Excalibur

Excalibur was an American Marvel Comics publication which was, nevertheless, originally heavily tied to Marvel UK's stable of characters, in particular Captain Britain (Brian Braddock), his partner Meggan and their various enemies. The Captain and Meggan were a part of a British based team which also included several American Marvel characters from the X-Men, including the American born Shadowcat and Phoenix II and the German born Nightcrawler. The original creative team were British artist Alan Davis (who had drawn Captain Britain for Marvel UK) and British born American writer Chris Claremont (the original creator of the Captain). Later issues of the series, however, following the departure of the original creators, downplayed the Marvel UK characters (even writing Captain Britain out altogether for a time and eventually de-powering him) and strengthened the book's connections with the X-Men universe, effectively destroying its original identity. The series, which began with a cardboard covered Special Edition in April 1988 before being launched as an ongoing series in October the same year, ended with issue #125 in October 1998, the last issue featuring the wedding of Captain Britain and Meggan. A four issue limited series also called Excalibur, starring Captain Britain, Meggan, the Black Knight and Psylocke followed in 2001, but a third volume in 2004-2005 had no connection to British comics or characters at all, being simply an X-Men spin-off. A variation on the original team, including Captain Britain, returned in New Excalibur, which ran from January 2006 to December 2007. There were also various Excalibur annuals and specials published in conjunction with the original series.