Captain Britain: Birth Of A Legend

Reprints Captain Britain #1-39 and material from Super Spider-Man & Captain Britain #231-232
Written by Chris Claremont, Gary Friedrich, Larry Lieber, Bob Budiansky, Jim Lawrance and Len Wein.
Penciled by Herb Trimpe, Ron Wilson, John Buscema and Bob Budiansky.
Inked by Fred Kida, Tom Palmer, Pablo Marcos, Frank Giacoia, Mark Esposito and Brian H. Moore.
Summary:
Over 300 pages of Captain Britain's early adventures!  Highlights include:

Thames University student Brian Braddock is serving an internship at Darkmoor Research Centre, a nuclear facility. Suddenly, Darkmoor is attacked by a man named Joshua Stragg who calls himself the Reaver. Stragg is armed with high-tech weaponry and assisted by a squad of armored thugs. 

Brian flees Darkmoor and takes off on his motorcycle, intending to get help. Unfortunately, he crashes. Two ghostly figures appear above Braddock. They are Merlin the Magician, from Arthurian lore, and his daughter Roma. Merlin presents Brian with a sword and an amulet and gives him a choice to pick the right one. He selects the amulet and Merlin tells him he has made the right choice.  

He is transformed into the super-powered Captain Britain! In this form, Brian possesses super-strength and agility, plus a staff that he uses to vault and defend himself from attackers. Stragg arrives on the scene and retrieves the sword, which magically covers the Reaver in a suit of armor. The villain attacks Braddock with the sword and a battle ensues. Captain Britain defeats Stragg and the United Kingdom has its first superhero!

Sometime after that, Captain Britain foils a bank robbery. In the moment of his triumph, he's confronted by police inspector Dai Thomas of Scotland Yard. The inspector isn't crazy about super-powered vigilantes confronting criminals and tells Captain Britain that he better watch himself. Thomas will arrest the superhero if he continues to interfere with police business.

Brian learns that it's not easy to be a superhero and live the normal life of a college student. He attempts to have a relationship with Courtney Ross, a fellow Thames University student. He is often forced to cancel their dates, so he can run off to fight crime. Another student, Jacko Tanner bullies Brian and doesn't understand why Courtney is interested in Braddock.  

Subsequently, a super-villain who calls himself the Hurricane attacks the campus of Thames University, seeking a fight with Captain Britain. Hurricane wears body armor and a backpack that enables him to create and direct strong gusts of wind.  

Captain Britain is defeated by Hurricane. Instead of killing him, the villain straps Captain Britain to a supersonic Concorde jet plane! Can Captain Britain figure out a way to escape and defeat the Hurricane?

Later, Brian's twin sister Betsy visits Brian and tells him their brother Jamie has been injured in a car accident.

The accident was caused by a new villain who calls himself Dr. Synne, who creates illusions and controls people's actions through telepathy.

When Captain Britain attempts to stop Synne, the villain takes over all the minds of the people nearby and sends them after the captain. Even Betsy is not immune to Synne's power and attacks her own brother with an axe!

How can Captain Britain triumph over Dr. Synne without harming the people who under Synne's control?

Meanwhile, Nick Fury, director of Supreme Headquarters International Law Enforcement Division (S.H.I.E.L.D.) arrives in London on SHIELD's helicarrier. He's joined by Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America. Fury tells Rogers that their visit to the UK may be one of the toughest assignments they've ever faced.

Captain America heads directly to Braddock Manor, home of Brian and his family, to investigate a computer under the manor. This brings him into direct combat with Captain Britain. After a brief but spirited duel, they come to their senses and agree to work together.

They will need each others' help, because the villain they are dealing with is none other than Cap's arch foe, the Red Skull! The nazi kidnaps British Prime Minister James Callaghan and holds him for ransom.

Callaghan will die unless Parliament agrees to hand over control of the UK to the Skull. If any attempt is made to free the PM, Red Skull will explode a germ bomb that's set atop Big Ben!

Captain Britain and his U.S. counterpart must pull out all the stops if they want to defeat Red Skull and save the Prime Minister. Nick Fury is also trying to locate Callaghan, with assistance from Lance Hunter, director of Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies (S.T.R.I.K.E.). Hunter is England's version of Fury and just as good at fighting crime.

Finally, Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her jubilee (the 25th anniversary of her coronation) in London. A villain known as the Manipulator hopes to ruin the festivities. He possesses a mystic gem that gives him the power to brainwash people. Manipulator uses the gem to take control of Captain Britain and forces the hero to attack the Queen!

Captain Britain's assault is halted by a super-powered cyclist called the Highwayman, who is actually a lackey of the Manipulator. When Captain Britain is defeated by Highwayman, the hero is arrested by Dai Thomas.

The Manipulator later uses his gem to brainwash the Queen herself, which allows her to be captured by the villain. With Captain Britain in police custody, how can he rescue Queen Elizabeth and end the Manipulator's crime wave?

Review:
The stories reprinted in Captain Britain: Birth Of A Legend were mostly new to me, since for years, the original issues were very hard to find in the United States. So I don't bring any nostalgia to this review, but I generally enjoyed this book.

Story:
Chris Claremont wrote Captain Britain's origin story and the first ten issues reprinted in this book. They're mostly fun stories and Claremont does a nice job building Brian Braddock's world. Connecting Captain Britain's origin story to Arthurian legends is a nice touch by Claremont.

Braddock has a bit of Peter Parker in him too. Jacko Tanner serves as a stand-in for Flash Thompson, and Brian often has to leave dates with Courtney Ross so he can change into Captain Britain when criminals show up. Dai Thomas serves as a Jonah Jameson-type character, with his distrust of Captain Britain. Claremont had introduced Thomas a couple years prior, when the inspector appeared in a Blade story, which (I guess) means Claremont considered Captain Britain's adventures to take place in the same shared universe as Marvel stories that were published in the United States.

It's interesting to note that these tales were written at the same time Claremont was making comics history during his legendary run on X-Men. They tend to be a lot lighter in tone than his X-Men stories, but that's okay.  A decade later, Claremont brought Captain Britain into the "mainstream" Marvel Universe, when Brian became a member of the team Excalibur. So I'm guessing Claremont was always fond of Captain Britain.

Speaking of the X-Men, these stories also feature the first appearance of Brian's sister Betsy Braddock. She would later learn that she possessed superpowers and gain fame as Psylocke. But in these tales, Betsy is just a supporting "younger sister" character.

Gary Friedrich takes over for Claremont and quickly brings in Captain America, Nick Fury and Red Skull. These stories are the high point of Birth Of A Legend and it's great to see the "flag faced" heroes of the U.S. and UK work together. Earlier in his career, Friedrich wrote Cap and Nick's adventures, so it makes sense that he'd bring these characters to Captain Britain's series.

Friedrich's stories also introduce the character Lance Hunter, director of STRIKE. Viewers of the TV series Marvel's Agents Of SHIELD will recognize that name, since he's played by actor Nick Blood. Hunter will be getting a spin-off series later this year, something that readers probably wouldn't have foreseen back in the 1970s.

At the end of the Red Skull saga, Friedrich sort of sidelines Captain America and Fury, allowing Captain Britain and Lance Hunter to save the day. This is a nice way to build up the newer (and British) characters in the eyes of the readers.

Bob Budiansky and Larry Leiber take over plotting and scripting after Friedrich departs. The stories decline in quality a bit after the Red Skull multi-part epic, but the book ends with the Manipulator/Queen Elizabeth II tale. Even though we know that the Queen will eventually be saved, this story is an exciting way to finish Birth Of A Legend.

In addition to Queen Elizabeth, these stories also include appearances by 1970s politicians like Prime Minister James Callaghan and President Jimmy Carter. Does it make the stories seem dated? Sure, but it also makes them feel a little more realistic. This also makes these feel more "Bronze Agey," which is a positive thing in my book.

There are some problems with these stories. First off, they were originally published as seven-page tales. This means that every seven pages, the action stops and starts up again, making it a bit of a slog at times. The next issues often re-told the last page of the previous issue, and sometimes they even include a "what happened last time" portion that takes up a page, or a least a few panels. This is a weakness of the source material, but readers should know what they're getting into.

Some of the villains aren't particularly compelling either. Manipulator and Doctor Synne are generic bad guys who posses "mind control" powers. Lord Hawk is basically an old man with a robotic bird. There's a reason why most of these villains haven't been heard from again.

Art:
While the stories are okay, the art is very strong from beginning to end. I always enjoyed Herb Trimpe's pencils and he gives Captain Britain's early adventures a nice Marvel house style appearance. Fred Kida provides nice embellishment to Trimpe's work. Here's a good example of their art:

Trimpe's departure coincided with Captain Britain switching from color to black and white. It's a drastic change, done at the time due to budgetary constraints. But the change is easier to swallow because John Buscema and Tom Palmer begin as the new art team. "Big John" was one of the best comics artists of all time and Palmer was arguably the best inker he ever had. With or without color their art always looked great.  Even a silly character like Lord Hawk looks great when depicted by Buscema and Palmer, as the image below demonstrates:

The final portion of Birth Of A Legend feature pencils by Ron Wilson embellished by several inkers. Wilson was always good and he provides some solid, enjoyable artwork in Birth Of A Legend. Here's a nice scan that features Wilson's pencils inked by Pablo Marcos:

How Does It Look?:
Since the original issues weren't easily available in the states, I've never owned any of them. Thankfully,  The Captain Britain's fans' page and blog, an excellent Captain Britain fansite, was kind enough to lend me this scan of the splash page for Captain Britain #14:

This is how the same page appears in Birth Of A Legend:

Extras:
Birth Of A Legend contains 30 pages of extras. These include pinups, vintage house ads, an introduction Stan Lee wrote for Captain Britain #1, and five pages of original art.

My rating:
Captain Britain: Birth Of A Legend is full of action and great art and is recommended. The sometimes-silly villains and change to black and white prevent me from giving it a higher rating than what you see below.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Hulk: Heart Of The Atom

Reprints Incredible Hulk #140, 148, 156, 202-203, 205-207, 246-248 and What If #23
Written by Harlan Ellison, Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Len Wein, Bill Mantlo and Peter Gillis.
Penciled by Herb Trimpe and Sal Buscema.
Inked by John Severin, Joe Staton, Mike Esposito, Sal Trapani, Sam Grainger.

Variant cover.

Note from J.A. Morris:
I was in the process of reading Hulk: Heart Of The Atom when I learned of the death of longtime Marvel artist Herb Trimpe earlier this month. His artwork has meant a lot to me since I discovered it in Godzilla # 12. Shortly thereafter, I began buying back issues of Incredible Hulk, the series that most comic fans think of when they hear Trimpe's name. The book that's reviewed here today features some of Trimpe's finest work. This post is dedicated to the life and work of Herb Trimpe. I send my condolences to his family and friends.  

The Hulk has been shrunk down to a microscopic height by the villain Psyklop! He finds himself in a subatomic world called K'ai.

Hulk stumbles on a city that's is being attacked by giant pig-dogs called warthos and intervenes and saves the city. The people are grateful to Hulk and praise his heroics. Hulk is fascinated to see that this world is populated by people who are "green like hulk."

Warthos attack Hulk and pay the price!

A woman named Jarella is monarch of this realm and is immediately attracted to Hulk when she meets him. Jarella's sorcerers cast a spell on the Hulk that allows him retain Bruce Banner's intellect. Hulk and Jarella quickly fall in love. For the first time in quite a while, Bruce and the Hulk are happy.

Hulk smiles when he realizes the crowd is cheering for him and is made up of greenskinned people. 

Jarella's kingdom is threatened by a member of the royal family named Visis. He and his followers attempt a coup, but the Hulk foils their plans. Visis is put on trial for his actions. The Hulk spares his life but Visis is forced into permanent exile. After the trial, Hulk announces that he and Jarella will marry the next day.  

But this bliss is short-lived when Psyklop arrives, turns Hulk back to his normal size and captures him back into our world. Hulk battles Psyklop and is enraged that he was ripped away from Jarella. Hulk easily beats Psyklop and the villain is punished by the dark gods he works for. Hulk quickly forgets about his adventures in K'ai.

Psyklop frisks Hulk away from K'ai.

Some time after that, Physicist Dr. Peter Corbeau, an old friend of Bruce Banner, invents a device called the Starcore. It orbits the sun and Corbeau believes it can cure Banner of the Hulk through solar energy. The military captures Hulk and Corbeau successfully cures him with Starcore.

At the same time, Jarella is having trouble in K'ai. Visis has returned and is once again seeking to overthrow Jarella. She wishes Bruce Banner was there to protect her kingdom. So Jarella asks her sorcerers to send her to Earth so that she may contact Hulk. Visis is aware of this and sends an assassin named Fialan after Jarella. Fialan kills Jarella, which prompts Hulk to summarily execute Fialan.

Thankfully, Fialan killed a Life Model Decoy of Jarella, not the real one. But Jarella's entry into our world has caused solar flares which threaten to destroy Earth. Jarella selflessly returns to K'ai, knowing that it is the only way to save the planet.

Hulk later returns to Jarella's world and is shocked at what he discovers. Jarella has been overthrown and imprisoned by Visis, who tells Jarella he will spare the lives of her people if she agrees to marry him. Jarella reluctantly caves to his demands.

The Hulk arrives just in time to break up the ceremony. But Visis has a secret weapon. His chief assassin Krylar has a device that makes anyone's greatest fear materialize in front of them. Krylar turns this device on the Hulk and Ol' Greenskin is forced to confront his greatest fear...himself!

Hulk realizes that it's a hoax and defeats Krylar and Visis. Jarella regains her throne, but once again, Hulk grows back to his proper height and leaves K'ai.

The next time Hulk visits K'ai, he finds Jarella and her kingdom attacked by a new foe. K'ai has been hit by a series of earthquakes, caused by "the god of the mountain." Jarella's people are sacrificing her to the god in hopes that he will cease the earthquakes. Hulk saves her and decides to confront the god of the mountain.

Jarella & Hulk meet the "god of the mountain."

It turns out the god is a green giant. But the giant is no match for Hulk, who pummels it and discovers the god is actually a robot. It was all part of a scheme of Psyklop who has returned to K'ai for revenge.  Psyklop hypnotizes Hulk and makes him his slave. All of K'ai is endangered when the hypnosis makes Hulk believe everyone around him is Psyklop and attacks them. Thankfully, Jarella's wizards intervene with a spell that combats this effect, which saves K'ai.

After Psyklop is defeated, Hulk reverts back to his normal size, but this time Jarella travels to Earth with him. The portal back to K'ai is broken and Jarella finds herself trapped in Hulk's world, but Banner and Jarella are happy to be together.

Subsequently, Banner and Jarella are spending a pleasant day walking around Santa Fe, New Mexico.  But their happiness is short-lived. A mysterious scientist reactivates the robot known as Crypto-Man, who previously battled Thor, and sends it to rob a bank. Crypto-Man sees Jarella and attacks her, prompting Banner to Hulk-up. When Crypto-Man hurls a car into a building, it sends rubble flying in the direction of a little boy. Jarella pushes the boy out of the way but is buried under rubble.

Hulk finishes off Crypto-Man but is overcome with grief when he finds Jarella. He takes her to the Gamma Base to get medical attention from Doc Samson, but Jarella dies.

A grieving Hulk believes that if anyone can save Jarella, it's his friend Doctor Strange. He sets out for New York City, only to be attacked by jet fighters. This sets Hulk raging like never before. Every step he makes towards New York, he is attacked by planes or police. Finally, Strange arrives with Hulk's Defenders teammates in tow. This leads to a direct confrontation between Hulk and the Defenders. 

Thankfully, the Defenders convince Hulk they want to help him and the Hulk calms down. But he is heartbroken when Doctor Strange says his mystic powers cannot restore Jarella's life.

After he accepts Jarella's death, Hulk takes her back to K'ai to give her a proper burial. But this brings him into conflict with two very powerful beings:

Mar-Vell, the Kree warrior better known as Captain Marvel!

And the god-like Gardener, one of the Elders of the Universe!

Plus, a tale from an alternate reality where Jarella survived and married Hulk!

Review:
Hulk: Heart of the Atom contains some of the most memorable Hulk stories of the Bronze Age penciled by the two greatest Hulk artists of all time.

Story:
The major problem I have with this book is that it begins with a reprint of Incredible Hulk #140. This issue was the second part of a two-parter that began in Avengers #88. Why was this Avengers story not included? But what's in the book is very good. 

Hulk's first journey to K'ai, plotted by Roy Thomas and scripted by Harlan Ellison is excellent. I don't know which writer deserves more credit, but it's a great story. I've read it many times now and I still hope for it to end happily for the Hulk.  

The follow-up is credited to Archie Goodwin and Chris Claremont. It's a solid sequel to the first Jarella story, with the Hulk and his love once again being separated at the end. I was surprised to see Hulk kill Fialan in this story. It's worth noting that this story (cover dated February 1972) is Claremont's first writing credit at Marvel. It introduces Dr. Peter Corbeau, a character Claremont would bring back while writing Uncanny X-Men.

Len Wein wrote the next part of the book and his stories are also good. He gives us several nice scenes that show how much Hulk and Jarella love each other. Jarella's death is sad and well-written by Wein. I think her death is more sad because she's killed by a by a Z-list villain like Crypto-Man. If she was killed by one of the Hulk's top foes like Abomination or the Leader out for revenge, it would not have been as tragically random. We never even learn the identity of the scientist who controls Crypto-Man behind the scenes. Jarella selflessly gives her life to protect a child from flying rubble.

Wein makes a point of showing that the Hulk just wants to be left alone, especially when he's seeking help from Doctor Strange. But the Hulk responds to the police and fighter planes that hound him with perhaps his greatest rampage of all time. 

Bill Mantlo takes over as writer for the stories that deal with the burial of Jarella. I enjoyed Hulk's duels with Captain Marvel and Gardener. It's fun to watch Hulk pit his savage strength against cosmically powered beings and come out on top.

   
The final story in the book from What If #23 was written by Peter Gillis. We get to see what would've happened if Hulk and Jarella married and settled down in K'ai. More often than not "What If" stories in the Bronze Age had sad endings, but this one ends the book on a happy note (even if it's just an "imaginary" story).

Art:
The art in Hulk: Heart Of The Atom is excellent from beginning to end.

Herb Trimpe pencils the first part and does a great job visualizing Jarella's world.  When I think of Trimpe, the first thing that comes to mind is how great he was at drawing military vehicles and weapons.  But Trimpe's depiction of K'ai shows he was just as good when it came to drawing "fantasy and sorcery" environs.

Trimpe's pencils are embellished by several different inkers. They're all good, but I thought Sam Grainger's complimented Trimpe's work a bit more than the others.

Trimpe also penciled the What If? story that closes out the book.  

Sal Buscema was synonymous with the Hulk from 1975 to '85 and this book shows why. This is some of his best work on the series, especially the portion that deals with Jarella's death and the Hulk's reaction to her passing. Joe Staton, a great penciler in his own right, serves as inker for Buscema and they make a great art team.  

This scene below is one of the saddest and most powerful moments you'll ever see in a comic book. 

The first four panels are absolutely heartbreaking. But Buscema and Staton are also great at depicting the Hulk during the one the greatest rages of his long history. This scene, where the Hulk tries to rest on top of the Statue of Liberty is a good example:

Hulk hurls the Liberty Torch at fighter planes!

Great work by Buscema and Staton.

Buscema and Trimpe also do a nice job drawing warthos and other monstrous creatures that inhabit K'ai.

An unfortunate dragon learns (the hard way) that "Hulk is the strongest one there is!"

Extras:
The book contains entries for Jarella and the Gardener from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

Hulk: Heart Of The Atom is a very good collection of stories that features some great art from Trimpe and Buscema. But the exclusion of Avengers #88 prevents it from getting a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

3.5 Sals.