Excalibur Epic Collection, Vol. 2: The Cross-Time Caper

Excalibur Epic Collection

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

Amazing adventures across the Marvel Multiverse! England's premier superteam takes their show on the road in an interdimensional odyssey. Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Captain Britain and Meggan face a truly epic journey through incredible alternate dimensions, guest-starring nearly every hero and villain you can think of - or very unreasonable facsimiles thereof! But what do Crusader X, Centurion Britannus, Chevalier Bretagne and Lady London all have in common? Why, they're all Captain Britain, of course! Traumatic transformations and titanic tricksters await! COLLECTING: VOL. 2: EXCALIBUR (1988) 12-30

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

464 pages, Paperback

First published February 21, 2018

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

[Marco Antonio di Forelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Chris Claremont es considerado, y con todas las de la ley, el Patriarca Mutante. Sus 16 años escribiendo X-Men y la vasta mayoría de series derivadas de la misma crearon un amplio número de conceptos que, incluso a más de un cuarto de siglo después de su marcha, aún sustentan a la franquicia. Excalibur es uno de ellos. ¿Una serie cómica sobre un grupo de mutantes británico? Deme diez, joder.

A pesar de todo esto, no sé qué se le pasó al bueno de Claremont cuando realizó este arco argumental. Intenta emular el rollo del Doctor Who con sus viajes en el espacio-tiempo, pero lo alargan más de lo necesario y acaba aburriendo. Hay muchas ideas buenísimas y hay números que me han parecido joyitas (el guiño al Juez Dredd, la primera historia de corte medieval, la tierra donde todos los héroes eran versiones caricaturescas y algo cambiadas de sí mismos), pero creo que es grave que un simple tomo me haga sentir lo mismo que una temporada moderna de Los Simpson.

Espero que lo próximo suba el listón, porque no me gustaría decepcionarme con un grupo tan bello como este.

[Nikkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, the cringe. The nostalgic, nostalgic cringe. Comics certainly have come a long way. But Excalibur was my favorite of the X series when I a teenager, so when I saw this with a bargain price attached to it, I had to snap it up.

I'm really glad it was bargain priced.

[Emily Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just...what?
What did I just read?

Chris Claremont is an iconic writer. He's written some of, if not the best, the best X-Men storylines and sagas out there. I mean, God Loves, Man Kills? Insane. But this? I just...I don't know.

Kitty Pryde is my favorite superhero of all time. She's young, is book smart but kind of naïve, and loves dragons. I love Nightcrawler, too, because who wouldn't? He's witty and charming, has one of the best character designs, and usually gets fantastic writing. They were the main two reasons I started reading this comic.

Don't get me wrong, okay - this comic had a lot of strong points. I mean, a lot! The idea was very unique, one of the first of its kind, and was generally pretty interesting. It kept me engaged.

But it was also just so...bizarre. Some of the comics (at least on the Marvel Unlimited app) were out of order in print, the continuity kept on getting ditched, and I was baffled by the ridiculous jargon Claremont used in this. It was all just SO WEIRD. Honestly, there's no way SOMEONE wasn't high while they were writing, drawing, and publishing this.

I had no idea what was going on for most of this. I don't know if it's because I'm an idiot or because it's so ridiculous, but either way, there was no way for me to follow most of this. Why was Jamie Braddock shoved in there? How and why was the random, non-powered Alistaire shoved into the thrall? How is no one talking about how toxic Meggan and Captain Britain's relationship is?

There are so many side characters that it's impossible to keep them all straight. Especially when they bring them back forty issues later and expect you to still remember who they are!

I don't know, to be honest. I've loved some Excalibur storylines. But this one...just, what??

[Cameron H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excalibur is so much fun. It’s essentially Doctor Who meets X-Men with a bit of Monty Python thrown in for good measure. In other words, it’s a bit of the best of everything.

[Tomás Sendarrubias García · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pues muy sorprendido, con los buenos recuerdos que guardo de Excalibur y lo mucho que me gustó el primer tomo, lo durito que se me ha hecho terminar este (y eso que me he saltado algunos números de relleno). Este segundo tomo trae completa la saga Dimensiones Paralelas, en la que, como habíamos visto en el número anterior, a través de Cacharro y la energía de Fénix, el equipo se había lanzado a un viaje de locura por una serie de dimensiones paralelas de todo tipo, donde los miembros de Excalibur van a encontrarse con diferentes versiones de ellos mismos, desde un mundo medieval dominado por la magia, a la versión de Alan Davis y Chris Claremont del Juez Dredd, pasando por un mundo ambientado en las películas de la Hammer, la dimensión del Cruzado-X en el que el Club Fuego Infernal está dominado por el Rey Sombra, y muchas otras posibilidades, que concluyen incluso con un enfrentamiento entre el grupo y Galactus, con intervenciones de un buen plantel de personajes cósmicos de Marvel interesados en el conflicto entre el devorador de planetas y la devoradora de estrellas. Ah, y en estos números comienza a perfilarse la figura de Jamie Braddock como un mutante prácticamente todopoderoso, que tiene un epiquísimo enfrentamiento con la Tecno-Red de Rompepuertas.

Pero el caso es que con todo esto, la saga se me ha hecho larga. Estirada. Quizá precisamente porque por temas editoriales hay algunos números de relleno, quizá porque por temas de dibujo, hay varios números que están dibujados por Chris Wozniak, que no está, ni mucho menos, a la altura del habitual Alan Davis. Sea por lo que sea... pues me ha costado llegar al final... En fin. La vida y el cómic.

[Christopher M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marketed as an X-Men book because that was a selling point at the time this is really Claremont sneakily carrying on the much-cancelled Captain Britain and expects you to know a lot about his backstory and support cast. But this cross time caper, in which there is very little time travel and a lot of parallel universe hopping, is tons of fun in a crazy, anything goes funfair way, and I appreciated the many allusions to a popular British sci fi show (a time machine disguised as a train, a tin robot pet, Alistaire Stuart and his secret military employers, the recurring baddy with terrible facial hair) and Lewis Carroll. A very British super team, I love the eccentricity.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit more entertaining than the first collection, but still nothing to make it stand apart from other standard team comics. Worth a read for fans of these characters though.

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate this run of comics.

The late 80s phenomenon of Chris Claremont goes to the movies, or turns on the TV, and decides to satirize it in an X-book is one of my least favorite tropes of the era. Unfortunately, that's all this book is. He just tosses every nonsensical idea in his head at these pages, and they are insufferable to me.

Oh look, there's a Dalek, oh, hey, let's throw all the Avengers into a page, Nightcrawler plays pirate again, now we're in the magical land of Bloogleflax where a fairy demon dragon princess falls in love with one of the characters at first sight and swordfights everyone with lasers. I hate it.

I have some very good friends who I share some opinions with who absolutely love this run because it's so bonkers, and so invested in just feeding bubby nostalgia to the people who read it. I understand why that appeals to some people but I think it's just the dumbest writing, and it meant that, for several years, some of my favorite X-Men were just out of continuity in this stupid Cross-Time Caper, instead of being involved in any stories I might have found interesting.

This might absolutely be a five star book for you but I am making a vow not to read this again unless someone pays me at least four digits before the decimal point.

[Gav451 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I disengaged from this within 100 pages, not good in a 500 page collected edition. I think that Chris Claremont just doesn't sing to me. I have neither the energy nor the impetus to learn all of the back story and soap like web of plot twists. While I can see why he did this style to draw everyone into all of the stories and how it may have been groundbreaking at the time its now just a bit inaccessible.

While there are themes and ideas that are both moving and interesting there is too much silliness, fluff and filler for me to get into it.

I left this plot feeling like Captain Britain was a character they just did not know how to deal with and was a type of playground for the sillier ideas of the time.

The accents written down grated a bit.

It never felt like we were in one place long enough to appreciate the creation or the created places were too shallow with only one idea or two.

I enjoyed the homage the Judge Dredd. Including design.

There were moments I liked and the art was great at times. It wasnt awful but it just felt like it lacked focus or a clear direction of travel.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This covers the bulk of the remaining Claremont-written issues, and the last of the Alan David artwork until he returns as writer and artist with issue #42. The question now, of course, is how they're going to set up the next couple of Epics for this series -- they *might* be able to make the third Epic a mix of #31-#41 plus the three "special editions" and some additional material, although that will make for a rather rough collection.

This particular volume has its moments, meanwhile, though the fun part of The Cross-Time Caper is, as it were, derailed abruptly.

[Lance Grabmiller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collects Excalibur #12-30 (September 1989 through October 1990). About three quarters of this volume is taken up by the Cross Time Caper story, which is a long, rambling assortment of silliness that reminds me of the worst of the early X-Men Annuals. Weirdly, it's pretty inappropriately named too, as they are traveling across dimensions and not across time. Not my cup of tea. Was glad it got back to something like a normal story line at the end, but there wasn't much to hold onto after the huge tangent that made up most of the book.

[Tim B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection contains Excalibur #12-30 and material from Marvel Age 88 and 111, and entries from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Update ‘89 for Captain Britain, Excalibur, Meggan, Roma, Saturnyne, Technet, Warwolves, and Widget. This is a fun quirky romp through all sorts of parallel dimensions and alternate versions of the team. A great collection and continuation of the storyline. Occasionally, some of the stories are non-sequitur, but they are all fun.

[Nick Callebaut · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Cross-Time Caper is a great way for Chris Claremont to let loose his wild imagination and drop the already colourful cast of Excalibur into all kinds of different backgrounds; masterfully created by Alan Davis, whose '90s and '00s work I was never a huge fan of, but in this book (and the 11 issues before it) I've been eating up his stylized depiction of London and every interdimensional place Nightcrawler and..

[Derek Moreland · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is a study in contrasts. THE CROSS-TIME CAPER is probably the peak of Excalibur's potential as a comic - it's very clearly the book Claremont intended, and it holds together surprisingly well, all told.

But then this collection ends with a series of weak filler issues that are a *slog* to burn through. I wanted to give this one four stars, based on my love and appreciation for "Cross-Time"...but the last three issues are *so* dire that it knocked a star off for me.

[Kieran · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cross-Time Caper is a fun collection/arc, it carries on right where the previous volume left off, and I honestly enjoyed this more than the previous arc! I'm still giving this one a 3 though because the writing itself, while fun, is nothing masterful or even particularly great. Kinda praying that Meggan wakes up to the fact that Captain Britain is the biggest asshole in the universe and they she don't need him!

I also really enjoyed the meta commentary stuff!

[Adam Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection was pretty fun -- the cross time caper had its ups and downs, it didn't always make a LOT of sense, but in particular the (very confusing) stories revolving around Jamie Braddock's reality manipulations were quite sinister. There are some generally forgettable, although not offense, fill-in issues in here as well.

[Doug Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

while there's some good stuff in here, I was largely not a fan of this book nearly as much as the first volume. the main issue for me was how much I didn't enjoy the main storyline, which felt a little dragged out and seemed to take forever to end. the book wasn't bad by any means, but I also just constantly found myself ready to move on to reading something else.

[Avril · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me Alan Davis draws Excalibur. All other pencilers fall short. So I didn’t enjoy this volume as much as volume 1 because of the alternative pencilers. No matter how good they might be, they’re just not Davis. But Excalibur remains one of my favourite Marvel series. Absolutely bloody brilliant.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great when it’s Claremont and Davis. Less great when it’s anyone else. Sometimes, much less.

[Ned Netherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really loved this one, some wonderful wild ideas going on.

[Doom70 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Alan Davis issues are enjoyable, but the fill in artists are not up to par and the whole thing turns into a shambles hallway through. Jump to Vol 3 when Alan is back.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very outdated, it reminds me of a "Saturday Morning Cartoon" version of a cross-time caper.

[Matt Aukamp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good moments and fantastic art, but god this gets tedious.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything from Claremont/Davis is some of the best comics you could ever hope to read. The issues with Claremont and fill in artists are mostly ok, but once Claremont and Davis both leave the book quality noticeably dips.