YMMV / Excalibur (Marvel Comics)

• Arc Fatigue: Fans kept wondering why Excalibur still acted as if the X-Men were dead, long after Marvel began making stories depending on the general public of the Marvel Universe knowing that the X-Men were alive after all.
• Audience-Alienating Era: Captain Britain returning as Britannic, with a new costume, Barbarian Longhair, amnesia, and a new personality. It has been quietly forgotten ever since.
• The Chris Carter Effect: New Excalibur was canceled after two years with very few of its plot points resolved. There was a miniseries that attempted to wrap everything up ("Die By The Sword"), but there were still a lot of unanswered questions.
• Complete Monster: (Vol. 1):
  • Issues #45-50: Necrom, an alien scientist who refashioned himself as the tyrant of an alternate Earth, seeks to harness the energy matrix caused by the alignment of all the infinite worlds of existence. In pursuit of this, Necrom leaves his planet to die after draining the life from it–-previously having a city of thousands massacred to wipe out the royal family and their loyalists, and murdering the Earth's version of Excalibur to turn them into his mindless undead servants–-and is pursued by Earth-148's Kylun, whose Love Interest he spitefully murders. Necrom further massacres a unit of soldiers sent to investigate him solely for the thrill of it, subjecting the heroes to awful Mind Rape, before revealing his ultimate intentions to harvest the energy matrix by smashing down all the worlds in the multiverse into one, eradicating all life in reality for the sake of godhood.
  • Issues #69-70: Commander C'efn is a particularly brutal enforcer for the Shi'ar empire, who seeks to convert planets to their cause. C'efn achieves this conversion by committing genocide, and firebombs the Knsashii race, with any survivors forced into the empire. After C'efn's actions shock Cerise, he coldly murders a child survivor of the Knsashii in front of her, while remarking that "she better be prepared for the next battle". After realizing that C'efn's genocidal ambitions are done for his enjoyment rather than any cause, Cerise herself sabotages his ship to stop his insane galactic rampage.
• Ending Fatigue: The "Cross-Time Caper" arc began in issue 12 with the plotline's name and "Part 1 of 9" on the cover. It continued through issue 19, took a break for issue 20 to catch its breath, then picked back up for issue 21... through 24. That's 12 parts (of 9, remember) not including the skipped issue. It was about the team accidentally travelling from an alternate Earth to another, and they got back on their Earth several times, only to flash away moments later. Issue 25 still included the "Cross-Time Caper" logo, but the words "is still over!" followed it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • The original series itself could be considered a Darkhorse, despite continually being Screwed by the Network; after a time, it featured all the popular X-Men who the main book didn't have room for.
  • Pete Wisdom was popular enough to eventually get two limited series (if you include the Pryde & Wisdom miniseries), and he's the only character apart from Captain Britain who has stayed with the team throughout all its different iterations, despite his late and brief tenure on the original team that revolved around his romance with Kitty.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Colossus/Shadowcat fans prefer to ignore the issue where Colossus (acting like a Stalker with a Crush) beats the shit out of Pete Wisdom.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • An early issue, during the Cross-Time Caper, predicted a Prince William of another dimension would marry someone named... Kate.
  • Brigadier Stuart and her scientific advisor Alistair of the Weird Happenings Organization were rather obvious references to UNIT in Doctor Who. Alistair becomes extremely amusing in retrospect because his character design- thin man in long trench coat, blue sweater-vest, dark hair kept long in the front- is a lot like the look David Tenant used as the Tenth Doctor... eighteen years after Alistair's first appearance.
  • For bonus laughs, Alistair's use of the word "anyroad" suggests he's from Oop North. Tenant's immediate predecessor was known for his thick Northern accent.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Captain Britain's death.
  • And Faiza Hussein's death in Issue 1.
  • And just about everybody's death in issue 14.
• Tear Jerker: Cerise's goodbye to Nightcrawler:
  Cerise: Please don't speak—just listen—I never thought she would find love such as yours. You were my salvation, and you are my hope.

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