Comic Corner: Captain Britain (Moore/Davis)

[David Flin]

Comment on this article on Britain's very own super-powered straight man.

 

[Llamastrangler]

I ought to reread this run, which I finally discovered a few years back. Alan Moore doing Marvel really does not compute, but then this is only Marvel in the most anal of senses, from an age when the British comics traditions were still a thing and thought themselves immortal.

Also, Alan Moore was in his twenties here. A mathematical fact, but surely impossible that this old wizard could ever have been so young?

 

[Hendryk]

I remember Captain Britain when he was a member of Excalibur in the Marvel universe, I was unaware he had previously been a standalone character. He tended to come across as well-meaning but easily in over his head.

 

[varyar]

I remember Captain Britain when he was a member of Excalibur in the Marvel universe, I was unaware he had previously been a standalone character. He tended to come across as well-meaning but easily in over his head.

Same here. Much later I read the original comic and it was simultaneously very informative and very, very weird.

 

[Llamastrangler]

I remember Captain Britain when he was a member of Excalibur in the Marvel universe, I was unaware he had previously been a standalone character. He tended to come across as well-meaning but easily in over his head.

The great Alan Davis remains an eternal constant, though!

Excalibur never quite worked in the same way for me. Could never quite put my finger on why. Chris Claremont was writing, no less, and I can’t say it wasn’t good, but it didn’t quite have the bonkers charm despite being clearly insane, in a good way.

 

[Charles EP M.]

Captsin Britain having a fight in the then-new Forbidden Planet shop is a good laugh too

 

[Beata Beatrix]

Aargh I missed this coming out!

Yes, I think Jaspers and The Fury are two of the great comic villains – I remember audibly gasping at the sequence where Mad Jim changes his wine from red to white as an act of pure faux-aristocratic pique (his social signifiers are fascinating, aren't they?) and destroys our reality just a little bit more. Amazing stuff.

To me, Moore's best works are From Hell, Swamp Thing, and (yes, I had to say it) Watchmen – but CB is up there! It has aged so much better, I think, than Miracleman...

 

[David Flin]

To me, Moore's best works are From Hell, Swamp Thing, and (yes, I had to say it) Watchmen – but CB is up there! It has aged so much better, I think, than Miracleman...

I'll put a word in for the Ballad of Halo Jones.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

it was pretty good.

(do you want an article on Captain Britain and MI:13)

Chris

 

[Charles EP M.]

MI:13 has an interesting POD, Cornell later said he should've done a visit to the US as the second story and (IRRC) called it British Avengers to sell more comics and last longer.

 

[Ogrebear]

Ah, Cap Britain- Moore and particularly Davis at their best. I read it in collected edition just as Excalibur started. Such a good read.

Marvel UK at its prime was superb, so many good books and their own corner of their Marvel U to play in.

 

[JesterBL]

from an age when the British comics traditions were still a thing and thought themselves immortal.

I would actually love to see an article on this- like skiffle and the roots of British rock'n'roll, my understanding is that post-WW2 British comics were buoyed by cultural protectionism.

 

[Ogrebear]

Davis is at the Bristol Expo this weekend (7 Oct) along with Liam Sharp and Simon Furman, a real Who Who of Marvel UK.

Comic Expo Bristol

Comic Expo Bristol

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