Brian Braddock: Captain Britain Appreciation 2021

[Alex_Jamieson]

Cavill went Blonde in Stardust, so you can see some shots of him here: https://www.google.com/search?q=henr...w=1368&bih=745

[Panic]

Cavill went Blonde in Stardust, so you can see some shots of him here: https://www.google.com/search?q=henr...w=1368&bih=745

I'd forgotten Cavill went blonde in Stardust. He doesn't look bad, though he's playing a fop so he looks kind of funny, just not because of the colour of his hair.

[Alex_Jamieson]

Yeah, he's definitely quite weird looking in Stardust, compared to how he looks now.
He's much beefier now, as well - which I would argue makes him quite suitable for Brian.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

Cavill went Blonde in Stardust, so you can see some shots of him here: https://www.google.com/search?q=henr...w=1368&bih=745

Well spotted. My wife and I saw Stardust at the cinema when it was released and enjoyed it. I wasn't aware of Henry Cavill at the time. Interesting to see how many of the actors went on to star as comic book characters other than Cavilll. Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Mark Strong (Sinestro), Jason Flemyng (Azazel), Ben Barnes (Jigsaw).

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

As I mentioned earlier, I've been reading through some Marvel UK titles from the 90s, in particular to catch any Captain Britain appearances. Other than sporadic appearances in Knights of Pendragon, he made a couple of marked appearances in the following:

[Panic]

I figured I talk about one of the chapters from the Moore/Davis run I love so much.

The Candlelight Dialogues

This isn't my favourite chapter of Alan Moore's Captain Britain run - it's not funny, it's not action-packed, it doesn't really move the story along for our heroes - but it is one of the best self-contained chapters that Alan Moore wrote for the series, imo. In it Moore gives us a glimpse into what Britain has become in the midst of the Jasper's Warp, letting us know the state of the nation, how Captain Britain is being perceived, the stories and rumours surrounding him, what is really going on with him in terms of character development, plus it gives us Moore's take on the nature of heroes and hero-worship, both good and bad, and it introduces a character that will become a staple of CB mythology: Meggan. And it does all of this in only eight pages.

It opens up in the dark, with a match being struck. I have no idea if this is intentionally a metaphor for the darkness that has Britain engulfed, with our heroes being the spark in the darkness, but it's a good opening - gloomy, atmospheric, very film noir. In the nine panels on that one page Alan Davis manages to set the scene masterfully, with young concentration camp detainees Meggan and Sue sitting in the dark, sharing a cigarette and swapping stories they've heard about what is going on in the outside world.

Sue tells Meggan about a story she's heard concerning an altercation between Captain Britain and the fascist enforcers of Jasper's Britain, the black-armoured 'beetles'. We see Brian (and Betsy) in civilian clothes, standing in a line of people, at some sort of military checkpoint where basic supplies are being doled out. The two beetles drag a man out of the line, singled out presumably for his punk counter-culture dress-style, and beat him for not having the adequate paperwork. We see Brian in the background, visibly angry but not getting involved until the victim's girlfriend, turning to Brian for help, notices the costume under his coat, and exposes him to Jasper's thugs.

So straight away Moore (and Davis) is showing us a bunch of things: normal basic day-to-day activity now consists of people queuing up for basic necessities, heavily watched by government enforcers who routinely dole out beatings supposedly to anyone suspected of possessing paranormal powers, but in practice they pick on anyone they feel looks too different, or perhaps just vulnerable; we also see that Brian, as always, is angry at this sort of injustice, but unusually he is not flying off the handle to attack them, he's staying in line and not drawing attention to himself - this tells us just how common these beatings are if Brian, of all people, has had to learn self-discipline and hold back and pick his fights... this is actual character development for him hidden in there, with a more disciplined Brian having emerged from weeks (months?) of living in a police state. Beatings of this nature are part of the new normal, and our heroes, secretly mounting their own resistance, can't afford to get involved in these day to day matters. Jasper's Britain is pretty grim.

Next we get Sue's recounting of CB's fight with the beetles, first seeing it as it really was, with Brian facing off against two opponents, but as Sue gets more emotionally involved in the retelling she increasingly exaggerates the number of bad guys until CB is seen heroically fighting on a pile of defeated foes numbering in the hundreds; the final panel on that page again returns us to reality, as Brian runs off through the crowd, leaving the two unconscious beetles in his wake.

[Panic]

The next page has Meggan telling Sue the little bits a pieces she's heard: CB has entered London at the head of an army of super-heroes and telepaths (Davis shows us the reality of the situation, with Brian, Betsy, Saturnyne and co passing through a train terminal in their civies), and that they're going to heroically storm through the streets and recue everyone; she says she's also heard he's been killed; and finally she says a girl in another bloc of the camp told her he'd been broken by torture and informed on all his friends. We then get a close-up on Meggan's grinning face as she shows her claws and says she marked her face for being a liar.

This is all Moore making a commentary on hero-worship and its dangers: yes, Captain Britain is inspiring hope in those that need it, but he's also inspiring a tribal-like fanaticism, with Sue's exaggerated tales of heroism taking on a life of their own, and Meggan scarring a fellow detainee for speaking out against him, something CB would obviously be very much against. Moore's take on Meggan is far from Claremont's cosy air-head, and shows a far more cynical world-view: when Meggan refers to the girl in the next bloc she makes derogatory comments on her weight twice ('the fat girl', 'fat liar') - Meggan might be weird-looking, but she's not overweight, and she's totally willing to body-shame those that are if she doesn't like them. It's very much a case of you can be a victim of prejudice and still be prejudiced yourself. There is no nice defining line between good-guys and bad-guys in the world of Moore's downtrodden Britain - Meggan is an outcast and a victim of the state because of her looks, she's one of the good-guys because she's for CB & co and against the fascist state, but she's also perhaps a little shallow and willing to hurt anyone who speaks out against her heroes. This murky grey-area duality fits in with the other characters in this story, with the girl from the suply line earlier quickly switching from damsel to betrayer, and Brian himself, a super-hero who is willing to stand by as someone is victimised rather than risk the mission.

The next page gives us a very brief background on how both women ended up in the camp: Sue had the misfortune to get 48% on a basic E.S.P. card test at school, and Meggan's looks were enough for her to be detained on the spot. Any deviation from the norm in Jasper's Britain is seen as a potential threat punishable by being thrown into the camps. There is a great panel showing Meggan at her most sinister, too:

Great stuff.

The last page gives us a view of the concentration camp itself, with its watchtowers, searchlights, black-armoured guards, and rows and rows of huts, surrounded by barbed-wire-topped fencing, with a billboard featuring Jasper's face with the slogan "IN YOUR HEARTS YOU KNOW HE'S RIGHT", and the Union Jack proudly flying in the foreground. Sadly I think it's as relevant today as it ever was.

Like I said, not the most fun chapter in the saga, but something of a masterclass in how to cram a lot of information into eight pages without making it seem forced. Moore and Davis were pretty much a dream team, and it's difficult for me to imagine Captain Britain ever getting a creative team of that calibre again

[Nomads1]

Like I said, not the most fun chapter in the saga, but something of a masterclass in how to cram a lot of information into eight pages without making it seem forced. Moore and Davis were pretty much a dream team, and it's difficult for me to imagine Captain Britain ever getting a creative team of that calibre again

A truley lost art. It was, without a doubt amazing how much they could convey in so few pages. Can you imagine a Bendis or an Aaron with all the wasted pages in stupid "that's how real people speak" dialogues doing something like this. In the old days, we REALLY got a whole lot more for our buck.

Peace

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

@Panic - very good write-up. I think it's so true about a lack of a defining line between the good and bad guys in so many situations. We constantly have to check out hearts. Polański showed this in The Pianist. We knew who the bad guys were BUT we also saw bad Germans and good Germans, bad Poles and good Poles and bad Jews and good Jews. Certain people find this hard to accept.

A truly exceptional run by Davis and Moore. I see you chose the panels in the original b&w from the MWoM issues. I appreciate both the b&w and colour.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

I recently finished rereading the House of M: Uncanny X-Men issues #462-465 which are in the main focused on Brian, Meggan and Betsy amongst others. This was written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Alan Davis and Chris Bachalo. I quite liked it. I thought Brian was very well depicted and true to his self showing his caring, noble and leadership attributes as well as fighting and standing up against oppression from despotic powers.

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

New Excalibur (2006) Covers by Michael Ryan:

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

New Excalibur (2006) cover by Salvador Larroca:

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

New Excalibur (2006) covers by Scot Eaton:

[Raffi Ol D'Arcy]

I recently finished reading the New Excalibur run from 2006-2007 and I found it a pretty good read with quite a good depiction of Brian overall. It was good to see him back as "the" Captain Britain following the previous decision to have Kelsey Leigh take on the mantle of CB in the Avengers as Brian was ruler of Otherworld. Saying that, I do have several qualms with the run which I've detailed below.

It was strange to see a villain appear with the name Albion which is the same superhero name as the one which Peter Hunter has (had?) from the Knights of Pendragon. This was a wee confusing at first.

Kelsey Leigh suddenly had the superhero name of Lionheart, no longer was she "Captain Britain". No mention of when this changed, although I was happy to have Brian back as CB.

Also Kelsey's motivations were not that convincing, I was surprised at how she initially wasn't bothered at hurting others. I can see the hurt and frustration at "losing" her kids, but to allow others to die with no assurance that would bring her kids back was strange

The sudden appearance of Sage and Courtney Ross and the similar disappearance of the latter. Sage appeared out of no where with no real explanation.

Dazzler continuously coming back from the dead wasn't explained or did I miss something or was it explained elsewhere?

It seemed pretty off that their adversaries Shadow X were such a formidable force at first and then they were all killed off when fighting alongside New Excalibur against Albion and his forces, whereas none of New Excalibur died.

Sage infiltrating Albion's forces was extremely glossed over and suddenly we have her fighting alongside Albion. If you blinked, you missed it.

And probably the biggest problem was having Kelsey Leigh tell her kids who she was with no consequences at all. She wasn't able to do this as she would lose them. How was this "upturned"!

Saying all this, I though it enjoyable and not a bad run. The art was pretty good all round and I most enjoyed the Frank Tieri written issues.

Has any one any thoughts on the run and what I wrote?