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Marvel's First UK Excursion
Brian Braddock worked as a student assistant at a place called "Darkmoor Research Centre" when the Reaver, an alleged criminal mastermind, attacked. In an attempt to escape, Braddock crashed his motorcycle. In a near-death vision, Merlin the Magician and the Goddess of the Northern Skies appeared and offered him a choice between the Amulet of Right or the Sword of Might. Braddock chose the amulet and was instantly bombarded with mystical energy. He became super strong and took on the job of protector of Great Britain, a counterpart to America's Captain America, who he'd later meet. Captain Britain launched as a weekly comic book in October 1976 and ran 39 issues, ending in July 1977. Originally the Captain Britain sections in the front of the comic and the last story (Steranko Nick Fury reprints initially) at the end were in color, with the middle of the book comprised of black and white reprints from Marvel's American titles. By the end of the run, the main feature was also in black and white. At the end of this run, Captain Britain didn't just disappear. As was often the case in those days, the title merged with the weekly Spidey reprint title Super Spider-Man, becoming Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain for a period (This was roughly at the same time as the wonderfully titled Planet of the Apes/Dracula Lives was on the stands). The character also appeared in Hulk Weekly, Marvel Superheroes, Daredevils, and Captain Britain Monthly. He also showed up in New York in Marvel Team-Up #65-66, before taking a more prominent position in the Marvel Universe in the X-Men family title Excalibur. Along the way the good Captain went through many different transformations. His costume changed, his staff weapon was replaced by the Star Scepter, and his stories became progressively cosmic. This journey was dotted with some popular creators, too. Chris Claremont, Alan Moore, Alan Davis, John Buscema, and many others contributed to his journeys. Recently a slightly futuristic version of the character has appeared in the Earth X series (and its sequels) by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross. Serious collectors should note that three issues were published with premiums in them, but they were not always intact by the time they found their way to this side of The Pond. The Captain Britain mask (which was included with #1), Captain Britain boomerang (with #2) and Captain Britain's Jet Plane (in #24) also made it difficult to find copies of those issue in near mint or better.
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