House of M Prelude: Excalibur

Excalibur (2004) (Collected Editions)

by Chris Claremont (Writer), Aaron Lopresti (Illustrator), Cliff Richards (Illustrator)

Callisto answers a cry for help from Warren Worthington, a.k.a. Archangel! But Callisto and Warren have some pretty unpleasant history between them...can they overcome their differences long enough to survive? Meanwhile, Professor X and Magneto struggle to help their disturbed guest on Genosha.

Collects: Excalibur (2004) #11-14.

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

96 pages, Paperback

First published August 24, 2005

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

[Will M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I plan to read the whole House of M series, and that means all of the volumes and sub-series concerning it. This is the prelude to the whole series, and all I can say is that, if the series continues to be this good, then I think I'm going to enjoy it.

This prelude was a bit vague for me, but I still enjoyed it. It had almost all the characters that I love in the X-Men. Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Wanda, and Magneto are among my favorite X-Men characters. I'm glad that Strange plays a huge role in this series because he is very much underrated. I also like that this is going to focus on Scarlet Witch because she's one of my favorite villains ever, alongside Magneto.

I'm not going to write a long review because this is just the prelude. I will be writing my review for all the volumes after I've read the single issues in chronological order. It's going to take a long time (maybe a week or two), and I'll be writing my reviews chronologically too (House of M, House of M Spider-Man, House of M Incredible Hulk, etc.)

[Baba · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing to see here, please move along... dire House of M prelude, absolutely nothing feeds into House of M!!!!!!! One of the reasons I rarely spend money on Marvel or DC books (I borrow from library, friends or read online resources) is the way they pad out events and take people's hard earned money, and long time built loyalty, for nothing more than fillers. 1 out of 12.

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you all ready for this? I HONESTLY AM NOT.

The final arc for Chris Claremont's Excalibur III is called The Devil's Own and it runs for four issues (#11-14) which are also considered as preludes to the House of M storyline by Brian Michael Bendis (which is the next series I'll be reading the fuck out of, and you better believe it), particularly the last issue which was the finale; otherwise known as a twenty-eight paged massacre of all my shippy feelings for Charles and Erik, all bundled in one convenient package of Claremont-styled cheestastic narrative and dialogue exchanges.

I've been reading nothing but Claremont since January of this year and it's hard to believe this is the very last X-Men of his I'll be perusing (until Age of Apocalypse, that is, which I scheduled during a midyear). Nevertheless, I am more than happy to end on this note. Excalibur III was sad and tragic and everything definitive in what I've always believed and cherished regarding the relationship between Professor X and Magneto. I maintain from here on out that Claremont is probably the only writer who can capture the beautiful subtleties of their friendship and baggage of losses, shame and guilt. The characterizations for their respective characters have almost destroyed me at times.

Now I have some heavy-duty investment on this last volume of this series, so my perfect rating is unbelievably based on that because I cannot force myself to be objective and detached from a story that spoke volumes to me. I will never apologize about the singular truth that I LOVE CHARLES XAVIER AND ERIK LEHNSHERR as characters and as a pairing so much. Hence, please be warned that this review contains some of the most dramatic insights I will ever publish online concerning the depths of love that I have for this uniquely devastating relationship.

Let me just warm up to that calvary. First, I'll glaze over the twelfth and thirteenth issues which is a separate plot concerning the supporting characters Callisto, Karima and Shola who decided to help out the new X-Men during an attack in New York City where they have to fight Viper and some of her allies. I thought that this plot thread was interesting enough, loaded with action, great character interaction and development, as well as a surprise twist concerning the nefarious aims of Courtney Ross, the new White Queen to the Hellfire Club, who apparently is eager to provide finance on Genosha, believing this will give her an opportunity to seize it under her control. That is a hell of a bad news for Charles and Erik who have just appointed themselves as the liberators of this island which is essentially what Excalibur III has been centered aorund.

Since her appearance in the second issue, Callisto has been consistently impressive for this. She may have some grit but there's a surprising warmth to her presence that makes her readable and fun. She's got style, a snarky attitude and tons of wonderful chemistry with almost everyone including Charles and especially with Karima and Shola. The three of them, accompanied reluctantly by the teenage teleporter Hub, are amazing as a unit, fighting the bad guys and helping the X-Men with everything they've got. These people have only known each other for a short time but they already have a sense of camaraderie together which actually isn't forced. I believe these three naturally gravitated towards one another because they want to do good and they know they can never do it alone. Their strengths and weaknesses in combat and leadership style balance together and I would love to read more about them in another title if there's ever going to be a spin-off.

Another noteworthy character is Archangel who is put in a more assertive position as he tries to lead the team of the X-Men who responded to the crisis in New York. It was nice that when all the commotion has been diverted, these heroes' actions were acknowledged by the general public. That's a sweet, touching wrap-up which seamlessly led to the much bigger story concerning Charles who has been trying to telepathically heal Wanda (Scarlet Witch and Magneto's daughter) for six months now since we last read his conversation with Erik in issue #11, but with no clear results. Desperate, he sought out the help of his old friend Stephen Strange, also known as Dr. Strange.

This is where we arrive to the momentous finale of this series which jump-starts the House of M storyline by Bendis later on.

First of all, my imagination has created the fantasy that the versions who are playing out this story are James McAvoy as Prof X and Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange, and you best leave this innocent delusion at that, okay? So let's proceed.

There's going to be a ridiculous amount of comics scans, by the way. You can read the larger images HERE in the official post in my X-Men blog.

After Charles makes a telepathic contact with Stephen (he's still in Genosha at this point), we open issue #14 with a visit from his past, a memory lane in particular, when he used to be in the military. If this seems odd at first because we all know the professor as a pacifist, then it might make more sense if you accept his explanation that he considered himself as a shepherd rather than a soldier, whose primary aim is to find the lost flock and bring them back home to America. It was only when Stephen finally appeared when Charles realized that this was all a telepathic reminisce and that he is currently still in Genosha, tending to Wanda Maximoff's mental health. With Stephen guiding him inside the astral plane, Charles began to contemplate about the things he's been repressing for so long, and no one is as keen on repression like Charles Xavier. Check out this revealing set of panels:



In short: as Charles struggles to mend Wanda through mental contact, she herself is blocking him through channelling scenarios from his past she knows will be able to keep him preoccupied. As the Scarlet Witch, she has the ability to bend dimensions to her will including the astral plane so it's no surprise that she can manipulate Charles to a certain extent. She's resisting his help and by exposing him to his greatest regrets via mindscape, he's rendered unable to help her recover. It's a good thing Dr. Strange was here to remind him of his current goal and not to get lost in the winding pathways of his own mistakes. Basically, Stephen wants him to recognize the crippling effect of his guilt which is what is stopping him from getting through Wanda in the first place. How can he hope to save her when he is just as lost as she is?

So, aside from this free therapy session with the Sorcerer Supreme, these two also talk about Erik. A LOT. Erik, after all, is the source of most of Charles' perceived failures. Here is a rather harrowing example of that:



"I believe in him, Stephen. To the core of my being, I believe he is fundamentally a good and decent man." *sniffs* Dammit, Charles. Why do you cling so tightly on Erik's capacity to grow and change like this, to his inherent sense of goodness and light, even when you know how much darkness and chaos he has brought to the world? If our actions and choices are the things that define our lives and whether or not we are good or bad people, then Erik is definitely a complicated mixed bag of both. BUT CHARLES LOVES HIM ANYWAY. He has faith in Erik, an unshakeable one that allows him to welcome and forgive his friend so many times, no matter how rotten things get because of Magneto's unflinching dedication to his extremist ways of mutant superiority.

Why even bother, Dr. Strange inquires, loving someone so damaged who spent almost two decades of his life retaliating against his perceived tormentors, the 'inferior' homo sapiens as he, Magneto, personally deemed? And Charles' response was that all the things Erik committed later on in life was because of his experiences in the past when he only knew humanity in the darkest time of history, as a Jewish boy in a Nazi prison camp. He was tasked to haul bodies from gas chambers to the crematorium; these are people whom he may have known as neighbors, distant relatives--people who were discriminated against because they are thought to be different and therefore deserved to be oppressed. Witnessing hideous things has made him hideous but this doesn't mean he was worthy of hatred and scorn. Charles only believed someone like Erik Lehnsherr is worthy of his love because Charles is pathologically a martyr who finds relevance and joy in helping people, even to a fault. That's why these two are quite perfect for one another.

Is it unhealthy in the long run? Won't they be better off without hanging onto each other since they merely go around in circles of break up, make up and break up again? Possibly. But neither of them would have made it this far if it wasn't for the fact that their friendship--even their conflicts, frustrations and disappointments--gave them purpose. Erik strives to be a better man for Charles' sake and Charles never stops believing Erik could be saved.

As much as the conversation is Erik-centric at times, this issue still delves into Charles' own psyche which was why we get these panels featuring his ex-girlfriend Gabirelle Heller whom he met around the same time as Erik back in an Israel hospital for Nazi survivors. Gaby was a catatonic patient whom Charles healed through telepathy AND THEN STARTED DATING. That is as creepy and amoral as it sounds. I'm so relieved that Charles finally owned up to that, admitting that he was guilty of taking advantage of Gaby at her weakest moment.




Being able to reconcile with that, Charles finally did something he has refused to do for so long, which is to forgive himself for being just another flawed man. See, Charles wants to believe he is always doing good because his intentions are noble most of the time but history has shown that he is just as capable of deception, secrets and detachment; inflicting indirect pain and stress on his own students which was why it makes sense that some of the X-Men have learned to trust him less lately, even Scott (Cyclops) who is more or less his surrogate son. This even soured once they found out he ran off with Magneto whom they all believed is dead. Heck, Charles even held a funeral even though they vehemently protested. It's no wonder Charles is on repression mode again, knowing he has sinned and failed his children but is far too stubborn to admit to it. He's just like Erik in that respect. Is it any wonder he wants to believe Erik can change because that means perhaps he too can repair his relationships with the ones he love? So after that reconciliation, he comes back to the present in Genosha with Erik tending to his daughter Wanda.

HENCE BEGAN THE MOST HEARBREAKING 'BREAK-UP' BETWEEN THE TWO YET:





"Old patterns. Automatic responses. This is the way it's always been between us."

NO. JUST NO. GODDAMN FUCKING NOPE, NOPE, NOPE ! Also, Erik was reading The Once and Future King.





"Don't leave me, Charles!"

"I'd want to know if you're truly the man I thought you were all these years OR SIMPLY REPRESENTING THE FALSE HOPES OF MY YOUTH."

Why does this exchange remind me of this scene in X-Men: First Class otherwise known as a CRIME AGAINST THE HEART?:


LOOK AT THOSE MEN LOOKING AT EACH OTHER WITH THAT FORLORN EXPRESSION! If you're suddenly hearing the chorus to Adele's "Rolling the Deep" while reading this issue, particularly with the panels above, then don't worry, you're not alone. YOU ARE GOING INSANE AND I AM HERE TO HOLD YOUR HAND THROUGH THE MADNESS, and sing the song along with you.

I am frankly exhausted as I type this. I think I reached my Cherik quota for the day with this review. So I'm just going to leave you with this final page of issue #14 where Charles once again defends Erik by saying the cheesiest and heartwarming of justifications ever as Dr. Strange weighs in. This conversation would be even more awesome and painful if you imagine James McAvoy and Benedict Cumberbatch having it. Go on. Try it. And yes, this volume (issues #11-14) have a perfect rating for me for very subjective reasons. I will not apologize for any of them!



RECOMMENDED: 10/10

DO READ MY REVIEWS AT

[Roman Zarichnyi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Легко й з чистою душею варто було б сказати, що вам потрібно пройти повз цього коміксу. Я читав тільки «Екскалібур» #11-14, що є прелюдією до події «Династія М» (яку, до речі, видало українською видавництво Mal’opus). І собі не уявляю, щось робиться в усіх попередніх десяти номерах.

Насправді важливими є тільки останні два номери, в яких розповідається про те, що відбувається з Багряною Відьому. І наче класно, що Доктор Стрендж відіграє тут величезну роль, яка думаю перенесеться й на саму подію, і те, що у Багрянаої Відьми з’їхав трішки дах, що призведе до чогось масштабного. Та все розказано настільки туманно й недолуго в цих чотирьох випусках, що це якийсь жах.

І ще стільки тексту... Якогось безтолкового тексту, який взагалі не хотілося читати. Цією прелюдією я розчарований, але розумію, що це хоч якийсь екскурс до самої події, що є важливим. Хоча багато чого ми дізнаємося з інших ікс лінійок.

Мені не сподобалося.

[Mangrii · Rating 3 out of 5]

En mi camino a Dinastía de M (si, Wandavision me está pegando fuerte) y siguiendo cierta guía de lectura, hice una parada en este tercer volumen de Excalibur situado como supuesto preludio al gran evento Marvel. Sin embargo, resulta un volumen bastante confuso si no se está familiarizado con la serie de los mutantes en particular. Pese a ello, el número final de estos cuatro que conforma el arco llamado ‘La estirpe del diablo’ es el verdadero preludio y lo más disfrutable.

Tras los eventos de Los Vengadores: Desunidos, Magneto ha llegado a su hija la Bruja Escarlata hasta Genosha para que Charles Xavier intente reparar su destrozada mente. Sin embargo, aun contando con la ayuda del Doctor Extraño, Wanda será capaz de doblegar su realizad y bloquear el avance de Charles en cada paso. Un bloqueo que le llevará a reflexionar sobre la eterna relación de amistad entre Erik y Charles.

Y esto es lo que más me ha gustado de este pequeño número. Como Claremont es capaz de ser sutil, trágico y reflejar un sentimiento perpetuo de culpa entre ambos. De cómo siempre existe una barrera que separa a las dos caras de esa moneda mutante inicial. Es un final potentísimo y me lanzo de cabeza, ahora sí, a por Dinastía de M.

[Alex E · Rating 2 out of 5]

So the "prelude" to house of M is ...loosely related at best. I mean, its a 4 issue series, and pretty much only the last one pertains to the storyline.

For most of the volume, it deals with Angel and Husk taking on a new threat by the Weaponeers as they attack President of an African nation. Callisto joins the fray and Viper inexplicably changes sides mid battle. Claremont's trademark writing is in full effect, as the story takes on familiar beats. After all is said and done, we get a story that feels familiar, yet unfortunately retreaded as well.

As mentioned, the last issue deals with the house of M storyline, and it does set the scene to how things stand right before the event. Magneto is trying to "help" his daughter, with the help of Professor X. And Doctor Strange, knowing what happened in Avengers Disassembled, talks to Xavier to tell him he may be way in over his head.

If you are reading this for the house of M storyline, then you can skip to the last issue and be completely fine.

[ana (taylor’s version) ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Some of us hold onto guilt and shame far too long. There’s a strange security in misery, it’s almost comfortable. Taking the risk of moving on, that’s terrifying.”

Let’s talk about issues 11 & 12:
- It was a little hard to connect and understand who was which cause I never read the other issues of this series but around 12 I got the hang of it and started connecting with some very interesting characters.
- Husk was so interestingggggg, is she good is she playing sides, reminded me a lot of MCU Sharon in TFATWS. Would love to see her in the MCU or X-Men but idk somehow working with Sharon.
- Also, Viper and Callisto too sexy to be fighting over who gets to kill blond wigged man.

Now, issues 13 & 14:
Had such great lines as the one above and:

“Their motivation springs from the noblest of emotions, love.”

“Her life is such torment that death would be a mercy.”

Loving Magneto, I too, would rather die than see Wanda suffer. But he sus. Strange, ily sexy.

[Heather Sinclair · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this series does have some enjoyable moments between Magneto and ProfX, it's mostly a testament to how silly and irrelevant Chris Claremont has become.

[Damián Lima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este volumen recopila los números de Excalibur (2004) del #11 al #14, y algunos segmentos de su historia funcionan a modo de prólogo de lo que será House of M, sobre todo el último de los cuatro números.

El núcleo de los tres primeros números lo compone una historia ubicada en la República de Zanzíbar, en la cual Ángel, Husk, Askari, Calisto y otros X-Men se enfrentaran a Viper, Cimitarra y un ejército de armeros. Se trata de una historia relativamente interesante, con buenos momentos, escenas de acción bien logradas y un giro de tuerca hacia el final.

Sin embargo, lo mejor de estos cuatro números son los segmentos en los que aparecen Charles Xavier y Magneto. Este último ha traído a su hija Wanda Maximoff, alias Scarlet Witch, en pésimas condiciones, y solicita la ayuda de su amigo. Al mismo tiempo, Charles acude al Dr. Stephen Strange en búsqueda de ayuda para cumplir con su tarea. El número #14 de Excalibur, titulado “El fin del mundo tal como lo conocemos”, nos lleva en un violento viaje psicológico por la mente de Charles, en el que recorrerá algunos momentos importantes de su pasado y aparecerán personajes como Logan, Dormammu, Gabrielle Haller y Siniestro, entre otros. Al final, Charles encontrará lo que estaba buscando para poder ayudar a Magneto y Wanda.



Una historia sumamente interesante y profunda, como siempre que los autores nos pasean por la psiquis íntima de sus personajes, con unas ilustraciones excelentes, que van alterando el escenario página a página. Y esto es solo el preludio de lo que vendrá.

[Josh Riesenbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not good. The final issue is enjoyable but the rest was pretty difficult to get through.

[Tom Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of this seemed irrelevant to the premise of House of M? I'm reading the whole event starting with this, and I think it's a good intro, just some not relevant to the event.

[literaryelise · Rating 2 out of 5]

no 😐 one extra star for some great art panels though

[Teo · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are reading for the House of M event, just skip to the last chapter

[Dai Sims · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confusing in a way that makes sense the longer you read but I forgot this arc was about Wanda and I HAAAATE her

*Edit: Comic!Wanda and MCU!Wanda are different I gotta remember that!

[Klaus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly below average but the last issue (#14) was really good. If the series had all been that good it would still be going. At least it serves as a good end and prequel to the House of M event.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

90s mutants were quite a ragtag bunch of weirdos eh?

Here I go reading what promises to be The definitive lead-in to give context to House of M, my last re-read as part of my quest to wrest all the juicy comics backstory out of WandaVision. (One review for all three trades because fuck it.)

And this is *definitely* a book I skipped the first time around. House of M was a Bendis joint through and through, and I’d already been well-educated on the avoidable excess that was 90s comics, so that I knew better than to bother trawling through that mountain of despair. Or so I’d been told.

Now with even greater distance, and a whole lot of time to understand which events and storylines echoed so far into the future, I’m just curious enough about the Genosha era to read this epilogue, understand a little of what was at stake when Wanda soon utters those infamous words.

And while 80s Claremont never met a page he couldn’t overstuff with Maximum Wordage, this is relative tame by comparison. Or tolerable. Or maybe I’m just willing to cut the geezer some slack these days.

But holy crap are these never-heard-from-again mutants forgettable. Force field boy, green goo-arm girl, dino-transformer, ghost whisperer, the parade of barrel-bottom ideas never ends eh? And these are just the remnants left behind after 16 million other mutants were annihilated? What kind of encyclopaedia must 90s readers have kept scribbled all over their cell walls to have any hope of keeping them straight?

The setting and mood of this book is definitely notable - mutant refuge wiped clean, remnant mutants lost and desperate, inner conflict. Magneto has always been present for me so this “everyone thinks you’re dead” schtick has no resonance for me.

In fact the whole impact of this book feels hollow - I never lived through what must’ve been years of “mutants gathering peacefully on Genosha” era so I don’t feel the loss this leans so heavily on - and without it, this just seems like Yet Another Story Of Mutants Struggling To Survive Being Hunted By Bad White Dudes.

Not to mention having to deal with Charles and Erik acting completely against type. “I learned my military trade in a guerilla war”, Charles said - apparently channeling his inner John Rambo.

The most redeeming factor of this whole run is the fact this is where Magneto took Scarlet Witch after she wrought Avengers Disassembled. And that this story wasn’t truncated or interrupted, but led smoothly into House of M. Onwards!

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've already gone through the rest of the House of M trades a while back, but this one was out of print and prohibitively expensive, however, I eventually found a cheap copy, although it collected dust a while before I got around to it.

The X-Men I grew up with were from writer, Chris Claremont, although after his legendary partnership with illustrator, John Byrne, but before his popular run with Jim Lee. The X-Men were still big during that time, but it was a sag between peaks in popularity and those years aren't quite as celebrated.

Claremont's story in this TPB does indeed take me back to those days. His writing is a bit old fashioned, and that's the weakness in this book, but also it's charm. The aspect of the story that leads up to the House of M event is actually a secondary story except in the final chapter that gives it full attention. Most of the book is focused on a conflict involving the President of an Island nation and villainess, Viper, acting on behalf of The Hellfire Club. There really isn't much to the plot. Good guys fight, get captured, escape, fight and get captured again and so on. I also question the taste of a black African super hero taking the name, "The Spear." The last chapter, which guest stars Doctor Strange, is very good and makes the whole read worth it.

There are two illustrators credited and I'm not sure who did which chapters, but most of the book has a very nice retro look that compliments Claremont's dated writing style.

[C. Varn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This concludes Chris Claremont's Excalibur III and begins the launch into Brian Michael Bendis's House of M. It's hard to really evaluate because while I loved Claremont's X-title runs and particularly his first Excalibur with Alan Davis, but this feels more like a Claremont X-men title. Claremont's dialogue remains arch, and his purple narration has a classic feel that was missing from so much of late 90s/early aughts comic world. Yet there are too many characters-both from crossovers and from various X-teams--to keep up with, and there were almost none from any Excalibur team in this book. Claremont does give a proper tragic development to the relationship between Magneto and Xavier that explores the gray areas of both characters, but many of the other characters just don't seem to mesh. Characters from the Morlocks and Generation X are key parts of Xavier's team whereas Dark Beast has a separate. The White Queen is the only tie to original Excalibur, and while I love Claremont, this seems tied up in the bloat of the mythology both from Claremont's runs and from the huge expansion of the X-universe in the 90s. The art does have a nice late 80s feel at works with the dialogue.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017...
2 stars for the opening weaponeers story, 4 stars to the Xavier, Dr. Strange, Wanda, Magneto story that follows.

I haven't read House of M yet, but I hope that it has character beats as strong as this second story. This is really good stuff. Sure, it has Claremont's ever-present melodrama, but it is well written and hits the right notes as far as I am concerned.

[Taha · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Wanda Maximoff'u MCU'dan tanıyıp sevdiğimden "House of M" serisine başlamak istedim. Ama seriye direkt dalınmıyormuş pek. Ben de hakkını vererek tüm orijin ve yan hikayeleriyle birlikte okumaya karar verdim. Benim için de epey bir değişiklik olacak.
-Okuduğum bu ilk ciltte "House of M" temalı kısımlar (Scarlet Witch, Magneto, Professor Xavier ve Dr. Strange'in olduğu kısımlar) iyiydi ama onun dışında farklı mutant karakterlerin yer aldığı klişe bir hikayeyle karşılaştım.
-Yine de pes etmek yok. Seriyi bitirmeye kararlıyım:)

[Raúl Vejar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un preludio a HOUSE OF M que ayuda recordar y desarrollar el pasado de Xavier, y vemos un poco más a Magneto. El resto de las tramas no parecen conectar con esto, pero siguen siendo lo suficientemente entretenidas porque Claremont hace brillar a sus personajes secundarios en misiones llenas de acción.

Como punto negativo: la historia no cumple lo que promete en el título y casi no hay elementos de Wanda o HOUSE OF M. No parece tampoco sentar bases demasiado sólidas.

Lo positivo: los elementos Xavier-Erick son un deleite.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este volumen me ha resultado algo confuso al comienzo porque no estoy muy familiarizado con esta serie, pero una vez metido en faena ha sido bastante entretenido. Mi interés en volumen se centra en conocer los acontecimientos que van a dar lugar el evento Dinastía de M y en ese sentido realmente no es muy interesante porque prácticamente hasta las últimas páginas no se desvela nada y lo poco que nos cuenta no es muy relevante.

[Shibosan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Приключения-злоключения очередных команд мутантов не слишком интересны, в отличие от путешествия Чарльза Ксавьера и Доктора Стренджа по волнам памяти профессора, в которые вдохнула жизнь сходящая с ума Алая Ведьма. Краткий экскурс по ключевым событиям и поворотным точкам в судьба Ксавьера и Магнето дает возможность узнать и понять их получше. В том числе и им самим. Ну и все это только прелюдия к глобальному событию.
2,5 звезды

[Rangga Sukmawijaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enam bulan setelah peristiwa terbunuhnya beberapa anggota Avengers oleh Wanda/Scarlet Witch, Charles Xavier masih berusaha mencoba membantu penyembuhan mental Wanda yang terguncang. Diselingi oleh kisah krisis di negara Zanzibar yang melibatkan Warren Worthington III dkk., empat nomor dalam serial Excalibur ini merupakan pengantar kepada peristiwa House of M, satu peristiwa besar yang akan mempengaruhi jalannya sejarah X-Men dan Avengers.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder whether this was the original intent.

Claremont's Excalibur was originally about Xavier and Magneto rebuilding Genosha together, with the help of Callisto and a handful of other mutants. In this volume this all gets derailed to make for the House of M event, after which all of the characters are depowered and the series ends. It doesn't really fulfill anything it promised to do.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit of stretch to call this a prelude, as there's very little material in this volume that truly ties into House of M. It's really one issue, and even that one issue isn't really a direct prelude. That being said, this was a decent read on its own. I was reading this in order to read the House of M series, but this volume was really tied more into the Excalibur issues that came before.

Not a bad read, just not a true prelude, at least to me.

[Michele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Only the latter story is saved. The first 2 are pure trash:

- Full of info-dumps
- Cliché characters at the very best
- Why do the characters keep talking to themselves aloud?
- Plot holes...
- Embarrassing dialogs

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this. It doesn't seem worth it. Took me like three weeks to force myself through it

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting the House of M series, which means a little background first! For me, the last issue in this collection was the most compelling, and makes a good prologue for what's to come!

[Layth Salah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice events. But I feel that the story was not tied together. Needs a continuation...