Marvel Tales: Captain Britain #1 - Marvel Comics

MARVEL TALES: CAPTAIN BRITAIN No. 1, November 2020

Reprinting the first couple of issues of “Captain Britain Weekly”, along with some additional adventures taken from both “Marvel Team-Up” and “Excalibur”, this weighty tome certainly must have pleased fans of “the British Isles’ answer to Captain America” upon its release in September 2020. Indeed, despite Chris Claremont’s opening story only lasting sixteen pages in total, having been originally ‘chopped’ into two eight-page instalments for the “anthology comic published exclusively in the United Kingdom”, the super-hero’s origin story is simply packed full of pulse-pounding pugilism, despicable treachery and supernatural swordplay.

For starters the British-born American author throws his 5,000 strong audience straight into the deep end with Brian Braddock’s freshly-formed alter-ego weighing into a bunch of the Reaver’s steel-clad henchmen with plenty of bone-breaking blows; “I’m battling these thugs as if I’ve been fighting all my life…” Enthrallingly characterful in his garishly red costume, and as utterly bemused at his predicament as this comic’s readers probably were, it is difficult not to get caught up in all the insane action as the “shy and studious youth” trades witticisms and wallops with the heavily armoured, blade-wielding “Butcher.”

Happily however, once Claremont’s narrative has fully captivated any perusing bibliophile, the five-time Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Award-winner does pen a straightforward explanation as to just how this bizarre collection of super-powered personalities somehow managed to come together “in the remote fastness of the Cheviot Hills, just south of the Scottish Border.” An utterly insane attack upon a top secret nuclear complex by Joshua Stragg and his technological advanced machinery quickly establishes just why a pipe-smoking Braddock would want to escape the installation in the dead of night, whilst the university student’s sudden choice to own the mystical Amulet of Right rather than the Sword of Might rationalises his shocking transformation into a champion “of law and justice”.

Adding enormously to this spectacular series from the Seventies' storytelling are Herb Trimpe’s layouts, which genuinely manage to hold the eye throughout courtesy of some astounding athletic fighting manoeuvres and an increasingly enraged Reaver’s mad facial expressions. “The definitive penciler on the Incredible Hulk comic” is especially good at adding plenty of “Whod!” to this book’s numerous wallops, and it is easy to see why he would later recall that Claremont was a ‘flexible writer who allowed him considerable free rein in laying out and pacing the stories.”

Writer: Chris Claremont, Artists: Herb Trimpe & Fred Kida, and Color Artist: Marie Severin

Avengers [2018] #11 - Marvel Comics

AVENGERS No. 11, February 2019

Considering that the high-point of Jason Aaron’s narrative for Issue Eleven of “Avengers” is arguably Thor snogging in the Savage Lands with the She-Hulk, it is probably a safe bet that many of this book’s 52,820 readers could well understand just why the title saw a disconcerting drop in sales of almost twenty five thousand copies in December 2018. Indeed, despite this twenty-page periodical featuring some of the most flamboyant international superheroes in the Marvel Universe, such as Captain Britain, Michael Twoyoungmen, Arabian Knight and Shiro Yoshida’s fiery alter-ego Sunfire, the Alabama-born writer’s plot doesn’t get any more exciting than having Ursa Major teleported back to Siberia for forgetting his table manners, and a deluded Phil Coulson apparently gunning down a mysterious victim in cold-blood simply because the bound figure refuses to denounce Captain Rogers as a traitor..?

Instead, this comic seemingly offers some nonsensical insights into Robbie Reyes’ homework memorising “Steve’s super villain recognition quizzes”, and the God of Thunder enjoying “turkey legs, mead and dinosaurs” whilst dating an utterly bored Jennifer Walters in Ka-Zar’s kingdom. Admittedly, there is some fun to be had from watching the Ghost Rider desperately plead his case to Captain Marvel that he shouldn’t need to study having “single-handedly defeated the Final Host”, and Jen’s suddenly realisation as to how deep Odinson apparently cares for her when he finally opens up as to his true feelings for the former member of the Fantastic Four. But, alongside the Black Panther’s ‘star-studded’ International Super-Summit, such interludes disappointingly provide the backbone of this book’s contents.

Frustratingly, this publication’s interior artwork doesn’t do much to help remove the impression that the entire comic was only printed as a ‘filler edition’ either. It’s clear, just from the first appearance of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s former Supreme Commander and Thor’s riotous obsession with warring battle dragons, that both Ed McGuiness and Cory Smith are prodigious pencillers. However, there are only so many splash pages a bibliophile can surely peruse featuring either Coulson or King T'Challa, before it becomes abundantly obvious that Aaron’s script was distinctly lacking in content; “I apologise for the disturbance. But we should not allow this unfortunate business to derail our summit. We have much to discuss. Iron Men. Clean up this mess.”

Writer: Jason Aaron, Artists: Ed McGuiness & Cory Smith, and Color Artist: Erick Arciniega

Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders #2 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS No. 2, October 2015

Doubtless disappointingly for Al Ewing, this concluding issue of “Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders” is arguably a far cry from the “really fun, warm, beautiful book that hopefully Avengers’ fans - - as well as fans of everyone else involved - - will love.” In fact it is hard to see even the most dedicated of the British writer’s supporters taking much positivity from a nauseating narrative that twists former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill into a mismatched gestalt of Thor, the Punisher and Mega-City One’s Chief Judge, and re-imagines “War Machine” as a giant tank which both looks and sounds remarkably similar to the “2000 A.D.” A.B.C. Robot Mek-Quak; “Yeah! ‘Cuz I’ll squoosh ya! An’ I will, too! Look at all my guns!”

Certainly it comes as no surprise that the twenty-page “Secret Wars" periodical sold a deflating seven thousand less copies than its predecessor when first published. Although quite how it still managed to outsell the likes of “Omega Men” (“DC Comics”) and “Fade Out” (“Image Comics”) by shifting 20,453 issues during August 2015 doubtless has more to do with Alan Davis' excellent artwork than its calamitous storyline.

Admittedly the "second ‘Mighty’ Marvel series from Ewing” does "spotlight" the 'popular' wielder of the sword Excalibur, Faiza Hussain; a version of Merlyn’s champion who was introduced by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk in “Captain Britain And MI:13”, and eventually donned the hero’s mantle during the "Pax Britannia" novelist's tenure on “Avengers Assemble”. But even the book's titular character isn’t actually given that many opportunities with which to demonstrate her extraordinary “control over living organisms” with and is instead limited to inexplicably reconfiguring Boss Dan [Luke] Cage’s “sentient torture chair” and an astonishingly short single-panel showdown with the “Baron and Thor of Mondo City”, Big Boss Hill.

What “…And Mine Is A Faith In My Fellow Man” does offer however is plenty of opportunity for Davis to demonstrate just why the English artist has remained a mainstay of American comic books since he was first hired by “DC Comics” to pencil their “Batman And The Outsiders” title in 1985. For whilst the Goodreads Choice Award-nominee’s source material is atrocious, and his design of Mondo City’s law enforcers questionably unoriginal, the illustrator’s rendering of the Defenders action-packed escape from Yinsen’s temporary detention zone is both splendidly detailed and dynamically drawn.

Writer: Al Ewing, Penciler: Alan Moore, and Inker: Mark Farmer

Captain Britain And The Mighty Defenders #1 - Marvel Comics

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS No. 1, September 2015

Based upon the premise that “years ago” it was actually Doctor Ho Yinsen who donned Iron Man’s first suit of armour rather than the playboy industrialist Tony Stark, this theatrically titled “Secret Wars” tie-in comic unconvincingly bands together some of the lesser known heroes of the “Marvel Universe” into “a very small [super] team” and then, simply upon the whim of the “omnipotent ruler of Battleworld”, forcibly pits them against the formidable military power of their principality’s neighbour, “the fascist futuropolis of Mondo City”. Somewhat perturbingly however, any of this book’s 27,618 readers in July 2015 who thought so ludicrously contrived a narrative couldn’t become any more bizarre were in for a serious shock when towards the comic’s end Al Ewing introduces the blatant Judge Dredd and Cassandra Anderson wannabes Boss [Luke] Cage and Boss [Emma] Frost; “Wake up, Creep. We’ve got you down for resisting arrest, illegal border crossing, and extremist ideology.”

In fact the “shop thy neighbour” lawmen are so similar in look and dialogue to John Wagner’s “2000 A.D.” co-creation that any potential buyer simply flicking through the back pages of this publication must doubtless have quickly double-checked the cover to make sure they hadn’t inadvertently picked up an issue about the Mega-City One street judge. Certainly it is clear, what with their over-sized shoulder-pads, bullet-shaped helmets and reference to perps, just why “Marvel Worldwide” Editor Tom Brevoort chose a British comics writer with a proven track record of writing "Future Shocks" to pen so blatantly unoriginal a script.

Admittedly this cheesy concoction does still somehow manage to provide some modicum of entertainment, especially when it quite cleverly connects to former major story-arcs such as the Spider-Verse by having Hobie Brown replace his world’s dead spider-man as Spider Hero, or a dying Brian Braddock handing the mantle of Captain Britain over to Doctor Faiza Hussain during the Age of Ultron. But sadly Ewing’s reimagining of She-Hulk as “the Thor for this domain”, a green giantess who walks around with the decidedly tiny “Gavel of Thor” strapped to her hip, is infinitely less successful an idea... 

Fortunately all of this magazine’s disconcerting nonsense is wonderfully illustrated by “Excalibur” artist Alan Davis. Indeed for many, “Theirs Is A Land With A Wall Around It…” may well be worth the price simply for its dramatically dynamic cover depicting the “London-based Muslim medical doctor” stoically leading the Defenders against an unknown foe. Whilst for others the Englishman’s pacey panelling provides Mondo City’s invasion of Yinsen’s barony, and otherwise dialogue-heavy storyline, with some much needed spectacle and tension.

The variant cover art of "CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND THE MIGHTY DEFENDERS" No. 1 by Frazer Irving