Excalibur Epic Collection: The Sword is Drawn (Epic Collection: Excalibur) Paperback – March 28, 2017

My opinions on Chris Claremont are pretty solid. He writes some of the best comics and this one is no exception. Alan Davis is the main artist here and he is worth the price of admission, creating some absolutely stunning artwork. It is a wonderful book in so many respects.But... the team, guys. The team is kind of middling.This isn't about the individual characters, by the way. The team MEMBERS are fantastic. Nightcrawler and Shadowcat from the X-Men are fan favorites and command every scene they're in. Phoenix hasn't reached her full potential yet but it's great to reconnect to her story and see where it's going to go. Captain Britain is a powerhouse from the Marvel UK titles with a who's who pedigree of creators working on his past adventures. Meggan and Widget might not be as great but it's still nice to get into Meggan's head... and I don't know about Widget, yet.This is a situation where the sum isn't as great as its parts. These great characters spend their time as an almost sideline team. It's not that they're stuck in Great Britain. If anything, that should have expanded their influence. The problem is they are stuck with mostly minor enemies, low impact adventures, and the one time they interact with the wider Marvel Universe during the Inferno crossover, the team mostly flies over the pond to deal with their own problems with no real interactions with any other Marvel teams.They are purposely given a smaller footprint and as such, the adventures don't seem as important. All this is done with a creative team that is killing it. I want to read more unimportant stories about Excalibur because I want to see how Captain Britain deals with his feelings for Meggan and his ex-girlfriend. I want to see if Shadowcat can find love. I want to see Nightcrawler swashbuckle. The characters are doing fine. The adventures could use some work.That being said, Chris Claremont is the only one that can make a villain like Arcade seem like a big deal and the only one that can write his dialogue correctly. In fact, the main issue comics are followed up by a Mojo-centered special and THEN a Marvel Comics Presents story featuring Arcade as the main bad guy and that second Arcade story just DOES NOT work. At all. Even the Erik Larsen art can't save it.But that Mojo-centered Special? Mixed feelings. It features the X-Babies and Mojo and BEFORE YOU FALL ASLEEP it also has Art Adams artwork and Claremont writing. Very mixed feelings.Excalibur was supposed to feature light-hearted, comedically flavored adventures of a British based super-hero team that formed upon the "death" of the X-Men during Fall of the Mutants. It mashed together the X-Men and Marvel UK's Captain Britain and introduced American readers to some of the Marvel UK stuff. However, the stories aren't really FUNNY... it's not like jokes don't land- it's more that there aren't jokes to begin with. It's slighly more light-hearted, maybe? I also don't really know how well those Marvel UK elements were introduced to those unaware of them. Some things slot in well and others show up all confusingly as though we should already know what's going on. The story telling is good but things could have used another pass in the explanation department. I say much the same about the current Excalibur series.It makes me want to read more about Captain Britain and, what luck, we have a sampling of his earlier adventures, including his two-part origin story written by Claremont and illustrated by Herb Trimpe. Another tale from Alan Moore and Alan Davis introduces Meggan with a follow-up story from Alan Davis bringing Meggan and Captain Britain together for the first time. The Alan Moore/ Alan Davis story is just a taste of a larger storyline and it makes me want for more.We also get some extras from Marvel Age: articles about the original Excalibur Graphic Novel and another about the ongoing series (that second article is written by future super-star writer, Scott Lobdell). They're fun little reads of what readers at the time would have learned about the Excalibur title.Anyway, Excalibur Epic Collection volume 1 is a good read but largely feels unimportant. And that's too bad because the cast is excellent and the creative team is just great. I remember seeing those Alan Davis Inferno issues in an Inferno collection and thinking that it was the best art in the book. It's just too bad it's so side-story.

Finished the Excalibur Epic last week. As a kid I'd only read one or two scattered issues, mostly X-crossovers like the Inferno issue or Fatal Attractions, etc, so I never really got into this series for whatever reason. At the time of their original publication I was mostly into kids comics (GI Joe, Transformers, etc) and the Marvel books I read were ASM, Avengers, FF & Hulk. So I was going into this material cold, although over the years I'd become somewhat well versed in the X-universe continuity from this era with the exception of Excalibur. Below are some of my takeaways.GOODClaremont! You can tell the X-characters talk and act like they're supposed to, especially Kurt & Kitty. The pain they feel about the X-Men's "death" in FOTM feels real and the character interactions about how they have to move on from that difficult part of their life are handled excellently.Follow up to the Inferno destruction of the X-Mansion was handled well. Kitty running the danger room to put Captain Britain thru the paces, etc. Kitty hanging out with the New Mutants for half an issue was a real treat and closed the door on her past adventures with that team.Alan Davis! Davis' artwork is slick and polished and a real treat to see.The Mojo Mayhem one-shot. Even though I always HATED Mojo as a character this issue was really well done in the same vein as the Art Adams illustrated X-Men annuals & New Mutants specials from this late 1980s era. This book almost seemed like it should have been another X-Men annual drawn by Art during this time period but was changed into an Excalibur one-shot. The story is basically Kitty & the X-babies, front & center, with the remainder of the Excalibur team only showing up at the end for a couple pages. Claremont's handling of Kitty's interactions with the X-babies, and realizing how much she missed the regular X-Men was perfect.BADThe Marshall Rogers illustrated issues were a drastic artistic change from the Alan Davis issues. Not sure why Rogers had changed his style by this point, but it pales in comparison to other artists work during this era and is a shadow of his former work a decade earlier on Batman, which was amazing. Rogers draws almost in sketches, with little detail. Honestly these issues were kind of a chore to plow thru compared to earlier chapters.Not sure where Captain Britain had been prior to Excalibur, during this time, but he's handled mostly like a jerk. I didn't like his characterization at all. I see based on some of the bonus issues he was created back in the 1970s by Claremont but I didn't like his take on the character at all. He was the only one that really didn't "gel" with the others in my opinion.Body/mind swapping ... ugh. This plot device grates on me to no end and was in use a couple of issues. Lazy writing? Either way I don't like it.Mojo and Arcade were headlines as villains in this collection and in my opinion they're just kind of silly characters. Not my favorites.The MCP issues where the team fights the Looney Tunes stand ins was terrible (and also not written by Claremont). The art by Erik Laresn is good, but I skimmed these issues.

I think this was Marvel’s response to Giffen/Maguire Justice League. It didnt work. Claremont can write some funny stuff (UXM 244-245) but not here. Alan Davis and Arthur Adams art is the only reason to buy this collection. Rachel Summers character was redundant the minute Jean Grey was resurrected. Wasnt a fan when it first came out, and even though i re-tried it buying this collection, still not worth keeping.

I first read some of these adventures 30 years ago or so in French. How nice to be able to fill in the gaps of my favourite team of heroes besides the New Mutants.

Nice and well edited edition. Not, for me, Claremont's very best.

Bit of a slow comic series but decent artwork that carries it

So glad this finally got reprinted. Its beenmissing from my collection for a long time.