Captain Britain

I have been in the mood to reread Alan Moore's Miracleman for some time now, but I decided to wait for the "omnibus" edition to be released so that I can read it in the format it deserves. In the meantime, I decided to reread Alan Moore's Captain Britain while I waited but, because I'm me, I had to back up to the beginning to "get a running start" at it.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1-39:

Captain Britain debuted as a weekly color comic "the week ending Oct. 13, 1976." It was produced in America, by Americans, for a British audience. The Alan Moore/Alan Davis/Jamie Delano material has been available in the United States, in a variety of formats, for decades, but the older material only for ten years or so. For those of you who who have not read it, here's my overview of the title's 39 issue run.

The first 23 issues were in color, then it switched to black and white. Chris Claremont wrote the series initially, followed by Gary Friedrich on issues #11-36. The artists were Herb Trimpe (#1-23) and John Buscema (#24-30). Captain Britain teamed up with Captain America against the Red Skull from #16-26 (and three pages of #27) finishing off a story begun in #8. For those of you somewhat disappointed in the abruptness of the ending of the Red Skull story from Captain America #210-212, this story follows immediately after, and I suspect relatively few people on this side of the pond are even aware of it. Captain Britain #33-36 told a revised version of the origin story (from #1-2) with new details added. 

NEXT: Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain

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  • I intend to read these stories, and have had the omnis in the to-read pile forever.  Maybe you'll inspire me  to do so!

  • That takes some of the pressure off me. If I'm trying to convince someone to buy something, that's another matter. But you already own them and intend to read them. All I'm doing is providing input which might influence you to read them sooner or later. Having said that, I'm not really trying to influence you one way or the other at all. Yesterday's post was merely factual; today I'll throw in a few opinions. 

    First of all, I prefer the Chris Claremont issues to the Gary Friedrich ones. If you're like me, you first read Alan Moore's Captain Britain in 1995 when it was reprinted in the U.S. Your first time through omnibus v1, you're going to notice just how much of Claremont's run Moore used in his. (HINT: Quite a bit.) I find Friedrich's unconvincing English dialect annoying. Here's a game to play. The first time you read through the Friedrich stories, have a bottle of your favorite Scotch by your side and take a drink every time Friedrich throws in a "bloke" or a "lorry" or a "guv'nor." I guarantee you'll be plastered by the end of the volume. Toward the end of Friedrich's run, he pulls back providing the plots for Larry Lieber to script. After that, Lein Wein fills in for a single issue, then Bob Budiansky takes over the plot with scripts by Jim Lawrence.

    Artwise, Herb Trimpe is inked by Golden Age Airboy artist Fred Kida. I see less and less of Trimpe and more and more of Kida as their issues roll on. When John Buscema takes over for Trimpe (simultaneous with the switch to b&w) he is inked by Tom Palmer, which provides a definite artistic shot in the arm, but that pairing lasts only an issue before Kida returns. Ron Wilson takes over from (or prehaps I should says simply "follows") Buscema in #31. I happen to like Trimpe, but the best word I can think of to describe Kida is "adequate." No one's going to complain about Buscema drawing Captain America but, coincidentally, you expressed your opinion about Wilson just yesterday in another thread. (I would describe his work as "solid.")

    Just to clarify something I said yesterday, the Red Skull story is not continued from Kirby's Captain America, it simply follows close on its heels. That encounter left Captain America temporarily blinded. It's easy to imagine him resuming the chase after his eyes heal, but no direct link is even implied in the story itself. It's just a "happy coincidence" if one happens to consider these Captain Britain stories canon (which I do). 

    OVERALL: I happen to like (not love, but like) most of the stories in volume one, but it's easy to note tyhe slow but steady decline in quality from the first story to the last. As the more familiar creators are replaced with less well-know ones, the title first goes from color to b&w, then the title is cancelled and the feature is relegated to a Spider-Man reprint magazine (although, to be fair, Captain Britain had reprints, too, and "Spider-Man" is certainly a bigger draw than "Captain Britain"). I liked the series pretty much from the beginning through #27 (the first three pages, anyway). After that, I can only recommend #33-36 (for the revamped origin). #39 (set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee) continues directly into Super Spider-Man #231-232, and that brings the first volume to a close.

    I intended to move on to volume two today, but I think I'll put that off until tomorrow.

  • I had a couple of the early issues back in the 1980s (#6-#7). The back-up reprints were Fantastic Four #112 and the SHIELD story from Strange Tales #161. These were split in half and their second halves provided with splash pages. The GCD tells me the splash of the second part of the former was done by David Wenzel. The original cover was used for the splash of the second part of the SHIELD story.

    I saw the origin way back when in a British annual. It made a big impression on me, and I still think it a good sequence. But really, Brian is an idiot for choosing the amulet.

  • Panels of Captain Britain #1-2 were cut up, rearranged and recolored when reprinted as backup stories in Marvel Tales #131-133. (For completists, that version is also reprinted in omnibus v1.) 

    "But really, Brian is an idiot for choosing the amulet."

    In the original version. he rationalized the choice thusly: "I'm no killer--no slayer of men! For me there can be only one choice!" When the story was retold in Marvel Team-Up #65, he said, "But I'm a scholar, not a warrior. If I'm to remain true to myself, there's only one choice I can make--!" Still a rationalization, but I think even Chris Claremont (who scripted both stories) realized the amulet wouldn't be the obvious choice when there's a squad of armored men chasing you

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    My first exposure to Captain Britain was the aforementioned Marvel Team-Up #65 (and #66), which bifurcates omnibus v2 almost exactly. The two-issue American story was divided into six parts and reprinted in the U.K. in Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #248-253. Consequently, it needed four additional splash pages provided by John Byrne and Dave Hunt. when I read the stories reprinted in omni v2 for the first time, it was in overseas tpb editions published by Panini Press. Panini chose to leave the additional (superfluous) b&w splashes where they fell in the otherwise color story, but the omnibus reprints them at the end of the volume.

    Apart from the MTU stories, the rest of v2 is in b&w. It reprints SS-M & CB #233-247, followed by MTU #65-66, followed by the Black Knight serial (which co-featured Captain Britain) from (various iterations of) Hulk Comic #1-63. I find the stories from SS-M & CB #233-247 to be virtually unreadable. I would recommend that they be skipped entirely but, if your plan to to move on to the Alan Moore material, these stories will be referenced. I don't find them necessary, just an interesting example that there are no bad characters, just bad writers. 

    OTOH, the Black Knight stories are some of the best Black Knight and Captain Britain stories I have ever read. Unlike the pseudo-British Captain Britain stories penned by Gary Friedrich, these (by editor Dez Skinn and writer/artist Steve Parkhouse) have a very British feel to them. They are also told in a very British format: three page chapters. With only three pages a week to progress the story, the panels are densely packed with story and action; no "decompressed storytelling" here! The pace of each chapter is similar to that of a Sunday comic strip page of the Golden Age of Comic Strips, but laid out like a comic book page.

    Whereas omnibus v1 is a collection of consistently "okay" stories, v2 is evenly split between very bad ones and very good ones.

  • Skipping ahead a bit, in 1986 Chris Claremont featured the "Captain Britain" characters in New Mutants Annual #2; in 1987 he continued the trend by featuring them in X-Men Annual #11; in 1988, they were the core of Excalibur. By that time it was well known in America that Alan Moore had written Captain Britain for Marvel UK. I really wanted to read those stories. In support of Excalibur, Marvel released a tpb of the Captain Britain stories which immediately preceded Claremont's recent use of them, but it was a collection of the post-Moore Jamie Delano stories. It would not be until 1995 that the Alan Moore stories were presented to an America audience at last...

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    ...which brings us back to 1981.

    MARVEL SUPER-HEROES #377-388: Despite having waited to read these stories for several years, I didn't really care for them all that much, at least not the initial storyline. For one thing, the story continued directly from the "Black Knight" feature and began rather abruptly. For another, the entire first story took place in an alternate reality. For a third, I didn't know it at the time, but these (initially uncredited) stories were not, in fact, written by Alan Moore, but rather by Dave Thorpe (and edited by Paul Neary). This story introduced Saturnyne, the Crazy Gang, Mad Jim Jaspers, the Avant Guard and the Fury. All of the social commentary and political came from Thorpe, but I'm no more familiar with UK politics of the early '80s today than I was in 1995. I might be inclined to advise one to skip over these stories, but Alan Moore will soon put his own unique spin on them. 

    NOTE: Rather cynical of Marvel to slap "X-Men" on the cover since these stories don't have anything to do with the mutants.

  • THE DAREDEVILS #1-11: This is where the Alan Moore run actually begins. In [what would become] typical Moore fashion, he reboots the origin and throws in an EYKIW (Merlyn and Roma are extradimensional aliens). It is not Moore's way to overturn what has gone before, but rather to incorporate it. The first chapter recaps not only the origin, but the character's entire publication history, up to and including the Thorpe run. Moore introduced the Special Executive: Wardog, Fascination, Zeitgeist, Cobweb and Legion. (John Byrne would later create a character called "Flashback" for Omega Flight with the exact same powers as Legion who met his death in the exact same way.) The way Cobweb experiences time foreshadows Moore's own Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen.

    Issue #7 is the story which establishes that the Marvel Universe as we know it is Earth-616, a reference to June 1961, the  month Fantastic Four #1 went on sale (6-61 to us Yanks, but 61-6 to the Brits). From the MU, Moore borrows Henry Peter Gyrich and Sebastian Shaw. From other UK publications he borrows Miracleman and several other British characters I don't recognize. 

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  • This page has accounts of the British characters Moore referenced. Rebellion has published recent collections featuring some of the characters. Dolmann's feature was called "The House of Dolmann", Tim Kelly's "Kelly's Eye". Issues of Lion and Lion annuals with "Robot Archie" instalments can be found at Comic Book Plus. 

  • Thanks, Luke, that's very helpful.

    THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #7-16: This is the last of the Alan Moore issues. #7-13 are Moore's version of Dave Thorpe's "Twisted  World (Revisited)" but it takes place in the MU, not an alternate reality. This story introduces Megan and reintroduces Vixen. the first time I read these stories, in 1995, I thought she was an Alan Moore character; it wasn't until a decade later I learned she appeared back in the '70s. In #14-16, Moore resets the status quo and ties off all his plot threads, a hallmark of his (Miracleman, Swamp Thing). The Black Knight and Victoria Bentley also appear. But there also a page setting up new plots because Alan Davis is staying on. 

  • CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1-14:

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    We are now up to the run of issues collected in the 1988 tpb I mentioned in a previous post. Meggan looks much more like a "hobgoblin" in most of these stories than she would in Excaliber, but there's an in-story reason for that. These stories also reintroduce police inspector Dai Thomas and reconcile the differences he has with Captain Britain. #1 is a recap of the character's history so far, with pages of Brian Braddock relating his backstory to Meggan interspersed with a presentation given by Dai Thomas. (He has figured out Captain Britain's secret identity by this point, BTW.) As frustrated as I was with this material when I first encountered it 34 years ago, I must admit that it provides a much better "jumping on point" than the Dave Thorpe/Alan Moore material. 

    Here's what Alan Davis had to say about these stories when they were reprinted yet again in 2001: "Confident that I could  tell a story, I hoped to write the series myself but, after writing just three episodes and plotting a number of arcs, I decided putting all my eggs in one basket was risky and might cost me more financially rewarding opportunities at other companies. Around that same time, Alan [Moore] asked me to consider working with his friend Jamie Delano."

    In this series (among other things), Gatecrasher and the Technet replaces/supplants Legion and the Special Executive, the Cherubim are introduced, and Brian & Betsy's father is revealed to be from Otherworld. I had forgotten how many "done-in-one" stories are in this series; they're so closely linked one flows into the next although often weeks (story time) pass between issues. 

  • I read the stories in this run in the collection. I think them full of good things.

    Those interested in the evolution of characters might want to know that this is the run where Jamie Braddock was established as a villain. I guess he started into dealing with slaves, and something inside of him died. Betsy was blinded late in the run. Nuts but super-powerful Jamie came later, in Excalibur

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