Excalibur is the name of several superhero comic books published by Marvel Comics since 1988, generally featuring the team of the same name.
The first volumes ran for 125 issues, complemented by several one-shot special editions, between 1987 and 1998. The second was a four-issue limited series published in 2001, and the third an ongoing series printed from 2004 and 2005 before being relaunched as New Excalibur. While featuring some of the same characters and concepts, the second and third series did not centre on an Excalibur team. In 2019 the series, complete with the return of the eponymous team, was revived as part of the Dawn of X X-Men relaunch.
Creation
The genesis of Excalibur came from Captain Britain, an initially unsuccessful attempt by Marvel to break into the British market which was co-created by American staff, including Chris Claremont. Since creating Captain Britain, Claremont's career had gone from strength to strength; Uncanny X-Men had become one of the industry's best-selling titles, and as a result he had set up spin-off New Mutants, which was itself followed by the successful X-Factor. Meanwhile the short-lived Captain Britain had been revived by British creative teams, receiving critical acclaim - albeit while struggling for sales. When Claremont read the reinvigorated Captain Britain stories he was impressed with the development of the characters and immediately planned a sequel to the Alan Moore-penned "Jaspers' Warp" arc, featuring Mad Jim Jaspers, the Fury and the rest of the Captain Britain cast that would be a major X-Men plot arc. Betsy Braddock, the title character's sister, was featured in New Mutants Annual #2 in 1986, soon joining the X-Men as Psylocke, while Jaspers made what was planned to be a teaser appearance in Uncanny X-Men #200, with the plot line of Charles Xavier's exile to the Shi'ar Empire intended to serve as a catalyst. However Claremont was then made aware of an ownership debate between Moore and Marvel, and with the publisher wary of litigation from Moore the storyline was retooled. The Jaspers cameo - during which the character had not demonstrated his powers - was not followed up on, while the role intended for the Fury was instead filled by new character Nimrod. Some of the planned storylines would later be used for the X-Men arc "Fall of the Mutants".
Meanwhile while plot-lines in Uncanny X-Men had seen the popular characters Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Colossus - as well as the Rachel Summers incarnation of Phoenix - sidelined. The new roster featuring Havok, Longshot and Dazzler proved popular and were central to Claremont's plans for the series, so Marvel wanted both a 'home' for the characters and the sales potential of a fourth X-Men book. At the time, Marvel were heavily courting Alan Davis, who had been artist for Captain Britain from 1981 and was an avowed fan of the character. After winning considerable acclaim in Britain, he was head-hunted by DC Comics, again receiving praise for his work on Batman and the Outsiders before falling out with the company. As a result, Marvel gave Davis what was for the time a very generous contract, both in terms of remuneration and creative freedom. Claremont was assigned to write the series, but allowed Davis - more used to working via the full script process rather than the 'Marvel method' considerable leeway and input. Claremont had previously wanted Davis to draw Uncanny X-Men; according to the writer the post was never available at the same time as Davis was, but the artist would later indicate he was uninterested. Ann Nocenti was given the post of editor, and the trio decided the book would be a "cosmic comedy", both to play to Davis' strengths and to offset the dark tone of the other mutant books. Claremont chose to return Colossus to Uncanny X-Men rather than use him for Excalibur, due to Captain Britain already fulfilling the team's need for a strongman type. Davis' regular collaborator Paul Neary also joined as inker.
Publication history
Volume 1 (1987–1998)