Andrew K. (kuligowskiandrewt) -
Marvel had a great and inclusive (which also hopefully means more money, after all, this is a publicly traded corporation) idea let's form a British superhero team to go after the market on the other side of the Pond. (Personally, I wonder why they decided that 2 of the 5 members should be American and a 3rd German, and how the marketing department felt about that, but that's outside the bounds of this review)
"Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn" was ... OK. I thought that the writer and artist did a good job capturing the characters and the interplay between them. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the selection of opponents but this is a personal bias rather than an unbiased creative one. Neither the Warwolves nor the Crazy Gang ever seemed to make a connection with me (nor has Mojo; while he doesn't actually appear in this book, his influence is certainly prevalent). This dissatisfaction is compounded by author Claremont's non-creative use of one of the more common comic book cliches during the battle between the Crazy Gang and Excalibur. On the other hand, we have Arcade ... well, he and his team can easily fall into the category of One-Trick-Ponies. (Knock the superheroes out, lock them in the maze, watch them face certain death except they always find a way out of it.) In this instance, however, they DID manage to put a new twist on the situation, making this particular part of the collection my personal favorite.
Also important to me the collection had a beginning, a middle, and an end. If I wanted to buy part of a story, I would purchase the comic book in its original form rather than in a collection I HATE the books that are just a "grab the next X issues and slap a perfect-bound cover around them" collection.
Interesting enough for me to start the next collection in the series, not interesting enough for me to rave about it.
RATING: 3 1/2 stars, rounded down to 3 stars. I believe that many comics fans may have a higher opinion of this collection than I did, due in large part to the selection of villains. However, as this is supposed to be a personal review, I decided not to factor that into my overall rating.
"Excalibur: The Sword is Drawn" was ... OK. I thought that the writer and artist did a good job capturing the characters and the interplay between them. Unfortunately, I was disappointed in the selection of opponents but this is a personal bias rather than an unbiased creative one. Neither the Warwolves nor the Crazy Gang ever seemed to make a connection with me (nor has Mojo; while he doesn't actually appear in this book, his influence is certainly prevalent). This dissatisfaction is compounded by author Claremont's non-creative use of one of the more common comic book cliches during the battle between the Crazy Gang and Excalibur. On the other hand, we have Arcade ... well, he and his team can easily fall into the category of One-Trick-Ponies. (Knock the superheroes out, lock them in the maze, watch them face certain death except they always find a way out of it.) In this instance, however, they DID manage to put a new twist on the situation, making this particular part of the collection my personal favorite.
Also important to me the collection had a beginning, a middle, and an end. If I wanted to buy part of a story, I would purchase the comic book in its original form rather than in a collection I HATE the books that are just a "grab the next X issues and slap a perfect-bound cover around them" collection.
Interesting enough for me to start the next collection in the series, not interesting enough for me to rave about it.
RATING: 3 1/2 stars, rounded down to 3 stars. I believe that many comics fans may have a higher opinion of this collection than I did, due in large part to the selection of villains. However, as this is supposed to be a personal review, I decided not to factor that into my overall rating.
