New Excalibur #1

Writer: Chris Claremont
Pencils: Michael Ryan
Inker: Rick Ketchum
Letterer: Tom Orzechowski

Following the events of House of M, Psylocke travels to England to inform her brother, Brian Braddock (aka Captain Britain) that she is alive and well. Also, coming along for the trip are the Captain’s old Excalibur teammates, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers and Kitty Pryde as well as the Juggernaut and Nocturne. The reunion is cut short when another old teammate, Pete Wisdom, informs the group that mutant singer Dazzler has been attacked!

More House of M aftermath … this book spins directly out of events from the House of M – The Day After special. I’m not sure why Marvel is so keen on calling all these books “New”. The last incarnation of Excalibur, the one that just recently got the axe, that was “New”. Or at least “Newish”. This book is definitely “Old” Excalibur, going back to the roots of the original team so I really don’t see how the “New” tag applies. Anyway, there’s so much crap going on in this book that doesn’t make sense, especially if you are a new reader. Old characters, old relationships, old events and not one recap page in site. Even I couldn’t figure out who some of the characters were or why they were doing what they were doing and I pride myself on knowing useless crap like that. And the actual line-up of the team … where did that come from? Did they just reach into a hat and pull out random names? I can’t even tell why Juggernaut or Nocture are even there in the first place, besides getting them on the team. Phooey.

The only good thing about this book is the art. Michael Ryan gets better with every book he draws and it’s nice to see him land his own book after so long replacing and filling in for other artists. Too bad it’s this book.

Special thanks go out to Jeremy Shorr, owner of Titan Comics for allowing us to use his advance preview books for review purposes.

Comic Review Index