Volume 1 (1987–1998) Chris Claremont and Alan Davis The series was launched with the lavish
Excalibur Special Edition, a 1987 48-page advertisement-free 'bookshelf' comic promoted with posters and promotional carrier bags for comic stories. It was followed by an ongoing series. Despite being priced higher than most of Marvel's regular titles due to using a more expensive paper stock,
Excalibur was a strong sales success - #1 was
Diamond Comic Distributors' best-selling title for April 1988, with #2 second-best behind the first issue of the newly-launched
Wolverine in May and #3 third behind
Wolverine and
Uncanny X-Men in June. With the creators given a large amount of freedom by Marvel, the series soon received plaudits for its humorous tone and wit compared to the darker turn taken by both the other X-Men related titles and the wider industry at the time. While Claremont and Davis intended
Excalibur not to cross over with the other X-Men titles, the series was broadly part of the 1989 "
Inferno" event, with issues #6-7. However, Excalibur themselves were only peripherally involved in the events of the story, not encountering any of the major characters. Due to Davis falling behind schedule, issue #8 saw
Ron Lim guest as artist, while #11 featured
Marshall Rogers. A second special edition -
Excalibur - Mojo Mayhem - was also published, featuring art from
Art Adams.
Excalibur #12 began the "Cross-Time Caper", a planned 9-issue arc sending the characters to a wide variety of alternative Earths. The following issue saw the debut of a new costume for Captain Britain; it had been designed for the character's primarily black-and-white British appearances, but Davis found the American colourists were frequently making mistakes and so simplified it.
Alan Davis returns Claremont's replacement was meant to be a returning Alan Davis, tempted back as writer-artist from #35 onwards. However, other commitments delayed his return and Lobdell contributed a short run to bridge the gap, including a three-part arc featuring the
Avengers West Coast; the events of his stories were guided by Davis. As Neary had decided to continue his more lucrative pencilling career, Davis linked up with
Mark Farmer as inker - the pair had briefly worked together before, notably on the final issue of
Captain Britain, and would go on to have a long partnership.
Scott Lobdell Davis' return had not brought the expected sales increase; subsequently, after a brief tenure under Brian Ashford, the title would take a different direction under
Scott Lobdell, who strengthened the title's narrative and tonal connection to the other X-Men titles under the direction of
Bob Harras. The recent additions to the cast were abruptly written out, as was Captain Britain - who became lost in the time-steam off-panel before
Excalibur #68, leading to Meggan also falling out of focus. The cosmic elements of the book were dropped and the team were relocated to
Muir Island, with
Moira MacTaggert added to the regular cast. While Captain Britain would return to the series it was at the expense of Phoenix, and he was radically altered to the aloof Britannic, and he and Meggan would take a minor role in the series, which increasingly focused on Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and MacTaggert, as well as the newly added extant X-Men supporting character
Amanda Sefton. After #86 the series was replaced for four months by the limited series
X-Calibre as part of the "
Age of Apocalypse" X-Men event. Marvel also directed Ellis to add
Wolfsbane and
Colossus to the title. Initially several artists worked on the title, including Ken Lashley and Casey Jones, before
Carlos Pacheco took over from #95. Ellis would also pen the three-issue spin-off limited series
Pryde and Wisdom.
Excalibur #100 saw Brian Braddock return to the role of Captain Britain; however, Ellis would leave the title a few issues later to work on
WildStorm's
Stormwatch and
Dv8. His work on the series has received a generally positive reception.
Ben Raab and Salvador Larocca From
Excalibur #106
Ben Raab became writer, with
Salvador Larroca as artist. Raab swiftly wrote out Captain Britain to facilitate a storyline featuring Colossus romancing Meggan, a plot point that would also feature in a
Colossus one-shot. Raab would de-emphasise and eventually write out Wisdom too, once again choosing to focus on the X-Men originated characters. However, sales were poor and the title was finally cancelled after 125 issues in 1998. Critical reception of Raab's material has not been positive, with some feeling it had become a generic X-Men title that was going through the motions. Following the cancellation the characters of Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and Colossus returned to the main X-Men titles.
Volume 2 (2001) The series returned as a four-issue limited series in 2001, again featuring Raab as writer with art from Pablo Raimondi. It was originally solicited as
Excalibur - Sword of Power in 2000, but the final issues made no mention of the subtitle. The series did not feature an Excalibur team or all of the original cast, instead focusing on Captain Britain, Meggan, Psylocke and the Black Knight battling to save Otherworld.
Volume 3 (2004–2005) In 2004, Marvel launched a new ongoing series titled
Excalibur as part of the
X-Men Reload cross-line relaunch. Aside from the name and the writer (Claremont), it had no connection to Marvel's previous
Excalibur titles, instead focusing on rebuilding efforts in
Genosha and the relationship between
Professor X and
Magneto. The series' last issue was #14, released in May, 2005. The letters page of the final issue announced a relaunch of the title as
New Excalibur in November, 2005.
New Excalibur (2006–2007) The replacement title featured the return of an Excalibur team, consisting of Captain Britain, Pete Wisdom,
Dazzler,
Juggernaut,
Nocturne and
Sage. It was followed by
X-Men: Die by the Sword.
Volume 4 (2019–2022) Excalibur was relaunched as a part of
Dawn of X in October 2019. The initial roster consisted of
Betsy Braddock as the new Captain Britain,
Gambit,
Rogue,
Jubilee,
Rictor, and
Apocalypse. After the final issue, the story continues in the
Knights of X series, also written by
Tini Howard. ==Collected editions==