Excalibur #17
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeExcalibur #17 marks the quiet but consequential close of Alan Davis's original pencilling run on the series he co-created — a farewell that arrived mid-stride during the sprawling 'Cross-Time Caper' arc and robbed the book of a defining visual voice until Davis returned, years later, as writer-artist from issue #42. Within that departure is embedded one of Chris Claremont's more psychologically ambitious set-pieces of the period: Rachel Summers actively suppressing the Phoenix Force, a 'great power, great responsibility' inversion that had never been explored for the character before, resolved through Meggan's empathic channeling of an entire world's life-spirit. The issue also plants the seed of the portly blue slaver race whose species representative Tullamore Voge would resurface in Claremont's early-2000s X-Men work and later in the Nightcrawler solo series, demonstrating how thoroughly the Cross-Time Caper was used as a seedbed for future Marvel mythology.
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The issue was produced by the founding creative team of writer Chris Claremont and penciller Alan Davis (inked by Paul Neary, colored by Nel Yomtov, lettered by Jade Moede, and edited by Terry Kavanagh under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco), completing the sixth chapter of what had been planned as a nine-issue arc before editorial expansion stretched it to twelve. Davis had already been falling behind schedule during the Cross-Time Caper — issue #8 required Ron Lim as a guest artist and #11 brought in Marshall Rogers — and #17 marked his official exit as regular penciller; he confirmed that his subsequent contributions to issues #23 and #24 were fill-ins rather than a continuation of his regular tenure. Claremont, who had been given considerable creative latitude by Marvel and had genuinely intended the series to avoid the grim crossover culture of the era's X-books, continued writing solo until issue #34.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Chris Claremont with pencils by Alan Davis, inks by Paul Neary, colors by Nel Yomtov, and letters by Jade Moede; cover date December 1989.
- This is the final issue of Alan Davis's original run as regular penciller on Excalibur — Davis himself stated he officially departed here, with later appearances on #23–24 being fill-ins.
- Part 6 of the 12-part 'Cross-Time Caper' story arc (Excalibur #12–24), set on the alternate world Earth-1289 and titled internally 'From the Crucible — A Captain?!'
- Kymri of Earth-1289 takes on the mantle of Captain Britain (jointly with that reality's Lockheed) at the story's conclusion — noted in the Marvel Database as her first appearance as Captain Britain.
- Rachel Summers (Phoenix/Earth-811) drives the issue's central character arc: having subconsciously blocked her Phoenix powers following their near-total depletion, she is persuaded by Meggan to embrace them again, using the Phoenix Force through Meggan as a conduit to resurrect fallen teammates and restore a dying world's life-spirit.
- Professor X and the Starjammers (including Corsair, Ch'od, Hepzibah, Raza, and Binary/Carol Danvers) appear in a single dramatic panel on the final page — arriving just as Widget teleports Excalibur away, leaving their identity (Earth-616 counterparts or alternates) deliberately unresolved by Claremont.
- The issue introduces an unnamed race of portly blue slavers; one is identified as a counterpart of established character Nigel Frobisher. Their species leader Tullamore Voge was later used by Claremont in his early-2000s return to the X-books and again in the Nightcrawler ongoing series.
- Reprinted as part of 'Excalibur Epic Collection Vol. 2: The Cross-Time Caper' (ISBN 978-1302910124), which collects Excalibur #12–30, as well as the earlier 'X-Men: Excalibur Classic' Vol. 3 and Vol. 4 trade paperbacks.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Titans #144 (1991), Excalibur Epic Collection #2 (2018), Excalibur Omnibus #1 (2020)
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