CAPTAIN BRITAIN IN THE OTHERWORLD

This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog looks at the adventure in which Marvel’s Captain Britain explored the Otherworld, the mystic realm from which he gained his powers and weapons.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #28 (April 20th, 1977)

Title: Night of the Hawk

Villain: Lord Hawk

NOTE: This was still when Captain Britain was published only in the United Kingdom.

Synopsis: Captain Britain nabs a pair of muggers and leaves them for the police. Next, he turns back into Brian Braddock and attends his classes as a grad student at Thames University, where he interacts with his friends and his girlfriend Courtney Ross.

A very eccentric old professor, Robert Willard Scott, has retired from the university and lives alone with his hawks. When those birds die, Brian Braddock uses his scientific genius to construct a large hawk-shaped remote-controlled android to keep Professor Scott company.

The older gentleman is actually insane, and upgrades the robo-hawk with high-tech weaponry and begins attacking British factories, even killing some of the employees in the attacks. Captain Britain faces the self-styled Lord Hawk and the weapons of his robo-hawk.  

Comment: This silly villain is like something from the Adam West Batman show.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #29 (April 27th, 1977)

Title: Lonely Are the Hunted

Villain: Lord Hawk

Synopsis: The villainous Lord Hawk continues his destructive attacks with Captain Britain having to save so many innocent bystanders that he is unable to reach and destroy the robo-hawk. 

From metropolitan London, our hero trails Lord Hawk to the Buckinghamshire Forest where another clash with the villain and his robo-hawk ends in a stalemate with Lord Hawk escaping.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #30 (May 4th, 1977)

Title: Panic in Piccadilly

Villain: Lord Hawk

Synopsis: Brian Braddock alternates between his life as a student at Thames University and his Captain Britain identity. Brian’s interaction with his friends and his romantic partner Courtney resembles that among Peter Parker, his friends and girlfriend. 

Lord Hawk attacks a large crowd in Piccadilly Circus, so Brian becomes Captain Britain and opposes him once again. During the battle, Courtney Ross is among those seriously injured.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #31 (May 11th, 1977)

Title: Shadow of the Hawk

Villain: Lord Hawk

Synopsis: Captain Britain gets Courtney to the hospital, and Lord Hawk takes the opportunity to escape once again. (Sheesh! Even Howard the Duck would have corralled this villain by now!) 

Our hero becomes Brian Braddock and goes home to the flat he rents from Neil McKenzie, PhD, his academic advisor and friend. Brian uses Neil’s laboratory to devise a way of tracking down Lord Hawk.

Brian’s brother Jamie and sister Elizabeth (the future Psylocke of the X-Men) drop by, concerned over his very public clashes with Lord Hawk. (They know his secret identity.) When the villain attacks the hospital where Courtney is being treated, Captain Britain takes him on but gets seized by the robo-hawk when distracted by Jacko Tanner, a fellow student of Brian Braddock who hates the superhero.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #32 (May 18th, 1977)

Title: Only the Strong Survive

Villain: Lord Hawk

Synopsis: Captain Britain defeats Lord Hawk, who is taken to an insane asylum. The hate-filled Jacko Tanner uses the villain’s dropped remote control to make the robo-hawk attack our hero again, rendering him unconscious.

Chief Inspector Dai Thomas (from Chris Claremont’s Blade stories) still believes Captain Britain is a villain and rushes to unmask the fallen hero. S.T.R.I.K.E., the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D. arrives in response to Lord Hawk’s attack on the hospital, and their head Lance Hunter stops Dai and has Cap taken for medical care. (Cap had helped S.T.R.I.K.E. and Captain America save the U.K. from the Red Skull.)

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #33 (May 25th, 1977)

Title: Even Heroes Bleed 

Villain: The Mind-Monster

Synopsis: When Captain Britain regains consciousness, he finds himself in the Otherworld, the dimension from which Merlin and his daughter Roma, the Lady of the Northern Skies, came to Earth to grant him superpowers in Captain Britain #1. 

Merlin and Roma inform our hero of a new menace right there in Otherworld, the energy-breathing Mind-Monster, which suddenly attacks, prompting Cap to fight it.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #34 (June 1st, 1977)

Title: An Odyssey of the Mind

Villain: The Mind-Monster

Synopsis: Back on Earth, Jamie and Elizabeth Braddock worry over the fate of their brother Brian. Elizabeth’s mutant mind powers begin to emerge. Meanwhile, in Otherworld, Captain Britain continues his battle with the omni-destructive creature the Mind-Monster. 

In a “well, duh” development, Merlin reveals to Captain Britain that he is THE Merlin from King Arthur lore and Otherworld is the dimension where he has been living for centuries.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #35 (June 8th, 1977)

Title: That Camelot Might Live

Villain: Nykkon and his army

Synopsis: Merlin and Roma explain to Captain Britain that he is just one of the many super-powered heroes that the pair empower and mentor on assorted worlds throughout the Omniverse, a mystical version of the Multiverse.

Merlin further explains that Cap’s heroics on Earth as well as his defeat of the Mind-Monster have proven him worthy of wielding a new weapon in place of his mystic Quarterstaff – the Star Sceptre, which will make him more powerful than before.

Brian must now use the Star Sceptre in battle with Nykonn, a Dark Entity who created his supervillain foe Hurricane long ago and who wants the Star Sceptre for himself.   

CAPTAIN BRITAIN Vol 1 #36 (June 15th, 1977)

Title: The Star-Sceptre       

Villains: Nykonn and his army

Synopsis: Nykonn & his monstrous army attack and Captain Britain flies into battle, wielding his new weapon against them. If Nykonn obtains the Star Sceptre it will increase his already enormous power and let him conquer the Omniverse. 

Captain Britain survives the massive battle, while the defeated Nykonn falls into an interdimensional crevice. Brian Braddock is ready to return to Earth.

I’LL LOOK AT OTHER CAPTAIN BRITAIN ADVENTURES SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE.