Michael Ryan's concept art for the New Excalibur Meggan that never was...

It's been quite a while since I even thought of Chris Claremont's New Excalibur. I have reread it once since it was first published, and much as though it was a series which got a lot of stick at the time for its cast choices and story logic I must admit to still having a certain fondness for it.

Yes, it wasn't quite the Excalibur that most people had hoped for, but ultimately I do still believe that before a series of unfortunate results derailed it Claremont had a very distinctive plan for the book. Those early issues actually read pretty well, and the Hellfire Club strands he was bringing over to the book (from similar ongoing plots in his Uncanny X-Men and Xtreme X-Men runs) actually showed a lot of promise.

For those who may have forgotten, the regular artist for the first year of the book was Michael Ryan. I had previously known of his work from his tenure on Bob Weinberg's Cable run (Which still remains my own personal favourite run of Cable's original series) where he did some great work. Art Deco style future landscapes. Those three creepy sisters. Cable reuniting with his 'sister' Rachael Summers.

In particular I was always impressed by how he drew long-haired female characters, that art deco styling very much in play. Something I was looking forward to seeing applied on New Excalibur. Especially on Dazzler, for example. Or Meggan Braddock (née Puceanu).

Of course, when New Excalibur kicked of, that wasn't ever the case. All the female characters on that book very much had short hair (I can still recall the Dazzler fans screaming blue murder about that. No. Really.) and Meggan wasn't on the team, having been sucked off into another dimension at the end of House of M. We would eventually see her return to the Marvel Universe during Paul Cornell's Captain Britain & MI13 but it was certainly intended to have happened sooner. It's going back a while, but I certainly do remember X-Men Editor Nick Lowe having mentioned in an interview online that the intention had always been to bring her back onto New Excalibur, while the series was still going. They just ran out of time.

But he did then offer up some Michael Ryan concept art.

While clearing out my old PC the other week (A machine which only boots one time in five, but which I've kept around purely because it holds our Master iTunes library) I came across that image, remembering that back in 2008 I had intended to post it up. Better late than never, eh?

I actually really like this design. At the time Meggan was a character who had really been stuck in that same leotard for most of her existence in American comics. A change was long overdue. Ryan's redesign here stays true to the essence of her classic costume, but gives her a bit more individuality. The boots and the almost frock coat like central part of the costume also finally makes her look a bit more grown-up. Too many writers seem to want to keep Meggan as this odd, naive child from Claremont's original Excalibur run; a phase she grew out of quite some time ago, now. 

I also kinda like the Celtic braids. 

Sure, I also like how Meggan turned out as Gloriana in Captain Britain & MI13, for different reasons, but if this is how she'd turned out back in 2007 I'd have been more than happy.

This weekend, for the mindless fun of it, I decided to try and see how this design might actually look following the suggested notes for colouring on Ryan's design. Here's what I came up with.

Firstly in a more traditional green and yellow:

And in the also suggested green and white:

I actually find myself preferring the white, to a degree. Green and yellow are much more 'Meggan's colours', but I don't know....

Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments field.

Could New Excalibur have done with a shapeshifter on their roster? Well, it wouldn't have harmed them. What could have been...

Understanding Captain Britain: The Basics.

Let me start by saying that this article has been in the pipeline for quite some time... ;D

As you can probably imagine, I receive a fair few emails from people visiting this blog, asking for more information about all things Marvel UK. I'm more than happy to oblige. But of all the requests for more information one character gets more than all the rest put together.

That character is Captain Britain.

Some people love him, and just want to know more. Some people find him confusing, and just want thinks clarified. I can understand that. There was a time when I was a little befuddled by it all myself. But as I always try to point out to people, it isn't actually as complicated as it might first seem. It's just a case of finding the right place to jump on board. The problem with Cap, is that those places are harder to come by than many characters...

Captain Britain was the first official Marvel UK superhero to be given his own series. He's the longest printed M:UK property, and one of the rare few to have properly survived into the present day. And yet, sadly, the larger part of Captain Britain's early continuity - the parts which really formed the character - have never been reprinted. Panini have reprinted most of his first solo run (ISBN-10: 1905239300, ISBN-10: 1905239726), Marvel US have put out the Alan Moore/Alan Davis stuff out (ISBN-10: 0785108556), and if you trawl eBay you'll be able to find the Jamie Delano/Alan Davis run (ISBN-10: 1854000209) - which was traded in the UK to coincide with the launch of the original Excalibur. But the larger part of the meat and potatoes of Brian Braddock's history has remained unseen by a good many readers in the UK - and was never printed at all in America. It is perhaps for this reason that a number of American writers in particular have had trouble writing for Cap - understanding who and what he is, and finding a way to best use him.

In the last few months a fair bit has been happening in the good Captain's life. New Excalibur came to a close, spilling into a mythos-changing mini-series (The oddly titled X-Men: Die by the Sword), and of course the announcement that the first Marvel title in twenty years to bear his name (Captain Britain and MI:13) will be released in May. With regards to the first two of those events, in particular, I know that a lot of people have not been left very happy. I know this because they've told me via email, or via the message boards I visit, as to exactly why they feel that way.

As the Die by the Sword mini ended I had several people contact me, asking me to make some kind of statement on it. I even received one request to start some kind of odd online petition against it. At the time I just resisted in getting involved. I did that because I felt that a lot of hate was being generated, back then, and it was almost exclusively being directed in one specific direction - the writer. People were quite extreme about it all, and while that tension was running high I felt that the one thing the internet did not need was another site to fill up with the kind of online comments those conditions almost inevitably produce; Which unfortunately tends to be ill thought through personal attacks rather than reasoned arguments.

We're a couple of months on, now, and I'd like to hope that the dust has now settled enough for me to talk about rationally on the subject of Cap without stirring that backlash back up.

I would hope so, because I like talking about Brian. I've always felt him to be a much more complex character than a lot of people give him credit for, and after following his adventures for the larger part of my own life, I've come to gather a lot of thoughts on the matter. I can't share them all in one blog here, so I'm going to try and spread them out a bit, over the coming weeks. I think that Captain Britain is a winning character; and I'd like to explain why.

Today I'm going to be talking about the basics of Captain Britain. The basic rules of his mythos, as it stands, how they work, and how they came about. And in order to understand that we do need to go into that incredibly nerdy territory of continuity.

Now, I don't believe that past continuity is the be all and end all of comics. I don't believe that a writer must constantly reference past stories in every piece of new material written. That's just plain daft. There are plenty of occasions where the past must be referenced, just in terms of logic, but often it simply isn't relevant to reference decade’s old stories when writing new ones. In real life, when I am experiencing something I don't decide to externally monologue every previous experience in my past, to my girlfriend or to random passers by, which was similar to it. Why should a comic book character?

As far as I'm concerned what is more important is the quality of the story itself - how it is constructed, where it leads the characters, what it says to the reader about them and their world, and what impact it might have upon them and the others around them. That's storytelling.

However, that said, there are certain past stories for every character which will always be incredibly important to them. Sometimes these are individual stories which really show us the essence of the character; sometimes they are events which have changed the character's perspective, forever. Sometimes they are even stories which bring loose-end plots and concepts to a close, from years ago, in a manner which makes them into a much larger, closed story. And often that kind of story can change everything the reader thought that they knew about the character.

Those kinds of story really do need to be respected by any new writer, because they are the stories which people will always remember and associate with the character ahead of any new material. It's a very tricky balance to have to strike.

I'm not going to pretend, however, that Captain Britain was ever intended to be high-brow literature. The character as he is now has changed a hell of a lot since his beginnings in the 70s, and suggesting that there was some kind of overall plan of a long running story for the character, from the very beginning would be a little bit laughable. That has of course changed over time, but that's the wonder of adding new concepts in to later continuity...

While costumes and haircuts may have changed the root story of Captain Britain has remained the same - a man plucked from obscurity at the hour of his death by Celtic Gods, and offered the chance to be reborn as a champion for nation of Britain. He is asked to make a choice between two sacred symbols - the Sword of Might and Amulet of Right - which will define which path his life will take. He is then given the powers necessary to do the job.



This story has been retold several times, but the basics have always remained true. Of course, Captain Britain as he was conceived by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe was very different to the character we know today. The original Cap had a hell of a lot more in common with Spider-man than he did with the Superman-esque powerhouse we have these days. Brian Braddock could not fly, for one. In the later days of his original incarnation he was given a magic sceptre - which allowed him a limited ability to hover, but that was about it. Instead he had a staff, with which he could pole vault from building top to building top. Brian Braddock's original superhuman athletic build allowed for that, and made for a very natural pairing with Peter Parker in Brian's US debut, in Marvel Team-Up #65.

He did still have access to a force-field, with which he could protect himself - but that was activated by a button on his staff, and then projected from it. He also wore the Amulet of Right, at all times, with which he was able to spark his metamorphosis from civvies to full costume, with a simple touch.

These were simpler times.


But while the initial Claremont and Trimpe issues of Captain Britain may have set up the basics of the character, his environment and supporting cast (The family estate of Braddock Manor, siblings Jamie and Betsy, nemesis police officer Dai Thomas) they are in many ways about as representative of the bigger picture of Captain Britain as, I dunno, summing up Captain America as a 'Superhero from World War 2'. It's only part of the picture.

The Captain Britain mythos has become a much bigger entity - Something which is actually of a greater importance not just to Marvel UK (not even to Marvel US) but to the whole Marvel Omniverse. And this is perhaps where people start to get a little confused. It all really began when Brian found out that he was not the only Captain Britain.

After the classic Steve Parkhouse/Steve Dillon Captain Britain and the Black Knight strips in the UK Hulk Comic (Probably the most regrettable never reprinted material) Cap was passed into the creative hands of Dave Thorpe and Alan Davis, which was the beginning of the transformation into the character we see in Marvel comics today.


The Davis redesign removed the Amulet and the Sceptre, and amalgamated them into the masked, gloved and booted costume which has survived the passage time - with some subtle adjustments - to the present day. Cap was now capable of unaided flight, and that force-field was now a natural automated quality of the costume itself. No more buttons, no more implausible staff projections.

This costume change happened literally in the first panels of the new creative reign (Which would shortly pass out of Thorpe's hands and into those of Alan Moore) as Merlyn and Arthur sent Cap away from Otherworld and back to Earth. Only, as Brian and his companion Jackdaw (An Otherworld native and Elf), quickly discovered this was not their Earth. It was an alternate dimension's planet Earth which became colloquially referred to as 'The Crooked Earth' - or for the pedants out there who prefer the Marvel Omniverse numbering 'Earth 238'. It was here that Cap first encountered one Opal Luna Saturnyne of the Dimensional Development Court.

The Dimensional Development Court's job was basically to keep an eye on every conceivable alternate universe and check that the Earth of that world was ticking over properly, evolving correctly, and generally not getting above (or below) its station. Earth 238 had been underperforming, and therefore they had come to give it a little evolutionary 'push' towards where it could be.

Of course, they had kind of underestimated that Earth. While many species were underperforming, by their criteria, there was one human mutant there who was very definitely over performing - one 'Mad' Jim Jaspers. That costly mistake resulted in the termination of the whole dimension, in Alan Moore's 'The Jaspers Warp' storyline. But I'll come back to that in a later part.

Anyway, after encountering Saturnyne Brian began to find out all sorts of thing which he didn't know. For one, Earth 238 may have had most of its heroes put to death by a totalitarian government. But they did have their own Captain Britain. Her name was Linda McQuillan, ad she went by the moniker of Captain UK. She too had been offered the same choice Brian had (Sword or Amulet).

And she wasn't the only one. There were a whole Corps of Captains - one for every conceivable Britain in Multiverse. And so began the reshaping of the whole of Captain Britain's mythos.

I know it might sound a little daunting, but I thought I'd sign off from this first entry on the Captain, by breaking down way things work into an easy to understand form.

So, there's this place called 'Otherworld'. Cap and the Black Knight spent a fair bit of time working around it in Hulk Comic, and it's the place from which Merlyn, Roma and even Brian's father (Sir James Braddock) come from. But what is it?

Well, Otherworld is kind of like a strange bubble of logic, floating on the edge of every alternate dimension in the Marvel Omniverse. It's a dimension within its own right, but it borders reality with every other universe which exists in Marvel Comics. And it just so happens that the point on the physical map, at which it intersects with each world, is right on top of the Country of Great Britain.

Otherworld is strange place to visit. It's a transient place, a creative dreamscape, physically shaped through the collective consciousness of every man, woman and child of every Britain it borders with. They influence it, and in return it influences them - through myths, legends, and magic. Imagine a realm where every conceivable folk tale is 100% real. That's the landscape of Otherworld. It's a strange symbiotic kind of arrangement, in which nobody is quite sure which is influencing which the most, or which came first; a real Chicken or Egg style paradox.

Otherworld is also the home of the Omniversal Guardian. It is their job to oversee every universe in the Omniverse, to watch them grow and to keep them in order. They are effectively the overseer of everything Marvel (Even though many people do not acknowledge them as such, these days).

We cannot be 100% certain that he was the first Guardian, but certainly at the earliest point we know of, the 'God-Wizard' Merlyn was the Guardian, assisted by his daughter Roma - Lady of the Northern Skies. It was established that this is the same Merlyn which appeared in the Court of King Arthur, and in fact any Merlyn to have ever appeared in Marvel Comics. They are all one and the same. Merlyn liked to dabble in mankind’s affairs in multiple dimensions.

Both Merlyn and Roma are basically Gods, as far as most matters are concerned - with pretty much all of the related options which that presents. It doesn't mean they are kind or forgiving Gods, of course. Merlyn, for example, was frequently cruel. But there was always (At least until recently, anyway.) some kind of method behind his madness. To him mankind were, at many times, little more than elaborate lab mice, to him. But it is important to understand that while both father and daughter sometimes seemed unreasonable neither ever underestimated the importance of mankind, or any life, in the grand scheme of things. They were essential to the makeup of the Omniverse. And maintaining the balance of that was of imperative importance.

And to that end, they had two chief weapons.

Firstly, the Dimensional Development Court.

Led by Omniversal Majestrix, Opal Luna Saturnyne the Court's role is basically to ensure that all dimensions are stable, evolving at their correct rate for that point in their history, and that everything is moving along comfortably. Saturnyne is assisted by her crack team of foot soldiers The Avant Guard, who are there to help in case any muscle is required.

In extreme cases, should a universe become unstable, it is up to the Court to decide its future. Is it tenable to keep it attached to the rest of the Omniverse? Or is its instability too likely to knock on to other dimensions? In that case of the latter, as with Earth 238, the only solution there is to totally remove the universe and cast it into the abyss.

Saturnyne reports directly to the Guardian, but is allowed by them to make such decisions off her own back.

The second is The Captain Britain Corps.

And this is the one that many people find most confusing. As mentioned above, Brian Braddock is far from being the only active Captain. There are as many Captains as there are alternate Earths for them. Some of them are literally alternate versions of Brian Braddock, others are totally different people. But all of them share the same basic formula. At some moment in their lives, the Guardian of the Omniverse (Be that Merlyn, be that Roma, whoever was in charge at the time) and offered them the same choice that was offered to Brian - Choose the Sword or the Amulet, and become Captain Britain.

Only the Omniversal Guardian is capable of truly making new Captains (Something Chris Claremont kind of forgot about during the original Excalibur). Because after giving them the choice they literally filter power from the very fabric of the Marvel Omniverse into them, joining the individual in question into a synchronous bonding between themselves, the collective consciousness of their Britain and Otherworld.

Their power is great, never doubt that. But there are of course downsides. For one, that synchronous relationship is a double edged sword. On the one hand, by rights, in a full out televised dogfight in a UK city, with the whole of Britain behind him, a Captain should be near impossible to be put down. However, on the flip side, what happens to a Captain if his people start to lose faith in him? How weak might he become? And of course, if you beat up a Captain you also kick the frap out of Britain itself - as seen in the pages of The Avengers, when Kelsey Leigh became Captain Britain. Morgan LeFey kicked the hell out of her, and Britain in the process. So that is not always a good arrangement...


And secondly, there's this little kink in a Captain's powers that their powers are effected by distance from the physical point at which Otherworld meets with each respective Britain. The closer they are to that point on the coast of England the stronger their powers become, but the further away they get has the adverse effect of weakening the self-same powers. And it is for that reason that a Captain's costume is able to work as an artificial amplifier for their powers. This allows them to operate elsewhere on Earth, without becoming powerless. Sure, they're not at the peak of their powers - far reduced in fact - but should they be needed abroad, or even off-world, it does still make fighting the good fight possible.

It is also worth noting that the costumes themselves are powerful enough that they can actually give ordinary people somewhat limited superhuman abilities - such as strength, and the ability to fly. Certainly not to anywhere near the levels of a genuine Captain, but something more than human nonetheless. It was via these means that Albion created his own army of 'Foot soldier Captains', in New Excalibur, or how Besty 'Psylocke' Braddock was able to take her brother's place as Captain Britain, during Brian's brief retirement in the Delano/Davis period of Captain Britain.


Each one of these Captains is charged with protecting their own world. But in situations where there is a far greater thread to the Omniverse the Guardian can call together the whole Captain Britain Corps to sort it. Think of them as being, in some ways, similar to DC Comics' Green Lantern Corps. But rather than protecting worlds they protect entire alternate universes.

There have been relatively few instances where the calling together of the whole Corps has been required, but throughout the latter end of Brian's solo adventures, and well into Excalibur, there were frequent encounters with other Corpsmen - in particular during The Cross-time Caper. Their membership is infinite, and very few members are actually named compared to the numbers we see in panel. But it is worth noting that Brian's own father, Sir James Braddock was a former member.

So anyway, that's how it works. Those are the very basics to understanding how Captain Britain works. A set of rules, which have been formed over a period of over 30 years.

However, rules or not, that doesn't mean that everybody has always played by them...

End of Part One.

Picture references:
Images 1 and 2 from Captain Britain vol. 1 #2, Oct 1976. Art by Herb Trimpe.
Image 3 re-coloured reprint of Marvel Superheroes #377, from X-Men Archives Featuring Captain Britain #1, July 1995. Art by Alan Davis.
Image 4 from Wisdom #1, January 2007. Art by Trevor Hairsine.
Image 5 from the cover of X-Men Archives Featuring Captain Britain #2, August 1995. Art by Alan Davis.
Image 6 re-coloured reprint of The Daredevils #7, from X-Men Archives Featuring Captain Britain #4, Oct 1995. Art by Alan Davis.
Image 7 from Avengers vol. 3 #80, May 2004. Art by Oliver Coipel
Image 8 from X-Men: Die by the Sword #3, Jan 2008. At by Juan Santacruz & CAFU.

Grumble: Frank Tieri's New Excalibur

This is a bit of an updated version of a large post I put up on Comic Book Resources’ forum earlier in the year. A couple of people have suggested that it might be sensible to post up here. So here we go.

Responses to Chris Claremont's Excalibur relaunch of 2005, under the title of ‘New Excalibur’ have been polarised, to say the least. I personally did not initially have too many grumbles to field about the title. It at least brought an Excalibur title back to the market, and unlike it’s predecessor of the same name it was a monthly Marvel book set in Britain. The cast wasn’t quite what I would have wanted, but it definitely showed some world-building promise. Unfortunately, through a what sounds to be a combination of editorially requested changes and the untimely departure of Claremont from the book through ill-health the book has begun to lose its focus and its way.

In my opinion, the clearest example of this, is the pretty wild contrast of approach delivered by Frank Tieri, who Marvel brought in to fill in for Claremont, during his absence.

Here is that post in full:


So, now that Frank Tieri has finally finished his seven issue fill in run on New Excalibur I have been thinking quite a lot over what has transpired, and wanted to bounce around some ideas with you guys over the overall successes and failures of the series. I considered doing this over Christmas, but with the final issue yet to hit the press that seemed a little presumptuous. Now that we have the finished article? Let’s talk. And yes that means that if you haven’t read #16 there’s going to be spoilers.


For those of you who didn’t know Frank Tieri took over New Excalibur as fill-in writer with #9 after Chris Claremont was taken ill, and unfortunately had to take some lengthy leave. At the time Claremont left he had only solidly written up to #5 (Or was it #6?) and Frank Tieri was quickly announced as his temporary replacement. However, I understand that Tieri chose not to write issues #6-8, which Claremont had plotted, as he did not feel he was the right person to do them justice, and so that fell to New X-Men writer Chris Yost.


As Tieri took over the title it sat, still very much in its infancy as a title in the grander scheme of things, but just about having established its setting and the purpose of the team. It wasn’t perfect, but even re-reading #8 recently, I feel it was probably the most complete and grounded issue up to that point, and felt like the title knew where it was and where it could go.


Now, upon taking on New Excalibur Tieri did an interview for Newsarama promising that while he was ‘filling in’ this run wasn’t going to be ‘filler’. I might be paraphrasing slightly there, but that’s how I remember it. He promised two guest appearances of characters who would feature during his run, and have the possibility to stay with the team beyond it: Chamber and the Black Knight. He was certainly good at talking the talk in interview and genuinely built up a bit of interest from readers who wanted to see those characters, but who did not usually buy New Excalibur. New readers are always good.


So, with his tenure at an end this month, how did it all pan out? Did it live up to the hype?


The one thing which impressed me the most about this run was that Tieri seemed to have a genuine interest in working on individual characters, some of whom had received some criticism in how they had been written in the series so far. The obvious example would be Nocturne. Now whether it was from the dialogue which Claremont gave to TJ or the redesign that Michael Ryan came up with for her, a number of fans here and elsewhere were quite unhappy with TJ’s portrayal. As an eXile she was always sure of herself - capable and mature for her years. The dimension she came from was infinitely tougher than the traditional Marvel universe. Both it, and her time with the exiles, had shaped her into a seasoned warrior; an Amazon like fighter, who was very much capable of taking care of herself. This was not so much the case on New Excalibur. She seemed much more vulnerable here, more under threat. And certainly younger in attitude and appearance.


If there is one thing that Tieri did for Nocturne it was to give her back some of the spark she used to have, showing her unafraid of a little confrontation and a bit more outgoing in conversation. He also brought back the Hex Bolts, very much absent in this series, so far. Now while some fans will argue over the overall coherent logic of that being possible I see that as a vast improvement. In New Excalibur so far Nocturne has pretty much been a one trick pony in battle. Her possession ability is greatly useful, but there’s only so many times it can be done without wearing thin, and also it gives her a little bit of much needed firepower, in battle. At least she has a way of defending herself now.


The Juggernaut is also a strong example of this kind of development. His transition to ‘good guy’ may have happened a couple of years ago now, but it was a shift which did leave an awful lot more questions unanswered. This is a guy who drew his power from being the earthly avatar of a demigod, who has killed people, and has committed continuous criminal acts over a very long time. How does somebody like that go straight? Can they even? I don’t think you can entirely blame Claremont for continuing to paint Cain as a reformed criminal suffering serious guilt and rage issues. That was where the character was, when he inherited him. Maybe in time Chris would have taken Cain down the line of being manipulated by Cyttorak (as Tieri has done) but let’s be honest, he did not really have the chance to do much of anything with him during his sadly short initial run.


If nothing else, what Tieri has done is to force those questions out into the open, and give Cain a clearer sense of inner conflict for the future. He’s always going to be drawn to Cyttorak’s promise of power, almost like a drug. Can he ever reform from that? Can any team he’s on ever truly trust him? It certainly makes the Juggernaut more interesting than before. It also kind of brings the Cyttorak section of his life to a close for the time being.


Other characters have also had some nice moments during his run, such as Dazzler responses to TJ in the last issue, and sage has had her moments too, but I guess for a whole host of new readers the main carrot on the end of the stick was the return of the Black Knight. Dane was a natural inclusion on this title. His placing on board New Excalibur was, in many ways, more logical than some of the mutant inclusions on this team. A previous, all be it temporary, Excalibur member, and one of Brian’s oldest friends. Certainly at a time where Brian should be grieving both the loss of his Wife, and the disappearance of his Twin Sister he could certainly use somebody to confide in – and when the person on the team you know best is Pete Wisdom, you might want to look a little further afield for a confidant.


So yes, a logical inclusion and some strong individual character work. But while that was a strength of this run I do also feel that it was also a weakness.


As I said at the start of this post, New Excalibur is a title which, even now (but certainly six months ago) is still finding its feet. Claremont introduced the purpose of the team, but did not really get the chance to build upon it, to the point which everybody really got it.


The mood of post-M-Day Britain (the day the Scarlet Witch depowered Earth’s mutants to only 198 remaining, as the aftermath of the House of M storyline - Editorial Mark) was very much intended to be a dark one. For villains, chancers and organised crime Britain looks like easy pickings right now. Barely defended (in theory). Hence why Black Air have crawled out of the woodwork, for the first time in almost a decade. Britain was supposed to be in chaos and under a definite threat. And that is why there’s a need for a ‘new’ Excalibur. Claremont’s run showed us this, to a degree, but in order to convince the majority of fans that this was the tone, that really had to continue to be shown in more detail, to hammer the point home.


My chief problem with the seven issues which Teiri wrote is that he did not do that. There were no villains, not even stories set within New Excalibur’s Britain to back up the concept. One of the problems with having such a strong concentration on individual character work in this run, I feel, is that while it has looked a little harder at the characters of New Excalibur it has also, at the same time, detracted from New Excalibur as a Team. The tone and purpose which Chris Claremont had been developing has been kind of pushed away from the book, through seven issues of not having embraced it.


Not totally removed from it just… well, ignoring it and dodging around it, as much as possible.


And to some fans, those who read this title purely to see their favourite character in action, that’s fine. But for people like me, who has always read this title, and its predecessors, for the team and its context, that’s a bit of a let down. For this entire concept to work the reader needs to feel that the UK is under threat. Since #9 it really hasn’t been – and it should be.


This is coupled with my second chief grumble about Tieri’s run. Not only did Excalibur kind of abandon their purpose in the last seven issues, they also lost their sense of place. This is after all, as with all bar one book to use the Excalibur title, a book set in Britain. In the first three issues of New Excalibur that was made pretty clear, in dialogue, setting and through the artwork. Michael Ryan genuinely spent a lot of time getting the background art right, on a streets and houses level. The ‘permanent cloud’ feel which the inks and colours supplied on those issues also really help to establish that, and the atmospheric tone as well.


I think it’s no coincidence that after returning from his break in #6 Ryan never quite reached this level of detail again, bar perhaps #8. When he returned to the book Claremont was on leave. I really get the feeling, as with the so many of his former artists, Claremont left very specific instructions of what he wanted to see in the background. The timing of Ryan’s drop in attention level, and the timing of Chris’ departure seem to be just too close for it to be a coincidence.


It’s not so much that Tieri’s run chose to stay away from DEALING with Britain, in a post M-Day context, it’s more that it avoided featuring it entirely – removing the stories from that setting at some great lengths – a different continent, even a different time period! As Chris Claremont said during an interview at the launch of New Excalibur:

Originally Posted by Chris Claremont’
“A great many fans made clear that - while they appreciated and enjoyed the stories we were telling on Genosha — they did not appreciate what they felt was the misappropriation of the brand-identity of Excalibur,” Claremont said. “In other words, the Genosha series might have been more welcomed had it been differently titled. To those readers, Excalibur means England-Captain Britain - connections to OtherWorld - a visual and story-telling aesthetic more in keeping with the original series by me and Alan Davis.”

In any Excalibur title the setting is the backbone of the book. It’s practically a character itself, and sadly, in this run, it’s a character which has barely featured at all. In fact its only real appearance was to turn up for issues 10-12, to be all but lampooned and laughed at. You can’t leave it out.

The whole comic book mass market is American centric. That isn’t a slur, or a note of condemnation, by the way. Not at all. It’s just from the Golden Age of Comics onwards that’s where the grounding has always been. In fact when Chris Claremont and Herbe Trimpe first wrote Captain Britain in the mid 70s there were no real British Superheroes. Our comic book medium was very different – grounded more in Space, and Sci-fi and detective stories. There had been more popular characters like Dan Dare or Judge Dredd – but these never fitted the Superhero aesthetic. That was firmly grounded with characters with secret identities, operating out of American Cities and overly dramatic alliteration…


That’s where people expect a comic book story to take place, by default. An American city, probably New York. It is therefore necessary, when you are writing a story outside of the USA to make it implicitly clear that you ARE outside of the USA. You have to show the differences, you have to make it clear, even if that means romanticising the situation slightly – you have to sell it!


New Excalibur, in all honesty, had not yet managed that when Tieri came on board – but it was getting there. Again, my problem with avoiding this, as with the function of Excalibur as a team, is that by doing that you force it aside, and away.


The original Excalibur painted a very definite picture from its very start. Partly that was down to the incredible detail of Alan Davis’ art, but it’s not something which only he can do. It’s just paying good attention to the differences. The things which mark America and Britain apart. And sometimes it’s the smallest things – Cars, products, shops, and advertising hoardings. Rain! The little things that, as you walk down any street, give away where you are.


We had that in the first 3 issues, but we haven’t really had it since. During Tieri’s tenure we haven’t really had it at all. It really does need highlighting. Without that you just end up with that horrible compromise, very much like scenes from #13, where you have very generic American buildings, painted brightly in glorious sunshine, with the very occasional British landmark thrown in in a lame attempt to fool the reader. The artwork doesn’t need to be precise; it just needs to be an obviously British landscape, and to embrace the feel of the environment. That’s something which I feel has been absent over the last seven issues. And in some cases the errors which occur I find to be a little frustrating. In general British buildings aren't as tall as you’re used to across the Atlantic, and in many cases a few hundred years older. I find it even harder to excuse not knowing how to draw London in particular. It's not like there aren’t a wealth of guide books out there.


I can live with some of the smaller less important things. Chamber’s hospital from #9 did not look like a British hospital. Did that matter? Not really. But whilst it may have escaped Frank’s attention, British jails are old, and grimy, the guards are not to my knowledge armed with rifles (Firearms are only carried by specific firearms units in the UK, as gun licensing is infinitely stricter here), dressed like US Marshals, and the prisoners do not wear jumpsuits or have their hair shaved. Tieri might not know that. But even a quick search under the words ‘British Prison’ on Google yielded me with these results:




Granted, these photos are quite old, but worryingly enough our prisons probably haven’t changed a lot in the last 50 years…


I can also brush aside the logic of Wisdom and Sage leaving Camelot and making a journey on horseback, across desert landscape, which takes minutes when it should have taken hours. But it should perhaps be pointed out that there is no desert terrain in Britain. It’s a damp and green country. And especially when you consider that Camelot would likely have stood in what at the time was part of Wales it’s even more ridiculous. Wales is probably the dampest area of the UK. It’s full of wet, green, hills and valleys.

Definitely no deserts.

As a Brit I could buy into Claremont's run as feeling like it was set over here for the most part. It didn't look quite right in many places, but the tone and surroundings fitted. Tieri's run felt like it was set in New York, complete with American style penitentiaries, and American Villains. I found that very distracting, and big step backwards in terms of the title's identity.


But, I suppose, in all fairness Frank Tieri is not a British writer, and I’m sure that some will argue that he would not know things like this. Some might argue that I should not expect him to.


The problem for me is that Marvel’s Britain is a very specific environment. I think New Excalibur has an awful lot of potential within that. Whoever is writing the book has a vast landscape to play with, much as say Warren Ellis has on Newuniversal. Marvel’s Britain is practically a universe in its own right. It had an imprint with more titles then the New Universe ever had, and ran on and off for 20 years. There is plenty potential waiting to be tapped, and re-invented after almost a decade of obscurity, and most of which would not have effected any of Claremont’s existing plots, but could have spawned British-based stories to reinforce the themes and setting of New Excalibur.


Sadly that didn’t happen.


When I think of the best Marvel stories set in Britain recently, I think of 21st Century Blitz by Ed Brubaker in the pages of Captain America, Paul Cornell’s Wisdom limited series, and Christos’ Gage’s recent Union Jack series. All three of those stories embraced Marvel’s Britain with respect and firmly grasped what it looked like, felt like and what it meant to be there. And only one of those writers is British…


To me, while Chris Claremont’s New Excalibur felt to me like it was also part of that same landscape Frank Tieri’s New Excalibur simply did not. And I think that’s a shame, because Tieri is by no means a bad writer, he just may not have fully researched that landscape and other work within it. His New Excalibur neatly avoided contact, maybe through fear of getting it wrong, maybe through not wanting to tread on Claremont’s toes, maybe because he just didn’t have the time. Who can say? But I feel that’s a real shame.


The stories told instead were not exactly bad stories. It’s just that, to me, they did not feel as if they really fitted into this book. The Chamber issue barely featured Excalibur at all. It actually surprised me that this issue did not work as I had hoped. On paper it’s all there – A British mutant, depowered by M-Day, returning home to appear in a book about Britain in crisis because of M-Day. On paper there is no reason why that should or even could go wrong.


But it did. Firstly because Tieri focussed almost the whole issue on healing Jono, via the Clan Akkabba – a set of villains who he did not even truly explain in the issue (Even though many readers WILL know who they are). Secondly because at no point did Tieri bring the narrative of this story back to Britain, M-Day or Excalibur’s role with either or both. This issue felt like such a waste to me, in the end. Maybe the hype of interview raised my expectations a little too far, but I just felt it to be such a huge wasted opportunity. Chamber and Excalibur could have meshed so well and so easily, but instead this issue comes off as a writer using a book to save a personally favoured character. That too is a shame.


The follow up arc with the Black Knight pleased me much more. Setting up this in-depth explanation of the character in a quite organic way was great. But ultimately I felt let down here also. So much work put in only to have Dane leave in #15 – still not having really had any meaningful conversation with Brian. Prime opportunity to have him open up about the recent losses of both Meggan and Psylocke. Such a waste. Even if Dane wasn’t going to stay beyond #15 Tieri should have taken this opportunity.


Instead the Camelot arc serves to do little more than all but send up Great Britain, make Pete Wisdom look like a fool, and unfortunately shows several continuity inconsistencies with past Arthurian legend in Marvel Comics.


I have to say that if Tieri very deliberately wanted to stay away from areas Chris Claremont had been working on, the decision to deal with something so tied into Otherworld, Merlyn and the Captain Britain mythos was probably not the way to do that. I did wonder, as the story panned out, if Frank did not realise this. For example much as though Tieri acknowledged that Captain Britain would someday meet Arthur’s ghost, he did not at any point acknowledge the past between Brian and Merlyn. Merlyn, whose role as monarch of Otherworld Brian now fills. Merlyn who brought Brian back to life after he was killed by The Fury. Merlyn who turned Brian into Captain Britain in the first place…


This story comes across as Tieri trying to do something wacky – maybe like he interprets early original Excalibur. This is probably his version of a similar concept to characters like the Crazy Gang, and stories like the Cross-time Caper. Sadly, and I think not realising, he has picked a legend already amply covered by Marvel, and linked more to both Excalibur and Captain Britain than he realised.

As I said earlier I do not fault his Juggernaut arc too much. It’s been well-written and really HAD to be done, to give Cain the edge he really should have had ever since he first tried to reform. I’m fairly pleased with that. If I had to criticise? The only fault I could find with it, in all honesty, was that it was a bit rushed. To move from one issue showing that Cain is a bit down about no longer being quite so ‘unstoppable’ now, to the following issue running off to Asia to return to being under Cyttorak’s thrall is a bit of a leap of faith to ask of the reader, in that space of time. The foreshadowing just isn’t there. Through the rest of the series there hasn’t really been any hint of this.


But like I say, the addition to Cain as a character is definitely welcome. IT may have been a little rushed, but at least it’s been done. Having put down New Excalibur #15, and having re-read what I have written over this post I actually find myself surprised with how much I didn’t like about Frank Tieri’s run. I can recall my defending several issues of this run on this very forum, and yet overall I was disappointed with it. That is odd. I also believe that Frank Tieri is a good writer. When I think about what else of his I have read lately I think of the The Darkness/Wolverine one shot which I thought was great, or Civil War: War Crimes which I read last week. I was particularly impressed with the sheer strength of character work on both Tony Stark and Wilson Fisk. Very strong, greatly enjoyable.

Frank Tieri is incredibly good at writing character pieces. He's done that on several Marvel titles, and he certainly did that in part on New Excalibur. Give him a story to write in a set up which everybody understands, and accepts, and he’ll do a great character led story. But when it comes to actually creating a setting, or reinforcing one in people’s minds, I don’t think that’s his strongest suit. Tieri did a lot of good character work on individuals for New Excalibur, but not so much for the book itself, in my eyes.  Unfortunately I think New Excalibur, in that fledgling state it kind of became trapped in during Claremont’s absence, really needed something a bit more.


Well, That’s my incredibly long winded take on it all. Anybody else? Discuss. It’s been eating my brain for a few months, and I needed to share.