Captain Britain TPB [Paperback]

Alan Moore (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Marvel Comics (February 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0785108556
• ISBN-13: 978-0785108559
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #861,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Stuff!, November 21, 2002

By 

Daniel V. Reilly (Upstate New York, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Captain Britain TPB (Paperback)

As Author Alan Moore states in his introduction, the stories in this book are from VERY early on in the careers of himself and Artist Alan Davis, but they hold up remarkably well. The basic story will be familiar to longtime comic fans: Hero is thrown into an alternate reality, must face a megomaniacal madman, etc.; What's so cool about Captain Britain is that this story was published over TWENTY YEARS AGO, so all of the similar stories we're more familiar with (Crisis on Infinite Earths, X-Men's Days of Future Past, even Moore's & Davis'own Miracleman)had their genesis here.

The book gets off to a head-scratching start; We're thrown into the closing chapters of a long-running story-arc that Moore & Davis had the misfortune of inheriting, but they do an amazing job of not only making the complex story and characters accessible, but actually making them interesting. Moore starts by killing Captain Britain, and rebuilding him from the ground up, as he would later do with DC's Swamp Thing. By the third or fourth chapter, Moore & Davis have hit their stride, and are beginning to impart their own voices on the book. Part of the fun is seeing how fast Moore and Davis grow as creators; Moore learns that sometimes silence can be just as powerful as words, and Davis becomes a confident, masterful storyteller in his own right. By the time I finished the book, I felt like I had just discovered a long-hidden masterpiece. I don't know if this is the ENTIRE Moore/Davis Captain Britain run, but if it isn't, I hope Marvel gets the rest into print again FAST. Fans of Marvel's Excalibur series will also be interested to know that this book contains the first appearance of Meggan, The Captain's future love interest. There's also a cameo appearance by the aforementioned Miracleman.

While not Moore's best work, it's still head-and-shoulders above 90% of the material out there. Give it a try!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Early Moore & Davis Comics, April 29, 2002

By 

miles@riverside (Indio, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Captain Britain TPB (Paperback)

This one is a little rough around the edges, primarily because it's some of the earliest work available in paperback by Alan Moore or (to the best of my knowledge) Alan Davis. Also, the beginning of the story is a bit jarring, since we appear to be dropped into the middle of a tale begun by the previous creative team. But the story gets better as it goes along. The main character, Captain Britain, seems very dull to me, but some of the supporting characters, including the primary antagonist, are original enough to be interesting.

While Alan Davis's pencil work here isn't quite as smooth and proportional as it becomes later in his career, it's still pretty appealing.

Despite all the little criticisms above, I thought it was a very engaging comics story (once you get past the first three or four chapters) with a lot of energy and a quirky, "Dr. Who meets the Terminator" type feel to it. But before buying the book, take into account that this isn't really prime Alan Moore or prime Alan Davis.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great TPB, March 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Captain Britain TPB (Paperback)

If you like Alan Moore's work, you'll love this one. It features a lot of the themes that he would continue to work to perfection in Miracleman, Swamp Thing, and ultimately the Watchmen. It's definitely not Moore's best, but it's better than 95% of graphic novels out there. The stories here are reprints from old Marvel UK comics which were then printed in 'X-Men Archives' #2-7 a few years back, none of which I have.

On top of this, Alan Davis' artwork is fantastic. Not nearly as clean as his later work, including his great runs on Excalibur, the artwork really works with Moore's writing.