Alan Moore's Captain Britain

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der2
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Alan Moore's Captain Britain

Post by der2 »

I came Alan Moore's run this week on Captain Britain. It was excellent, I loved the grand scale of it all with alternate worlds, unstoppable villains.

It was awesome to see cameos from Miracleman, Archie the Robot, the Claw was in there too I think, even if it was only to see them die, oh well. Getting to know of these characters lately, so its nice to see them around, mostly in reading Zenith and Miracleman.

The Fury is a bad ass and he just willed himself through dimensional barriers and his design was a nice shambles, suited him nicely.

He was very forgiving of Saturnyne after she abandoned them, he only had to see her and was about ready to let her move in after.

I knew little as I started the story, but that was fine, it was open and easy to get into. Moore does a little house keeping at the start and the story doesn't suffer for it, he gets Cap home and a cup of tea, then off to save the world!

I never thought I'd want something with a union jack on it, but I want a toy of him now. Not a big fan of the modern costume one that came out in the Captain America range, I'm gonna have to hunt down the one from 2010 I think.
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Cliffjumper
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Post by Cliffjumper »

It's a great arc, isn't it? The Fury is possibly the best Marvel villain ever, and Brian's death is probably among the best too.

All of Linda's doomed colleagues are based on someone or other - there are also graves for the likes of The Arachnid (the Spider), Gaath (Garth), the Puppeteer (Dolmann)... Col. Tusker and his killer toys is a nod to General Jumbo, Tom Rosetta is Tom Kelly and Linda's squeeze is good ol' Dickie Dauntless. Makes a nice change from the usual Marvel alt universe "Wolverine in a different costume" stuff, and IIRC was a big part of me looking up the Fleetway heroes.

The Alan Davis/Jamie Delano trade isn't bad - it's nowhere near as good, suffering a bit from having a much looser narrative, but some of the set-pieces are excellent (the second or third episode is one of the best comics I've ever read, no qualifiers). Being Davis it's a bit like a solo Excalibur series - a lot lighter for the most part, but still good.

Thorpe's brief run (preceding Moore) is batshit insane, but worth reading once.

The first series is best avoided, it's just another 1970s Marvel comic that occasionally remembers it's meant to be set in the UK. Writers included Claremont, Budiansky (no, really) and some washed-up alcoholic who turns it into a Captain America strip set in some weird alternate version of London.
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der2
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Post by der2 »

I might come back to the character in a while, but for now I think I might follow Alan Moore and see where he takes me. I've been thinking about picking up some of his Swamp Thing work and getting into that. The narrative felt as though it was far removed from the Marvel style, which can be very tedious.

The art as well was superb the whole way through, comparing B+W comics to one another I found the composition much easier to follow than Zenith. The court scenes and the fighting seemed so large, but it was all really clear and quite lovely, the aliens had a wonderful range in their designs as well. I do love a B+W story, but it can get messy or sparse potentially.

It must have been next to impossible for the American writers to make it feel English, what would they have had for reference, Mary Poppins and Doctor Who? They'd have no real feel for it. I often thought of how Spiderman would do over here. It'd take him a good while longer to get around surely, none/few of the buildings this side of the water would be tall enough for him to swing from, he'd only risk injury.

The Fleetway heroes will have to be researched a bit more before making a plunge into them wholesale, but it looks like some fertile ground for reading.
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Neuronutter
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Post by Neuronutter »

Anyone know where I can get a hold of these? I can't find them on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or for sale anywhere? Also, what issues do you need to read to enjoy the whole story?
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Cyberstrike nTo
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Post by Cyberstrike nTo »

der2 wrote:I might come back to the character in a while, but for now I think I might follow Alan Moore and see where he takes me. I've been thinking about picking up some of his Swamp Thing work and getting into that. The narrative felt as though it was far removed from the Marvel style, which can be very tedious.
His run on Swamp Thing is good but it's when he has to do a Crisis On Infinite Earths crossover story Moore ups the stakes even higher than what Marv Wolfman and George Perez did in the maxi-series. There is also a book called Across the DC Universe with Alan Moore or something to that effect that collects his work on various DC titles some of which are great reads in of themselves. Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? is probably one of Moore's under-rated works and one his most brutal stories and that is saying something.
Batman: The Killing Joke is good but I agree with Moore it's not one of his better works. IMHO it's really Brain Bolland's art that is more memorable than Moore's story which is still good. Moore's worst stories are often better than many of his peer's best works.
He also worked for Wildstorm before Jim Lee sold it to DC, so a lot of his work for WS tends to get mixed in with work for DC his run on Wild C.A.T.s has never been topped IMHO. From I've read his work on the Wildstorm's ABC line is said to be some of his best work.
The art as well was superb the whole way through, comparing B+W comics to one another I found the composition much easier to follow than Zenith. The court scenes and the fighting seemed so large, but it was all really clear and quite lovely, the aliens had a wonderful range in their designs as well. I do love a B+W story, but it can get messy or sparse potentially.
I've never been much into Grant Morrison's work other his run on JLA back in the 90s and Batman: Arkham Asylum-A Serious House on Serious Earth which is a very under-rated gem of a Batman story which gets buried under stuff like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Killing Joke, Batman: The Long Halloween, Batman: Hush and others.
It must have been next to impossible for the American writers to make it feel English, what would they have had for reference, Mary Poppins and Doctor Who? They'd have no real feel for it. I often thought of how Spiderman would do over here. It'd take him a good while longer to get around surely, none/few of the buildings this side of the water would be tall enough for him to swing from, he'd only risk injury.
I would say some of it is what we have access too, a lot of older writers most of British pop culture would be stuff like: Dracula, Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood, James Bond, Dr. Who, and The Beetles. Also even today it's still a pain to get some LCS to order stuff like 2000 AD and most Americans tend to get most of the British pop culture from BBC America.

There is a graphic novel called Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth by Charles Vess which as Peter and Mary Jane in a haunted castle that is in a remote part of England and while I haven't read it in many years I do recall it's actual pretty good in particular that old chestnut about Spider-Man not being in a major city and how he doesn't fare well when in the country (this has also been used in Spider-Man stories set in other American cities outside of NYC).

I would say that Peter David has done stories with British characters that feel English (to me at least but then I'm that rare American who wishes more times that cares to admit that he was British) most notably the character of Buzz in his Supergirl (which is as far I'm concerned is the GREATEST series DC ever has published) and his work on Joss Whedon's Spike: Old Wounds GN and the 5-part Spike vs. Dracula mini-series for IDW. The character Shadow Boxer (I think that was his name) in his The Fallen Angel series from DC and IDW is also a great British character. Hell he stuck Baldrick and maybe a Blackadder into the Marvel Universe.
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