CAMELOT 3000 #12

“Chapter Twelve: Long Live the King!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Terry Austin

Arthur and his knights continue the assault on the castle. Galahad sacrifices his life to detonate their ship and blow the alien army away. Tristan manages to defeat her foe. Lancelot through possible divine intervention survives the attack of Mordred. Enough for Mordred to be thrown against Merlin who is the son of Satan. When he touches the Grail armor it explodes. Merlin is free and transports everyone except Arthur back to Earth. Arthur use Excalibur to set off a nuclear explosion and thus destroying Morgan Le Fay.

The survivors gather on Earth and start to rebuild. Tristan decides to embrace lesbianism. Guinivere finds out she is pregnant and hopes it is Arthur’s. Tom leads the rebuilding of London. On an alien world, a fleeing alien finds Excalibur in a stone and pulls it out.

The end of this Maxiseries was quite satisfactory. Arthur sacrifices his life to destroy Le Fay. Didn’t know Excalibur could cause a nuclear explosion but what the hell this is a comic. The survivors find peace and somewhere the cycle starts all over on another world. This was a very eighties series and with Bollard’s beautiful artwork it was a joy to read.

CAMELOT 3000 #11

“Chapter Eleven: War!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Terry Austin

On Earth the UN director is framing Arthur as the one who killed the world leaders and now abandoned Earth to side with the aliens. Arthur and his knights are on the tenth planet and get approached by peaceful aliens. They take the group to their queen who gives birth to all the aliens. She wants Morgan Le Fay killed because she has changed many of her children to serve Morgan. Arthur joins forces with this rebellion and attack the castle. Lancelot knocks out Arthur so he can lead the attack. He is obsessed with recovering the Holy Grail. He fights Mordred and loses. Tristan also fights a monster of a former lover created by Le Fay and also looks like she is losing.

This issue does a good job of setting up the big final. All the storylines are coming together nicely. Arthur seems to be losing control a bit. There are two cliffhangers where major characters seem to be losing their lives. I am excited to see how this all ends.

CAMELOT 3000 #10

“Chapter Ten: Prelude to War!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Terry Austin

Mordred and Le Fay assassinate the four leaders of Earth. Mordred has fashioned himself a suit of armor from the Holy Grail. So now is practically invincible. King Arthur has taken most of the knights to hijack a rocket in Oregon. This will get them to the tenth planet. Lancelot, Guinevere and Tom go to the Salisbury nuclear plant to visit the water nymph that kept Excalibur. This nymph loves Lancelot and can transport them to the tenth planet. While this is going on, Mordred and Le Fay also transport to the planet. Now everyone is on this alien world.

This issue is gearing up for the big battle. All the characters have basically found their way to the tenth planet. All the caricatures of world leaders have been assassinated, thus paving the way for Mordred to assume total leadership of the Earth. Mordred has assumed the primary leadership role with his control of the Holy Grail. Le Fay is getting weaker from the alien disease she contracted. I am looking forward to how this story is resolved.

CAMELOT 3000 #9

“Chapter Nine: Grailquest 3000”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Terry Austin

King Arthur has decided to split his forces. Half will go on the quest for the Holy Grail. The other will go to the tenth planet to rescue Merlin. The Merlin quest is led by Arthur. Meanwhile at the U.N., Le Fay shows the U.N. director that he is the reincarnated soul of Mordred the bastard son of Arthur. The group sent for the Grail finds it at Glastonbury. It saves Tom and transforms Percival back to human before he transcends to another world. Lancelot is made the guardian of the Holy Grail only it is stolen by U.N. troops and taken to Mordred.

This issue the group finds the Holy Grail. Then of course they lose it. The U.N. director is actually Arthur’s bastard son and now has more motivation to destroy Arthur. An interesting issue. It shows some stuff like Arthur tried to drown Mordred as a baby and Tristan as a man was a rapist. Definitely does mar the heroic image of the heroes.

CAMELOT 3000 #8

“Chapter Eight: Judas Knight”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bolland and Terry Austin

Tristan decides to accept Le Fay’s offer to turn her back to a man if she betrays Arthur. She is supposed to destroy a talisman that Merlin has. It is destroyed and Merlin’s lover Nyneve comes and takes Merlin away. An investigation reveals that Tristan didn’t have time to destroy the talisman, but Arthur’s brother Kay did it. Kay wanted to stir his brother out of his heartache. He is sentenced to death. Only before it is carried out the aliens attack New Camelot. Kay and Tom both shield Arthur. Kay dies and Tom is seriously wounded. Arthur vows to look for the Holy Grail to save his life.

This issue had a lot of stuff to absorb. Tristan was going to betray Arthur but didn’t have the time as Kay beat her to it. Kay dies and there is a quest for the Holy Grail. Morgan wants the Grail herself since it can cure her alien disease she has. Which is way she called off the alien attack. Lancelot and Guinivere are back with the Round Table. Merlin is also gone now. I wasn’t really familiar with the lore about his lover, but I assume it is part of the lore. An enjoyable and fun series.

CAMELOT 3000 #7

“Chapter Seven: Betrayal!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Terry Austin

Arthur leads his knights on their first mission. It is to liberate the Neo-men at the facility that creates them in Australia. They succeed and now have recruits for the war with the aliens. They have to fight off some more aliens which they easily do. There are also problems with the knights. Tristan has found his love Isolde but can’t except the fact she is now a woman. Young Tom has an infatuation with Tristan which clearly doesn’t get reciprocated. Lancelot and Guinivere still have the hots for each other and continue to sleep together. Arthur catches them and banishes them from New Camelot. Finally, Tristan decides to take up the offer of Morgan Le Fay and betray the Round Table to become a man.

This issue had a lot of soap opry stuff going on. Tristan can’t except being a woman although she was born one in this life and had no problem with it. Also, Isolde is clearly a lesbian. She has a mohawk so that is quite obvious. Yet she is going to betray Arthur. Lancelot and Guinivere are still at it which makes you wonder why they try to keep pretending that Guinivere should marry Arthur. An interesting story that I look forward to the next issue to see how it continues.

CAMELOT 3000 #6

“Chapter Six: Royal Funeral”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard Patterson & Giordano

Tristan is offered by Le Fay to be turned into a man if she will betray the Round Table. She refuses and Morgan goes and finds Tristan’s reincarnated love. She gets her a job at the UN. King Arthur and Guinivere are set to get married at the UN. As they arrive, Guinivere is shot by a genetically changed assassin. The assassin turns out to be the former fiancé of Tristan who I thought was killed an issue ago. The assassin is killed, and Lancelot manages to heal Guinivere and save her life. Tristan also meets his reincarnated love who is also given her memories of her past life by Morgan.

This was an OK issue. There was some stuff that I didn’t quite get. Like how did Lancelot heal Guinivere? Didn’t know he had such power. Or how the fiancé can back? There was a scene of the aliens growing something in a vat that was humanoid, so I suppose they cloned the guy. The President of the United States wears a red, white and blue cowboy suit and looks suspiciously like Ronald Reagan the current President at the time. Also looks like transgenderism didn’t survive to 3000. Tristan has to actually have a male body to feel like a man and not just declare herself one. Ah the eighties. I miss that time so much.

CAMELOT 3000 #5

Chapter Five: The Tal of Morgan LeFay!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artists: Brian Bollard and Bruce Patterson

Arthur and his knights celebrate their victory over the aliens. This is watched by Morgan Le Fay and the UN secretary. She tells the secretary her story. That she hated Arthur from the time he was born. His father killed her father and ravished her mother. She learned the dark arts but was not powerful enough to defeat Merlin. So, she looked for power and found it on the tenth planet. She took control of the primitive aliens and taught them science. Then returned to Earth to get her revenge.

King Arthur decides to marry Guinivere in spite of her romance with Lancelot. At the end Tristan is approached by Le Fay with an offer. She will change Tristan back to a man if she betrays the Round Table.

This issue gives us some back story on Morgan Le Fay. Both the historical/mythical one and the more current one in this comic. She found an alien species and took them over. We also get some more look at the Knights. Tristan doesn’t like being a woman. Lancelot and Guinivere are still in love. The story moves along in an entertaining and informative way.

CAMELOT 3000 #4

“Chapter Four: Assault on New Camelot!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artist: Brian Bollard

The people of Earth want King Arthur to be in charge. The U.N. security director meets with the four major leaders of the planet. The President of the United States. The Chairwoman of China. The Premier of the Soviet Union. (The writer envisioned it surviving into 3000.), and the leader of Africa an Idi Amin type guy. These guys have no intention of giving up power so the director orders that New Camelot be attacked, and Arthur and his knights eliminated.

King Arthur meets all the reincarnated knights and the new round table. Only they have to fight the invading army. Arthur and knights destroy them and find out they are actually the aliens disguised as U.N. Troops. At the end we find out Morgan Le Fay is in league with the director.

“The Many Faces of Guinevere”

By Mike W. Barr

A sample of the various images that Bollard sketched until he came up with the right look for Guinevere.

“”King Arthur in Print”

By Mike W. Barr

A list of the available books on the subject of King Arthur.

This issue we finally get all the knights together. We also get the Round Table. Finally, we get a look at the leadership of Earth and find out that the head honcho the U.N. Security Director is in league with Le Fay. He also has plans to seize control of the Earth for himself. A fun issue with some beautiful drawings by Bollard.

CAMELOT 3000 #3

“Chapter Three: Knight Quest!”

Writer: Mike W. Barr

Artist: Brian Bollard

Arthur and his recruits are sent out to find the other knights that were reincarnated. The first is Kay in Chicago. He is being hunted by loan sharks when Arthur rescues him. Guinivere finds Sir Percival in Australia about to be turned into a Neo-man. She fails to rescue him in time but does get him back to New Camelot. Lancelot finds his son Galahad now a samurai in Japan about to commit Seppuku for failing to guard his employers during an alien attack. Merlin finds an unnamed one as a black man in Johannesburg. Finally, Tom Prentice finds Tristan in a small town in Canada about to get married. Tristan is now a woman. At the end the Earth defense HQ finds the origin of the aliens which is a new tenth planet.

“Was There a Real King Arthur?”

By Mike W. Barr

An article on who the real Arthur was in history. A very informative article on ancient English history.

This issue deals mainly with gathering all the supporting characters. A very diverse group who have changed in their new incarnations. We also get some more glimpses in this future Earth of 3000. We find out the location of the aliens and Morgan Le Fay is indeed in charge of them. There is also still a romance between Lancelot and Guinivere. Something that is sure to cause future friction. This and the informative article made this a fun and enjoyable read.