CAPTAIN BRITAIN PART ELEVEN - EXCALIBUR CLASSIC, VOL. 1

From Captain Britain's perspective, EXCALIBUR picks up with our hero deep in sorrow over the apparent death of his twin sister, Betsy, now known as Psylocke of the X-Men.  Brian Braddock has turned to the bottle for solace, and Meggan is unable to snap him out of his alcoholic funk.  Deciding she needs help to get through to Brian, Meggan travels to the Muir Island Research Centre in Scotland to enlist the aid of Kitty Pryde, who she apparently met behind the scenes during Cap's recent encounters with the X-Men.

Soon, Opal Luna Saturnyne sends the Technet to capture Rachel Summers -- Phoenix, who she views as a threat to all reality.  Kitty and her other former teammate, Nightcrawler, team up with Meggan and eventually Cap and Rachel, to best the Technet and a group of creatures called the Warwolves, sent by Mojo to capture Rachel for his own reasons.  In the aftermath of their team-up, Cap, Meggan, Nightcrawler, Kitty, and Rachel choose to honor the memories of their loved ones by banding together as a new super-group: Excalibur.

MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D.

What a mouthful! At least we can be thankful ABC didn't follow their usual pattern of calling the show "ABC's Fill-in-the-Blank", or we'd be watching ABC's MARVEL'S AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. In any event, I'll just be calling it SHIELD from now on.

I had the fortune of attending the SHIELD panel at Comic-Con back in July, where Marvel's Jeph Loeb introduced the cast and, much to the crowd's delight, screened the pilot. I was going to try and write something up based solely on that viewing, but as usual when something is screened at a convention, the acoustics in the room were awful and audience cheered at every little thing, making the whole show very difficult to hear -- so I decided to wait and watch the episode again on ABC first. Which is probably for the best, as even my razor-keen memory did not recall everything I'd seen back in July.

TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #81

"LOOSE ENDS, PART 1"

Writer: Simon Furman | Penciler: Andrew Wildman | Inker: Stephen Baskerville

Colorist: John-Paul Bove | Letterer: Chris Mowry | Editor: John Barber

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall

The Plot: The Wreckers thwart a scheme by Soundwave to martyr several of his "Neo-Decepticon" followers. Later, Soundwave is approached by Decepticon commander Bludgeon for aid in avenging his forces' defeat on Klo two decades ago. Meanwhile, fed up with Optimus Prime's recent pacifist ways, Kup leads the Wreckers away from Cybertron to travel to all planets touched by the Autobot-Decepticon war and deal with any remaining Decepticon threats. But when the group reaches Earth, they find it in ruins, apparently at the hands of Megatron -- who promptly blows their ship out of the sky.

G1 Continuity: Kup mentions Nucleon, the energy that turned several Transformers into "Action Masters" -- non-transforming Transformers -- near the end of the Marvel series. Notably, Kup also indicates that the Nucleon may have left some of those Transformers mentally unstable as well. Additionally, Kup's team is carried to Earth by Berko and his Cosmic Carnival, introduced in TRANSFORMERS #44. Besides that, Bludgeon brings up the planet Klo, from the final G1 issue.

AN EXCALIBUR PRIMER

I tend to write my posts here assuming some pre-existing comic book knowledge on the part of the reader, but at the same time I don't want to confuse anybody.  So, as I did last week with TRANSFORMERS, I'll be tossing out little nuggets like this one before starting a new review series (or in this case continuing one that has moved into the pages of a new title).  If you're already an Excalibur Expert, please feel free to skip the below, though I would advise reading at least the final paragraph.

Art by Alan Davis and Paul Neary

CAPTAIN BRITAIN PART TEN - PAVING THE WAY FOR EXCALIBUR

Presenting a special extra-length post to close out the Classic Captain Britain era!

When last we saw Captain Britain, he was on his way home from Sat-Yr-9's parallel Earth.  He arrives in time to console his sister, Betsy, following her murder -- in self-defense -- of Kaptain Briton.  Shortly thereafter, Mastermind reveals to Brian and Betsy that their father was not a human being as they had always believed, but a citizen of Otherworld and a chief adviser to Merlyn.  Mastermind then takes on the holographic appearance of a human butler, to better serve Brian and his family.

Meanwhile, Garbriel and Michael, agents of the Resources Control Executive ("RCX"), the agency which has replaced STRIKE, have tracked down Linda McQuillan, Captain U.K., who is living in peace on our Earth.  They introduce her to the Warpies, mutated children created by the Jaspers' warp.  They want Linda to help them coerce Captain Britain into serving them as a symbol, hopefully preventing a coup of the British government due to civil unrest created by the reality warp.

EARTH 616

You may note that during my Captain Britain reviews, I never use the term, "Earth 616". The reason is simple -- I hate it.

"Earth 616" is the designation that was given during the Dave Thorpe/Alan Moore Captain Britain stories to the Earth where the "real" Marvel Universe resides. I believe Moore has alternately taken credit for the number and said that Thorpe coined it. To my recollection, I don't recall it appearing in a Thorpe story, but it's possible I'm wrong. At any rate, I really feel that if it weren't for its association, deserved or otherwise, with Alan Moore, "616" would not see nearly as much use as it does.

But the point is, the term bothers me because it just sounds silly -- I (figuratively) roll my eyes when I see or hear someone refer to the "main" Marvel Earth as "Earth 616," "616," or, stupidest of all to my ear, "the 616." Just call it the Marvel Universe! No one will stop and ask you if you mean Earth 12, Earth 457, or Earth 8532. I promise we all know exactly which Earth you're talking about. Trust me.

Even if fandom doesn't necessarily agree with my above sentiment, I'm gratified that Marvel does. I've said before that I have little use for modern Marvel, but one area where we see eye-to-eye is the stupidity of "616". Several of Marvel's editors, from Joe Quesada on down, have stated their distaste for the term, as well as their confusion as to why anyone would even want to use it.

So: sorry if I've offended anyone who uses the number. This is only my personal opinion. You will never see the term "616" used on this blog beyond this post. And yet somehow, even without that indicator, you will still know which universe I'm referring to at any given time.

TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #80.5

The first collected edition from IDW Comics' TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE series collects issues 80.5 - 85 of the continuation series which follows from Marvel's original TRANSFORMERS comic. Issue 80.5, a contribution to the "Free Comic Book Day" event in 2011, serves as a bridge between the classic series and the new, presenting a series of flashbacks interspersed between pages set in the modern day.

"COUNTERPOINT"

Writer: Simon Furman | Penciler: Andrew Wildman | Inker: Stephen Baskerville

Colorist: John-Paul Bove | Letterer: Chris Mowry | Editor: John Barber

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Ryall 

The Plot: Twenty-one years have passed since the Autobots' return to Cybertron in TRANSFORMERS #80. A series of flashbacks reminds readers of what has gone before, while in the present, Optimus Prime, living in seclusion, has taken on Hot Rod as his apprentice. Meanwhile, a group of Decepticon terrorists, under Soundwave's leadership, destroys the Last Autobot, beginning the war anew. 

G1 Continuity: This story is filled with it. Among the flashbacks are: the origin of the Transformers via their gods, Primus and Unicron (TRANSFORMERS #61); the Ark's crash-landing on Earth (TF #1); Shockwave's imprisonment of the Autobots (TF #5); the Dinobots vs. Megatron (TF #8); Defensor vs. Bruticus (TF #35, among others); Scorponok vs. Fortress Maximus (TF #38); Starscream possessed by the Underbase (TF #50); Thunderwing with the Creation Matrix (TF #66); Unicron devouring Cybertron (TF #75); Optimus Prime -- dead -- again! (TF #76); Megatron vs. Galvatron (TF #78); the Last Autobot (TF #79); Optimus Prime vs. Bludgeon (TF #80).