CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND CAPTAIN AMERICA VS THE RED SKULL

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog follows up on the Captain Britain post from a few weeks ago. That post is HERE.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #16 (January 26th, 1977)

NOTE: Originally Captain Britain was only published in the United Kingdom via Marvel UK. The series was published weekly instead of monthly. 

Title: A Hero Unmasked

Villain: The Red Skull

Synopsis: Picking up from the previous issue, Chief Inspector Dai Thomas (from Chris Claremont’s Blade stories) still mistakenly thinks Captain Britain is a villain. He has several other policemen hold Cap while he starts to peel off the hero’s mask, which would expose him as Thames University physics student Brian Braddock (brother of Betsy Braddock aka Psylocke from the X-Men).

Reluctantly, Captain Britain uses some of his super-strength and agility to break free of the cops before they can unmask him. The other police on hand start shooting at C.B. when – out of nowhere – Captain America intervenes. He’s used to authorities in the U.S. often being wrong about superheroes so he offers to fight off the cops while Captain Britain escapes.

Brian knows his force-field leaves him in no danger from the police bullets anyway and feels it will hurt his public image more if he runs off while a Yank roughs up London bobbies. The two Captains fight it out for a time before reconciling. C.A. explains to C.B. and the cops that he’s there with the okay of HMG and could use Captain Britain’s help against a world-threatening menace.

Watching all this on a viewscreen is the menace that C.A. is referring to – the Red Skull. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #17 (February 2nd, 1977)

Title: The Revenge of the Red Skull

Villain: The Red Skull

Synopsis: We see Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tod Radcliffe, the head of the British version S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies), making its FIRST EVER appearance. Fury and Radcliffe confer with the real-life British Prime Minister at the time – James Callaghan – regarding the Red Skull’s activities. 

Captains Britain and America try to stop the Skull and his Neo-Nazi troops from stealing tech from the Mastermind Computer, the advanced A.I. in the basement of Braddock Manor, where it has been since it was created by Brian Braddock’s father. (The rogue A.I. then killed him.)

After successfully fighting their way through the opposing forces, C.B. and C.A. are stopped in their tracks by the Red Skull’s revelation that he has Betsy Braddock and Jamie Braddock (Brian’s older brother) as hostages. He then takes our heroes off guard with nerve gas.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #18 (February 9th, 1977)

Title: S.H.I.E.L.D. Strikes Out

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: Captain Britain and Captain America survive the Red Skull’s nerve gas and resume the battle. Meanwhile, in the undersea base of S.T.R.I.K.E. Tod Radcliffe and Nick Fury fly off in S.T.R.I.K.E. air and subsea vessels to help our heroes against the Skull’s forces.

Back at Braddock Manor, during the course of the action, Captain Britain has discovered that another power possessed by his mystic quarterstaff is the ability to shoot energy beams. However, the Red Skull escapes with the plundered Mastermind Computer technology before our heroes can stop him.

In the skies above the manor, the S.T.R.I.K.E. squadron has arrived. Tod Radcliffe reveals he is really an agent of the Red Skull and has his aircraft blast Braddock Manor with missiles.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #19 (February 16th, 1977)

Title: Two Died with Honor

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: In one of the S.T.R.I.K.E. aircraft, Nick Fury manages to kill the traitor Tod Radcliffe and returns with the squadron to the organization’s subsea base. Over the next three days, with no survivors found in the wreckage of Braddock Manor, the world is told that Captain Britain and Captain America are dead and that the Red Skull is still at large. The Skull gloats that the world will be conquered in a matter of days.

On the morning of the memorial ceremony for the two heroes at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the grieving Nick Fury meets Lance Hunter, the founder of S.T.R.I.K.E. and its previous director. He’s been called back to lead the organization now that the treacherous Radcliffe is dead. Hunter informs Nick that the Red Skull has amassed an international army large enough to possibly win and establish his Fourth Reich.

At Thames University, Brian Braddock’s girlfriend Courtney Ross (above right) and his other friends (British variations on Peter Parker’s college friends) are sadly presuming that Brian, his sister Betsy and his older brother Jamie may all lie dead in the wreckage of Braddock Manor. The govt is blacking out all information.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #20 (February 23rd, 1977)

Title: While the World Gently Weeps

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: Captain Britain and Captain America are shown to be alive but keeping their survival a secret from the world so that the Red Skull will think they’re dead. They’ve been spending the last four days trying to track down the Skull’s base or where he took Betsy and Jamie Braddock when he left Braddock Manor.

Meanwhile, Lance Hunter and Nick Fury are at Number Ten Downing Street getting chewed out by Prime Minister Callaghan for the way neither of their organizations has managed to find the Red Skull. Afterward they return to S.T.R.I.K.E.’s subsea headquarters, waiting for any word from their agents.

Back with our heroes, they’ve at last located where the Skull is holding Betsy and Jamie as potential hostages again. Brian has his mystical amulet do its usual bit of letting him change from his Captain Britain costume into civilian clothes as Brian Braddock. He infiltrates the place, then lets C.A. in. They defeat the Neo-Nazi troops but the Red Skull is not with them.       

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #21 (March 2nd, 1977)

Title: They’ve Kidnapped the Prime Minister

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: The Red Skull uses some of the stolen Mastermind Computer technology to enable him to abduct Prime Minister Callaghan from Downing Street. The panic and chaos caused by that is increased when the Skull makes a demand that the U.K. government surrender to him and his massive army by 6:00PM the following night or he’ll wipe out the population with his new biological weapon.

Back at the seized locale where the Braddock hostages were being kept, our heroes defeat some hidden Red Skull troops, then Captain Britain reveals to his sister Betsy that he is really her brother Brian. (Jamie learned previously.) NOTE: Betsy (the future Psyclocke) was dying her purple hair brown back then to conceal her mutant nature.

C.A. beats the site of the Red Skull’s base out of one of his Neo-Nazi thugs who was captured last time around. Our heroes aren’t able to get through to Fury or Hunter or any other authorities with all the chaos in the U.K. over the ongoing crisis. Most phone lines are blocked up, too. C.A. and C.B. go to take on the Skull themselves.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #22 (March 9th, 1977)

Title: Mayhem at Midnight

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: At Midnight, Captain Britain and Captain America fight their way into the Red Skull’s hidden lair along the Thames River. They fight his high-tech death traps and his Neo-Nazi army.

Elsewhere, against Nick Fury’s wishes, Lance Hunter conspires with the British Cabinet, Parliament members and military chiefs and convinces them to go along with his plan to pretend to be turning over the nation to the Red Skull to buy time for Captains Britain and America.   

Back at the Skull’s headquarters, our heroes finally come face to face with him again, only for him to reveal that he has the Prime Minister as a captive and a bio-weapon ready to depopulate the entire country.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #23 (March 16th, 1977)

Title: The Night Big Ben Stood Still

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: The entire British government agrees to pretend they are surrendering to the Red Skull and his army, hoping against hope that the two Caps will somehow find a way to stop him. (It’s only a comic book. Just go with it.) 

At the Skull’s headquarters our heroes continue their efforts against him and his forces, aided by the fact that the Red Skull is now so busy preparing to accept the transferred sovereignty of the U.K. that he delegates killing the two Caps to some subordinates.

Captains Britain and America continue fighting it out with the Neo-Nazi army of the Red Skull. Presently, Captain America says he’ll do what he can against the Neo-Nazis while Captain Britain goes to bring S.T.R.I.K.E. to the Skull’s HQ. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #24 (March 23rd, 1977)

Title: The Fall of the Fourth Reich?

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: The big two agencies continue covertly searching for the Prime Minister and/or the Red Skull’s bio-weapon. Meanwhile, since the U.K. government announced lockdown and shelter protocols that have not been in use since the Blitz, Captain Britain has trouble getting the help he needs. 

The irrational jackass Chief Inspector Dai Thomas encounters Captain Britain and tries to have his men arrest him for breaking curfew but Cap defeats them. He then uses the police radios in their cars to get word to S.T.R.I.K.E. and S.H.I.E.L.D. about the location of the Skull’s HQ.

Soon, attacks from those two agencies expose the bluff the U.K. government is running and the Red Skull is furious. He and his men march out to unleash terror in London, while Captain Britain arrives back at his HQ just as the villain detonates explosives to wipe out his secrets and kill Captain America and the Prime Minister.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #25 (March 30th, 1977)

Title: A Gathering of Gladiators

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: Captain Britain uses the forcefield generated by his mystic quarterstaff to save himself, Cap and the Prime Minister from the explosion, just like he saved himself and Cap from the missile explosion at Braddock Manor several days ago. 

While Lance Hunter leads a S.T.R.I.K.E. team in an effort to disarm the Red Skull’s bioweapon, Nick Fury and Captain America lead the rest of S.T.R.I.K.E. in monumental street to street fighting against the Skull’s Neo-Nazi army. For the cliffhanger ending, Captain Britain and the Red Skull separately arrive at the spot where Lance Hunter is trying to disable the bio-weapon. 

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #26 (April 6th, 1977)

Title: Hickory, Dickory, Death (A Quinn Martin kind of title!)

Villains: The Red Skull and his Neo-Nazis

Synopsis: Captain Britain battles the Red Skull and his high-tech weaponry at Big Ben, while Captain America, Nick Fury and various paramilitary units battle the Neo-Nazi army in streets as deserted as they were when the Blitz was going on.

Ultimately, the Red Skull’s army is defeated in this all-new “Battle of Britain” and the bio-weapon is neutralized. Though beaten, the Red Skull escapes. The two Captains part as friends, as do Nick Fury and Lance Hunter.