Created by Alan Davis and Chris Claremont and artist Paul Neary, Excalibur followed the adventures of a team featuring Captain Britain, his lover Meggan, and X-Men Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, Rachel Summers and Lockheed, Kitty Pryde’s dragon. Other teammates would be added throughout the series, including X-Men and New Mutants members as well as original characters.

Related: The 10 Most Powerful Members Of Excalibur, Ranked

Excalibur didn’t dwell on the discrimination or civil rights allegory between humans and mutants that existed at the core X-Men titles. Instead, Excalibur tended to have more of a supernatural and, at times, humorous tone. The team dealt with crazier villains that were more outlandish and off the wall.

10 Not Just England’s X-Men

Nightcrawler and Shadowcat were recovering at Moira MacTaggert’s Muir Island facility from injuries received during the Marauder’s massacre of the Morlocks. Captain Britain and his girlfriend Meggan were living outside London in his lighthouse. They were all devastated as they watched the X-Men, including Britan’s sister Psylocke, seemingly sacrifice their lives in Dallas to defeat the Adversary.

Also, Rachel Summers emerged in London with both Mojo’s Warwolves and Saturnyne’s Technet team in pursuit of her. The others joined Rachel to defeat these pursuers and decided to stay together to honor the X-Men’s legacy. Secretly, Omniversial guardian Roma had manipulated situations to bring the team together.

9 The Role of Captain Britain

Physics student Brian Braddock was run off the road and laid near death. Roma and her father Merlyn appeared before Braddock and offered him the “Amulet of Right” and the “Sword of Might” to save his life. Knowing in his heart that he was not a warrior, Brian chooses the Amulet of Right and was endowed with the mantle of Captain Britain.

Related: 10 Important Facts to Know About Captain Britain

Brian’s time as Captain Britain was difficult at best. At different times, his proximity to the British Isles, the amount of mystical energy absorbed, his own alcoholism, and his own confidence levels have greatly affected his powers. Braddock has been a member of the Avengers, Excalibur, MI:13 and the Captain Britain Corps.

8 What is Meggan?

Meggan flying through the air

Meggan Puceanu was born a Romanichal and was believed to be a were-creature. Unknown to everyone, she was a mutant shapeshifter and had grown fur because she was cold. Also empathetic, Meggan began to manifest attributes that the locals attributed to the “monster girl”. After being released from a government concentration camp, Meggan encountered Captain Britain and took on the appearance of a tall gorgeous blonde woman, Braddock’s physical ideal, and he fell for her. Meggan learned to control her powers and discovered elemental ones as well.

Meggan continued to change to reflect the wishes and desires of those around her. Having never learned to read and having no other education, she was limited to what she was told or learned through experience. It wasn’t until Braddock was captured by his reality-warping brother, Jamie, that Meggan discovered her “true” form: tall, elfin, blond and more physically powerful than Captain Britain.

7 Her Own Personal Phoenix

Rachel Summers is from the “The Days of Future Past” timeline and is the daughter of its Scott Summers and Jean Grey-Summers. Anti-mutant sentiment grew into a forest fire after the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly. Internment camps began to be built along with a broader mandate given to the mutant-hunting Sentinels. They worked too well and it turned America into a dystopia.

Related: X-Men: The 10 Worst Hosts For The Phoenix Force Ever

Rachel was able to escape back in time, but she crossed over to the 616 universe. Not knowing that the Dark Phoenix of this universe was not her mother, Rachel chose to reclaim the mantle of the Phoenix. She was initially opposed by the X-Men and ended up kidnapped to Mojoworld for several months before returning to join Excalibur.

6 W.H.O.

The W.H.O. is the British Weird Happenings Organization. They are British para-military with the mandate of investigating and dealing with people, places, and events outside the realms of possibility. It was created by Brigadier Alysande Stuart and her scientist brother Alistaire.

The W.H.O. was assigned to spy on Excalibur and Alistaire got caught up in an inter-dimensional adventure. Alysande aided a number of X-Men allies in defending Muir Island against the Reavers. Later, Alysande was accused of divulging classified SHIELD secrets and was murdered. Alistaire and Nick Fury discovered that she was framed and killed by the RCX. Alistaire, Excalibur and internal strife dismantled the organization.

5 What’s A Widget?

Initially, Widget was thought to be an adorable tiny flying robot that consumed massive amounts of metal and hurled Excalibur into multiple alternate realities. They discovered much later that Widget was the consciousness of “Kate” Pryde-Rasputin from the “Days of Future Past” reality that had merged with a sentinel and was thrown into the same past as Rachel Summers.

Related: X-Men: 5 Reasons Age Of Apocalypse Was Better Than Days Of Future Past (And 5 Why It Never Will Be)

Upon arrival in the 616 timeline, she bumped the child Kylun into an alternate reality where he grew up before returning and she also switched the train Moira was on with a Nazi train, kicking off the adventure called “The Cross-Time Caper”.

4 The Cross Time Caper

When the other-dimensional entity Widget arrived, she knocked the team to an alternate reality where magic was the driving force rather than science. This empowered both Meggan and Captain Britain. A young prince fell for Kitty Pryde, who refused him but she was transformed into a “real princess." The team was next transported to a world where the heroes were killing each other. They barely escaped before Galactus arrived to devour that reality.

In one universe, Nightcrawler lived out his dream of being a swashbuckling pirate at sea. Next, they found themselves in a world that was a constant car race. They found Jamie Braddock at the center of the chaos and Meggan attempted to battle him but failed. The team was finally brought to the Omniversial Hub and reprimanded for all the trouble they were causing to the various realities.

3 Another “Pete” in Kitty’s Life

Kitty Pryde loved and very nearly married Piotr Rasputin aka Colossus. She also fell in love with and was engaged to Peter Quill aka Starlord. Between those two was yet another man named Peter, the British intelligence agent Pete Wisdom. Wisdom had risen through the ranks of MI6 and Black Air.

Related: 10 Times Kitty Pryde Was The X-Men’s Most Powerful Character

Black Air was tracking a new kind of bullet made from the skin of a Genoshan mutate and Wisdom was injured in this operation. Wisdom and Kitty Pryde uncovered a conspiracy between Black Air, the London branch of the Hellfire Club, and a group of aliens to create human hybrids. Wisdom left Black Air and joined Excalibur and began romancing the much younger Kitty, much to the chagrin of Lockheed. Kitty would leave Wisdom when Excalibur disbanded.

2 Post-M-Day Excalibur

After M-Day, Captain Britain, Wisdom, and several X-Men formed a team to battle Black Air and a de-powered Black Tom Cassidy. Later, Dazzler was attacked by X-Men from another dimension that was controlled by the Shadow King. Psylocke arrived to defeat the Shadow King only to disappear.

The team was drawn back in time by the Black Knight to save Camelot from dragons. Upon their return, Excalibur and the Exiles were attacked by a woman named Rogue-Mort who was working for Merlyn. Roma was fatally wounded but passed all her knowledge on to Sage. The combined teams and a couple of additional Captains Britain were able to defeat Rogue-Mort and Merlyn and Excalibur disbanded.

1 The Krakoa Team

Excalibur's roster during the Krakoan era

Betsy Braddock finally returned to her original body and moved onto the new mutant nation of Krakoa. Apocalypse asked Betsy and Captain Britain to investigate a blocked gate to Otherworld. Once there, they encountered Morgan Le Fey who ensnared Brian to be her champion. He was able to pass his Amulet of Right to Betsy and she became Captain Britain.

On the Krakoa side, Rogue and Gambit joined Apocalypse and he encouraged Rogue to use her powers on the gate. Vines attacked and engulfed Rogue, rendering her comatose and glowing. Gambit and Jubilee followed the new Captain Britain as she took Rogue to the site of her demolished English lighthouse which regrew from vines around Rogue.

Next: X-Men: 10 Things Fans Should Know About The Flowers of Krakoa