Captain Britain
Captain Britain is a title used by various superheroes in comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the Excalibur team of superheroes. The moniker was first used in publication by Brian Braddock in Captain Britain #1 by writer Chris Claremont and artist Herb Trimpe, and is currently held by Brian's twin sister, Betsy Braddock.
The designation of the primary continuity of the Marvel universe as "Earth-616" originated in Dave Thorpe, Alan Davis and Alan Moore's Marvel UK Captain Britain stories. The strip also established the multiversal Captain Britain Corps, members of which act as the champions of their own respective versions of the British Isles, which act as a nexus point between dimensions via Otherworld.
Creation
, the British wing of Marvel Comics, was established in 1972. In order to fit in with the style of British weeklies, titles such as The Mighty World of Marvel consisted of reprinted Marvel material in an anthology magazine format, with much of the colour removed. However, these failed to make a major impression on the market, which was dominated by titles of original British material from Fleetway Publications and DC Thomson. In response, Marvel decided the line needed a British character as a flagship title. As Marvel UK itself was effectively a packaging operation at the time with no experienced creative staff, the character was devised at Marvel's American headquarters. London-born Chris Claremont - at the time a rising star in the company following his successful work on the revival of X-Men - was one of the few Anglophiles on staff, and was assigned to the title. He came up with the name, origin and cast for the new title, Captain Britain. Art duties went to experienced Incredible Hulk artist Herb Trimpe, who lived in Cornwall at the time and would recall that the 8-page strips typically only took him a couple of days to draw. The designer of the character's patriotic costume, complete with heraldic lion rampant, is unknown; Trimpe has speculated it was John Romita.Publishing history
British comics
The Captain Britain title launched with some fanfare, even garnering reviews in The Financial Times and The Daily Record. Captain Britain #8 would introduce Brian's twin sister, model Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock, who was revealed to have psychic powers, with the following issue debuting Jamie Braddock, their playboy racing-car-driving older brother. However, Claremont left the title after the tenth issue. His replacement was Gary Friedrich, best known for his role in the creation of Ghost Rider. Sales were moribund, and Captain Britain went to black-and-white from #24 to cut costs, attempting to soften the blow with another free gift - Captain Britain's lesser-spotted 'Superjet'. Alan Davis would also recall that - unknown to the American creative team - the 'lion mark' had previously been used by the Egg Marketing Board to denote the quality of eggs, leading to many jokes at the character's expense while that on the chest of Captain Britain is a "lion rampant". In a 1986 article for Amazing Heroes, N.A. Collins named Captain Britain's first costume among the six worst male superhero looks in comic history up to that point, noting the "weird sunroof mask" and the "tacky Avon jewellery".After 39 issues Captain Britain was merged with Marvel UK's Spider-Man reprint title, at the time called Super Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Captain Britain had already appeared alongside Spider-Man in America. Claremont was working on Marvel Team-Up with John Byrne and decided to use the format as an introduction for Braddock via the device of him briefly rooming with Peter Parker. The two-issue storyline also saw the debut of Arcade and his Murderworld. The character had been a conclusive failure for Marvel. As a result, they realised that they needed to recruit from the British comic scene, and in August 1978 Stan Lee headhunted Dez Skinn. In what the specialist press called "the Marvel Revolution", Skinn insisted on funds being made available to make homegrown material. Among his efforts was Hulk Comic, a weekly styled like Marvel UK's rivals boys' comics. The title mixed reprints with new material, including a fantasy strip starring the Black Knight. The serial was written by Steve Parkhouse, who was deeply interested in Celtic and Arthurian myths, also drawing on the works of Ursula K. Le Guin, Larry Niven and J. R. R. Tolkien. This gave a perfect opportunity to reintroduce Captain Britain, now under a British-based creative team, with veteran John Stokes on art duties, later joined by Paul Neary.
Skinn quit Marvel UK, with Neary taking over as the offshoot's editor-in-chief. Neary paused commissioning covers to free up resources to make a new Captain Britain feature for flagship anthology Marvel Superheroes. Even then he was only able to hire newcomers and turned to editor Dave Thorpe, who had never written before, and Alan Davis, an acquaintance of Neary's who had only recently turned professional. Thorpe and Neary had already devised the idea of sending the character to a parallel Earth when Davis came on board. Davis was tasked with redesigning the lead character's costume with the stipulation to lose the clumsy sceptre, with the artist taking a cues from military uniforms in the new look and bulk out his physique. His unused concepts for the character would later be used for some of the Captain Britain Corps. The new team debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #377, in September 1981; it had initially been advertised as appearing in #375, but was hit by delays.
Thorpe would fall out with Davis and Marvel after only a few months when he wrote a story featuring Captain Britain resolving the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Neary backed the artist, leading to Thorpe leaving the strip. His replacement was Alan Moore. The new team moved the strip in a darker tone, reconfiguring Mad Jim Jaspers as a powerful reality-warping mutant and introducing the unstoppable hero-killing cybiote The Fury. Jackdaw was killed off, and in Marvel Super-Heroes #388 Captain Britain seemed to join him. This allowed the strip to cover the character's resurrection and history in a new title, The Daredevils, in January 1983. Despite both the new title and the ongoing strip receiving good notices, including an Eagle Award, The Daredevils was a sales disappointment and was cancelled after 11 issues in November 1983, with Captain Britain transferring back to the relaunched Mighty World of Marvel. Following the conclusion of the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline in June 1984, Moore left the series. Meanwhile, the character was also selected for a sizeable role in Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, a crossover limited series published by Marvel UK's parent company. However, delays saw the title - originally created as to tie in with the 1980 Summer Olympics - held back until 1982.
Davis would briefly take over writing the story himself until being joined by Jamie Delano, an up-and-coming writer recommended by Moore, and Meggan was incorporated as a major supporting character. In January 1985 the serial was transferred back to a new Captain Britain monthly series. Sales were initially respectable but began to fall, while Davis felt Delano wasn't interested in the superhero genre and was also finding his own time to be taken up by a lucrative role as artist for Captain Britain. Captain Britain meanwhile would appear as a guest character in Captain America #305-306, with art from Neary.
''Excalibur'' (1987-1998)
When Claremont read the reinvigorated Captain Britain stories he was impressed with the development of the characters The result was Claremont and Davis creating the super-team Excalibur, picking up Captain Britain and Meggan from where Captain Britain had left them and adding X-Men refugees Nightcrawler, Shadowcat and the Rachel Summers incarnation of Phoenix. The group initially came together in the lavish Excalibur Special Edition in 1987, and soon became the stars of a regular series, with Captain Britain playing a major role. The success also led to Marvel printing a trade paperback compiling the material Davis had produced for the character after Moore's departure, which was coloured by several artists. Davis would redesign the character's costume again for Excalibur #13; previously it had largely been depicted in black-and-white, with Davis himself colouring the colour cover appearances. However, he found the American colourists were frequently making mistakes and so simplified it. Parallel to these storylines the character also appeared in new British material, featuring as a supporting character in Marvel UK's Knights of Pendragon series.Captain Britain was lost in the time-steam off-panel before Excalibur #68, and when he did return was rechristened Britannic, with a redesigned costume. Warren Ellis became writer for the title in 1994, and one of his storylines involved revitalising Brian, who reclaimed the identity and costume of Captain Britain in Excalibur #100. However, Ellis would leave the series soon afterwards and his successor Ben Raab swiftly ended the title. Sales were falling and the title was cancelled in 1998, ending with Brian returning to marry Meggan. Captain Britain then spent several years without a regular title, though in 2001 Raab wrote the four-issue Excalibur limited series that involved the Captain Britain Corps and ended with Braddock as King of Otherworld.
''New Excalibur'', ''Captain Britain and MI: 13'' and ''Secret Avengers''
Brian was later featured as the team leader of New Excalibur in 2005, culminating with the X-Men: Die by the Sword limited series. Following the Secret Invasion crossover, Brian headlined the 2008 series Captain Britain and MI: 13, written by Paul Cornell, which included some characters from New Excalibur, as well as members of MI: 13 who appeared in Cornell's Wisdom limited series. The character later appeared as a regular character in the 2010-2013 Secret Avengers series, from issue #22 through its final issue #37, reappearing with the Avengers as a part of the Time Runs Out storyline.Around the same time the character made his first appearance in a British-made comic since the end of Knights of Pendragon when Panini Comics, who had taken over Marvel UK following the latter's mid-1990s collapse following an ill-advised rapid expansion under Neary, began producing small indigenous strips for the young reader-orientated Spectacular Spider-Man. Captain Britain guest-starred in #114, dated March 2005, and written by Jim Alexander with art by John Haward and a returning Stokes. Positive reader response saw a second appearance the following year in Spectacular Spider-Man #133.