Captain Britian - Before Excalibur!

Captain Britain as first designed in the late 70's was not quite the hit Marvel hoped for. I personally always liked that original look, but it's safe to say that his original adventures despite some good talent were less than stellar. But the 80's changed all that. 

It began in a book called Daredevils where Alan Davis took hold of the character. Joined by writer Alan Moore and others he recreated Captain Britain, making him more physically imposing. While I like the original look, there's no doubt this revision is better, more powerful. The world in which Brian Braddock lived was also transformed, becoming less like a British version of Peter Parker's and into something and quite evocative. 

Following on after that shake up the Captain was given a slot in The Mighty World of Marvel for a short spell before getting his own title once again. Writer Jamie Delano came aboard and the Captain Britian stories bloomed into full flower. The tradition of weirdness which had marked the earlier efforts in Daredevils was continued in this new book and made even more so. Enemies spilled out from across multiple dimensions, bringing both life and death to those around the Braddock clan. We learn dark secrets that some of the family hold. Death is not an uncommon visitor in the book, which plays for high stakes all the time. The Brian Braddock gets a strange love interest in the werewoman Meagan, a strange creature who comes into her full powers as the series continues. We encounter other "Captains" from other places, some with murderous intent. Brian's sister Betsey even becomes Captain Britain for a short time. 

Below are the covers by Alan Davis for this potent run of the series. 

The series does find an ending with old foes finding some peace. New missions are given to those who have lost their way and Captain Britain seems for a brief time to have found some measure of contentment. 

This collection features the blurb "Before Excalibur" and while the issue above is not in the collection, it is clearly the purpose of the trade to put into readers' hands those Captain Britian stories which will impact the fledgling Brit X-team. It was a time when Marvel was all about all things X-Men, and squeezing Captain Britian into that frame was better than losing him all together. 

Rip Off