This was part of the Age of Apocalypse series that Marvel did way back in 1995. The premise was that Legion went back in time to kill Magneto, but instead he kills his own father, Charles Xavier, who jumps in to protect his friend Erik. This changes history and creates an alternate universe in which Apocalypse has taken over America. Everything is different. The X titles each became something else entirely as we are given a glimpse of what the Marvel Universe would be like if Charles Xavier had never formed his X-Men.

This particular book is the replacement title for Excalibur, an X-team based in the UK. In the Age of Apocalypse, this team is just Nightcrawler and his mother, Mystique (who in this world, actually does raise him instead of giving him to gypsies). They are sent on a mission to a place called Avalon (the Savage Land) to find Destiny, an old associate of Mystique, who is the only one capable of discovering if Bishop (unaffected by the universal shift because he is from an alternate future anyway) is telling the truth about his parallel universe (the current Marvel universe).

Warren Ellis writes a dark, savage tale of a world without Xavier from the perspective of Kurt Darkholmme (Nightcrawler). It's interesting to see the different takes on classic characters and how they would have turned out without Xavier's influence. I especially like the alterations made to Deadpool, here known as Dead Man Wade.

Definitely a must read for any X-fans out there, but you're going to need the whole saga to make sense of it. Everything is interconnected. ( )