The Sword Is Drawn: Excalibur from the Beginning

[From The Shadows]

I just wanted to apologise to all Excalibur fans for being the first person in this thread to bring up the horror that was Britannic.

Lol, hahaha! It was pretty bad. Hey, look at the 90's makeover kids! Awesome X-Hair! Now Brian can trade hair care tips with their American counterparts.

And I hated that Meggan was sideline for issues upon issues with just an occasional panel of her hovering in the background.

That's frustrated me immensely, as well. I mean, these guys were close. Other than vague references, I think Remender is the only one to really give a nod to three of them in UXF and that was brief.

We really need a proper reunion.

I agree. They had an even closer family feel, than the core X-books did at the time. That was one of the thing's I really loved about it. So much of Marvel now is just combat for combat sakes, and to satisfy the ADHD crowd, you lose alot of the characterization in favor of coolness. Even when you see two characters together and people comment it's usually about their combat prowess together, rather than the over all relationship between the characters.
I miss Excalibur.

Agreed 100%

[Slicknickshady]

Some good ones from early issues. From Issue #3 Moving Day.








My Next ones will be form Issue 5 and Issue 6. Doing a Kurt/Kitty friendship moments thing on one of my Tumblr accounts. Basically all the Kurtty interaction captured. haha. And with that..you get a lot of good group captures as well.

[Shadowcat]

Gross. This isn't the thread to focus on imaginary shipping. It's about the splendor that is Excalibur, and the Captain Britain mythos that have since been brought into the x-verse, and are better or worse off because of it.

[DDD]

Kurt is imposing his happiness on Kitty there. He's not even faking sympathy. Not boyfriend material.

[Shadowcat]

Since reading the Sword is Drawn, I decided to dig out my Captain Britain tpbs, and I know I said I was going to read Before Excalibur--the Delano/Davis run, but I just couldn't help myself. So I dug out the Moore/Davis tpb and began to read it. The story starts smack dab in the middle of the storyline the previous creative team had begun, which was basically the inspiration for Claremont for several years.


As the story goes, Captain Britain and his Elf sidekick, Jackdaw, are stuck on this crooked world that is like their own, but decidedly different where they deal with the Crazy Gang, Opal Luna Saturnyne, Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury.



When stuff starts to get real Jackdaw is blasted in half by the Fury and Opal Luna Saturnyne and her Avant Guarde high tail it out of there, and we see a flying Tea Pot with a gentleman throwing down a rope ladder to save the good Captain from his foe, The Fury. As we go on this wonky tail, we learn that the gentleman's name is Mad Jim Jaspers, and he is the cause for this crooked world to be so bent. He is a powerful reality bender, and has been systematically been altering this world, creating paranoia regarding this world's superheroes, and has them outlawed and eventually killed by the Fury. Moore uses some themes here that he will continue to use through much of the rest of his work through the 80's, the deconstruction of the superhero trope and build upon it from there. He kills the good Captain, where we see in the next issue Merlyn and Roma have saved a few fragments of the Captain's corpse and reconstruct him from a couple pieces of bone and a tuft of hair, while Merlyn reconstructs his soul. We have a brief recollection of Brian's origin story, and it brings us up to the present where we see Brian back on his Earth.



Arriving back at his former home, Braddock Manor, the cabby sees just a bunch of ruins, but Brian sees his house as if nothing had happened (in some previous issue it was bombed) walking in, he starts having delusions seeing his old maid, and images and sounds that couldn't be happening, and thinking he's going mad, he feels as if he might commit suicide, but realizes that these are just illusions of his father's former computer, Mastermind. Mastermind tries to bargain with Brian to ensure he remains alive, but is eventually deactivated, and Brian finally tries to settle in from all of the crazy antics he's had to endure recently, when he receives a call from his sister, Elizabeth. And that's where I'll end this review.

What Moore does with Brian is just amazing, taking this once mundane character without a real direction or voice, and crafting an intricate origin story for him, taking the former Merlin the magician, as his creator, and transform it to Merlyn and Roma, omnipotent aliens who are caretakers of the Omniverse, and created the perfect champion of their very own. Upgrading him from his previous incarnation, and making a far more formidable Captain. They also introduce Linda McQuillan, who would go on to be the Crooked World's analogue to Captain Britain, known as Captain U.K., and form the beginnings of the Captain Britain Corps. These stories lead into Moore's next chapter in the rebuilding of Brian Braddock, by reintroducing his sister, Betsy, as a purple haired psychic supermodel who is also a renegade member of Great Britain's S.T.R.I.K.E. espionage unit (GB's analogue to S.H.I.E.L.D.).

[DDD]

You hit the nail on the head.

I'm sad that Marvel rejected Claremont and Davis' pitch to do a new Excalibur series for this year it's like oh right because you're doing SOOO Much with Marvel UK characters right now.

Again!? On top of Excalibur Forever?

btw after reading Nightcrawler #1, I dreamed Alan Davis was drawing a storyarc.♥

[Shadowcat]

Again!? On top of Excalibur Forever?

btw after reading Nightcrawler #1, I dreamed Alan Davis was drawing a storyarc.♥

The book would be better for it. Todd Nauck is not an illustrator I care to read.

[Cold Water]

Since reading the Sword is Drawn, I decided to dig out my Captain Britain tpbs, and I know I said I was going to read Before Excalibur--the Delano/Davis run, but I just couldn't help myself. So I dug out the Moore/Davis tpb and began to read it. The story starts smack dab in the middle of the storyline the previous creative team had begun, which was basically the inspiration for Claremont for several years.

I am going to be starting this one soon as well, but I am currently reading the first part of the story that book starts in the middle of.
I've been reading Birth of a Legend on and off as well.

[DDD]

I was pleasantly surprised by Nauck! All I remember was his Brigade? from Image in the 90s? :/ I enjoyed NC1 A LOT!!!

Meggan looks adorbz!

[Nomads1]

Agreed.



Loved this GN

I loved it too, but Chris Wozinok's art came close to ruining it for me. Tom Morgan's art though is top notch there.

Ufortunately, no. Scott Lobdell tried to turn the series into yet another generic X-book, losing much of what made the series so much fun to begin with. It's easy to skip from Claremont's last issue to Davis' return in issue 42, then skip from the end of Davis second run to Warren Ellis' issues.

That way, you can avoid the nightmare that is Britannic:

Generic hero/bruiser with a generic costume.
WTF were they thinking?

Peace

[From The Shadows]

Gross. This isn't the thread to focus on imaginary shipping. It's about the splendor that is Excalibur, and the Captain Britain mythos that have since been brought into the x-verse, and are better or worse off because of it.

Odd, how the poster only mentioned Kurt and Kitty friendship moments and not even all the scans were focused on Kitty and Kurt. Dont be trolls. And what shipping isn't imaginary? Thats 95 percent of these boards.

[Shadowcat]

Odd, how the poster only mentioned Kurt and Kitty friendship moments and not even all the scans were focused on Kitty and Kurt. Dont be trolls. And what shipping isn't imaginary? Thats 95 percent of these boards.

This isn't a thread for shipping. If you want to focus on shipping create your own thread and I'll stay out of it.

[From The Shadows]

This isn't a thread for shipping. If you want to focus on shipping create your own thread and I'll stay out of it. Can't deal with my simple request, stay out of my thread.

He wasnt shipping, he was posting scenes of character moments he likes , as others were doing. No biggy here. There was no difference. And why didnt you just ask him not to post without saying icky gross? We are adults right? So are you saying friendships arent allowed now?

[Shadowcat]

edit...pain in the rear end.

[From The Shadows]

I have scans from the "Britannic" era I wanted to post. Actually, with "Tapestry" too. I think we had so much focus on the Claremont/Davis era I'd like to delve into other eras.

[IMG][/IMG]

Edit: Damn, not working. I'll have to fix them later.