when the pages could have been used for more issues. The additional content is mostly hokum or insubstantial - some tosh with the "X-Babies" (yeah, really) and another throwaway story with a "surprise villain" which takes all its time parodying the likes of Looney Tunes and Wizard of Oz to tiresome effect. The short Captain Britain stuff is the most interesting and a nice look at where the character came from ('cause I never knew him outside of Excalibur).

It's hard to expect the earth but I'm looking forward to picking up the next volume which should involve a healthy dose of interplanetary hopping and more zany escapades.

[David Cobraestilo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque es más corto que el resto de Marvel Gold de mutantes (los que recopilan la etapa de Claremont en Uncanny rondan las 650 a 800 alguno de Spiderman frente a este que ronda las 450 páginas. La leyenda cuenta que nace del deseo de Claremont y Davis de trabajar juntos (además de Marvel queriendo llenarse los bolsillos con un quinto título mutante acompañando Uncanny, Nuevos Mutantes, Factor-X y Lobezno). Davis tenía pánico escénico a ocupar el puesto de dibujante principal de la Patrulla-X como si un hombre con ese talento debiese tenerle miedo a alguien. Porque Alan Davis es el mejor dibujante del cómic americano. Y punto. Pero chica, las cabezas, el caso es que un proyecto menor, con menos ojos y presión editorial.
Con la mitad de los héroes llegados de las bajas de la Masacre Mutante el grupo se monta un poco porque sí y es la tónica del cómic. Supuestamente había una mini de Rachel y su paso por el Mojoverso y unos especiales ahondando en los traumas de la masacre mutante pero directamente saltan a la acción loca y entregarse a la diversión y las tramas de dos números. Excalibur es comedia, es diversión, multiversos, ritmo frenético y acción y con cierto trasafondo siniestro (nazis, muertes y sustituciones, ladrones de cuerpos que se ponen pieles humanas…) que irán desarrollándose hasta la épica conclusión del regreso de David hacia el número 50. Además, hay dos complementos, uno con Arthur Adams y los Bebes-X y Mojo y otro un poco más olvidable de Marvel Comics Presents.
La estrella total es Davis, expresivo, dinámico, con personajes que saltan de las páginas e ilustraciones bellísimas en las que es fácil perderse. No se cómo llevarán la edición al impasse en el que tanto Claremont como Davis ya no están en la colección hasta como decía vuelva Davis a cerrar sus tramas. De cualquier manera, un must. Obviamente.

[L. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible. Simply, terrifyingly horrible. It's so bad it's going on my I'm Ashamed I Paid For This shelf.

Excalibur is a group of five superheroes based in England. The characters are:

Kitty Pryde, the great mystery of Marvel. The mystery being why the heck is Kitty Pryde still being written about?! She's an annoying, weak, useless character. She reacts more than acts. Here the writers try to amp Kitty up a bit by making her some kind of technical wizard. Nope, not buying it. I doubt this girl even knows how to operate a toaster.

Nightcrawler, whose main purpose is to be part of a love quadrangle.

Rachel, also known as Baby Phoenix. She likes to dress up as a dominatrix on her off hours because you never know when a handsome scientist is going to be dropping by your remote lighthouse.

Meggan, the illiterate, immature shape shifter with the only-in-the-comics ability to twist her torso around so both breasts and both butt cheeks can be seen at the same time. She's another part of the love quadrangle. There is absolutely no reason for Meggan and Captain Britain to be together except for the sex. And I have a strong feeling the sex ain't all that. Maybe that's the answer. That's why Captain Britain is with her because he can rest assured Meggan doesn't know the difference between adequate sex and bad sex.

Captain Britain. More like Captain Useless. Captain Jerkface. Captain Cheater. Captain Not The Brains Of This Outfit. Captain Bartender I'll Have Another. Oh, how I hate you.

As for the stories, I'm going to be getting into spoiler territory. Not that you should be reading this garbage for anything to be spoiled, but you have been warned.

Too many times the story lines end abruptly having never gone anywhere. For instance in one story Excalibur is in New York City where they find the Empire State Building has been taken over by goblins. Meggan is turned into a goblin queen. Kitty breaks the spell and, well, that's it. Where did the goblins go? Where did they come from in the first place? Did the humans turned into goblins turn back into humans? Did the cars remain sentient? These questions are never answered. The very next issue has Excalibur still in New York where everyone is going about their daily lives as if this shit never happened.

Another story line has the super heroes noticing their powers are dimimishing. This goes through several issues as they try to figure out what's wrong with themselves. Then it's never mentioned again.

The last couple of stories I would categorize under I Can't Believe Marvel Stooped So Low. Did they really have X-Babies, the X-Men as elementary school aged kids? And then Excalibur gets sucked into TV Land where they encounter knock-off Looney Tunes, The Beverly Hillbillies, even the cast of not-Cheers makes an appearance. That's just sad. That's bottom of the barrel sad.

[Cameron H · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the kind of crazy you’re looking for.

[Doom70 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Alan Davis.

[Will Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

At a time when comics were getting their grim and grittiest, Chris Claremont pulled together a team that, despite their problems, brought a little brightness back to four color periodicals.

With the X-Men supposedly dead (they really just moved to Australia and didn't tell anyone), former members Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Phoenix II pick up the pieces alongside English superhero Captain Britain and his shapeshifting girlfriend Meggan to keep Xavier's (and King Arthur's) dream alive. Facing such foes as the human-skin wearing Warwolves, the Alice in Wonderland themed Crazy Gang and the obligatory alternate universe Nazi version of the team, Excalibur keeps things much lighter in most respects than its sister publications at the time.

Claremont juggles many plot lines throughout the book, and sometimes makes the assumption that you have been following all of the X-Men books written at that time, so a little light research here and there may be in order.

The biggest reason for cracking open this beast is the gorgeous Alan Davis artwork. Having started his career working on Captain Britain, it is incredible to compare his early artwork at the back of the book to that which he produces for the main series. Davis' designs are full of character, and they do as much to convey personality as the writing does. In fact, when Davis takes a couple issues off to prepare for the next big storyline, you miss him immediately. The inclusion of Arthur Adams artwork in the X-Babies special is also another big treat.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 4 out of 5]

Para hablar de Excalibur, hay que viajar un poco al pasado, y es que el origen de la serie se encuentra ni más ni menos que en la lejanísima ya Masacre Mutante, el primer enfrentamiento entre la Patrulla-X y los Merodeadores, cuando Rondador Nocturno y Gatasombra fueron heridos de gravedad y encomendados al cuidado de la Doctora Moira McTaggert en la Isla Muir. Poco después, durante el enfrentamiento entre la Patrulla-X y Nimrod, Rachel dejaba el grupo y quedaba en manos de Espiral. Y no mucho después, la Patrulla-X moría en Dallas durante los eventos de la Caída de los Mutantes.

Y ese es el momento en el que comienza Excalibur. Con guiones del propio Chris Claremont y dibujos del grandísimo Alan Davis, Excalibur comienza justo tras la muerte televisada de la Patrulla-X, presentando la reunión de un nuevo equipo formado por Gatasombra, Rondador, el Capitán Britania y la multiforme Meggan, que acuden en ayuda de Rachel (que ya empieza a hacerse llamar Fénix), que consigue escapar de Mundomojo, siendo perseguida tanto por los Lobos de Guerra como por la extraña TecnoRed, un equipo de cazarrecompensas mutantes que actúan siguiendo las órdenes de la Majestad Omniversal Ópalo Luna Saturnina (siempre me ha encantado ese nombre). Y así, a lo largo de las páginas de este primer tomo, iremos asistiendo al enfrentamiento del grupo con la TecnoRed, Arcade y la Banda Loca (para mí probablemente la mejor historia que se ha escrito nunca con Arcade como villano, quizá porque tengo recuerdos de ella de cuando era muy pequeño y la leí por primera vez). También vamos a tener un pequeño cruce del equipo británico con Inferno, ya que siguiendo a Fénix que siente el pánico de su hermano Nathan Cristopher cuando es secuestrado por la Reina Duende y N'Astirh. De hecho, el propio N'Astirh convertirá a Meggan en su Princesa Duende, sacando su lado oscuro; y también veremos el destino de Crotus, el vasallo de N'Astirh al que habíamos visto en los números de X-Terminadores queriendo comerse a Sangui y Artie, que va a estar a punto de obtener para sí el poder de Fénix, que queda convertida en un maniquí por Inferno, y con la que está a punto de casarse. Y a su vuelta a casa, vivirán el preludio de una de las sagas más conocidas del mundo del cómic, las Dimensiones Alternativas, que comienzan con el encontronazo del grupo con su versión nazi, y acaba con la desaparición de Excalibur en el tren del Escuadrón Relámpago...

Y con esto, arrancó una de las series más divertidas (al meno en su origen) que se haya escrito nunca, con un Claremont desatado y un Alan Davis brillante, aunque cuente con algunos números dibujados por un tal Marshall Roger o algo así... y que es malo para llorar. En general, un destello de genialidad.

[Max Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lured by the Alan Davis name on the cover (one of my favorite comic book artists) and coming off of what I've read of Chris Claremont's Uncanny X-Men run, I thought this would be interesting to read. Well, I was left disappointed in the end, unfortunately. I've heard recently in a podcast and read in a book that Claremont found the formula of success with X-Men in doing soap opera for boys. This time, however, he went straight for girls instead. How so? Well, you see, Cap Brit is this big hunk (soooo hot, amirite?) with his shapechanger blonde girlfriend Meggan, who is totes jelly about his former girlfriend, Courtney. Courtney is not only striking hot, she's also a top banker, has a nickname Ice Queen and while playing the role of friend, secretly yearns to the time when Cap will come back to her once again. While Nightcrawler, that blue guy from X-Men, he's all fallen for Meggan and... for god's sake, at times it looked like I was reading Santa Barbara. It was way less of it in the X-Men (though I've only read three books, who knows what happens after that) but here it's a constant noise that did not allow me to fully enjoy the team's antics.



Leaving that aside, the adventures the Excalibur takes part in are all zany and pretty fun to read at times. Looks like most of the villains have a history with Cap, so it was hard to get into it for me due to the lack of explanations and prior knowledge. I've jumped right into the middle of some continuity that I was not familiar with. For example, issue one starts with referencing how X-Men are supposedly dead, except Kitty Pride/Shadowcat and Nightcrawler, and Warwolves from Mojoworld are after Phoenix, the last member of their new team. For a stranger like me, this was all new and confusing but I gave it a fair chance and it failed only due to my issue with melodrama I've described earlier. Also, the last third of the core issues has Alan Davis gone, and after that it's all padding with a story from Marvel Comics Presents #31-38 with a plot that involves evil clones of Looney Tunes that I did not at all cared for. Basically, only the first half of the book was good enough for me.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The original Claremont/Davis Excalibur comics are generally some breezy fun - generally a bit more tongue-in-cheek than some of the angstier or darker comics on the market when they first appeared. And it mostly works - the Inferno crossover assumes you have some clue about the other chapters of Inferno (I have literally no clue) and the Kitty Pryde-centered soap opera elements (particularly with New Mutants and Illyana in the Inferno aftermath) don't carry much emotional heft for this particular "never been an X-Men reader" reader. But Davis's art is great and Claremont does a decent if unspectacular job with the characters. The plots are fun, with the War Wolves' goofiness and some silly body-swapping in the Arcade arc. It's nothing you NEED in your life (I had the original issues years ago, sold them at some point, then got this Kindle edition when I "earned" a free Kindle book and the other options on the freebie list looked completely unappealing to me), but it's solid fun comics.

Still, I'd recommend closing the book after you finish those first eleven issues. The "Mojo Mayhem" bookshelf one-shot has a clever riff on the "signing away one's soul" idea, but it's appeal is entirely down to Art Adams' artwork (very good, but not my personal favorite) and the antics of the X-Babies (again, no history here of being an X-Men fan, so...). The Marvel Comics Presents serial is a pummeling of bad jokes, bad art, utter lack of character. The Captain Britain stories from the Marvel UK line are decent, but not especially memorable.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really sorry that I lost track of the original comics years ago. But I really loved this classic run. And man, does this series go downhill when Claremont wasn't writing it. I guess I can't really blame the other creators, it was a natural thing for most 90's comics to be bad. There were still some good stories but they are few and far between. Anyway, this arc sets in motion a bunch of storylines, most are resolved a few years later and it's satisfying and some are not. I still don't really understand the explanation for Widget. The last third of this collection is the reason why I didn't rate this at five stars. The Marvel Comics Presents stuff is third-rate at best and doesn't warrant being included. It has art by Erik Larson, which would look pretty good if you weren't comparing it to Art Adams or Allan Davis; and the story is really pointless. The Captain Britain stuff at the end is really good. Well-drawn early Allan Davis stuff with some writing by Allan Moore. The story is so much more mature than the American comics that it's hard to believe that this was published by Marvel in the 80's. Well here's to hoping that another epic collection is published with concluding story arcs. If l remember correctly, it was around issues 50 or 75 and features the return of Allan Davis.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

a really great book and team! full of fun villains and interesting heroes, and the plotting stays tight and very enjoyable. the doctor who jokes are very silly and do make me laugh, and the whole story of "excalibur vs. looney tunes" was VERY funny. on the whole, the issues here are bursting with personality and life in pretty much every facet. i do wish the characters could've been explored a little more, as well as their full team dynamic, as it feels like they're often separated for the plot of any given issue or forced to deal with various mind-scrambles/new shenanigans that change their situation each story. i wish, i suppose, that there was more of a basic understanding of excalibur as a team and individuals(at least, in the run itself because many of these characters are legacy from other titles) before they started to separate and body swap and all that. ALSO i wanted so much more of lockheed and widget. weird little freak brigade i am HERE. also also, marvel editorial should've let phoenix and kitty be gay for each other. kitty being a little outwardly queer in the opening issue gave her so much interesting character material and then they're reduced to fighting over a boy in some of the later issues? lame. they should've kissed about it.

[Javier Muñoz · Rating 4 out of 5]

No se por qué nunca me leí estos cómics, algún número suelto cayó en mis manos en algún momento pero nunca seguí la colección. El caso es que al menos leídos a día de hoy me resultan más divertidos que los cómics de factor-x de la misma época, casi al nivel de los de la patrulla-x.

Desde el principio se establecen las dinámicas entre personajes, el triángulo entre Brian Braddock, Meggan y Kurt Wagner, la relación de amistad - rivalidad entre kitty y Rachel, los roces entre el Capitán Britania, que debería ser el cabecilla del grupo pero no está capacitado por sus problemas personales, y Rondador, que es el verdadero lider... Además desde el principio Alan Davis le toma la medida perfectamente a los personajes, que ya habían sido dibujados por algunos de los mejores artistas de la época, pero es difícil encontrar a alguien que los retrate mejor de lo que están aquí.

Si no le pongo el cinco es por los números de Marvel Comics Presents, que la verdad me parece que suponen un bajón de nivel respecto al resto del material que contiene este tomo. Se nota mucho la diferencia en los números que no dibuja Alan Davis.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know whether Chris Claremont intended Excalibur for a younger audience than X-Men but I've always felt Excalibur was the bottom of the barrel X-title. It's villains are silver age throwbacks, the dialog is more wooden than usual, Claremont relies on the absolute laziest of tropes in their stories (no comic writer should include Alice In Wonderland characters/references/storylines, it's been a stale cliche since the 1970s), and I just can't care about the magical world of Saturnyne or Merlyn or any of his other ideas of sorcery. My eyes glaze over almost immediately.

I understand that the childlike wackiness of the title appeals to some people, and I don't begrudge them. There are plenty of people who don't like/understand the appeal of the superhero comics I love. If I'm allowed to like often satirical sci-fi and fantasy, people are certainly allowed to love this tedious doggerel.

I'm sure Excalibur will eventually make it into my headcanon but this first volume won't be the one.

[• Meldie • · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado y entretenido bastante este Omnigold. Lo empecé a leer porque Rondador Nocturno y Gatasombra son de mis personajes favoritos de la Patrulla X así que aquí estamos jeje Rachel Summers también ha ganado escalafones en mi lista de personajes favoritos todo hay que decirlo... Además como escribe Claremont a los personajes femeninos en especial en los años 80 y viendo todo el contexto comiquero de ese tiempo y que aún así se sigan manteniendo como personajes tridimensionales con sus problemas y sus cavilaciones además de ser superheroínas, el ejemplo más concreto es el de Meggan que sus poderes camaleónicos hace que se vuelva una metáfora perfecta para lo malo que es no saber quién es una misma y te dejes llevar por las decisiones y acciones de las demás en vez de por lo que tú quieras hacer con tu vida. En resumen, es increíble lo bien que han envejecido los comics de los X-Men especialmente los guionizados por Claremont (Los demás números no guionizados por el pues un poco meh la verdad 😬).

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this collection because I was interested in the British context of the tale and in exploring how the mutant experience was explored in the UK, but unfortunately, this collection ended up being more reflective of American assumptions about the British than it was about a British experience. Many of the stories ended up taking place in the United States, erasing the British context and the dialogue seemed to fluctuate between different attempts at rendering English accents to American readers. Unfortunately the comic was also quite slow.

I did appreciate the exploration of Mojo, who always embodies that potential critique of celebrity culture, but the approach to celebrity culture reflected American ideas of media rather than British notions. There is a context lost when Mojo is pushing for ratings and bigger sales in a location where most of the media is publicly funded.

[Adam Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first foray into classic Excalibur! This is a light but pretty fun intro to a lot of this Marvel UK/Captain Britain stuff -- some of it is a strange fit, but the book doesn't take itself too seriously, so it generally works (aside from perhaps the Crazy Gang). Chris Claremont is doing classic Claremont stuff here, and Alan Davis is a great creative partner for him. There's a fill-in artist or two who I didn't really care for. The Marvel Comics Presents story has a different creative team and is really silly fluff, but it's well-drawn with big layouts. The backup intros to Captain Britain and Meaghan are a nice addition -- the Meaghan intro in particular feels worthwhile, the Captain Britain issues are very generic seventies stuff that really show how much Claremont evolved as a writer from his early work.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collects Captain Britain #1-2 (October 1976), Excalibur Special Edition (April 1988), Excalibur #1-11 (October 1988 - August 1989), Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem (December 1989) as well as material from Marvel Comics Presents #31-38 (November - December 1989) and Mighty World of Marvel #7, 14-15 (December 1983, July - August 1984).

Back in 1987 or 1988, I was mad when it was announced that yet another X-Men comic was being created, and some of the most important characters were being shuffled off into that comic. Never did pick one up and pretty much quit collecting comics right around the time Excalibur started. Nice to catch up with them now. It's a little lighter than the other X-Men material, though it can get serious if it needs to. Not Claremont's best work but i's still good.

[Tim B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume collects Excalibur Special Edition, 1 - 11, and Mojo Mayhem; Marvel Comics Presents 31 - 38; Captain Britain 1 - 2; Mighty World of Marvel 7, 14, 15; material from Marvel Age 60 and 66; material from Marvel Age Annual 4; and an entry from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update ‘89 #2. Great collection of stories. It shows some of the emotional struggles of a team forming while maintaining the lightheartedness that everyone loves about Excalibur. We see more from old Captain Britain characters. I believe you get more out of this if you read the Captain Britain stories releases prior (including Jasper’s Warp).

[Avril · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading Excalibur because Jay and Miles of the podcast ‘Jay and Miles X-Plain The X-Men’ talk about it with such love - and they’re right. This is a wonderful comic series. Part of the enjoyment for me is the UK setting, the pop culture references, and especially the references to Doctor Who - the Weird Happenings Organisation or WHO often intersects with Excalibur. But, mostly, it’s the wonderful plots and characters and the fantastic art. Claremont and Davis work brilliantly together.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an 80s comic for sure. The line art is great, the classic style colouring has grown on me and the story itself is pretty fun. I like pretty much the whole team, but Captain Britain remains one of the most hilarious and dumb characters of all time.

I appreciate the (mostly) British setting! It's cool to see, and judging by the covers of the next few issues (and the name of the arc) they're gonna dive more into the historic/mythical nature of the group's name, which I'm excited to see what they do with!

Mild 80s sexism, but for the most part it's aged pretty well imo

[Todd Glaeser · Rating 4 out of 5]

My interest dissipated when the Alan Davis art was replaced. Why Alan Davis isn't revered like some others of his era, I will never understand. His art on Batman are some of my favorites issues as well
The Art Adams X-Babies was a fun bonus too.

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bought this as an ebook on special offer nice and cheap, was really kind of surprised by just how epic this collection actually was, there's so much in there! When I was younger I used to find Claremont's Captain Britain stuff a bit eye rolling but now I find it kind of fun

[Gaël Sauvajon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Epic, epic, epic!

I first read some of these adventures 30 years ago or so in French. How nice to be able to fill in the gaps of my favourite team of heroes besides the New Mutants.

[Scot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excalibur collected... good not great.

The first 70% or so of this collection was great. Then it got weird. A fair amount of filler towards the end cost this one a star. Worth your time, but barely.

[Gary Fortuin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection. This has some of Claremont’s truly bizarre and creative stories and characters in it. You get Mojo, Arcade, the X-Babies and the Crazy Gang. In addition to the Excalibur stories there are a handful of Captain Britain stories from ‘The World of Marvel’ collection.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

solid book with a very strong start. it isn't the craziest series but I thought this book was a lot of fun overall. the latter half is a bit messy but I thought the story overall was strong and the artwork stayed good throughout.

[J.L. Lamastus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. One of my favorites from Marvel.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I see why people don't like this, but I love it anyways.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty standard superhero comics of the era. Feels pretty similar to a lot of Claremont's X-Men stories but with less good character work.

[Robert McCallum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely disappointing. Absolutely nowhere near the standards of the other mutant related books of the time.

Struggled to finish this- the captain Britain issues at the back slightly redeemed the book - more from a nostalgia perspective than anything else