The third volume of the Marvel Gold line of Excalibur takes us from the crazy adventure to the crazy adventure of Chris Claremont and many other authors in a magnificent edition published by Panini Comics
Panini Comics continues with the recovery in deluxe format of a cult mutant series such as Excalibur. We are now fully immersed in the decade of the nineties with a volume that comes to us with the title of Marvel Gold. Excalibur 3 – The devil’s students.
The sword with the worn edge
With the change of decade, leaving the Eighties behind, the series is not experiencing its best moments. On the march of Alan Davis To what we witnessed in the previous volume must be added a clear exhaustion of ideas and freshness which directly affects the quality of the series.
After its revolutionary beginnings in which Excalibur worked perfectly as a shining reflection of the other mutant series in the years in which Mr. Chris Claremont was known as the Mutant Patriarchwhich carries humor as its flag, the decline has been evident with more than thirty issues published. Perhaps the conclusion that can be drawn is that humor is much more difficult to stretch over time than drama.
But there are other reasons. In addition to what has already been mentioned, in this volume we will find only Claremont (a now exhausted author) writing the series in the first issues, and then giving way to other writers who would not have even remotely reached his level. Indeed it is Scott Lobdell who opens this volume, and he will take Claremont’s place when he leaves the series three months later…
Lobdell was a reliable guy then The House of Ideassomeone who had started from the bottom and built up confidence to become an expert on the publisher’s characters. Excalibur was his gateway as a first-rate screenwriter, his first milestone in a long career responsible for the adventures of mutants in Marvel Comics. But it must be said: his is not a designated stage X-Men May he be remembered with particular affection by many readers.
The Devil’s Schoolgirls and Other Stories
The trilogy of issues with which Claremont greets the series in this volume is the one that contains the narrative arc that gives the volume its title, devil’s students. Here we will see Kitty Pryde in a student plot that perhaps could have served Mr. Joss Whedon as inspiration Buffy Cazavampiros a few years later.
We’ll see later The third strange wara story in which humor is put aside to transport us to the well-worn cliché of uchronia in which the Nazis led by Hitler achieved world domination instead of falling at the end of the Second World War. We will see a world where mutants continue to be persecuted, but this time by people in disguise Hugo Boss and speaks German. And the attitude taken by Charles Xavierconverted in this new reality into a complete collaborationist.
Beyond these two stories that stand out from the others, what we will find in this volume is above all a sequence of adventures with rather crazy concepts and special guests such as She-Hulk or the Doctor Doom. And, more than anything else, it is also worth mentioning the inclusion in the queue of three books also written by Claremont upon his return to Marvel Comics (we are talking about 1999) with his friend Rick Leonardi as a cartoonist.
A fun recession
Despite everything, if we avoid comparisons with the previous two volumes (or even with the one to come, again with Alan Davis), what we can find here is a collection of funny stories that will make more than a smile to all readers. mutant enthusiast. You can’t ask for more from this volume, but sometimes enough is enough…
Him tome published by Panini Comics In hard cover it contains 592 color pages with a format of 17 x 26 cm. and includes the translation of the American edition of: Excalibur 31-41, Excalibur: Weird War III, Excalibur: The Possession, Excalibur: Air Apparent, The Sensational She-Hulk 26, X-Men: True Friends 1-3 and material Marvel Comics Gifts 75, plus a large extra section and an article written by Raimon Fonseca. The recommended retail price is €54 and it went on sale in November 2024.
Marvel Gold. Excalibur 3 – The devil’s students
ISBN: 9788410515673
The UK-based X-Men face fearsome enemies as they continue their eccentric adventures! Nightcrawler meets Krakoa’s son, the Living Island! Kitty Pryde reunites with Excalibur while leading the Hell Cheerleaders. Rachel suffers D’Spayre’s attack! Meggan is possessed! Captain Britain faces the cosmic power of the Air Walker! And Excalibur fights a pile of living garbage alongside the sensational She-Hulk!
But what happens when Doctor Doom appears? And what terrible crime could Lockheed take to court? Also: the miniseries by Chris Claremont and Rick Leonardi starring Kitty and Rachel, kept in the Bullpen drawers for years and which finally saw the light in the late ’90s.
Authors: Jackson Guice, Scott Lobdell, Justin Thyme, Sue Flaxman, Michael Higgins, James Fry, David Ross, Gavin Curtis, Brian Stelfreeze, Ron Lim, Ron Wagner, Tom Morgan, Bryan Hitch, Chris Claremont, Mark Badger, Dwayne Turner, Dave Hoover, Erik Larsen and Rick Leonardi