Excalibur Classic, Vol. 4: Cross-Time Caper, Book 2

Excalibur (1988-1998) #21-28

by Chris Claremont, Ron Lim (Illustrator), Terry Austin (Illustrator)

What do Crusader X, Lord High Justicer, Centurion Britannus, Chevalier Bretagne and Lady London have in common? They're all Captain Britain Excalibur's Cross-Time Caper concludes cataclysmically in a climactic coda of cosmic confrontations Traumatic transformation Evil illusion Super-powered rebellions on two worlds and titanic tricksters on two more With guest appearances you'd never expect Collects Excalibur #21-28.

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

191 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2007

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 2 out of 5]

The Cross Time Saga ends in the hands of the manic magical realist power of ethereal energy lines manipulator Jamie Braddock. Galactus comes calling for the Phoenix, as does Mastermind! Excalibur #21-28. Now the second half of the Caper is a bit all over the place, as well as being way over the top, even for this title! 4 out of 12.

[Randy Lander · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories are mostly a jumbled mess, the art by Chris Wozniak is painful, and Brad Vancata's coloring remains some of the ugliest I've seen in comics.

*However*, issues #23-24 represent the swan song of the Claremont/Davis collaboration on the book and the finale of the interminable Cross-Time Caper, and they reach the same quality the book had at the beginning of the Cross-Time Caper, before we knew how overlong, pointless and jumbled the whole thing was going to be.

Not generally recommended, for the Excalibur completists (are there such things?) only.

[Artur Coelho · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excalibur foi um curioso rebento dos X-Men de Chris Claremont. Pegando no Captain Britain de Alan Davis, com mais alguns heróis locais, como Meggan, uma criatura humana com o poder de se transformar noutras criaturas e capacidades sociais inexistentes, e um departamento governamental secreto encarregue de defender o reino de ameaças estranhas. W.H.O., com nuances whovianas. Junte-se dois X-Men, Nightcrawler e Shadowcat, acompanhada do seu dragão Lockheed, um farol isolado como quartel do super-grupo, um inspector de polícia que detesta super-heróis e por isso tem a tarefa de os acompanhar, e estão lançados os ingredientes para uma série focada mais no humor do que nas narrativas convencionais de super-heróis. Ia-me esquecendo. O grupo também inclui Fénix, não a original, mas a sua filha, vinda de um futuro distópico onde os mutantes são perseguidos, estando no passado para evitar que os acontecimentos que deram origem ao seu futuro se desenrolam.

Estamos a falar de uma série onde os dois elementos mais fracos dos X-Men da altura eram veteranos mentores. Excalibur era um claro veículo de comics para agradar aos leitores britânicos da Marvel, e um de muitos títulos o que explorava o interesse dos fãs nos X-Men. O toque de estranheza anglo-saxónica é trazido pelo passado multi-temporal do Captain Britain original de Davis, cujos principais inimigos dobravam à vontade as fronteiras do espaço e do tempo.

No seu melhor, Excalibur era um título divertido e bem humorado. Meggan tinha atitudes cândidas quase de boa selvagem, e Captain Britain, apesar de todo o seu poder, era facilmente enganado e causava mais sarilhos do que os que resolvia. No seu pior... Um bom exemplo é este volume, que colige o que prometia ser um excitante arco narrativo, com os Excalibur perdidos entre mundos paralelos num longo regresso a casa. Um Chris Claremont como argumentista claramente a não dar importância ao que escreve traduz-se em tédio e incoerência. Se querem descobrir o que foi um título divertido da Marvel, este é o pior ponto de acesso possível.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Cross-Time Caper is finally over, thank God. The storyline started with some promise, but by the end it was dull, uninspired and, ultimately, pointless. The last couple of issues are far better, but still not quite as much fun as the pre-Caper stuff. 2.5 stars, bumped up to three because the last few issues were decent, and because, God help me, it had Nightcrawler. I am weak.

[Jordan Risebury-Crisp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects issues from when the series began to loose it's central cohesion as Claremont begins to leave the book. Contains a few done in one issues which are hard to place in continuity and a random cross over with the Nth Man, a title I'd never heard of before

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely the most uneven volume in the series but it's also the one I liked the most. Volume 1 is all about establishing the series and volume 2 is pretty good and has the most X-Men content (it ties into the Inferno event, and there's a big issue with Mojo, Spiral and the X-babies), volume 3 is the first one where the book really goes deep into having its own identity (that is basically being Marvel's answer to Doctor Who.)

Every volume of this series so far has had stuff I've loved and stuff that left me cold but this one edges those others out because this is the first one where I feel like Rachel Grey is the same Rachel who was in the X-Men, before this her character felt a little too disconnected from the one I knew before, which felt especially odd considering she was previously a character that could never let her past/future go. This one adds to that continuity while still feeling like part of Excalibur and not X-Men.

Unfortunately about half the book has some not great art and a quarter of it has some mediocre writers but it happens.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly more like a 2.5 or 2.75. The Cross-Time Caper concludes and ultimately gives the team some opportunities to grow and gel, but it almost feels like the ultimate goal was to move Kitty in a different direction and that’s about it. There’s another issue set in the past that felt somewhat jarring and tried to do some heavy lifting for Brian’s character development. A revolving door or artists, while many of them good and well-known prior to this, didn’t help with the haphazard flow. Probably a hazard of the book moving to twice a month around this time during its original run. Still a lot of fun and I will miss some of the alternate reality hijinks. Excalibur sets some of the groundwork for the Exiles several years later.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Docked points for some 0f the art (Chris Wozniak, I'm looking at you), and for choppy story stuff. Also, the constant sexualizing of barely fifteen year old Kitty Pryde. Possibly also for story threads that get stretched and bounced around worse than any daytime soap opera. And for --

*sigh*

I honestly like Excalibur, but it's a troubled series.

[ribbonknight · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, my interest lies with Kitty. None of the rest of it is doing much for me.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

That went on for too long with uneven art to boot.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a mess…. I had no clue what was going through this whole series until the last issue that was just filler. This collection was so muddled and confusing.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed. Loved some bits. And rather dislikes some issues. It's clear Claremont is a Dr. Who fan :) Think this series is best when Alan Davis is the artist. The issues where they're in the future that's like Judge Dredd is my favorite so far.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Crusader X two-parter once again shows the caper at its best, with a fun mix of continuity and characters in an alternate reality, all helped by the ongoing plot of Kitty of our Earth [7]. We then finish off the Caper with a fun Judge Dredd issue [7] and then a good finale that nicely ties back to Captain Britain issues of Yore [7.5]. The Galactus capstone has some nice characterization for Rachel but is marred by poor art and a poor understanding of Galactus as a character [6]. Unfortunately, the shorts that end the book are disappointments (and the start of a disappointing era for Excalibur). Higgins’ story of Future Past is a nice callback to Rachel’s origins, but the writing is bad [5]. The Claremont story is a nice return of Jamie Braddock, but all the Nth Man stuff is semi-comprehensible [6]. Finally, there’s nothing wrong with Terry Austin’s Captain Britain & Megan brawl, but there’s nothing to it either [5]. Sadly, these shorts bring down an otherwise good book.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing/stories in this was very simply a jumbled mess. I guess the second half of it was a little better, out for most of the read I found it pretty hard to follow what the hell was going on. The coloring was also pretty awful, and some of the facial drawings were just terrible. I'm hoping the next volume is better... As I saw someone else in a review say, "for Excalibur completest only"

[Lisa Feld · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, a series of one-shots by different writers and artists without a lot of depth or impact on the characters--the main plot points are that everyone makes it home from the Cross-Time Caper, but Kitty is separated from the rest of the team: they think she's dead, she thinks they're still missing.

[James Bowman · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last few installments of the Cross-Time Caper are mostly good (the two-parter with "Crusader X" is the only disappointment), but the rest of the stories are just OK to meh. Can definitely tell we were past the peak of Claremont's run. (B-)

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. They finally stop jumping dimensions. The judges one was interesting but not enough to really save the other stories. An ok read.

[Hamish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh.

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Sadly, more of what I'd originally expected when I got into Excalibur."

Read the full review in TheBookCloset

[Kerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

#21 6/4 4
#22 6/4 4
#23 6/4 5
#24 6/4 5
#25 2
#26 2
#27 3
#28 2