The last period of Captain Britain’s hometown publication is split three ways: Alan Davis and reserve writers, Alan Davis and Jamie Delano, and Alan Davis going solo. It’s the most lastingly recognisable segment of superhero comics in Captain Britain’s history—it combines an unhappy hero with family drama and romantic tension, villainy from within and maimings…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 8: Twin Tales
Upon her reemergence as a Captain Britain supporting character, Betsy Braddock retained little of her previous page character. Her blonde though changeable bob was now chest-length purple, worn in a half-up style that resembled a large cottage loaf, or a Portuguese man o’ war. Career-wise she was “still” a model, but no longer a charter…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 7: Your Brother and Your Sister
Betsy Braddock is a fairly famous comics character. [She is certainly not Linda McQuillan, but we’ll get there. –Ed.] She debuted as an X-Man in the 80s, moving from New Mutants Annual #2 in the summer of ‘86 to X-Men Annual #10 in the autumn of that year. By the full swing of ‘87 she…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 6: Getting Horny Now (But Not Like That!!)
Alan Davis and Dave Thorpe relaunched CB in a new costume, and when Thorpe left due to what are intriguingly referred to as “political reasons” Alan Moore wrote a few strips. CB is naturally devoured by his fame monster. It’s hard for me to chip past all of my personal ire and find the shape…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 5: No More Eggs or Sunshine
Captain Britain went into limbo again, lost in the journey back from Otherworld… …Which we caught back up with in 1981.
Captain Britain Reading Diary 4: Napping on Your Cousin’s Sofa
After he left Peter Parker, Brian Braddock wasn’t seen for the next year and a half. His name didn’t appear on a masthead for the next four.
Captain Britain Reading Diary 3: Enemy in the Front Room
Captain Britain Weekly is dead; long live Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain! Super Spider-Man had been a weekly magazine headlined by Spidey. Now, starting with issue #231, it also contained the Captain. Spider-Man came first, with fourteen pages of Lee/Buscema reprint. Then CB (still all-new material) got seven, followed by The Avengers (reprints) and then…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 2: S.T.R.I.K.E While the Day is Hot
After Claremont left, Gary Friedrich picked up the scripting duties. Co-creator of Ghost Rider and Son of Satan, acclaimed for scripting Marvel’s Frankenstein, Friedrich was a solid option for a character so stoutly grounded in occultism. His experience on war comics may even have tailored him well to the British readership, as to today Commando…
Captain Britain Reading Diary 1: Sun Over a Stone Circle
In the beginning, there was Claremont. Chris Claremont was born in London, and that either means something to him or means enough to other people that he talks about it as if it means something about him. In his introduction to the trade collection Captain Britain: Birth of a Hero, Claremont talks about the creation…