By Friedrich, Lieber, Buscema, Wilson, Marcos & Kida (Marvel/Panini UK)
ISBN13: 978-1-905239-72-6
Marvel UK set up shop in 1972, reprinting the company’s earliest US successes in the traditional British weekly papers format, swiftly carving out a corner of the market – although the works of Lee, Kirby et al had already been appearing in other British comics (Smash!, Wham!, Pow!, Eagle, Fantastic!, Terrific!, and the anthologies of Alan Class Publications) since their inception, thanks to the aggressive marketing and licensing policies of and Stan and the gang.
In 1976 the company decided to augment their output with an original British hero – albeit in that parochial, US style and manner beloved by English comics readers – in a new weekly, although fan favourites Fantastic Four and Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. reprints filled out the issues. One bold departure was the addition of full colour printing up front for the new hero, and the equivalent back quarter of each issue.
This second collection of those all-original adventures covers issue #24 through 39, the end of Captain Britain the comic, and includes the continuation of the strip when it was merged with a more successful comic to form Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain Weekly #231-238. Except for the covers the art had reverted to black and white midway through the previous volume.
Kicking off with the conclusion of the epic struggle against the Red Skull, Gary Friedrich and Larry Lieber have the benefit of artwork by comics legends John Buscema and Tom Palmer. The latter is replaced by a less well known but just as worthy inker, Fred (Airboy, The Heap) Kida, who stayed as the main brush-man for the majority of the strip’s run. The Skull, Nick Fury and Captain America hung around for the next four chapters before our boy flew solo again, but with #28 a new adventure started with the eccentric Lord Hawk whose weaponized robot raptor terrorised England until CB shut them both down. Kida alternated with Palmer on some truly brilliant Buscema super-hero art on this rather mediocre tale, but the quality lurched just a tad when Ron Wilson and Bob Budiansky assumed the pencilling chores.
With issue #33 Captain Britain’s powers got upgraded as his patrons Merlin and Roma tested him in another dimension, and on his return first Len Wein and then Jim Lawrence (best known in Britain as the scripter of the James Bond newspaper strip) took over the writing in a tale of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee with defrocked African dictators and a high-tech Highwayman. During this epic Pablo Marcos also joined the art team, alternating with the regulars on the punishing weekly production.
Midway through this story Captain Britain folded, and in tried and true tradition was merged with Super Spider-Man. Regrettably it did not improve the quality of the story-telling. Always a painful effort, it became increasingly clear that the US team had no real grasp of the British comics-reading experience (at this moment in time 2000AD was revolutionising our industry and the Beano was still the top-selling comic in the country).
Equally the creators seemed wedded to the idea that they needed to tailor their own – successful – Marvel style and formula to a separate, distinctly “English†audience. But if they were reading Marvel reprints didn’t it stand to reason that the buyers wanted established super-villains, and guest-stars?
Despite solid, professional art the last two adventures, ‘The Monster from the Murk!?’ (a Loch Ness and aliens yarn) and a gothic monster tale of vampires, werewolves and demons set in ‘Nightmare Castle’ make for an embarrassing end to this book.
Included in this primarily black and white volume are comments from Gary Friedrich, Ron Wilson and Bob Budiansky, a feature on the abortive Captain Britain project cancelled by Fleetway Publishing in 1973 and a nice selection of colour covers and reproduction ad pages.
Despite the reservations stated this book has a lot to commend it, especially to art fans with a tolerant or forgiving disposition, and in a world of angst and trauma, surely there’s still room for old-fashioned adventure?
© 1977, 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (A UK EDITION FROM PANINI UK LTD)