X-Men Headcanon 11: Transitional Era

Hoof.

I'm almost at a major turning point in X-history, the Muir Island Saga/X-Men #1 relaunch. An era of complex storylines, new characters, bold reimaginings, and a lot of storylines that were just dropped because 90's X-scribes Fabien Nicieza and Scott Lobdell generally never have any idea what they're doing from page to page, nevermind issue to issue.

But before we can get there, Alan Davis tries to make Chris Claremont's Excalibur run make sense, Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri change the focus on how Wolverine books are written, and Chris Claremont concludes his sixteen year run on Uncanny X-Men.

Excalibur Epic The Cross-Time Caper by Chris Claremont, Alan Davis, Michael Higgins, Dennis Jansen, Rick Leonardi, Ron Lim
Excalibur: Captain Britain, Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Meggan
Also Featuring: Widget, Alistaire Stuart, Nigel Frobrisher, Bodybag, Joyboy, Waxworks, Gatecrasher, Scatterbrain, Thug, Brian Braddock, more people...I don't even want to transcribe things for these volumes anymore, I found them exhausting and painful to read.

The late 80s phenomenon of Chris Claremont goes to the movies, or turns on the TV, and decides to satirize it in an X-book is one of my least favorite tropes of the era. Unfortunately, that's all this book is. He just tosses every nonsensical idea in his head at these pages, and they are insufferable to me.

Oh look, there's a Dalek, oh, hey, let's throw all the Avengers into a page, Nightcrawler plays pirate again, now we're in the magical land of Bloogleflax where a fairy demon dragon princess falls in love with one of the characters at first sight and swordfights everyone with lasers. I hate it.

I have some very good friends who I share some opinions with who absolutely love this run because it's so bonkers, and so invested in just feeding bubby nostalgia to the people who read it. I understand why that appeals to some people but I think it's just the dumbest writing, and it meant that, for several years, some of my favorite X-Men were just out of continuity in this stupid Cross-Time Caper, instead of being involved in any stories I might have found interesting.

This might absolutely be a five star book for you but I am making a vow not to read this again unless someone pays me at least four digits before the decimal point.

---

---

I want to just write "ibid".

I'll at least credit the creative teams who tried out new ideas that were just too similar to Claremont's previous ideas. None of them made me care about any of these characters nor did I express surprise when every time a friend shows up it turns out to be a Nazi dimension duplicate or a war wolf. I find the whole 20th century Excalibur title an absolute chore to read.

Excalibur Epic Girls School From Heck by Chris Claremont, Scott Lobdell, Mike Higgins, Simon Furman, Sue Flaxman, Dana Moreshead, Dave Ross, Ron Wagner, Tom Morgan, Bryan Hitch, Mark Badger, Dave Hoover, Gavin Curtis, Ron Lim, Brian Stelfreeze, Dwayne Turner, Butch Guice, Mark Leonardi, Erik Larsen, and James Fry

---

---

​Wolverine by Larry Hama & Marc Silvestri Vol 1 by Larry Hama, Marc Silvestri, Mike Mignola, Walt Simonson, and Alan Davis
Also Featuring: Apocalypse, Archie Corrigan, Tyger Tyger, Puck. Lady Deathstrike, Donald Pierce, Bonebreaker

This is a collection of stories from a series that you can tell is trying to get better but hasn't reached there yet.

The opening story with art by Mike Mignola suffers from Walter Simonson's thirty years out-of-date storytelling. I don't mean that I am looking at it in 2024, and thinking it's thirty years out-of-date, that would be fine, it was written over thirty years ago. The thing is, I was alive and reading comics in 1991, and this seems like it came out thirty years before that. Well-intentioned maybe but definitely racist tropes, twists you can see coming from outer space, none of the characters behaving like they do in other books. It's just terrible, and while it's a cool look at what Mignola could do with Wolverine thirty years ago, it's not nearly as cool as what this book would have looked like if he'd made it ten years later.

The Alan Davis material could have come right out of his or Claremont's Excalibur Classic, Vol. 1: The Sword is Drawn run. That's not a compliment.

As for the thrust of the collection, Larry Hama and Marc Silvestri slowly move the Wolverine story out of Madripoor and into the wider Marvel Universe. That's a great thing. And while I enjoyed how they brought Puck into the series, I just don't have an affinity for Nazi storylines, particularly not after having read so many of the terrible Claremont Nazi-Universe Excalibur stories. Still, the story is good enough that I have hope for the next volume by this creative team.

---

---

​Wolverine by Larry Hama & Marc Silvestri Vol 2 by Larry Hama, Marc Silvestri, Peter David, Andy Kubert, and Larry Stroman
1st Appearances: Albert, Elsie Dee
Also Featuring: Storm, Forge, Jubilee, Cable, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, Donald Pierce, Bonecrusher, Nick Fury, Masque, Wolfsbane, Sunspot, Cannonball, Boom-Boom, Rictor, Warlock

The saga of a widduh chiwud andwoid and a duplicate of Wolverine is better than I remember. I don't like it but I managed to get through it this time. I think I put it down after the second or third cutesy-wootsy turn of phrase the last time I tried to read this run.

While hardly The Best Wolverine Story, it does feel fresher now that the series isn't stuck in Madripoor. Getting to see Storm, Forge, Cable, and Jubilee drop in and out of the plot was certainly more interesting than Jessica Drew and Lindsay MacCabe. Still, the story kept going well past the point of interesting. I felt like once they blow up a character, they'd be done with, but two characters have big finale explosions, only to pop again a couple of issues later.

The collection ends with another fantasy-based Wolfsbane story. This is the first one in the Wolverine series but there were a few when she was a member of The New Mutants. I didn't care about those. I don't care about this one. I enjoy Wolfsbane the mutant with conflicted feelings about her religion and her place in a superhero team. I don't care about how she dreams of being a fairy princess and just might actually be one.

While this is an improvement over the previous books, and I would definitely say Wolverine fans should peruse this and see if it speaks to them, it's not enough for me to add it to the Headcanon. Nor do I imagine I'll be reading it again.

---

---

Excalibur Epic Curiouser and Curioser by Alan Davis,  Scott Lobdell, Jae Lee,  Doug Braithwaite, Will Simpson, James Fry, Steve Lightle, Ron Lim, Dwayne Turner, Joe Madureira, Malcolm Jones, and Rick Leonardi
1st Appearances: Numbers, Kylun (as an adult), Necrom, Micromax, Cerise, Feron
Also Featuring: Alistaire Stuart, Saturnyne, Gatecrasher, Bodybag, Waxworks, Thug, Scatterbrain, Joyboy, Ferro, Chinadoll, Ringtoss, Widget, Hauptmann Englande, Roma, Merlyn, Professor X, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Wolverine, Gambit, Jubilee, Beast, Rogue, Psylocke, Jamie Braddock, Spider-Man

 Many writers, when inheriting a series that have gone well off the rails, will just clear the deck of characters and plotlines and start fresh. Alan Davis was the artist on many of the issues where Claremont heaped bad idea upon bad idea until the series was just an unreadable mess, this has been pretty much his m.o. since the late 80s. He's a terrible writer who can't even commit to his own terrible ideas.

Davis takes the time to actually try and explain all the nonsense before he gets to his own stories. He reaches back into the origins of the characters and teams, or he offers new origins that enhance rather than contradict Claremont's ideas. It's a really sweet thing to do in order to make it seem like the previous issues weren't actually garbage, they just needed to be explained. The truth is, they were garbage.

I still can't get into this team. I find their adventures silly, and I'm never going to care about Otherworld or Marvel's UK magic continuity. I can, however, respect that, using that continuity Davis writes about as interesting a story as you can. I finished the volume with a better understanding of Meggan and Captain Britain. I was also surprised that he spent the time to flesh out some of the Technet characters, giving them distinct personalities rather than just giving them names and powers and tossing them off-panel like Claremont did.

Unfortunately, it seems to get caught up in trying to up sales numbers so there's an issue featuring the X-Men, one with a Spider-Man crossover, more X-Men stuff. None of it really works. Again, it's not terrible, it just feels flat. Technically, some of these issues definitely take place after a book or two in the next post I'll make about my readthrough, but this book is so inconsequential that it doesn't spoil anything or alter your reading experience if you read this first.

---

---

8. X-Men Epic Mutant Genesis by Chris Claremont, Fabien Nicieza, Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Peter David, Ken Laminski, Kirk Jarvinen, Tom Raney, Terry Shoemaker,  Paul Smith, Andy Kubert, Jerry DeCaire, Ernie Stiner, and Steven Butler
X-Men: Professor X, Forge, Storm, Banshee, Wolverine, Psylocke, Gambit, Jubilee
X-Factor: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, Angel
1st Appearances: Foxbat, Gauntlet, Psynapse, Barrage, Hard-Drive, Askani, Shinobi Shaw, Fabien Cortez, Delgado, Birdy
Also Featuring: Magneto, Apocalypse, Cable (as a baby), Captain America, Thing, Human Torch,      She-Hulk, Cameron Hodge, Tusk, Opal, Trish Tilby, Charlotte Jones, Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Crystal, Karnak, Lockjaw,  Sebastian Shaw, Shadow King, Lian,  Rogue, Strong Guy, Moira MacTaggert, Legion, Siryn, Madrox, Colossus, Stevie Hunter, Val Cooper, Mystique, Polaris, Chief Magistrate Anderson, Matsuo, Nick Fury

There's a ton of story packed into this penultimate Claremont storyline. Unfortunately, this trade starts with Fabien Nicieza's "Kings Of Pain" storyline already collected in the New Mutants Epic End Of The Beginning. Good news is, you can definitely skip it this time, if you didn't previously.

From there we dive into the conclusion to the X-Factor/Apocalypse storyline, which adds the Inhumans into the mix, and has big consequences for everyone, especially baby Cable.

From there, it's time to finally piece the X-Men back together as The Shadow King's rule over Muir Isle leads to the return of Professor X and a whole slew of changes for every X-Team besides Excalibur.

This collection also features X-Men #1-3. Personally, I would have put this in the next collection, as it truly feels like the beginning of a new era, even if it also wraps up Claremont's FIFTEEN YEARS-long run on the title.

---