Excalibur (comics)

With laughter and transcendent joy — the dream is reconstructed — and Excalibur … that most ancient and noble blade … is once more redrawn.

Excalibur is a Marvel Comics superhero group, an off-shoot of the X-Men, usually based in the United Kingdom. Conceived by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer Alan Davis, the original Excalibur first appeared in Excalibur : The Sword is Drawn (1987), also known as Excalibur Special Edition.

Excalibur : The Sword is Drawn (1987)

Written by Chris Claremont

You forget — dreams are sometimes windows to other realities. … and waking doesn't always make things better.

You, warwolf — haven't the slightest notion … of what you're up against.

King Arthur had a dream, too. Of a world where might served right, instead of subjugating it. His knights of the Round Table were the agents of that dream … and his sword, Excalibur, the Symbol of it.

• You forget — dreams are sometimes windows to other realities. … and waking doesn't always make things better.
  • Apparition of Rachel Summers (Phoenix) in a dream of Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat), p. 5 - 6

• When the reality no longer exists … exploiters can take the legend … and make it whatever they want, good or bad.
  • Apparition of Rachel Summers in a dream of Kitty Pryde, p. 6

• In the sunrise … the Phoenix effect!?! Now what the heck does that mean: freaky after-image of a very freak dream … or harbinger of something worse?
  • Kitty Pryde, p. 8

• I'm not normal anymore, even for an X-man. My natural state is to be phased — as intangible as a ghost — to become solid I have to concentrate … hard as I can … Hooray! … but it won't last long.
  • Kitty Pryde, p. 9

• A bird of fire … heralding the sunrise! How beautiful!
  • Meggan

• Have at thee foul recreants! Numberless you may be … you're still no match … for one with the heart and soul … of a true musketeer!
  • Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler) to combat droids, p. 10

• If we both had the same experience, maybe it wasn't really a dream.
  • Shadowcat to Nightcrawler, on their correlating dreams.

• I am Opal Luna Saturnyne — Omniversal Majestrix — responsible for the maintenance of order and reality in this sector of creation.
  • Saturnyne, p. 19

• Lunacy — disoriented — too many thoughts, can't sort them out—! This is a stage set! Could it be — that I haven't escaped at all?!! Was the pain for nothing — am I back where I started?!!
  • Rachel Summers

• You, warwolf — haven't the slightest notion … of what you're up against.
  • Rachel Summers, letting signs of the Phoenix Force appear in her visage, p. 27

• You don't understand warwolf. I'm free — and no one's ever going to cage me again!
  • Rachel Summers, unleashing the Phoenix Force, p. 29

• When I say I'm a "Hero," I mean it in jest. I haven't the right to call myself one. And you have even less! All I am is a man, trying to live life as best he knows how, and be true to what he was taught.
  • Nightcrawler to Brian Braddock (Captain Britain), p. 32

• You forget, fuzzy elf … I'm Phoenix. If I die it's only to be reborn — hopefully better and brighter than before.
  • Phoenix to Nightcrawler and Shadowcat, p. 43

• The facts in my head, they're so jumbled up … I don't know anymore what's real and what isn't — what actually happened … what's a lie. But it doesn't matter. Because the clutter doesn't affect my emotional realities — perhaps, in turn, because the Phoenix by nature responds better to feelings than rationality. I know who I am — who I care for, who I don't — that's what matters. The rest I can take or leave.
  • Phoenix, p. 44

• The dream, Captain — Charles Xavier's dream — where all Earth's children, mutant or otherwise, live together in peace and harmony! Where people are judged for who they are — not what they look like or how they're born. That's why he created the X-men, to exemplify that dream. Are you saying , simply because the X-men are dead … we're supposed to give it up?!
  • Phoenix, p. 45

• King Arthur had a dream, too. Of a world where might served right, instead of subjugating it. His knights of the Round Table were the agents of that dream … and his sword, Excalibur, the Symbol of it. He died, the table was destroyed, his knights mostly slain — yet the dream survived. They became legend — and the sword, the means of keeping the legend alive and vital through the ages. The X-men thought enough of Professor Xavier's dream to offer up their lives. Is it so much to ask that we fight to preserve it? The sword Excalibur, represented Hope. It was light in the darkness of fear and ignorance and hate. Do we want — have we the right — to snuff it out? I've run my whole life. I can't remember when I wasn't afraid. I let people tell me what to do — because it's easier that way, y'know … saves you the from having to take responsibility for anything. Well, I'm tired of running. I want to make a stand. Because if I don't then maybe I better let the warwolves carry me back … to their make-believe world … where I belong. A world of illusion and artifice, where whatever sells best gets the glory … whether it's truth or lies.
  • Phoenix, p. 46 - 47

• Rachel's life sounds much like mine, Brian. I won't have anyone else endure such horror. I like this dream. It's worth fighting for.
  • Meggan, p. 47

• And so — with laughter and transcendent joy — the dream is reconstructed — and Excalibur … that most ancient and noble blade … is once more redrawn.
  • Last lines of "The Beginning!", p. 48

External links

Wikipedia

Wikipedia has an article about:

Excalibur (comics)

• Excalibur at Marvel.com
• Excalibur characters at the International Catalogue of Superheroes