CAPTAIN BRITAIN: NEGLECTED MARVEL HERO’S 1970s STORIES

This weekend’s escapist, light-hearted superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the earliest 1970s stories of Marvel’s Captain Britain.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #1 (October 13th 1976)

NOTE: At first, this superhero’s stories were being published only via Marvel U.K. but as the 70s rolled along he was introduced into their overall continuity. Reprints of old Marvel stories were featured as backup series to the Captain Britain tales, hence the cover references to the Fantastic Four and Nick Fury.

Title: First Story

Villain: The Reaver

Synopsis: British college student Brian Braddock was working as an assistant to Dr. Hugo Travis at the Darkmoor Energy Research Center, a scientific organization probing the supernatural energies and anomalies of the Darkmoor area.

Joshua Stragg aka the Reaver, a villainous mad scientist in the U.K. was leading his high-tech-armored men on a raid to kidnap all the scientists at D.E.R.C. to make them work for him. Brian Braddock tried to escape but was pursued.

The subsequent violence was a catalyst for Darkmoor forces from what came to be called the Otherworld. Merlyn, supposedly the “real” Merlin of Arthurian legends, and Roma, the Lady of the Northern Skies chose Brian Braddock to be the recipient of superpowers bestowed by eldritch energies from the Otherworld.

The Amulet of Right and the mystic Quarterstaff turned Brian into the costumed superhero called Captain Britain. Stragg and his men had not seen Braddock’s face clearly, so his real identity was safe. Using his new powers – flight, a skin-tight force field, enhanced senses and enough strength to lift a couple tons – the hero defeated Stragg’s armed thugs. 

Joshua Stragg seized the Sword of Might given his aggressive, violent nature and gained his own superpowers, plus his own costume. The hero and the villain fought, each one struggling to master their new abilities.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #2 (October 26th 1976 – Marvel U.K. published more than just one issue per month.)

Title: From the Holocaust a Hero

Villain: The Reaver

Synopsis: Captain Britain and the Reaver continued their battle. The villain had the same strength as our hero, wore mystic armor that was his equivalent of our hero’s force-field, and his Sword of Might could shoot powerful blasts of eldritch energy.

Naturally, Captain Britain defeats the Reaver in the end. Merlyn and the Lady of the Northern Skies return to tell Brian Braddock that his victory means he is fit and may keep his new powers.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #3 (October 27th 1976. Just go with it.)   

Title: Mayhem on a Monday Morning

Villain: Vixen

Synopsis: In the days since becoming Captain Britain, Brian Braddock has been flying around on patrols looking for crimes or other trouble. This particular morning he comes upon a high-tech gang that has pulled a series of bank robberies. He manages to defeat the entire gang and turn them over to the arriving police.

Chief Inspector Dai Thomas (carried over from Chris Claremont’s Blade stories) resents Captain Britain’s vigilante behavior, but the media runs with intense coverage of the new superhero. Vixen, a supervillainess crime lord, is furious that Captain Britain thwarted her men’s bank robbery. We learn she is greatly feared and tortures lackeys who fail her.   

Next, our hero flies to Thames University and switches back to Brian Braddock. We meet his Peter Parker-style college friends including his girlfriend, Courtney Ross (at right). Elsewhere, meteorology scientist Albert Potter flies his experimental aircraft into a hurricane to test its abilities to control those storms. 

Merlyn and Roma’s adversaries from Otherworld combine the powers of Potter’s vessel with his own body, creating the supervillain Hurricane, their new champion to fight Captain Britain.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #4 (November 3rd 1976)

Title: Hour of the Hurricane

Villain: Hurricane

Synopsis: Hurricane tries out his armor and powers to launch his career as a villain. The dark forces manipulating him without his knowledge get him to attack Thames University since they know that will draw Captain Britain into a battle.

The villain rampages across the campus, so Brian slips away to become Captain Britain. He and Hurricane fight it out, with the surprising result that our hero loses.    

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #5 (November 10th 1976)

Title: Captain Britain Has Been Beaten

Villain: Hurricane

Synopsis: Brian Braddock is alive but dispirited after his defeat at the hands of Hurricane the previous issue. Sandy York, another of Brian’s fellow students at Thames University, wants to become a photojournalist, so he took pictures of Captain Britain’s clash with Hurricane.

Spots on the photos destroyed their value to the London newspapers, but the phenomenon told science whiz Brian Braddock that Hurricane’s power has a radioactive element to it. Using that information as Captain Britain, our hero takes on Hurricane the next time he strikes, and manages to get the upper hand. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #6 (November 17th 1976)

Title: Havoc at Heathrow

Villain: Hurricane

Synopsis: This time around, Captain Britain and Hurricane fight each other at Heathrow Airport. The media have a field day getting to cover the kind of superhero action that the U.K. hasn’t seen since their last superhero the Black Knight disappeared. (He time traveled to the Crusades.)

Hurricane manages at length to chain up Captain Britain and leave him strapped across a Concorde’s engine for the cliffhanger ending. Cap risks getting sucked into the engine and killed. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #7 (November 24th 1976)

Title: Wind of Death

Villain: Hurricane

Synopsis: Brian manages to escape the suction from the Concorde’s engines as it moves to take off. His battle with Hurricane now takes them both over parts of England and Portugal.

Hurricane does a Villain Rant about the ridicule and abuse that made him an outcast in scientific circles. (Standard fare for any mad scientist, hardly the “awesome origin” that the cover boasts.) In the end, Captain Britain’s scientific prowess enables him to finally defeat Hurricane and end his menace. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #8 (December 1st 1976)

NOTE: Chris Claremont is still writing the Captain Britain stories at this point, and this issue he introduces Brian Braddock’s twin sister Elizabeth “Betsy” Braddock, who in the years ahead will become the mutant superheroine Psylocke and join the X-Men. 

Title: Riot on Regent Street

Villains: Vixen and her high-tech gangsters

Synopsis: A well-rounded story. 

We see our hero dividing his time between combatting further bank jobs & other criminal antics on the part of Vixen (at right) and her thugs, and, as Brian Braddock, interacting with his fellow students at “uni” & reuniting with his twin sister Elizabeth.

Back then Betsy dyed her purple hair normal colors to avoid drawing unpleasant attention to herself. At any rate, Captain Britain stops even more of Vixen’s villainy, but she herself escapes capture. She can shapeshift back and forth to an actual fox.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #9 (December 8th 1976)

Title: Demon-Fire

Villain: Dr. Synne

Synopsis: At Braddock Manor, Brian and Betsy reunite with their older brother, Jamie. While they visit we readers are shown that the ever-hovering Braddock family friend Dr. Christopher Thorn, nuclear physicist, has been a secret villain for years.

Thorn worked with the Braddock children’s scientist father James before his death. Christopher Thorn was James’ colleague and in a laboratory accident in the basement tech setup at Braddock Manor he gained superpowers which he hid from James.

The Mastermind Computer that James and Christopher were working on had accidentally given him psychic and energy-projecting powers plus the power to create solid illusions (like the monsters on the cover) and generate force-fields for himself.

Captain Britain clashes with Thorn in his costumed supervillain form called Dr. Synne (above right) because the baddie has been using his powers to covertly rule various small towns in Great Britain, always expanding his territory. For this issue’s cliffhanger, Synne enthralls Betsy just like the hapless townspeople and makes her try to kill her brothers.     

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #10 (December 15th 1976)

Title: Dagger of the Mind (despite what it says on the cover)

Villain: Dr. Synne

Synopsis: Jamie learns that Brian is really Captain Britain and agrees to keep his secret. Betsy’s physical strength and ability to ignore pain are increased by Dr. Synne – another of his psychic powers. Cap renders Betsy unconscious and attacks Synne, who escapes in the snow and wind.

Brian and Jamie take the still-enthralled Betsy to the Morder Centre, the U.K.’s top facility for neurological problems. Dr. Ramsey assures them they will do what they can to cure their sister, but when the brothers leave we readers are shown that Ramsey and the rest of the staff are also thralls of Dr. Synne, just like the people in the towns he controls.   

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #11 (December 22nd 1976)

Title: Burn, Witch, Burn

Villain: Dr. Synne

NOTE: Gary Friedrich takes over as the series writer.

Synopsis: We pick up an unknown amount of time after the previous issue. At Braddock Manor, Jamie and Brian still assume that Betsy is getting extensive medical treatment at the Morder Centre. Jamie remains in awe of the fact that his brother is Captain Britain, the new superhero the whole country is excited about.

At length, Brian tells Jamie that he’s still coming to grips with it himself and doesn’t want to talk about it any longer. Soon, Brian goes on an hours-long hike through the snow for some introspection. He spots a mob of armed townspeople pursuing a man and a woman they’re calling witches.

Brian becomes Captain Britain and fights the dozens of gun and tool-wielding people, trying to protect the fleeing “witches” without seriously injuring the angry mob since he realizes they are from another town under Dr. Synne’s control.

After assorted action we get our cliffhanger – despite our hero’s best efforts, the enthralled townspeople have the female witch tied to a stake and are preparing to burn her.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #12 (December 29th 1976)

Title: To Die a Superhero

Villain: Dr. Synne

Synopsis: Captain Britain saves the accused female just as he saved the accused male last issue. The mob of several dozen enthralled townspeople is not able to kill our hero so Dr. Synne enters to face Cap head-to-head. 

Their lengthy fight takes up enough of Synne’s power that his thralls around the U.K. begin shaking off his control. That includes Betsy at the Morder Centre. Dr. Synne overcomes Cap and prepares to deliver the coup de grace.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #13 (January 5th 1977)

Title: From the Ashes

Villain: Dr. Synne

Synopsis: Captain Britain survives and resumes fighting Dr, Synne. Ultimately, the villain suffers a heart attack.

Believing he is dying, he tells our hero to destroy the Mastermind Computer because with its A.I. malfunctioning it may empower even more supervillains like himself.

With Dr. Synne incapacitated, Captain Britain explains to all of his former thralls what has happened and tells them to take shelter while he goes to deal with a greater threat that lies behind Synne.

Back at Braddock Manor, Cap prepares himself to face the Mastermind Computer in the basement laboratory.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #14 (January 12th 1977)

Title: The Malevolent Menace

Villain: The Mastermind Computer

Synopsis: As Captain Britain enters the laboratory the Mastermind Computer creates a semi-solid hologram entity of itself to fight its attacker. The entity calls itself Mastermind, an unimaginative choice since Marvel had a mutant villain called Mastermind who went back to the 1960s. Hell, even “Mindmaster” would have at least been different.   

The A.I. uses laser beams and other weapons against Cap while his own attacks fail to harm his opponent due to its partially insubstantial nature. At one point the sentient entity intentionally tells Brian how it killed his father and mother – it was NOT a lab accident. Cap is distracted enough for the A.I. to sieze a chance to kill him.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #15 (January 19th 1977)

Title: Once Upon a Death Wish

Villain: The Mastermind Computer

Synopsis: Captain Britain manages to save himself and resumes fighting the Mastermind Computer. Emma Watson, a cleaning lady at Braddock Manor, winds up injured when she stumbles upon the ongoing battle in the basement lab.

With all this going on, Dai Thomas continues to go J. Jonah Jameson on Captain Britain’s ass and suspects him of being the real villain behind everything. He wants him caught and unmasked.

Using his own mastery of science, the brilliant young Brian Braddock at last manages to neutralize the menace of this rogue A.I. 

*** Over the years Marvel greatly increased Captain Britain’s powers and retconned his origin and personal history many, many times like they do with all their characters. As of January of 1977, however, this new character was popular in his home country, the only place his early stories were published at the time. A decent start, with some okay villains like the Reaver, Vixen, Hurricane, Dr. Synne and the Mastermind Computer.   

FOR MY LOOK AT SUPERHEROES IN SPAIN CLICK HERE.

FOR MY LOOK AT BRAZILIAN SUPERHEROES CLICK HERE.