Excalibur, Vol. 2: Saturday Night Fever

Excalibur (2004) (Collected Editions)

by Chris Claremont, Aaron Lopresti (Writer)

Professor Xavier has now assembled his ragtag team of Magneto and Callisto - with youngsters Wicked, Freakshow, and Shola under their tutelage. Already struggling to keep the peace in Genosha, as well as between themselves, will the team have the strength to get to the bottom of simultaneous terrorist attacks on X-Corp offices around the world? Plus: Magneto has returned to Genosha, and he's got someone with him... someone who promises to shake things up for Professor X and his newly formed team! Collects Excalibur #5-10.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, X Men, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 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

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

As Magneto(!) and Xavier try and build something from the ruins of Genosha with their young group of mutants they are faced with dangers from the past, present and future! More of this long prelude to House of M... and an OK read in the context of laying down the Magento ground work for House of M! 7 out of 12, Three Stars from me.

2018 read

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) are long-time friends who only became political enemies because of ideological differences; the former seeks mutant equality and co-existence with the rest of humankind while the other unapologetically desires for mutant superiority above all else.

Professor X is an eternal optimist who is always willing to see the best in everyone while the Magneto is a child of the Holocaust who witnessed the worst imaginable case of oppressing minorities during the second World War. This makes their relationship a rather stressful one--a never-ending cycle of screw-ups and hurt feelings--where both parties try and try and try and fail and fail and fail to reach a compromise. When all is said and done, one thing for certain remains, however: Prof X and Mags may be on opposing sides at all times but Charles and Erik can never give up on each other as friends.

If you're like me and a good quarter of the X-Men fandom, you think that they're totes and obviously head over heels in love and that's actually a very acceptable angle.

Throughout the comics, their relationship has been delivered and interpreted in various ways but the most recurring theme of which is the fact that THEY KEEP COMING BACK TO EACH OTHER and that THEY HAVE IMMENSE DEPTH OF RESPECT, COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING FOR ONE ANOTHER'S FLAWS AND DREAMS.

Xavier and Lehnsherr are simply destined to fight and make up, break each other's heart and then forgive each other in the end. AND I LOVE-HATE IT ALL THE SAME! Chris Claremont's third volume of Excalibur seems to operate with this level of crazy shippy angst and cheese. This second collection is comprised of two arcs, Food Fight (#5-7) and Saturday Night Fever (#8-10), which are baffling titles that don't fit any of their content at all.

Still, this volume was fun. I'm only reading this series because of all the amazing Cherik moments in between but the story arcs themselves are passable. There are some genuinely interesting and enjoyable issues herein. We get the introduction of Dark Beast and the tandem of Callisto and Karima the Omega Sentinel. We also get great flashbacks about Erik's questionable past and regrettable actions. The real kicker for this volume, however, is that it's a prequel to the events that are about to take place in the widely-acclaimed storyline House of M. In issues #8-10, we get to see Erik exposing himself as Magneto to the Avengers just to rescue his daughter Wanda (Scarlet Witch) when she went crazy and almost killed her comrades. At this point, the world believes Magneto is dead and Erik's decision to reveal himself to the heroes meant endangering the cause he and Charles eloped to Genosha for. So Charles is understandably really pissed about this but he had no other choice but to make the most of a terrible situation. BECAUSE THEIR LOVE CAN CONQUER ALL, DAMMIT! Don't you dare disagree!

Here be the blurbs for the second volume:

Issue #5 --> In which CHARLES IS TOPLESS AND WEARING MAGENTA PINK BOXER SHORTS and Callisto snogs him. Also the issue where Charles proclaims ERIK IS HIS SOULMATE NOW AND FOREVER AMEN

Issue #6 --> In which CHARLES IS TOPLESS AND WEARING MAGENTA PINK BOXER SHORTS and Erik disguises himself as Charles' cousin, Michael. Also the issue where Dark Beast is first introduced

Issue #7 --> In which CHARLES IS TOPLESS AND WEARING MAGENTA PINK BOXER SHORTS and no one would cover him up even while he's soaking under the rain. Also the issue where Cherik agree on the new terms of their second marriage

Issue #8 --> In which EVERYTHNG START TO FALL APART--Charles confesses that he still distrusts Erik while Erik went ahead and proved why Charles was actually right to do so

Issue #9 --> In which Charles and Erik remain separated and Erik tends to his daughter while Charles attends to his duties in Genosha

Issue #10 --> In which Charles discovers what Erik has done, risking the safety of Genosha along with it. Also the issue where Callisto and Karima kick so much ass


RECOMMENDED: 7/10

DO READ MY REVIEWS AT

[Erma Talamante · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review pending...

Stayed up to finish this one last night... And now I wish I had the next one...

[C. Varn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire the ambition of trying to launch a new X-men team in the shadows of Grant Morrison although I still for the life of me don't know why this was branded Excalibur, but one could already see why Claremont would use Bendis's House of M to end Excalibur III to launch New Excalibur. The dynamic between Magneto and Professor X as well as the quibs of Dark Beast are compelling, but the other plots and characters are easy to lose and feel slight: Magisters, Pirates, very deadly-threats-that-aren't-all-that-deadly, etc. ‎ Aaron Lopresti's art seems a little more forced in this volume and not as compelling. In the end, I understand why this incarnation of Excalibur was reduced down to primarily the relationship between Xavier and Magneto, and then conveniently dropped.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special but I'm still enjoying the novelty of a title starring Professor X and Magneto.

[catechism · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art continues to be sub-par, and the plot continues to be utter nonsense. Like, worse than usual. There are some honest-to-god pirates, and Dark Beast shows up for reasons, and something something nannites. Charles and Erik decide to form a government (again), and then Charles goes off to find any mutants still alive on the island. Erik takes that opportunity to create a wormhole, which I guess you can do with magnets, and goes to rescue Scarlet Witch from that time she killed everyone ("I left you alone for ONE NIGHT," says Charles). Then he locks Charles in the house for six months to try to cure her, but that is way too much time to be locked in the house with Erik, and they break up. Erik whines about how he wants peace, and Charles is like "it's always about what you want, isn't it" and Erik says "DON'T LEAVE ME, CHARLES" and Charles says "you're not the man I thought you were" and leaves him.

Note that I did not make any of that up. And yes, I continue to be in this only for the soap opera. If you are in this for other reasons I don't know what to tell you. Maybe read something else?

[Adam Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like his run on Xtreme X-Men, Claremont sets up an interesting premise in the first book, and then takes the book down weird sidepaths in order to cram his version of continuity into the books. Who was clamoring to be updated on what happened to Lifeguard?

The characters in this book are pretty much ciphers, the plot is convoluted and silly. It's not the worst of Claremont's 21st century output, but it's a big letdown after the previous volume.

[Timothy Villa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm an OCD anal retentive completist, which is the only reason I read this. I was hoping for some explanation about the return of Magneto. No such luck. This is just bad. Zero characterization on a dozen or so new characters who aren't even interesting to begin with. And lordy how I hate Callisto. And yet because of my OCD I'll be back for the third and final volume.

[Rhiannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable - the Xavier and Magneto interactions are delightful, and any comic with Dark Beast is generally fun.

[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!

[Jason Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still enjoying this series, but it kind of looks like it's about to melt down.

House of M is going to render the whole arc pointless, which is probably why Magneto's personality flipped like a switch in the middle of the story.

This is mostly Xavier, Magneto, and Callisto's book. The New recruits are decent enough. Dark Beast is always fun. Unus doesn't let the rest of the Brotherhood get any lines. (I don't even know who the rest of them are aside from Toad.) And then there's that little cabal who have their own plans that are definitely not going to come to fruition now that House of M is looming. The pirates/human traffickers and their troll buddies are pretty forgettable. Sugar Man was...there.

Unus seems to think the key to political power in a post-apocalyptic hellscape is acting like the leader of a lame high school gang and not, you know, fixing anything. At least Xavier's people are trying to fix the damage and help people now.

In all, still better than expected. I guess we'll see how it ends

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same decent storytelling I expect from Claremont, it's a little distracting though because it feels like he's doing a lot of work to retcon stuff by other authors so that Magneto isn't one again just written off as a mindless villain. I like his take on the characters and enjoy how he writes them here. Art is one again max level 2004, so don't expect much there but overall an enjoyable read. However, unless you're some sort of completionist or really love this era of X-Men I think it's pretty safe to skip as well.

[Lillian Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty much a mess. Art's okay but the story is all over the place. No questions ever seem to be answered, there are just more questions piled on top.
Freakshow is still my favourite in the run. And Charles and Eric are totes soulmates.

[Marcela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blerg.

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-

[Laguna · Rating 2 out of 5]

M'he aborrit més amb este comic d'excalibur que si estiguera mirant un caragol pujant per la paret

[Raúl Vejar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un volumen interesante. Tenemos la interacción entre nuevos mutantes que ayudan en la reconstrucción de Genosha, un Magneto preocupado por su hija, y misterios que la isla aún guarda. Claremont demuestra que no hay nadie más en el mundo del comic que conozca más a los X-men que él, además sabe cómo crear personajes con habilidades coloridas y una química adictiva entre ellos.

La historia aún está repleta de inconsistencias narrativas, como la aparición de Dark Beast y otros personajes que al menos aún no explican (sigo esperando una explicación buena sobre Xorn). Pero si el lector puede sobrepasar estas trabas, se encuentra con un comic que seguro cualquier fan de los X-men podría disfrutar.

[Labyrinth Rossiter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting Bits Here and There: "Dark Beast" is charming in a Hannibal Lecter-ish way. The sheer "magnitude" of Magneto's power is explored when he opens a wormhole to rescue Wanda. Cringe-worthy battle with Omega Sentinel and Callisto vs. Sugar Man and his flunky. Continues to set up the idea that mutants might not be the future of human evolution after all. Gives us even more faces of C-list mutants, so that we'll care about the impact of House of M.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing the x-read of 2017...

Ah, now I see why I was supposed to read Avengers Disassembled in my X-chronology. Still, seems like it wouldn't be super necessary to the story.

Still not sure why this series is called Excalibur.

The story continues to be a bit convoluted and yet doesn't progress a whole lot.

Not sure how I feel about this volume, this series...

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y este también se deja leer y... bueno, no recuerdo mucho más. Ah, sí, que al final dejaba con un cliffhanger que me dieron ganas de leer el #3. Pero como todavía no lo conseguí, sigue en lista de espera sin apuro.

[Eli Poteet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was... Alright. The majority of the pages seemed to be a history lesson with missing pieces. I dislike how beefy prof x and magneto are, their unrealistic muscle mass is un appealing and decreases the emphasis on their mutant powers. I enjoyed learning about new mutants as always!

[Enrique Peral · Rating 3 out of 5]

Se está cociendo "House of M" por aquí.