Customer Reviews

Captain Britain TPB

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!

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.

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.

I have to get this out of the way first: this book is a must-have for any fans of Alan Moore's work on Miracleman! I was unaware of his work on this Marvel UK title until a recent browse through a local comic shop. It might be a tad hard to come by, but it can still be found!

Collecting a classic and definitive run from the very early '80s, CAPTAIN BRITAIN features some outstanding writing and artwork. It's fascinating to see Moore and Davis in the very early phases of their careers. You can feel the presence of the great works to come from both highly-regarded creators. Moore's writing gives many hints of the more well-known adult-themes to come from him in the mid- to late '80s. Davis' style, while a bit rough at first, quickly develops as he gains more confidence with the characters (in fact, Moore spends almost the entire introduction praising Davis' work, and rightly so).

Be warned that the beginning of this book is not actually the beginning of the storyline, but it suffices. You are dropped into the middle of an ongoing story that the 2 inherited at the last minute. Within that last minute, however, a good chunk of the UK's superheroes are killed by The Fury, including Miracleman AND the title character! Using a format that will be familiar to readers of Moore's Swamp Thing, the Captain is resurrected and redefined, leading to a rematch that doesn't disappoint.

I am so happy to have found this treasure. I'm hoping that we will see more collections from Marvel UK in the future.

This one (with Alan Davis as the author) is the one that was released first and is CB's later adventures (from his own UK comic) , whereas the Alan Moore TPB was released later and is the CB's earlier adventures (starting in the Mighty World of Marvel. The Moore TPB is the one in print

Alan Moore's forte, when one examines his work, is clearly not in the standard superhero fare category. He can work quite well within the superhero mold, however, as is evidenced by the perfect Watchmen miniseries. In Captain Britain, Moore manages to lighten to balance between his own artful world and common superheroes. In Watchmen, one can easily forget that the superheroes involved are the same type you'd find in JLA. In Captain Britain, its relatively standard Marvel superhero fare. The story, however, is riveting and far-reaching. Having little experience with Captain Britain, I found the beginning somewhat confusing, but that arc is ended quickly and within five pages another plot is developed. This book is recommended to any fans of Alan Moore, or Captain Britain, but it most likely holds little appeal for more recent comic readers.

Captain Britain, the UK's preeminent superhero, is a bit of a self-righteous bloke. He's not the most cunning tool in the shed. There's no finesse to his game. He strikes at villainy with the subtlety of a blunt instrument. What makes his story fascinating are the characters with whom he rubs elbows and the very strange predicaments in which he lands. This is good news because Captain Britain, by himself, is a fairly dull character. But for a time, in the 1980s, Alan Moore (in previous stories) and Jamie Delano and Alan Davis (in this collection) collaborated and made the good Captain more relevant, made his adventures an absolute treat.

This trade paperback collects the Captain Britain bits from THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL #14-16, as well as CAPTAIN BRITAIN #1-14, stuff that were originally published in 1984 and '85. Chris Claremont writes the intro. Ian Rimmer, once editor to CAPTAIN MARVEL, writes the outro. And just so there's no confusion with that other trade that seems to share the same reviews, this graphic novel's cover presents the Captain and Meggan flying towards you on a yellow background. If you're any sort of fan of the Captain, then this run of issues is a must-have. Pertinent, life-changing stuff goes down in these pages. Continuity-wise, this volume picks up right after the reality-bending Jaspers' Warp saga. It finds Brian Braddock - the Captain's civilian identity - second-guessing himself.

Not that I follow Captain Britain that religiously, but even I recognize the seminal events in this trade. Early on we're introduced to the endearing were-creature Meggan and we track her evolution. How Meggan turns out - going from caterpillar to butterfly - provides one of this run's most wonderful moments. Conversely, less wonderful but still relevant is the arc which culminates with Brian's telepathic twin sister Betsy getting her eyes ripped out (and if you're an X-Men buff, then you know that Betsy Braddock would very soon become Psylocke). This same arc also spells the final fate of Slaymaster who in hindsight probably should never have dared the enraged Captain to drop that boulder on his mug.

This was at a time when Captain Britain, a hero perfectly at ease in large scaled epics, was the beneficiary of his writers' trotting out of several breathtaking concepts, from an inspired tweaking of his origin to his introduction to the omniverse and the Captain Britain Corps. His exploits spanned alternate realities and had him steeped in super science and wacky colorful characters. Here, Davis and Delano explore the fallout of the Jaspers' Warp, from the mutant baby Warpies to Captain UK's stint on this Earth to the emergence of the manipulative RCX (Recources Control eXecutive), the agency which supplanted S.T.R.I.K.E. (the UK's version of S.H.I.E.L.D.).

Somewhere in here, Brian and Betsy learn of their true heritage. Brian meets Gatecrasher and her odd Technet crew. He goes toe to toe against his own depraved doppelganger and against the sad menace of... Sid. He renews hostilities with the peculiar Crazy Gang, the vicious old hag Vixen, and Slaymaster. And Scotland Yard's dogged Chief Inspector Dai Thomas does something which Commissioner Gordon has been unable to do, which is figure out the true identity of the cape operating in his bailiwick. And, oh yeah, Brian is pushed out of his ancestral home. What good times! As always, it's a pleasure eye-balling Alan Davis' graceful artwork. And, as he demonstrates in this volume, he's not too shabby at writing stories, either. This is an absolute must-get.

If you've got the bills and don't have this volume, then I also recommend the CAPTAIN BRITAIN OMNIBUS which happens to encompass the stories from this volume but also includes the preceding Jaspers' Warp arc (which was written by Alan Moore).

This trade paperback/graphic novel is a pretty good introduction to Alan Davis work. If you are familiar with his work on Excalibur, this is very similar and sets a good background for some of the characters that have appeared in Excalibur comics and the X-Men character Psylocke.
If you are not familiar with Excalibur/Capt. Britain, it takes a slightly humorous approach to superheroes. Capt. Britain is essentially a straight-man to the bizaare situations that superheroes seem to find themselves. He seems to react like a normal person might to "saving the world" or experiencing aliens and supervillains.
I have graded it 4 stars mainly because there is another trade paperback featuring Capt. Britain by Alan Davis and Alan Moore that is, I think, slightly better (and recommended). This is still good, and if you can find it for a reasonable price, and enjoy this type of reading, I do recommend it. If you enjoy this book, you will probably enjoy the Excalibur trade paperbacks/graphic novels by Alan Davis and Chris Claremont and the other Captain Britain tpb by Alan Davis and Alan Moore.
If you are a fan of the X-Men's Psylocke, then this is a must have.

Some very early Alan Moore and Alan Davis work. This, as we know, is a pretty decent combination, even though they were still learning.

Once they kick it into full gear we get a good Captain Britain mythological and dimension spanning epic as crazed villains plot to do very bad things, and a reluctant hero has to find allies where he can to stop them.

The original Captain Britain comics are hard for American readers to come by- this trade paperback (it IS the early Alan Moore material) shows some of Moore's earliest published scripts. Coming smack in the middle of a very confusing storyline, the young Moore does as best as he can to bring about some semblance of cohesion to the pedestrian setting. Moore and Davis are both still struggling to find their "voices", so to speak. Some of Davis's drawings border of crude, and the experimental nature of some of the artwork adds to the very young feel. Still, CB is presented with good development; Slaymaster and The Fury are presented as formidable foes. For completists and the curious- but definitely neither's strongest early works...