Product Description

Collecting the entire hard-to-find, out-of-print saga of critically acclaimed writer Alan Moore's answer to the call for a British super hero.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #270893 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

The origin of Captain Britain
As one observant reviewer writes below this book contains the Captain Britain tales from the first 23 issues of the early British Marvel title of that same name. There is no Alan Moore or Alan Davis input here, those reviews have been either incorrectly transposed or wrongly written.
The tales gathered here were written c. 1976/1977 by Marvel greats Chris Claremont and Gary Friedrich and mainly drawn by Herb Trimpe. The stories are fast paced, mainly due to the fact they came in 7 or 8 page chunks to tie in with the alloted space in each issue. Space was limited as these tales ran alongside re-runs of The Fantastic Four and Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD.
The origin, shrouded in Arthurian mystery with a Merlin figure giving Brian Braddock a new role as a hero to protect the British people. It does not seem clear what his powers are at first as both Hurricane and Dr. Synne manage to give him a good hiding.
His limited powers are assisted by his quarter-staff which has a series of buttons which can be used as a weapon or create a force field; it can also be used to clout someone on the head. He defeats Dr. Synne with assistance from a totally unexpected helper.
The last series of tales here bring in Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D., its British equivalent S.T.R.I.K.E. and Captain America, who realises Captain Britain may be more powerful than he thinks. The Captains get together to take on the menace of the Red Skull which is the highlight of this book. It may seem odd that they have chosen to end with a cliffhanger with London under threat from the Skull as the allies close in on him but #23 was a water-shed for the title.
Included are a copy of the Captain Britain mask that came with the first magazine but not his boomerang (er!) that came in the second issue. Another offbeat gimmick was a black & white page in some issues for fans to colour in themselves, if you liked that idea then buy volume 2 and get your crayons ready as budget cuts meant it was all printed in black & white from issue 24 onward.
That aside these comics were great buys at the time at just 10p and offered original material alongside the American Marvel repeats.
It's well worth 4 stars as we see the start of something great here and it introduces Betsy Braddock and sees Insp. Kate Fraser return. It also sees the PM at that time James Callaghan involved in a heroic role, "Sunny Jim" indeed.

Mainstream and Moore, so much more...
On one level, you've got the fact that this is a mainstream comic - although when I say mainstream, Marvel UK was only ever a trickle in comparison to the US' torrent. There are the tights, the capes, the costumed villains, which are all so familiar. Alan Davis' artwork grows in excellence after a slightly cluttered start towards a more classic super-hero style.

And then there's the stuff that's not. Concentration camps, fascism and The Fury - still scary, still all but unstoppable. These elements, along with the terror of Linda McQuillan (Captain UK) and the philosphical digressions that Moore gives us from Merlin and Roma (I particularly love the "Where do we go to when we die?" sequence) elevate this storyline - the Jaspers Warp - to something above and beyond the mainstream. And, luckily for all of us, Davis is able to go with him all the way, taking the madness of Jim Jaspers and making it visibly, unpleasantly real.

For me, the real joy of this collection is that it is, undeniably, British. Well, English. Brian Braddock is as English as it's possible to be, as is Jim Jaspers, for that matter - maybe Alan Moore was writing about the two halves of Britain in the '80s - those who bend the world to their will and those who stand up for what they believe. Who knows. The humour is quirky and is often in a grating juxtaposition to the grim frame around it.

It's great.

A middling start
This book, long overdue, contains the first 23 issues of Captain Britain's UK weekly series. It's all on high-quality paper, with nice forewords from Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, and even a replica of the mask given away with CB #1 (though whether you feel like cutting this out and ruining your book is down to personal taste...). The art benefits from being suqashed down to US-format sized pages too, looking much more detailed than it does in the original comics, and the cover for each issue is faithfully reproduced.

The stories themselves... aren't too bad. At least not while Claremont's in charge, having a nice Silver Age colourfulness to them (thanks to Trimpe's big, clunky Kirby-esque pencils). Brian's well-defined, especially the ongoing theme of him learning new aspects of his powers all the time, and he can /just about/ write convincing British dialogue, though his usual exposition trouble keeps it bogged down. The basic set-up is a bit of a copy from Peter Parker's school/college years, with Courney Ross as Mary Jane, Jacko Tanner as Flash Thompson and CID officer Dai Davies serving as a surrogate J. Jonah Jameson (and his female sidekick, such a memorable character I can't remember her name, functions as Robbie Robertson I suppose). The Hurricane is a decent stab at a villain too, meaning some nice big technicolour fight sequences, though Dr. Syn is a bit more of a failure, with the scripts not really explaining what he is or what he does...

It all really hits the wall later on when Gary Friedrich takes over writing duties... Friedrich just has no feel for the UK whatsoever - practically the first thing done is bringing in Captain America, the Red Skull and Nick Fury, and the comic gradually loses any sense of individuality thanks to his inept scripting.

The TPB ends on a cliffhanger - which hopefully means a book tying up the remaining 16 issues, the 'Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain' strips and the two-part 'Marvel Team-Up' storyline will follow soon.

It's not /bad/ material, it's just packed full of missed opportunities and poorly thought-out ideas. The potential would be realised in the Alan Davis/Dave Thorpe/Alan Moore/Jamie Delano run, and the Davis/Moore TPB is the place to go to find out just how superb Captain Britain can be. 'The Birth of a Legend' collection is an affordable way of collecting the issues cheaply and in a superior format. It's an enjoyable read, but more one for confirmed fans who realise what they're letting themselves in for.