Customer Reviews

Captain Britain: v. 1

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

 

 

As i was trolling through here i noticed this book, and hence the reviews. The reviews are why i am writing and reviewing myself. The reviews I have seen for this book here are actually NOT for this book. Everyone seems to be mixing it with another collection that is out there of Alan Moore and Alan Davis' run on the Captain Britain title. This, in fact, predates Moore and Davis' run and is the original weekly series, collecting Captain Britain Weekly issues 1-23. Written by Chris Claremont (and then by Gary Freidrich) with spectacular art by the fantastic Herb Trimpe.
I'm not sure why everyone has thought this to be a Moore collection. It says right at the top that it's Claremont.
As for the quality of the book, that is subjective. I really enjoy it. Part of that is because it's a nostalia thing and it's great art. It certainly isn't Claremont's best. His run on Cap is notorious for annoying actual Brits with it's cliches and 'incorrect Britishness'. But it was early on for Marvel UK and they were just getting their feet wet. This is pre Otherworld, Excalibur, Roma, Betsy having any powers. Its a very different storyline than what Moore morphed it into years later. It's Cap in his old, original suit, is much more mystic based and has simple, short storylines.
Ok so that's it. Just wanted to clear that up.
Those folks may be talking about the Captain Britain Omnibus. That's Moore and Davis and is highly recommended.

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.

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!

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.

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.

This Captain Britain - pre-Excalibur book - was a great read - perhaps I am no Moore aficionado but his best works include V FOR VENDETTA and of cource WATCHMEN (perhaps one day Terry Gilliam/Joel Silver will get the funding and make this great movie - see the Sam Hamm script) and the Captain Britain collection is fun, well-scripted and likable (except for a few typos on the lettering) and the art is simply imaginative and colorful.(We may hope that more of the 2000 A.D. and Warrior Magazine titles will see reprint)

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.