Review by Luke Williams
Captain Britain has a special place in fans’ hearts, but perhaps most of those fans are this side of the Atlantic, given how difficult it has been difficult to sustain an ongoing CB title. He (and latterly, she) has been relegated to cast or supporting cast status in a number of titles. Most effectively, of course, Captain Britain was a member of Excalibur, specifically the celebrated Alan Davis’ Excalibur run of the 1990s. The character has a long and convoluted history with reboots, revamps, other people taking the mantle, but, most significantly, it was in this strip that Dave Thorpe’s concept of Earth 616, was fully exploited.
For this, the character’s 50th year anniversary, Marvel have published the Captain Britain: 50th Anniversary Special #1, containing three strips set in different periods of the good Captains’ career, each with a different creative team and with a choice of covers. One cover features the Brian Braddock incarnation of the good Captain, by Alan Davis, the other Betsy Braddock by David Mack. Despite being described as an oversized special however, this is not a very long book.
The first strip, by Captain Britain co-creator Chris Claremont, Paul Davison and Carlos Lopez, with letters throughout the book by Clayton Cowles, is set in the early days of Brian’s stint as Captain Britain (during events seen in Captain Britain Weekly No. 8 and No. 9, to be precise), wearing the original lionheart / amulet / staff costume and before Jamie, the twins’ older brother turned evil. The sum total of the plot is that Jamie is piloting a plane carrying Brian and Betsy when they are attacked by villain Dr Synne, one of the Captain’s early nemeses.
What follows is not particularly sophisticated is overly verbose and vaguely silly. Admittedly, it has perhaps been written to evoke the early days of the strip, but it comes across as old fashioned and hackneyed. Paul Davison’s art is good, but is hampered by a clunky and anachronistic script.
(Continuity alert: It’s been pointed out that in the story, CB is seen wielding his Star Sceptre, which he didn’t acquire until much later in the Captain Britain Weekly run – introduced in a two-part story across No. 35/36 – and Brian seems to be more knowledgeable about his magical nature and powers than he was at the time the story is supposedly set. And let’s not get started on Tessa’s use of a laptop in the 1970s…).
Far better, though far from perfect is Alan Davis’ effort, with colour by Matt Hollingsworth. The art is beautiful as you’d expect, and Hollingsworth sets off Davis’s linework perfectly. In this tale, Brian Cap’ is visited by one of his superiors from the Captain Britain Corps to discuss his ongoing infractions, a story that acts as a primer and an introduction to Brian’s relationship with the Corps, and a brief history of the most well known storyline, the Jasper’s Warp / Crooked World arc. It looks wonderful, but there isn’t a lot going on here: entertaining in the time to read it but not memorable, with an ending that peters out, rather than concluding the story.
At least Dan Abnett and Kelsey Ramsay’s Betsy strip brings something different to the table, the creators playing on the Arthurian, Celtic, Avalon and Otherworld elements of the CB strip.
A ritual combat between Betsy Cap’ and a man dressed as Amulet Brian Cap’ on Otherworld goes awry, but it may be a distraction to allow a frenemy to fulfil some other grand plan.
Abnett is a great writer and would be the perfect choice to script a Captain Britain series, should there be one in the works. Ramsay is talented, and has a style that has the rough and ready look of a 1970s IPC artist, however I’m not sure if it’s a style that suits the Captain. Kudos to Abnett and Ramsay to try something different, but it doesn’t quite pay off, as they don’t really have the room to explore the concept they introduce.
As a package, this special is a bit disappointing. The Davis and Abnett/Ramsay strips are worthwhile reads, whereas the Claremont/Davidson is just cringe inducing. At the back, of the book there is a two-page summary of the character’s history to this point; a potted history which does the character little service, the “Crooked World” / “Jasper’s Warp” run is one of the best superhero stories ever.
Not a very special, special, sadly. But that hasn’t stopped prices of it hitting £20 on eBay. Someone must be liking it.
Luke Williams
Captain Britain: 50th Anniversary Special #1 was published by Marvel on 14th October 2026. Although physical copies are hard to find in the UK, and expensive on eBay, a digital edition is available through Marvel.com and other platforms such as Neon Ichiban
Head downthetubes for…
• Gatecrashers: Captain Britain Anniversary Special #1 Review
“Despite a few issues and an uncertain future, it’s hard to think of a better way to celebrate Captain Britain than these stories…”
• Too Dangerous for a Girl: Captain Britain Anniversary Special #1 Review
“After 50 years of faithful service, Captain Britain, and his fans, deserve better…”
• CBR: Captain Britain Anniversary Special #1 Community Comments
“It was genuinely interesting to see both twins operating as Captain Britain at the same time. That definitely sets up some cool possibilities for the future in the post DNX era.That said, I really do think Chris Claremont’s writing here feels dated and very much of that time – it’s like he was trying to force a classic era vibe into modern pages…”
“I enjoyed this anniversary. I wouldn’t recommend it as a jumping on point for new readers but i loved the emphasis that Betsy is a core part of the CB mythos as well as the X-Men. Definitely worth a read if you are a CB fan already.”
• Marvel Database: Captain Britain
• Understanding Captain Britain: The Basics by Mark Roberts (2008 Essay for It Came from Darkmoor)
• Captain Britain, various, filed under C in the Marvel Universe Appendix
• Will the Real Captain Britain Please Stand Up?
Back in 2000, comics publisher Dez Skinn uncovered an unusual piece of comics history – a design for Captain Britain by much-admired artist Tom Kerr. The design was intended for a Captain Britain comic Dez proposed to IPC Fleetway over two decades ago, prompting much speculation of “what might have been” had Marvel not firmly established their version of eponymous character…
• Check out the just-for-fun Avengers UK Facebook page, featuring an inventive team’s range of Captain Britain/Marvel UK fan fiction comics, and much more
Captain Britain © Marvel
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Brought up on a diet of Commando, British Boys Annuals and Asterix, Lucas Williams’s day job limits his reading time. Luckily for everyone else this also restricts his writing time.
Categories: Comics, downthetubes Comics News, Features, Reviews, US Comics
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A bit of a disappointment really. £20 on ebay!…certainly not worth that and there were loads of copies in the comic shops, well the London one I use, for cover price last week, well over a week after release. So not that hard to find. Maybe now people are paying £20 for it, it will have sold out.