History ComicBook / Excalibur

[[redirect:ComicBook/ExcaliburMarvelComics]

[[redirect:ComicBook/ExcaliburMarvelComics]]

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A Creator/MarvelComics SuperTeam, where the ComicBook/XMen franchise intersected with the Marvel U.K. imprint.

After the ''Mutant Massacre'' storyline left the X-Men broken, injured members [[ComicBook/KittyPryde Shadowcat]] and ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}} were sent to Muir Island in Scotland to recuperate. As a result, they weren't with the X-Men when the team sacrificed their lives to defeat [[EldritchAbomination The Adversary]] on national TV during ''The Fall of the Mutants'' arc, and like the rest of the world, didn't know the X-Men [[DeathIsCheap got better]] afterwards. Creator/ChrisClaremont and artist Alan Davis decided to use this opportunity to put the characters into a new team that incorporated the British characters ComicBook/CaptainBritain and his MagicalGirlfriend Meggan, who had little U.S. exposure at that point but ties to the X-Men through Cap's sister ComicBook/{{Psylocke}}.

So Phoenix (ComicBook/RachelSummers), who had previously been lured to a parallel dimension by X-Villain and LargeHam Mojo, escaped to Muir Island shortly after the X-Men's "deaths" with Mojo's [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Warwolves]] hot on her trail. ObstructiveBureaucrat Saturnyne also decided that Phoenix was a threat to all reality and sent a group of interdimensional bounty hunters known as the Technet to capture her. Kitty Pryde, Nightcrawler, Cap and Meggan are soon brought into the fray, banding together to rescue Rachel while reminiscing about the X-Men and deciding to keep Xavier's dream alive, thus founding the team.

Then the quirky metal creature and living portal known as Widget found them, and the team was thrown into a series of interdimensional wacky hijinks across TheMultiverse for some time. The series started in 1988 and lasted a good decade. For a while, it was known as the [[LighterAndSofter weird and comedic]] X-book.

But no team with {{Mutants}} can ever stay light-hearted for long in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, so they eventually returned to their angsty X-Roots and eventually became just another mutant book. Since then, the team has broken up and reformed a couple of times, with different membership each time. The SpiritualSuccessor ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' (even featuring the actual Excalibur sword) was also cancelled after 15 issues.

The title was resurrected as part of the ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' initiative with Brian's sister Betsy taking up the mantle of Captain Britain and leading a new team to help guide a new age of magic. For tropes pertaining to that series, see ''ComicBook/Excalibur2019''.

No relation to the short-lived ''Excalibur'' title that followed Professor Xavier's adventures on Genosha (aside from Marvel and/or Claremont wanting to keep the name in print). Captain Britain and the Black Knight also show up as playable characters in ''VideoGame/MarvelAvengersAlliance'' along with some of the mutants in Excalibur, and [=MI13=] and Faiza also get mentioned.

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!!These comic series provide examples of:

[[folder:Original Series (1988-2004)]]
* AIIsACrapshoot: The MagicalComputer that used to live under Captain Britain's ancestral home.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: ''Excalibur'' was pretty much Marvel's answer to ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational'', another LighterAndSofter book that also placed a greater emphasis on humor.
* AnotherDimension: It almost seemed like the original Excalibur team were hopping into another dimension every other week. More cynical readers might speculate that this was because the book was usually written by Americans who didn't know anything about the UK, and this was the easiest way to hide that fact (not entirely true, considering that co-creators Chris Claremont and Alan Davis are both British-born, and though Claremont's family moved to America when he was a child, Davis is a lifelong resident--not to mention the fact that Claremont was a co-creator of Captain Britain in the first place). That said, TheMultiverse was already a well-established feature of Captain Britain stories--one of which first coined the now-ubiquitous "Earth-616" as the designation of the "prime" Marvel Universe--and it was shown early on that Brian was only one of a dimension-crossing corps of near-infinite Captain Britains. Even with a long storyline explicitly involving parallel realities--"The Cross-Time Caper"--Excalibur really spent no more or less time on Earth-616 than Cap himself did in his previous solo adventures.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Brian towards his teammates, particularly Rachel and Kitty - and of the two of them, especially Rachel (even if she was by far the most powerful member of the team) - because they're the youngest, and, it is hinted, because Rachel reminds him of his psychic sister, Betsy, who he believes is dead.
* BizarreBabyBoom: The reality warping of Jim Jaspers causes children born during it to come out mutated. They come to be known as "warpies" as the event itself gets called Jasper's Warp and their powers are commonly so unstable it'd be a miracle for any of them to make it to adulthood without detonating.
* BountyHunter: The spectacularly incompetent Gatecrasher and her Technet.
* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Averted. For starters, Excalibur's first headquarters is Cap's lighthouse, located in Cornwall, on the western coast of Britain. Then later, the team relocates to Muir Island, at the northernmost tip of the British Isles.
* CaptainPatriotic: Played With in Brian's case - as Captain Britain, he has the codename, but bluntly informs a 'patriot' that he is nothing of the kind, got the codename with the costume, and is primarily concerned with right and wrong.
* ChasedByAngryNatives: One of the many worlds we get a glimpse of in "The Cross-Time Caper" arc was an Europe colonized by the Native Americans making it, essentially, this world's Wild West. We see Excalibur chased by angry warpainted British "braves" wearing bowler hats and swinging umbrellas.
* TheChessmaster: Merlyn. And his daughter Roma. But mostly Merlyn. Roma is a Chessmaster to most characters, but to Merlyn she's just another pawn.
* ChessMotifs: The Hellfire Club, as usual, have ranks named after chess pieces. Also, Merlyn and Roma have a chess board that they place crystal figures of other characters on. When Merlyn [[FakingTheDead returns from his fake death]], he places a figure of Roma on the board to point out that even his own daughter is merely a pawn, not a player in his game. Brian at one point gets fed up about it in a conversation with Roma and kicks over a table that had a chess game set up on it.
%%* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The Crazy Gang and their creator, Mad Jim Jaspers.
* TheCommissionerGordon: Inspector Dai Thomas. His relationship with superheroes was extremely strained due to the death of his wife in the wreckage of a super-fight (he nearly crossed the line to InspectorJavert) but in the end did come to find some respect for Captain Britain, and the rest of Excalibur, with a particular gruff affection for Rachel and Kitty (teenagers who he saw as little more than kids) and Lockheed (excused on the grounds that he's not a superhero).
* DirtyMindReading: Being a telepath, Rachel catches... [[{{Understatement}} interesting]] thoughts from an alternate Nigel Frobisher. We never find out what the exact thoughts were, but they were bad enough to make Rachel furiously tar and feather Frobisher. When Brian is sternly rebukes her, she projects the thoughts into his mind. About two seconds later, the rest of Excalibur are having to do their level best to prevent Brian from killing Frobisher.
* DisgustingPublicToilet: In the ''ComicBook/{{Inferno}}'' tie-in, Kitty needs to answer a call of nature while being carried by Meggan across the Atlantic. They spot a freighter and land on it so she can go to the restroom, but the place is disgustingly filthy. Kitty is horrified, and afterwards makes clear she never wants to speak about it ever again.
* EvilCostumeSwitch: Subverted. Rachel Summers eventually ditches her original spiked red bodysuit (which was based on her [[MadeASlave Hound]] costume) and settles for the blood-red ensemble of [[ComicBook/TheDarkPhoenixSaga Dark Phoenix]]. But she's not pulling a FaceHeelTurn; she just prefers these colors over "Light" Phoenix's costume. In her words, "[Dark Phoenix] might have been a threat to the universe... but she had '''great''' taste in clothes!"
* EvilMentor: Courtney [[spoiler:(actually Sat-Yr-9 in disguise)]] to Kitty. Subtly at first, as she appears nothing but friendly and well-intentioned, but her lessons gradually grow more obviously evil.
* EvilSorcerer: Gravemoss and Necrom both count.
%%* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Crazy Gang.
* {{Expy}}: Brigadier Alysande Stuart of W.H.O. (do you see what they did there?) was a {{Gender Flip}}ped version of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stuart from ''Series/DoctorWho''. Her brother, Alistaire, was W.H.O.'s "scientific advisor"; the same role the Doctor had at U.N.I.T.
** Interestingly enough Alistaire [[http://brainstomping.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/doctores.jpg greatly resembles a later version of the Doctor.]] He even ends up having a shifting appearance in ''Captain Britain and [=MI13=]'' (albeit as a {{Retcon}} to explain why he'd been drawn as an older man by a misinformed artist) thanks to "an unfortunate dinner incident with Morgan Le Fay".
* EyeScream: A heroic example occurs when Necrom attempts to lure Kylun into a trap with an image of [[spoiler:his girlfriend, superimposed over her reanimated corpse, previously killed by Necrom]]. Kylun isn't fooled, and as Necrom is sneaking up behind him to drain his life he lashes out with one of his magical swords, slashing Necrom across the face and putting out one of his eyes. The sorcerer sensibly [[VillainExitStageLeft flees the battle]].
* FiveManBand:
** TheHero: Captain Britain (does double duty as a second, more literal [[TheBigGuy Big Guy]] and occasionally swaps places with Nightcrawler)
** TheLancer: Nightcrawler (also doubles as TheLeader, since he is intelligent and optimist enough to keep the team together, and tends to run the team's tactics)
** TheChick: Meggan
** TheSmartGuy: Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde
** TheBigGuy: Phoenix/Rachel Summers
** TeamPet: Lockheed the dragon
* FreakyFridayFlip: Very early in the series, almost the whole team was flipped with the Crazy Gang, using a device invented by [[IdiotSavant Tweedledope]]: Captain Britain with Tweedledope, Meggan with the Knave, Nightcrawler with the Jester, and Phoenix with the Executioner. (Presumably, the villains intended to flip Shadowcat with the Red Queen, but she escaped.) Cap was able to somehow access Tweedledope's skills to use the device and reverse the effect (after the usual misunderstanding fight, naturally).
* FunWithAcronyms: Most of the fictional government agencies had one of these. Sadly.
* FutureMeScaresMe: When Daytripper is pulling Captain Britain from the timestream, Rory Campbell catches a glimpse of Ahab (the slaver of mutants who tortured Rachel and kept her as one of his Hounds in her original timeline) and, recognizing him as his own future self, started to fear ever going down that road.
* GivingThemTheStrip: In "The Cross-Time Caper" arc, Shadowcat and Phoenix (temporarily de-powered) are bound upside-down in a slaver ship. Kitty shows off her ninja skills (last seen in the ''Kitty Pryde and Wolverine'' mini-series) to slip out of her boots, freeing herself. Rachel comments that she couldn't do that even if she knew how, since her costume is literally one piece of leather going up to her neck. Kitty replies that ''she'' could probably still pull it off, if not for embarrassment.
* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Plenty! There was the R.C.X., F.I.6. (at threat of being merged with R.C.X.), the Weird Happenings Organization, the Department of Unknown and Covert Knowledge (don't... uh, don't think too hard about that one.), S.T.R.I.K.E. and Black Air.
%%* GovernmentConspiracy: Black Air.
* TheHeart: Kitty gets separated from the group during the Cross-Time Caper and the stress of her absence raises tensions within the group.
* HeelFaceTurn: Colossus, who previously had a FaceHeelTurn following his sister's death and joined Magneto's Acolytes.
* KillAndReplace:
** Poor, poor Courtney Ross. It does not pay to be the exact physical duplicate of a ruthless otherdimensional dictator.
** Also the Warwolves, extradimensional creatures who can suck out a person's LifeForce, leaving just their empty skin, then put on the skin and pass as the person (despite being shaped like quadrupedal animals in their natural form). At one point they scour the globe to find exact lookalikes for the other X-Men so they can impersonate them.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: During the team's stay in New York after the events of ''[[CrisisCrossover Inferno]]'', we see a couple named [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Lois and Clark]]. Later on, during the ''Cross Time Caper'' storyline, Brian and Kitty are accosted by a pair of cops calling themselves the "[[LightNovel/DirtyPair Dirty Angels]]".
* LetsYouAndHimFight: In one of the later issues of the first series, [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] came flying in to get a check up from Moira [=MacTaggert=], who was helping him with his power degeneration issues. Excalibur assumed the worst of the extremely powerful telekinetic heading straight for Muir Island, and promptly attacked him. Later in the same issue, another misunderstanding triggered Nate's paranoia, and another fight - which ended quickly and hilariously after Moira ''scolded'' Nate into submission.
* LighterAndSofter: This series was originally conceived as being more lighthearted than the [[ComicBook/XMen various]] [[ComicBook/NewMutants X-books]] [[ComicBook/XFactor that were being published]] [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} at the time]], which were pretty dark and to prove it they took [[EnsembleDarkhorse the most "fun" members of the X-Men]] (Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde) and basically wrote the team around them.
%%* LighthousePoint: Their base of operations, since it was the convergence of all realities.
* LivingMoodRing: While Meggan can take on any shape she chooses, her form involuntarily changes depending on her mood, such as becoming more inhuman when she's feeling sad and taking on ComicBook/{{Nightcrawler}}'s blue skin and hair and golden eyes when they were on the verge of a RelationshipUpgrade.
* LoveMakesYouEvil: It's revealed that the reason Excalibur ally Rory Campbell became Ahab, the monstrous mutant slaver from Rachel's BadFuture timeline who had tortured her and turned her into one of his Hounds, was because he was in love with Amanda Sefton, who rejected him in favor of Nightcrawler. That being said, it's also shown that Rory had a pre-existing dark side that, though he resisted it for a while, he eventually gave into.
* MsFanservice:
** When she disappeared in ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'', Rachel was a stick-thin tomboy who usually wore gym clothes. When she reappeared in ''Excalibur'', after being trapped in the Mojoverse, on her return she was built like a porn star (perhaps literally, considering where her new body came from) and wore a skintight, stiletto-heeled, spike-studded, red leather catsuit when on duty, and as little as possible off duty.
** Lampshaded at one point when she and Kitty go shopping, dissatisfied with the conservative suit and pumps Kitty picks out for her she uses her powers to re-arrange Kitty's outfit to resemble something Rachel normally wears. Kitty immediately thinks that she looks like a hooker.
** Meggan had her moments too. Frankly, most women drawn by Alan Davis do, though Davis actually drew Kitty to look like a young girl.
* MultinationalTeam: The original team had Captain Britain (English), Meggan (British/Fey, raised by Gypsies), Nightcrawler (German), Shadowcat (American/Jewish), Lockheed (alien dragon) and Phoenix (alternate future American). Other line-ups also included Colossus (Russian), Douglock (American/techo-organic alien), Wolfsbane (Scottish), Black Knight (American), Feron (alternate universe Fey), Cerise (yet another alien race), Pete Wisdom (English), etc. There's also the constant presence of the extradimensional robot Widget.
* MyLocal: The team would often go there to celebrate after a win. Or commiserate after suffering a beating.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Doc Crocodile rightfully imprisons Jamie Braddock for being a slave trader and drug runner but decides to torture him before executing him, ignoring the prophetic warnings of his witch doctor. His torture awakens Jamie's reality warping powers, and also drives him insane thinking reality is a dream meaning he unleashed a person with no restraints on getting what he wants completely absolved of his guilt because he believes nothing is real. Crocodile is aware of this, and laments it once Jamie breaks out.
* NotInKansasAnymore: In one issue, [[ComicBook/NthManTheUltimateNinja Colonel Novikova]] says something along those lines when she and Nth Man get dimensionally swapped with Rachel and Nightcrawler.
* OddballInTheSeries: This series was not only LighterAndSofter than the other X-related titles (though not without its own share of NightmareFuel for which the X-Men comics are justly famous), took place on a different continent altogether (Europe), and had many non-mutants on the roster (a rarity for X-teams), but it features somewhat obscure Marvel UK characters that had little to nothing to do with the X-Men, and the stories were mostly sci-fi and fantasy when most X-titles focused on whatever mutant hysteria was going on at any given time.
* OutOfGenreExperience:
** Issue 18 takes place in [[Anime/SpeedRacer a world focused on a continuous Global Grand Prix]]. We're also introduced to two female police officers, the [[LightNovel/DirtyPair Dirty Angels]]. If that wasn't enough anime parody, the art style shifts to a [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dWPc2LXztI/VQHc_sQRpxI/AAAAAAAAYNc/vsTYDqdiU7Q/s1600/Excalibur%2B%2318%2B-%2BDirty%2BAngels.png manga-ish]] [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/a/af/Excalibur_Vol_1_18.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/322?cb=20080126132619 state]]. The weirdest part? The story concludes in the next issue, which goes back to the usual comic book style.
** Really the whole Cross-Time Caper event was a string of these. An UrbanFantasy, a Film/HammerHorror episode, TheWestern, SwordAndSorcery, et cetera.
* PowerIncontinence:
** At one point Meggan couldn't control her empathic shapeshifting and copies whoever is closest to her. This was the worse with Rachel, who she reacted so strongly to she would switch feature and clothing and risk losing her identity.
** Later on Necrom's scheming causes a buildup of the energy matrix that empowers Brian. At first this increases Brian's strength beyond his control before he basically hulks out size-wise, destroying clothing he's wearing and objects around him because he's not used to his new form.
%%* PoorCommunicationKills
* ProgressivelyPrettier:
** When Nightcrawler first appeared in ComicBook/XMen he was short and creepy looking. When he was moved to Excalibur, Alan Davis purposefully drew him standing at six feet tall and modelled his facial features after Creator/ErrolFlynn. Sure, he was still a blue elf but he was noticeably more charming-looking than his earlier Dave Cockrum incarnation. Other artists have followed suit for the most part.
** When Rachel Summers first appeared she was a skinny tomboy with a crewcut. When she joined Excalibur she was given a ''very'' well-developed build and a skintight costume that didn't leave much to the imagination. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since her transformation happened while she was in Mojoworld, a place known (among other things) for reshaping people into attractive movie stars.
* PublicDomainCharacter: There are a lot of references to [[KingArthur Arthurian myth]].
* ShoutOut:
** Let's see... there was [[Series/DoctorWho Brigadier Stuart and her scientific advisor Alistair of the Weird Happenings Organization]]... and the "Girls School from Heck" story arc, a clear nod to ''Film/{{St Trinians}}'' (down to the school itself being called St. Searle's after the author).
** In an early issue, Arcade abducts people and forces them to entertain a crowd with stand-up comedy. If they can't hold the crowd's interest, he kills them... with a [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus descending giant mechanical foot]].
** In several of the more lighthearted fight scenes (Nightcrawler vs. Jester, Nightcrawler vs Chevalier Bretagne), combatants can be observed bantering with [[Film/WhatsUpTigerLily "Saracen pig!" and "Spartan dog!"]].
** During the ''Inferno'' tie-in, Brian and Kitty are trapped in a pocket dimension where they act out various stereotypical 80s movies. They go through a ''Rambo''-style action flick and an obvious ''Film/NightmareOnElmStreet'' parody before getting out.
** Then immediately after that arc, Brian decides to take a quick morning fly through New York City. The crowd of onlookers includes unimpressed reporters named [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Lois and Clark]].
** One reality is a pastiche on Judge Dredd where urban development makes giant skylines and the local Captain Britain analogue is a member of a familiarly uniformed enforcement squad called a Justicer.
** The CanonImmigrant villain from ''Comicbook/AgeOfApocalypse'' Emma Steed is named after the protagonist duo of the British SpyDrama Tv series ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' (no relation to Marvel's [[ComicBook/TheAvengers superteam]]), Emma Peel and John Steed. She also has a [[ComicbookFantasyCasting close resemblance to]] Creator/DianaRigg, the actress who played Emma, plus the black hair of Creator/PatrickMacnee, who played John (Rigg had brown hair).
* SuperpowerLottery: Phoenix outpowers everyone else (combined) by quite a bit, and for that matter outpowers most of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, being the human host to a CosmicEntity; she gets psychologically damaged, sucker-punched (she's a SquishyWizard), or [[DeusExitMachina written out]] to compensate.
* TeamTitle: ''Excalibur'' is the name of the team, and it's a series about that team.
* TerminatorImpersonator: The cover of Issue #67 features Kitty Pryde with sunglasses and a huge gun, exclaiming, "Hasta La Vista Baby!" with the tagline "X-Terminator."
* TookALevelInBadass: Nightcrawler went from the dorky and silly fun member of the X-Men to the leader of the European equivalent of ComicBook/TheAvengers. He even formed [[DefeatMeansFriendship former enemies]] The Technet into his own personal "N-Men" complete with X-Men-inspired uniforms. And most of that he did ''with his leg broken.''
* TwoGirlsToATeam: The original line-up inverts this, having three girls and two guys (and [[TeamPet Lockheed]]).
* WasItAllALie: Kitty's reaction after [[spoiler:"Courtney Ross" is revealed to be evil Sat-Yr-9]], who previously befriended her during Kitty's HeroicBSOD.
* WestCoastTeam: When Excalibur found out the X-Men were still alive, they decided to remain together, having [[TrueCompanions bonded]] over time, and styled themselves as the X-Men's European branch.
** For all intents and purposes, they were also the British ''Avengers'' (not [[Series/TheAvengers1960s those ones]]), partly because there were no other super-teams who could play that part, and partly because mutants were less controversial in Britain than in the U.S. at the time (just like [[ComicBook/AlphaFlight Canada]], one suspects that the British took whatever superheroes they could get).
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Feron the sorcerer accidentally turned himself into a waterfall, and his disappearance went uncommented on until the book's penultimate issue, five years later.
** In more of a "What Happened To Our Dramatic Reveal?" vein, the moment when Excalibur found out the X-Men weren't dead went completely unrecorded, as it became more and more awkward to explain why the X-Men hadn't been in touch with them. Eventually the writers were forced to admit, in the letter column, that Excalibur did in fact know, and they'd been in touch via phone.
*** The fact that the X-Men probably waited longer than they ''should'' have in letting their teammates know they were indeed alive was later explained as why Kurt, Kitty, and Rachel stuck with Excalibur as long as they did due to hurt feelings.
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Kylun, a huge dual-sword-wielding badass raised in an alternate reality, has the mutant power of... perfectly reproducing any given sound. He's rather embarrassed about it, and changes the subject whenever it comes up, until Excalibur press him. Brian at first snarks that he can see why he didn't want to talk about it, before pointing out that if anything, this made Kylun's remarkable feats even more impressive - fortunately, he doesn't really ''need'' a mutant power to kick ass.
* WhipItGood: The whip was the WeaponOfChoice of Miss Steed, the Black Queen of London's Hellfire Club.
* WholePlotReference: In the "Girls' School From Heck" three issue mini arc, Kitty finds herself enrolled at a boarding school where all the other students are troublemakers to such a degree that no other school will take them, an outcast at first she starts bonding with the students after a particularly violent field hockey match, and then goes on to band the various cliques together in an outrageous scheme to save the school when it's threatened to close because of financial complications. [[Film/StTrinians Why does that sound familiar?]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:New Excalibur (2005-2007)]]
* AloofBigBrother: Sir Percy is a ''major'' {{Jerkass}} to Dane when the team travels to the past, bordering on BigBrotherBully. [[spoiler:Turns out it's because he's afraid of the Ebony Blade taking Dane over the way it's taking over himself and did a number of previous Black Knights.]]
* BecomingTheMask: Sage tries to infiltrate Albion's organisation, which she succeeds at, only to become her false identity. Things go horribly worse from there.
* CurbStompBattle: A swordfight between Sir Percy and a bar full of angry peasants in Issue #10.
-->'''Lady of the Lake''': [[WhatTheHellHero You did not have to kill everyone here.]]\\
'''Sir Percy:''' [[ShutUpKirk Oh pardon me, does madam not approve?]]
%%* DeathIsCheap: Well... it is a comic book, after all.
* EvilCounterpart:
** The Shadow X-Men, versions of the original team who were brainwashed by the Shadow King.
** Albion, for Captain Britain. He's an alternate version of Brian Braddock who comes from a CrapsackWorld, and was given the same choice as Brian, but chose the sword instead, which Merlin allowed for his own reasons.
* HollywoodAtlas: Chris Claremont ''is'' English, but he hasn't been back here for about thirty years, so his portrayal of the UK is mostly based on the Hollywood version, or else painfully out of date. Whereas Frank Tieri tended to assume that the UK is exactly like America.
* KudzuPlot: See TheChrisCarterEffect.
* InNameOnly: This team consisted of a few returning Excalibur characters, a whole bunch of Chris Claremont's personal favourites, and a few Excalibur villains (most of them were sad victims of VillainDecay and/or BadassDecay). And they made so little use of the setting that it could easily have been set in New York or California without changing any of the content.
* OffWithHisHead: Sage, overtaken by her cover identity, beheads Dark Cyclops.
* StalkerWithoutACrush: Dane towards Sir Percy due to being worried about the latter's behavior and suffering from a bit of BrokenPedestal, to the point where even Merlin calls him on it.
* TakeANumber: An issue has Kitty Pryde getting 10^23 from the dispenser -- which is probably a reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avogadro_constant Avogadro's Number]].
* [[TallDarkAndSnarky Tall, Blond, and Snarky]]: Sir Percy, though he does soften up somewhat eventually.
* TheyKilledKennyAgain: Dazzler keeps finding herself dying, then coming back to life. Exactly why is never explained.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: A lot of plot-threads go unsolved.
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: When the team has to travel back in time to save Camelot. Bonus points for the affair between Lancelot and Guinevere coming about because Pete Wisdom tried seducing Guinevere himself.
[[/folder]]

----

* GovernmentConspiracy: Black Air.

* KillAndReplace: Poor, poor Courtney Ross. It does not pay to be the exact physical duplicate of a ruthless otherdimensional dictator.
** Also the Warwolves - extradimensional creatures who could suck out a person's ... let's say LifeForce, leaving just their empty skin, then put on the skin and pass as the person (despite being shaped like quadrupedal animals in their natural form). At one point they scour the globe to find exact lookalikes for the other X-Men so they can impersonate them.
* LawyerFriendlyCameo: During the team's stay in New York after the events of ''[[CrisisCrossover Inferno]]'', we see a couple named [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} Lois and Clark]].
** Later on, during the ''Cross Time Caper'' storyline, Brian and Kitty are accosted by a pair of cops calling themselves the "[[LightNovel/DirtyPair Dirty Angels]]".

* LighthousePoint: Their base of operations, since it was the convergence of all realities.

But no team with {{Mutants}} can ever stay light-hearted for long in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, so they eventually returned to their angsty X-Roots and eventually became just another mutant book. Since then, the team has broken up and reformed a couple of times, with different membership each time. The SpiritualSuccessor ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' (even featuring the actual Excalibur sword) [[TooGoodToLast was also cancelled after 15 issues.]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:General Tropes]]
* UsefulNotes/BritishAccents

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: The Crazy Gang and their creator, Mad Jim Jaspers.

* DeadpanSnarker: Pete Wisdom ''started off'' as a jaded, cynical DeadpanSnarker. During Tieri's short run on New Excalibur he became [[ButtMonkey the butt of the humour]]. In the ''Wisdom'' miniseries and ''Captain Britain and MI: 13'' he gets a few snappy lines but for the most part he seems to be playing StraightMan to the weirdness of the rest of the team.
* DeathIsCheap: Well... it is a comic book, after all.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The Crazy Gang.
* FisherKing: The exact nature and extent of Captain Britain's ties to Britain varies with the writer. In one of Chuck Austen's comics, Captain Britain was beaten up and this caused earthquakes in Britain. This never happened before or since.
** When he's (temporarily) killed during ''ComicBook/SecretInvasion'', it's said that everyone in Britain felt it.
* HeroicSacrifice: There have been many, over the years. Meggan's heroic sacrifice was especially sad, because it was in a tie-in book for the ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'' crossover where she saved the whole universe and nobody read it. At least she's finally back now, after bringing some hope to Hell for good measure.
* MultinationalTeam: The original team had Captain Britain (English), Meggan (British/Fey, raised by Gypsies), Nightcrawler (German), Shadowcat (American/Jewish), Lockheed (alien dragon) and Phoenix (alternate future American). Other line-ups also included Colossus (Russian), Douglock (American/techo-organic alien), Wolfsbane (Scottish), Black Knight (American), Feron (alternate universe Fey), Cerise (yet another alien race), Pete Wisdom (English), etc. There's also the constant presence of the extradimensional robot Widget.
* MyLocal: The team would often go there to celebrate after a win. Or commiserate after suffering a beating.
* OddballInTheSeries: This series was not only LighterAndSofter than the other X-related titles (though not without its own share of NightmareFuel for which the X-Men comics are justly famous), took place on a different continent altogether (Europe), and had many non-mutants on the roster (a rarity for X-teams), but it features somewhat obscure Marvel UK characters that had little to nothing to do with the X-Men, and the stories were mostly sci-fi and fantasy when most X-titles focused on whatever mutant hysteria was going on at any given time.
* PoorCommunicationKills
* ProgressivelyPrettier: When Nightcrawler first appeared in ComicBook/XMen he was short and creepy looking. When he was moved to Excalibur, Alan Davis purposefully drew him standing at six feet tall and modelled his facial features after Creator/ErrolFlynn. Sure, he was still a blue elf but he was noticeably more charming-looking than his earlier Dave Cockrum incarnation. Other artists have followed suit for the most part.
** When Rachel Summers first appeared she was a skinny tomboy with a crewcut. When she joined Excalibur she was given a ''very'' well-developed build and a skintight costume that didn't leave much to the imagination. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] since her transformation happened while she was in Mojoworld, a place known (among other things) for reshaping people into attractive movie stars.
* TeamTitle
* WearingAFlagOnYourHead: Captain Britain (and the entire Captain Britain Corps).
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Original Series (1988-2004)]]
* AIIsACrapshoot: The MagicalComputer that used to live under Captain Britain's ancestral home.
* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: ''Excalibur'' was pretty much Marvel's answer to ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueInternational'', another LighterAndSofter book that also placed a greater emphasis on humor.
* AnotherDimension: It almost seemed like the original Excalibur team were hopping into another dimension every other week. More cynical readers might speculate that this was because the book was usually written by Americans who didn't know anything about the UK, and this was the easiest way to hide that fact (not entirely true, considering that co-creators Chris Claremont and Alan Davis are both British-born, and though Claremont's family moved to America when he was a child, Davis is a lifelong resident--not to mention the fact that Claremont was a co-creator of Captain Britain in the first place). That said, TheMultiverse was already a well-established feature of Captain Britain stories--one of which first coined the now-ubiquitous "Earth-616" as the designation of the "prime" Marvel Universe--and it was shown early on that Brian was only one of a dimension-crossing corps of near-infinite Captain Britains. Even with a long storyline explicitly involving parallel realities--"The Cross-Time Caper"--Excalibur really spent no more or less time on Earth-616 than Cap himself did in his previous solo adventures.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Brian towards his teammates, particularly Rachel and Kitty - and of the two of them, especially Rachel (even if she was by far the most powerful member of the team) - because they're the youngest, and, it is hinted, because Rachel reminds him of his psychic sister, Betsy, who he believes is dead.
* BizarreBabyBoom: The reality warping of Jim Jaspers causes children born during it to come out mutated. They come to be known as "warpies" as the event itself gets called Jasper's Warp and their powers are commonly so unstable it'd be a miracle for any of them to make it to adulthood without detonating.
* BountyHunter: The spectacularly incompetent Gatecrasher and her Technet.
* CaptainPatriotic: Played With in Brian's case - as Captain Britain, he has the codename, but bluntly informs a 'patriot' that he is nothing of the kind, got the codename with the costume, and is primarily concerned with right and wrong.
* ChasedByAngryNatives: One of the many worlds we get a glimpse of in "The Cross-Time Caper" arc was an Europe colonized by the Native Americans making it, essentially, this world's Wild West. We see Excalibur chased by angry warpainted British "braves" wearing bowler hats and swinging umbrellas.
* TheChessmaster: Merlyn. And his daughter Roma. But mostly Merlyn. Roma is a Chessmaster to most characters, but to Merlyn she's just another pawn.
* ChessMotifs: The Hellfire Club, as usual, have ranks named after chess pieces. Also, Merlyn and Roma have a chess board that they place crystal figures of other characters on. When Merlyn [[FakingTheDead returns from his fake death]], he places a figure of Roma on the board to point out that even his own daughter is merely a pawn, not a player in his game. Brian at one point gets fed up about it in a conversation with Roma and kicks over a table that had a chess game set up on it.

* MsFanservice: When she disappeared in ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'', Rachel was a stick-thin tomboy who usually wore gym clothes. When she reappeared in ''Excalibur'', after being trapped in the Mojoverse, on her return she was built like a porn star (perhaps literally, considering where her new body came from) and wore a skintight, stiletto-heeled, spike-studded, red leather catsuit when on duty, and as little as possible off duty.

* PowerIncontinence: At one point Meggan couldn't control her empathic shapeshifting and copies whoever is closest to her. This was the worse with Rachel, who she reacted so strongly to she would switch feature and clothing and risk losing her identity.
** Later on Necrom's scheming causes a buildup of the energy matrix that empowers Brian. At first this increases his strength beyond his control before he basically hulks out.

* TerminatorImpersonator: The cover of Issue #67 features Kitty Pryde with sunglasses and a huge gun, exclaiming, "Hasta La Vista Baby," with the tagline "X-Terminator."

** The CanonImmigrant villain from ''Comicbook/AgeOfApocalypse'' Emma Steed is named after the protagonist duo of the British SpyDrama Tv series ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' (no relation to Marvel's [[Comicbook/TheAvengers superteam]]), Emma Peel and John Steed. She also has a [[ComicbookFantasyCasting close resemblance to]] Creator/DianaRigg, the actress who played Emma, plus the black hair of Creator/PatrickMacnee, who played John (Rigg had brown hair).

* TookALevelInBadass: Nightcrawler went from the dorky and silly fun member of the X-Men to the leader of the European equivalent of Comicbook/TheAvengers. He even formed [[DefeatMeansFriendship former enemies]] The Technet into his own personal "N-Men" complete with X-Men-inspired uniforms. And most of that he did ''with his leg broken.''

** For all intents and purposes, they were also the British ''Avengers'' (not [[Series/TheAvengers those ones]]), partly because there were no other super-teams who could play that part, and partly because mutants were less controversial in Britain than in the U.S. at the time (just like [[ComicBook/AlphaFlight Canada]], one suspects that the British took whatever superheroes they could get).

* WeddingDay: Captain Britain and Meggan. Even the Crazy Gang was there. (As ''guests'', mind you; they weren't evil anymore by then.)

* OutOfGenreExperience: Issue 18 takes place in [[Anime/SpeedRacer a world focused on a continuous Global Grand Prix]]. We're also introduced to two female police officers, the [[LightNovel/DirtyPair Dirty Angels]]. If that wasn't enough anime parody, the art style shifts to a [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9dWPc2LXztI/VQHc_sQRpxI/AAAAAAAAYNc/vsTYDqdiU7Q/s1600/Excalibur%2B%2318%2B-%2BDirty%2BAngels.png manga-ish]] [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/a/af/Excalibur_Vol_1_18.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/322?cb=20080126132619 state]]. The weirdest part? The story concludes in the next issue, which goes back to the usual comic book style.

** Let's see... there was [[Series/DoctorWho Brigadier Stuart and her scientific advisor Alistair]]... and the "Girls School from Heck" story arc, a clear nod to ''Film/{{St Trinians}}'' (down to the school itself being called St. Searle's after the author).

** In several of the more lighthearted fight scenes (Nightcrawler vs Chevalier Bretagne), combatants can be observed bantering with [[Film/WhatsUpTigerLily "Saracen pig!" and "Spartan dog!"]].

[[folder:Original Series]]

[[folder:New Excalibur]]

* TheCommissionerGordon: Inspector Dai Thomas. His relationship with superheroes was extremely strained due to the death of his wife in the wreckage of a super-fight (he nearly crossed the line to InspectorJavert) but in the end did come to find some respect for Captain Britain.

* HeroicSacrifice: There have been many, over the years. Meggan's heroic sacrifice was especially sad, because it was in a tie-in book for the ComicBook/HouseOfM crossover where she saved the whole universe and nobody read it. [[spoiler: At least she's finally back now, after bringing some hope to Hell for good measure.]]

* OddballInTheSeries: This series was not only LighterAndSofter than the other X-related titles, took place on a different continent altogether (Europe), and had many non-mutants on the roster (a rarity for X-teams), but it features somewhat obscure Marvel UK characters that had little to nothing to do with the X-Men, and the stories were mostly sci-fi and fantasy when most X-titles focused on whatever mutant hysteria was going on at any given time.

* ProgressivelyPrettier: When Nightcrawler first appeared in ComicBook/XMen he was short and creepy looking. When he was moved to Excalibur, Alan Davis purposefully drew him standing at six feet tall and modeled his facial features after Creator/ErrolFlynn. Sure, he was still a blue elf but he was noticeably more charming-looking than his earlier Dave Cockrum incarnation. Other artists have followed suit for the most part.

* DirtyMindReading: Being a telepath, Rachel catches... [[{{Understatement}} interesting]] thoughts from an alternate Nigel Frobisher. We never find out what the exact thoughts were, but they were bad enough to make Rachel furiously tar and feather Frobisher. When Brian is intrigued by the situation, she projects the thoughts in his mind and his temper slips as well.

* EyeScream: A heroic example occurs when Necrom attempts to lure Kylun into a trap with an image of [[spoiler:his girlfriend, previously killed by Necrom]]. Kylun isn't fooled, and as Necrom is sneaking up behind him to drain his life he lashes out with one of his magical swords, slashing Necrom across the face and putting out one of his eyes. The sorcerer sensibly [[VillainExitStageLeft flees the battle]].

** TheLancer: Nightcrawler (also doubles as TheLeader, since he is intelligent and optimist enough to keep the team together)

* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Plenty! There was the R.C.X., the Weird Happenings Organization, the Department of Unknown and Covert Knowledge (don't... uh, don't think too hard about that one.), S.T.R.I.K.E. and Black Air.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Doc Crocodile rightfully imprisons Jamie Braddock for being a slave trader and drug runner but decides to torture him before executing him, ignoring the prophetic warnings of his witch doctor. His torture awakens Jamie's reality warping powers, and also drives him insane thinking reality is a dream meaning he unleashed a person with no restraints on getting what he wants completely absolved of his guilt because he believes nothing is real.

** In several of the more lighthearted fight scenes, combatants can be observed bantering with [[Film/WhatsUpTigerLily "Saracen pig!" and "Spartan dog!"]].

* SuperpowerLottery: Phoenix outpowers everyone else (combined) by quite a bit, and for that matter outpowers most of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, being the human host to a CosmicEntity; she gets psychologically damaged or [[DeusExitMachina written out]] to compensate.

* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Kylun, a huge sword-wielding badass raised in an alternate reality, has the mutant power of...perfectly reproducing any given sound. Fortunately, he doesn't really ''need'' a mutant power to kick ass.

* LetsYouAndHimFight: In one of the later issues of the first series, ComicBook/NateGrey came flying in to get a check up from Moira [=MacTaggert=], who was helping him with his power degeneration issues. Excalibur assumed the worst of the extremely powerful telekinetic heading straight for Muir Island, and promptly attacked him. Later in the same issue, another misunderstanding triggered Nate's paranoia, and another fight - which ended quickly and hilariously after Moira ''scolded'' Nate into submission.

* LoveMakesYouEvil: It's revealed that the reason Excalibur ally Rory Campbell became Ahab, the monstrous mutant slaver from Rachel's BadFuture timeline who had tortured her and turned her into one of his Hounds, was because he was in love with Amanda Sefton, who rejected him in favor of Nightcrawler.

* DisgustingPublicToilet: In the ''ComicBook/{{Inferno}}'' tie-in, Kitty needs to answer a call of nature while being carried by Meggan across the Atlantic. They spot a freighter and land on it so she can go to the restroom, but the place is disgustingly filthy.

** Interestingly enough Alistaire [[http://brainstomping.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/doctores.jpg greatly resembles a later version of the Doctor.]]

* MsFanservice: When she disappeared in ''[[ComicBook/XMen Uncanny X-Men]]'', Rachel was a stick-thin tomboy who usually wore gym clothes. When she reappeared in ''Excalibur'', she was built like a porn star (perhaps literally - she got her new body in the Mojoverse after all) and wore a skintight, stiletto-heeled, spike-studded, red leather catsuit when on duty, and as little as possible off duty.

[[folder:Excalibur 2019]]
* LegacyCharacter: Betsy Braddock is the new Captain Britain. It's actually her second stint in the role.
[[/folder]]

But no team with {{Mutants}} can ever stay light-hearted for long in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, so they eventually returned to their angsty X-Roots and eventually became just another mutant book. Since then, the team has broken up and reformed a couple of times, with different membership each time. The SpiritualSuccessor ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' (even featuring the actual Excalibur sword) [[TooGoodToLast was also cancelled after 15 issues.]] The title was resurrected as part of the ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' initiative with Brian's sister Betsy taking up the mantle of Captain Britain and leading a new team to help guide a new age of magic.

But no team with {{Mutants}} can ever stay light-hearted for long in the Franchise/MarvelUniverse, so they eventually returned to their angsty X-Roots and eventually became just another mutant book. Since then, the team has broken up and reformed a couple of times, with different membership each time. Currently defunct, and the SpiritualSuccessor ''ComicBook/CaptainBritainAndMI13'' (even featuring the actual Excalibur sword) [[TooGoodToLast was also cancelled after 15 issues.]]

* BritainIsOnlyLondon: Averted. For starters, Excalibur's headquarters is Cap's lighthouse, located on the western coast of Britain.

* PowerIncontinence: At one point Meggan can't control her empathic shapeshifting and copies whoever is closest to her. In another a side effects of Necrom's scheme to collapse the multiverse into one suffuses Brian with the energy those universes were using for their Captain Britain's. This increases his strength beyond his control before he basically hulks out.