CAPTAIN BRITAIN PART THIRTEEN - EXCALIBUR CLASSIC, VOL. 3

Issue number 12 of EXCALIBUR begins a storyline called "The Cross-Time Caper" -- labelled on the cover as part 1 of 9. "Cross-Time Caper" ends in issue #24. Even with one inventory issue along the way (#20), that still means this supposed 9-part storyline actually clocks in at twelve parts! Chris Claremont is known for "writing to the moment" and abandoning his established plans when an apparently better idea comes to him. Presumably, that's what happened here to lengthen "Cross-Time".

Unfortunately, the result is a story which long overstays its welcome. Never mind that sending the heroes of a relatively new series off on an extended trains-dimensional romp, away from their supporting cast and home environs, before they've even hit a dozen issues, is probably not the best-conceived idea -- making that story about two times longer than it probably should've been only exacerbates the problem.

ON MATTERS OF (RE)COLOR

PART ONE: COMMON SENSE
I love Marvel's current collected editions department. Really, I do. They put out quality books with top-notch production values and graphic design work. I'm proud to have their products on my bookcase. So when I go off on my rant here, just remember that I'm railing on one relatively minor aspect of something that I otherwise love pretty much unconditionally.

Left: AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #238, 1983
Right: SPIDER-MAN: ORIGIN OF THE HOBGOBLIN TPB, 2011

TRANSFORMERS: REGENERATION ONE #82

"LOOSE ENDS, PART 2"

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: On Earth, the Wreckers are pursued by Megatron's lobotomized Decepticon forces while searching for an array they can use to contact Cybertron. The Decepticons capture Kup, to whom Megatron reveals he wants the Autobots, and especially Optimus Prime, to come find him. Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus learns that the Wreckers stole a shuttle for their secret mission. And Grimlock arrives on planet Nebulos in search of a cure for Nucleon poisoning, but finds himself attacked and captured by Nebulon forces. Finally, on Earth, the Wreckers are attacked by a human calling himself Circuit Smasher.

G1 Continuity: Nebulos is the planet where the Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters first appeared, circa the HEADMASTERS limited series in 1987. Circuit Smasher is clearly based on Circuit Breaker, a human character used primarily in Bob Budiansky's early G1 issues. Her rights are owned by Marvel rather than Hasbro, so I don't expect to see her pop up in this series.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN PART TWELVE - EXCALIBUR CLASSIC, VOL. 2

Note: EXCALIBUR CLASSIC volume 2 contains the 1989 EXCALIBUR SPECIAL EDITION comic, "Mojo Mayhem".  Even though it's written by Chris Claremont, I did not read that story as part of this marathon, due to its negligible contributions to the series' ongoing continuity.

The six issues in EXCALIBUR CLASSIC volume 2 comprise two main story arcs.  The first is EXCALIBUR's segment of the 1988 X-Men crossover, "Inferno".  With New York overrun by demons, Rachel senses that her baby brother Nathan is in danger and takes off to find him, and Excalibur pursues their teammate.  In New York, the demon infestation affects each member of the team in a different way.  Meggan is corrupted and becomes the Goblin Princess, with Captain Britain acting as her bodyguard/slave.  Kitty manages to free the two of them with the use of the Soulsword, a demonic blade which once belonged to her friend, Illyana.

The "Inferno" crossover gives us some potentially interesting character development, but overall it feels like a time-killer -- a case of the title participating in a crossover because it must, not because it has anything interesting to contribute.  This seems especially odd considering Rachel's connection to Nathan and Kitty's connection to Illyana, as both those characters are integral to the main crossover event in UNCANNY X-MEN, X-FACTOR, and NEW MUTANTS.  Doubly peculiar is that Chris Claremont, one of the masterminds behind "Inferno", wrote the EXCALIBUR segment and could easily have given the group a larger role in the proceedings if he had so chosen.

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.