Customer Reviews

Excalibur Vol. 1: Forging The Sword (X-Men)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

It seems the two negative reviews are due to Chris Claremont retconning Grant Morrison's New X-Men story "Planet X", in which Magneto became a drug-addict who herded people into crematoriums before being decapitated by Wolverine. Not only was this out of character, but a Jewish Holocaust survivor becoming a Nazi? Honestly, people.

It should also be noted that Chris Claremont is the one who made Magneto into the fascinating, complex character he is today. Before Claremont had fleshed him out, he was flat cardboard cut-out of a character. It was Claremont who gave him a background and personality, and made him interesting.

Nonetheless, after Claremont left the titles Marvel regressed Magneto back into a raving lunatic. Claremont returned to Marvel a couple of years ago but this is the first time he really got a chance to work with Magneto again, finally turning Magneto back into a good character.

Magneto and Xavier's relationship is the highlight of the book, as Claremont writes the characters better than most.

Highly recommended.

This collection is good. It has nothing to do with Grant Morrison, but was a series written by Chris Claremont in 2004. The amazing pettiness of some fans, really almost cult-like followers of Mr. Morrison, who will come to this review section and post negative reviews just because they don't like a plot development in the EXCALIBUR series. These people probably haven't read this collection, and never will. This story starts with Magneto and Xavier meeting again on the devastated island of Genosha. They agree to work together to rebuild the island, which was destroyed by mutant-hunting machines called sentinels. In the opening arc, we meet some wonderful characters, including Wicked, a girl who is haunted by ghosts, that she can ultimately control. There is Freakshow, a young man who can turn into various monsters, PRN. Calisto, the Morlock, shows up, with her tentacle arms. The art is fine, the writing is first rate. If you enjoy classic Claremont on the X-Men, you'll enjoy this collection. Ignore the negative reviews. These are written to be disruptive and deliberately knock this collection, simply for the fact that Magneto was restored, which was entirely necessary for the character and for Marvel. If you are a Magneto fan, you'll love this collection too. Although some have complained that Magneto is perhaps written too passively. Chris Claremont has said in mail, that he had plans for Magneto and Xavier in this series, which was prematurely canceled by the beginning of 2005, and that "sparks would fly" between the two. Read these trades thinking what might have been had the series continued, and read them for the enjoyment of the goodness we did get.

General X-Men Spoliers below:
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For the Trade Paper Back collector, this is an essential book to help bridge continuity. Also for those not happy with the end of Grant Morrison's New X-men title, this resolves the main complaint and issue of his ending story arc.

At the end of Grant Morrison's New X-Men run, a major character makes an unexpected turn and reveals to actually be Magento in disguise for what was almost the entirety of his 2 year story. There was (and still is) alot of debate on this turn, and you will find some who think this was great and others that don't.

I do not. I thought it almost ruined the whole series, because the Mageneto character he wrote was so out of touch with any depiction of Magneto before this. The reveal of Magneto in disguise left a "What the F?" moment.... followed by a series of issues where this Magneto was deranged and crazed on drugs without any plan excpet kill everyone in New York. It was terrible. In addition, Morrision's turn never made any sense. Its one thing to plan a major plot twist, with hints and clues through out, so that when it happens, you look back and go "HOLY $--H!". It is entirely something else to just drop a turn on the reader without any explanation or rational. I have read this final volume several times, and for the life of me I cannot figure out how or why this character turn goes down. It just does, and what we get a a raving, lunatic Magneto.

It sucked.

If you hated this character turn, as I did, this is a good pick up to explain how it wasn't actually Magneto, which in my opinion salvages Grant's work. The character actually pretending to be Magneto, makes so much more sense, when you look at the characters history and what he goes through with his students over the the run.

This will also help bridge you into Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-men Run, and then into House of M.

The story of the book is good, and if you enjoy it, you may want to read the rest of the Claremont Excaliber run

With X-Treme X-Men ending, legendary scribe Chris Claremont returned with a new Excalibur series, focusing on Professor Xavier and his trip to the ruins of Genosha with the body of Magneto. He encounters a small cadre of surviving mutants, and we the readers discover that Magneto is not dead (of course) and that it was an imposter masquerading as Magneto in Grant Morrison's classic Planet X book. Those who were wowed with Morrison's turn of events may have a hard time overlooking that (you didn't really think Magneto was dead did you?), but if you can look past it, you'll find some great classic Claremont storytelling and the scenes between Xavier and Magneto are great comic moments. The art is solid (I can't remember the guy's name, Aaron something) and worth the price of admission. All in all, longtime X-fans will want to pick this up, and if you missed out on this give it a look.

Back when comics were geared towards children, Chris Claremont brought style, craft, and maturity when he took over the X-men back in the seventies. For two decades, his run on X-men was undisputably one of the most mature, forward-thinking, adaptive, and entertaining runs on any book ever. He also worked with some of the finest artistic talent, including John Byrne, John Romita Jr., Mark Silvestri, and Jim Lee.

Since his first departure, the X-books became quite the convoluted mess, and weren't as entertaining for a while. While Fabian Niceiza and Joe Kelly had some highlights, no writer really had the guts, talent, foresight, or freedom to move the mutants forward. The art was either consistent at best or indecipherable at worst.

Until Grant Morrison. His run on New X-Men actually evolved story, plot, and character forward for the first time since Claremont left the book in the 90's. More importantly, Morrison made an incredible impact on the whole mutant mythos. The destruction of Genosha, the death of Magneto, the romance of Scott and Emma, the new sacrifice by Jean Grey, the maturing of Wolverine, were as vital and important as anything done in the last 10 years. And the art was alive! Dynamic stuff from Quitely, Bachalo, Jimenez, and Silvestri, the best the title had seen in a decade.

All of which (finally) brings me to Excalibur.
Chris Claremont's latest work, not just here but in other books (JLA 10th Circle, X-treme X-men, et al.) is not just uninspired. It's immature.

Is Claremont really so threatened by the talent of other writers, is he so afraid that someone might make more of a mark on these characters besides himself, that he has to undo other people's valued and popular work? Magneto was dead at the end of Planet X (New X-Men vol. 6), and he died an appropriate death for his character; it was the culmination of 40 years of warfare. Claremont cheapened it by bringing him back. He didn't even give a decent explanation for it. He might as well have said, "Screw Morrison, his work doesn't count." To make it worse, from an author who penned such classics as "Days of Future Past" and the "Dark Phoenix Saga", defining Comics as Graphic Literature, Excalibur:Forging the Sword is unbelievably amateurish, with peurile dialogue, inconsistent characterization, and very little forethought. He writes himself into so many corners, the only way to get out is to dig another plot hole.

The art just makes a bad package worse. Aron Lopresti can be a decent artist when paired with a more progressive writer. But with writing this bad, his art is uninspired. It's even garish and ugly; some of the women seem gnomish.

Unfortunately, Mr. Claremont does not know when to let go. He's like a child who doesn't want to let other children play with his toys, so he puts a hammer to them. As a long-time fan of the X-Men, and a life-time Marvelite, I am disappointed in not only Claremont's shabby treatment of the characters, but his disregard for other creators and his disregard for fans. If anyone from Marvel reads these Amazon reviews, I beg them to remove Claremont before he commits irreperable harm to these comics icons.

I strongly recommend Grant Morrison's entire run on New X-Men (all 7 volumes available through Amazon), as well as Joss Whedon's work on Astonishing X-Men (vol. 1, Gifted, also available) instead of this travesty that Claremont has foisted upon us.

Grant Morrison had a very controversial run on X-Men, Cyclops started cheating on Jean Grey with the evil White Queen, Xavier outed himself as a mutant, Genosha was destroyed, and the character Xorn turned out to be Magneto in disguise using the mutant enhancing drug Kick. The run ended with Jean Grey dead (again) and Wolverine slicing Magneto's head off decisively ending the X-men's long-standing war with Magneto once and for all, or so it seemed. It was great. It was full of twists and turns that no one saw coming. Then something terrible happened. Chris Claremont's Excalibur revival series. Now We have learned that because of poor writing and a sorry excuse for a plot the brilliant end to Grant Morison's run on X-men has been explained away with Magneto alive and well because the guy that was killed was an someone impersonating Magneto impersonating Xorn... Guess what folks, the story does not improve from there, and it is shallow, and hollow, and completely pointless. In the end Marvel should have left well enough alone.
Claremont's quality has slipped dramatically over the years, he spends too much time having characters needlessly explaining their powers or how they're using their powers, a job that is supposed to be handled by the artist who would do fine on his own, but with Claremont's poor writing it seems kinda redundant.
The characters that form this new Excalibur are not interesting either. Especially since the House of M will pretty much nuke most of the mutant life out of existence Claremont should have used existing popular characters like Night Crawler, Shadow Cat, or others that people actually care about. I can't even remember the names of half these people, and why is Magneto alive? Grant Morison's Planet X arch ended perfectly! There was no need to un do it.
I'd really like to see Claremont turn over the reigns to someone else. Everything he writes hurts the X-men now, rather than keeping them cool. The X-books need to evolve, and they are not. I recommend avoiding the new Excalibur, although the original series was great this one is a complete waste of paper and the penciler's talent.

It is hard to really appreciate how much of a detriment 'Excalibur' is to the health of the rest of the series until you take into account the strides Grant Morrison was able to take with the X-Men.

Old fans such as myself actually started to drift away from the X-Men. We needed a writer who could appreciate the history of the X-Men, while not allowing this complicated backstory to overpower the need for the team to mature and in a very important sense, move into the new millenium.

Morrison did this in a thought provoking way in New X-Men, to the extent that I actually re-read his run on that comic, and reference it for examples of solid, superhero writing. Morrison has a gift of throwing five ideas at you at once, and he can make them tie into the larger story (noone ever thought of a bacteria intelligence; but the idea works when you're dealing with superhuman mutants). His stories had real impact; which was something the franchise had been missing in wake of various ressurrections, lackluster plots and lookalike villains.

The problem is that Claremont is backsliding. It's really hard to get into what should be a fascinating book when there are so many 'What Ifs...?' plaguing a title. This book is essentially about rebuilding a society. Unfortunately, rather than moving on with his life, the first person that Charles Xavier runs across is Magneto.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Magneto beheaded at the end of New X-Men? Also forgive me if I'm wrong, but weren't their three incredibly skilled and powerful telepaths (seven-eight counting the Stepford cuckoos) in the mansion or present during the final battle against Magneto in New York? And wasn't one of these telepaths the Phoenix? The explanation for Magneto's return (someone impersonated him...riiight.) is enough to kill the dramatic conclusion of the New X-Men series. What should have been an impetus for Charles to develop into a more interesting character has ended with him returning to his pre-90s roots, complete with a partially brainwashed Magneto.

It's hard to really feel excitement when you feel your patience and fascination with such a beloved series coming to an end. I have to admit, Excalibur is just a bland read. So bland you think of how boring it is, and where Calisto got tentacles and then you realize there are better books out there.