In the early 90s, my brother and I were hardcore comic book nerds. I was blessed with the opportunity to live in a neighborhood surrounded by fanboys who had a collective interest in all things Marvel. My childhood is the reason why I am a fan of X-Men, Avengers, The Fantastic Four, and Spiderman, just to name a few. However, there is a short-lived comic book that usually remains nameless when fangirls and fanboys recall their favorite Marvel comics, I can only assume because of the age of the comic and its brief years of publication, there may be some short term memories among fans. Also, this comic was overlooked, and thus, its images did not remain indelibly printed in our minds as the popular comics mentioned above.
The Excalibur series debuted in 1987 and was conceptualized by Chris Claremont and Alan Davis. I was introduced to the comic sometime in the early 90s when I was trading Marvel comic cards with my fanboy friends. I was intrigued by the character of Nightcrawler,who was new, and I was not familiar with him at the time. A friend of mine allowed me to borrow his collection, Vol 1. I fell in love with Kurt Wagner, the German mutant with the supernatural ability to teleport at will. He wasn’t very tall, but he was dark and handsome. I loved his piercing yellow eyes and charismatic smile.
You see, I was a fangirl of Excalibur long before X-Men. In the Excalibur world, the X-Men were all killed, and only Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers (aka The Phoenix) were the only characters that I knew. The Excalibur Special Edition (1987) was a comic chock-full of characters from Gatecrasher’s team of alien bounty hunters on a mission to capture Rachel Summers and deliver her to Opal Luna Saturnyne. The mutant powers of each were peculiar and fascinating. The first Excalibur team included Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers, Kitty Pryde, Captain Britain, and Meggan. A cute pet dragon of Kitty’s, Lockheed, was an honorary member of the group. The robot Widget, who which is featured on the back cover of the 1st edition issue, was later involved in a series of escapades with the superhero group.
I’m very drawn to love triangles, and I was attracted to the love triangle between Kurt, Meggan, and Captian Britain. Meggan eventually chose Brian Braddock aka Captian Britain, but I always secretly believed she should have chosen Nightcrawler.
Here is another interesting fact about the Excalibur series that always fascinated me: a large number of female characters were included in the comic series.
Cerise
Daytripper
Dazzler
Moira MacTaggert
Meggan
Nocturne
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Phoenix
Psylocke
Sage
Shadowcat
Some of these women were former members, and others - Meggan, Shadowcat, and Phoenix, for example - are more notable than others in the series. However, it was the one comic book that didn’t feel like it was just for the guys; fangirls like me could easily enjoy it too. The irony is I was the only girl in my neighborhood, who could truly appreciate it.
I am patiently waiting for an Excalibur movie. With the emergence of comic book films and Marvel’s undying willingness to be the frontrunner in Hollywood, I’m hoping we can make this happen. In the meantime, I will sit back and read my favorite Excalibur comics of yesteryear and reminisce about a time when comics were everything to me.
