Excalibur Omnibus, Vol. 2

Excalibur Omnibus

by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis (Artist)

Continuing the offbeat adventures of the strangest X-team of all! Legendary creator Alan Davis returns to steer Excalibur to new heights of greatness — and oddness…but the sinister Technet aren’t far behind him! As the Captain Britain Corps puts Brian Braddock on trial, the rest of the team must face the fearsome threat of the Anti-Phoenix — but who has been pulling Excalibur’s strings since the very beginning? Rachel Summers takes a journey of discovery, the team expands with strange new members, faces from Captain Britain’s past resurface when the Warpies and the RCX return — and Excalibur fights the future with a trip to the Days of Future Past!

COLLECTING: Excalibur (1988) 35-67, Excalibur: Weird War III (1990) 1, Excalibur: The Possession (1991) 1, Excalibur: Air Apparent (1991) 1, Excalibur: XX Crossing (1992) 1, Sensational She-Hulk (1989) 26; material from Marvel Comics Presents (1988) 75, 110

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels

1080 pages, Hardcover

First published May 18, 1993

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

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 3.25/5
This is a really hard one for me to accurately assign a grade to. Four stars being too high a grade to assign to a book, half of which is middling when it tries really, really hard. And on the other hand, three stars is far too low for what is near t half a book of Alan Davis and Mark Farmer gifting me with an absolute feast for the eyeballs, and occasionally other ball type body parts, given how they combine to draw Opal Luna Saturnynne, Phoenix, Meggan etc.
Not only that, but Alan Davis on writing duty for many of the issues he draws as well. It wasn't enough the man is one of my favourite artists of all time, but to have some pretty dang decent writing chops as well... Yes, I would have killed to see him on Uncanny, rather than the occasionally absurd Excalibur, which does veer into some pretty strange territory at times, giving me another reason to temper my score, but when this book is firing on all cylinders, it rivals some of the very best from the late 80's early 90's halcyon era of comics, at least for me any way. Shoutout also to the colourists, who were doing the lords work throughout the book. Exemplrary.
Half of this I will never need to read again. Half of what remains I will likely look at, but not read. But the remaining quarter of this book is worth the price of admission for that alone, provided you know what you're getting into. 3.25/5


OmniBen.

[Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeah, the lows are very low but overall the Alan Davis stuff is excellent enough to eclipse all of the awful fill-ins and specials. Excalibur really was the best x-book at the time these issues were new. It’s a special kind of genius for creating superhero comics that Davis displays here—somehow he was able to make sense of all of Claremont’s abandoned storylines, match it all up with the Captain Britain stuff that preceded Excalibur, introduce new characters and concepts while finally moving the original team members forward, and do it all with the clearest, prettiest, and certainly most coherent artwork in all of contemporary comicsdom.

At a time when most of the xbooks were struggling to differentiate themselves, Excalibur was firing on all cylinders with a clear identity all its own. Naturally as soon as Davis left Marvel dismantled all of the things that made Excalibur special and immediately turned it into the lamest xbook. Davis pulled off a miracle with Rachel Summers here, and even Captain Britain to a much lesser extent, and then Scott Lobdell (maybe?) came up with an idea to straight away ruin both of those characters at the same time.

There’s still the Warren Ellis era to look forward to but that’s not great, it’s just not terrible. Alan Davis’ Captain Britain and Excalibur issues really deserve their own omnibus.

[Rob Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars for the splendid return of Alan Davis and Mark Farmer, who wrap up all the dangling plot lines, find some closure for the characters, fight Galactus, fall in love, and look incredible doing it. This is the kind of interleaved plotting and big team that does Chris Claremont one better, at the very moment Marvel was firing on all cylinders (1992). It's the most underrated Marvel comics run of all time.

The rest of the issues are bad. Scott Lobdell takes several issues before he doesn't sound like a parody, Michael Higgins is abjectly terrible despite being handed deluxe graphic novels and not having to follow the main plot. We're talking storylines so bad that Merlyn has to retcon them as an illusion, in almost the very next issue.

If you could just skip everything that doesn't have Alan Davis, 5 stars easy. But that's kind of tough.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 300 pages of this are a waste of time. Boring stories that go nowhere, bad plotting, filler issues, a graphic novel that was a waste of time, but then we have the return of Alan Davis, who co-created the revamp of Captain Britain and the book shines. Wonderful stories that tie into lore, amazing art, incredible pacing, just enough foreshadowing to keep you interested for more. This was definitely worth the price. I'm glad I purchased it.

[RP Madison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my X-team growing up. The American based factions were fine but I often felt they took themselves a little too seriously. This was the kind of self aware, cheeky, madcap storytelling my 11 year old brain wanted. Davis gave that to us in heaping buckets. It was like nothing else being published at the time and there hasn't really been anything since.

Recently, I purchased the first two omnibus collections which would be my first time reading the series chronologically to completion. Kind of. See, when Davis left and Lobdel took over I dropped this book pretty quickly back then and unfortunately I'm doing the same here.

The 2nd Omnibus ends with Davis' departure that features a beautiful pinup of the team as Kitty proclaims 'I love happy endings!' To me, this not only ends one of the most unique comic book runs Marvel ever published, it ends the story for these characters.

Allow me to share an old headcanon that this 2nd volume really helped me bolster, okay? What immediately follows Davis' beautiful run is a Lobdel character assassination of Cerise and an invasion of the body snatchers level of mischaracterization for everyone else. At the end of the issue is an advertisement featuring Davis' Marvel Swimsuit Edition pinup of the team. Brian is cooking, Kurt is brandishing some weiners while Meg and Kitty laugh happily in the sun.

My angry, betrayed little prebuescent brain decided that on the way back from the future our heroes got swapped with similar but completely different versions of themselves landing Davis' group on a paradise planet. Forever.

Y'know what follows issue #67 at the end of this omnibus? Page after page of Excalibur on the beach, ending on a happy Christmas pin up. Maybe whoever compiled the supplements on this collection had a similar theory, either way, whoever you are, thanks for that. Thirty years later you vindicated my awkward, queer as hell eleven year old self.

I won't be buying volume three and I suggest you follow my lead and leave Excalibur on the beach.

[Thomas Rankin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Davis’s return to the title as both artist AND writer is nothing short of spectacular. All the dangling plot threads from Chris Claremont’s time on the book, as well as Davis’s time on Captain Britain, come together in one of the most underrated comic runs of all time. So what’s with the four stars? Well, this book has more in it than just Davis’s return (which isn’t till page 371). While just average on their own, the fill-in issues are hot garbage in comparison to Claremont and Davis’s work. I understand that Marvel wants to pander to the completionists, but one omnibus containing all of Claremont and Davis’s work would have been better than two containing unnecessary fat. Davis only references one story between his and Claremont’s run, and that’s only to do cleanup, as said story used a character that was supposed to be dead at the time. If you can get past the fact that about a third of this omnibus is completely unnecessary, the Davis run is well worth the price of admission.

[Brett Dewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This era of Excalibur may be my favorite comic book run! When Alan Davis came on as writer, the book came alive and had a purpose driving it like never before. He managed to explain a million dangling plot threads and mysteries with a complicated but surprisingly elegant narrative than felt substantial without sacrificing the title’s signature whimsy. I love the expanded roster of unlikable characters, the epic callbacks to Captain Britain’s Marvel UK days, and the dramatic surprises that culminate in the glorious “Days of Futures Yet to Come”! …and then, after the stories in this collection, the nineties hit Excalibur with terrible force, Scott Lobdell swooped in, and all that Davis had worked so hard on was undone. But from issue 42 to 67, something beautiful existed.

[Sean McGinity · Rating 3 out of 5]

The highs here are the best of the entire run of the series, basically when Alan Davis is writing and drawing. In fact, better than anything in the first volume. If this was just Alan Davis in this volume, it would easily be 5 stars. The non Davis is good in spots and confusing in others, and jumps back in time. Could probably have skipped most of that stuff.

[Laguna · Rating 2 out of 5]

No tinc clar com aquestos comics de Claremont i Davis tenen la fama que tenen. Igual es que no estic pillant moltes de les innumerables referencies que clarament inunden estos comics, pero la historia es incoherent, pesada i repetitiva. No crec que torne a llegir Excalibur

[Timothy Shea · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of Alan Davis's work is phenomenal. Every issue he wrote or drew was great.