Captain Britain Omnibus [Hardcover]

Alan Moore (Author), Alan Davis (Author), Jamie Delano (Author), Chris Claremont (Author), Dave Thorpe (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 12, 2009

One of the Marvel Universe's most staggering sagas from two of Britain's most remarkable writers, reprinted in total for the first time! Captain Britain fights to save a universe...and fails! But a single reality is small change in the game Merlyn's playing against Mad Jim Jaspers, who's rewriting reality so he's the center of the universe! Worlds collide, heroes and villains die, and Captain Britain's beside himself - except when he's fighting himself...to the death! Featuring the first appearances of the metamorphic Meggan, Opal Luna Saturnyne, the Captain Britain Corps, and more! Plus: Psylocke joins the X-Men, and the X-Men join Captain Britain on a cosmic quest into the secrets of life and death! The fiendish Fury, the horrific Horde, and the malevolent Mojo are only a few of the adversaries who await within! Also guest-starring the New Mutants and Captain America! Collects Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #377-388, The Daredevils (UK) #1-11, Captain America #305-306, Mighty World of Marvel (UK) #7-16, Captain Britain (UK) #1-14, New Mutants Annual #2, and Uncanny X-Men Annual #11.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 688 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Books (August 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785137602
• ISBN-13: 978-0785137603
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 7.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,208 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among the very best of Marvel's 80s output., September 10, 2009

By 

Sean Curley (Charlottetown, PE, Canada) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Captain Britain Omnibus (Hardcover)

2009 was a bit of a mixed year for fans of Captain Britain. On the one hand, the "Captain Britain and MI13" ongoing series, fan-acclaimed but very low-selling, came to an end. On the other, this omnibus collection, featuring a mix of classic stories long out of print and classic stories that had never been traded at all, was released. Indeed, initial demand outstripped Amazon's stockpile. I will miss Paul Cornell's series dearly, but I am thrilled to get a chance to see all of these stories in such a quality format.

The Amazon site labels this the "Captain Britain by Alan Moore and Alan Davis Omnibus", which is a trifle misleading if one is not familiar with the content. Davis's name being used like that is accurate; he was involved, either as writer, artist, or both, in all but 44 of the collection's 601 pages of story. Moore, however, while the author of the most famous segment of this period (the bulk of the "Jaspers' Warp" epic), is only responsible for about a third of the collection. Anyone buying this expecting 600 pages of Alan Moore stories should know that this is not the case. That said, 200 pages of Moore is very much worth buying, and the remainder, by Davis and other creators, is also excellent (they are herein discussed, so some spoilers).

Unlike most of Marvel's Omnibuses, which focus on the work of a unified creative force (an author, generally, occasionally also a single artist; the "Wolverine Omnibus" is the other most recent notable exception), this one covers an entire era in the history of the Captain Britain mythos. What might be called the second volume, beginning publication in 1981 a few years after the first ended, and ending before the launch of the "Excalibur" team book featuring some of the characters in 1987. This era began with writer David Thorpe and artist Davis, launching Cap into a new era with a revitalized supporting cast and a new costume (one that he would keep until 2008). Thorpe was let go, according to Davis, because he used the initial parts of "Jaspers' Warp" as a platform for political subtext, which Marvel UK wanted nothing to do with. His replacement was, ironically, Alan Moore, now one of comics' most well-known writers for including adult themes, but who here restrained himself mostly to what Davis calls "high-concept weirdness". Moore finishes Thorpe's story (past collections, though, have included only Moore's part; here readers get the whole thing for the first time). Moore's departure eventually brought Jamie Delano on to co-write with Davis, though Davis says that Delano's taste for a non-superhero style made it a difficult collaboration. Filling out the collection are two Chris Claremont-written, Davis-illustrated X-Men stories that integrated Captain Britain's sister Psylocke into the team, and two Mike Carlin-written issues of "Captain America", where the title character teams up with Captain Britain. These issues are the only ones in the collection not drawn by Davis, which makes them stand out a bit. However, Paul Neary does have a connection to the property: he was working at Marvel and helped get the revival going.

Moore's stories are the big draw here, and indeed he delivers some of his best straight superhero work. He gives Captain Britain a vibrant supporting cast, with characters such as Merlyn coming across as particularly interesting. I would argue that Captain Britain himself may suffer a bit under this, as Moore never really makes him the most interesting person in the room. One gets the sense he finds people like Merlyn more interesting. Personally, the highlight of Moore's work was the final issue, Merlyn's funeral, which has all the best Moore touches. At the end of "Jaspers' Warp", Brian has defeated neither of the two main villains; his AU counterpart, Linda, is really the big hero in the end. Brian is served better in the subsequent Davis/Delano period, which put him in a variety of scenarios to illustrate his personality, while not losing sight of the other characters. For those who are familiar wtih Davis primarily as a light comedy artist, his potent handling of many grim and disturbing scenes will be a welcome display of breadth. Consider a jumble of images depicting Jamie Braddock's various misdeeds, among them two panels depicting a young female Red Cross worker being singled out to survive the slaughter of her co-workers and be sold as a slave in Tangier. The rendering of her face is powerful. Chris Claremont's Psylocke stories mark a fairly pronounced shift in the character's depictions (as acknowledged in-story), but build on her various ordeals in previous stories and set her on a path to eclipse her brother in popularity as a member of comics' biggest franchise.

Overall, a highly recommended collection of comics rather scarce on either side of the Atlantic.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Collects some hard-to-find Marvel UK comics, September 18, 2009

By 

Andrew T. Goldman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Captain Britain Omnibus (Hardcover)

This omnibus was not as complete as I hoped it would be, but at over 700 pages long I would be crazy to complain about it. If you were interested in Captain Britain's history after reading Excalibur, trying to collect it in singles was a bit of an epic. There was a graphic novel, Captain Britain TPB (Before Excalibur...), that contained the Mighty World of Marvel (UK) #14-16 and Captain Britain (UK) #1-14, but those comics kept referencing some intriguing-sounding thing called the Jaspers Warp. In 1995, Marvel released that storyline, which runs through Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #377-388, The Daredevils (UK) #1-11, and the Mighty World of Marvel (UK) #7-13, in seven single issues of X-Men Archives featuring Captain Britain, but if you missed those you were again out of luck.

The Captain Britain omnibus collects all the issues listed above and throws in New Mutants Annual #2, Uncanny X-Men Annual #11, Captain America #305-306, and some nice extras as well. This is the omnibus I have been waiting years for.

The omnibus does not include earlier stories of Captain Britain, such as those from Captain Britain Weekly (UK) (the first ten issues of which were written by Chris Claremont), Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain (UK), and the "Otherworld Saga" which ran in the Hulk (UK) Comic. For completion's sake, it would be great to see a second omnibus of this material.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 616 Reasons to Buy Captain Britain Omnibus, September 22, 2009

By 

Max Michaels (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Captain Britain Omnibus (Hardcover)

With its high price, this collection is probably not aimed for the casual Alan Moore fan who may be interested in reading his only extended Marvel work. Fortunately, it does seem to be aimed for people like me--the diehard Alan Davis Captain Britain fan. Almost everything pre-Excalibur is here, including a comprehensive bonus section containing sketches, backup stories, text pieces, posters, and more. For a $100 book, the coloring is still a little rough in places, but some careful remastering has been done as well. Frankly, I'm astonished that Marvel actually put this collection out, and for the most part, they did a really good job.