The Battle of London in Revolutionary War: Alpha. But just when did it take place in Marvel continuity? © Marvel Comics

Over on the excellent It Came from Darkmoor blog dedicated to all things Marvel UK, Mark Roberts has been mulling over Marvel’s new limited series, Revolutionary War, and how it fits into overall Marvel continuity. In particular, he’d been trying to place when the Battle of London Bridge may have occurred, a massive “endpiece” conflict taking place before the series begins that “wraps” Marvel UK heroes long battle with corrupt megacorp Mys-Tech.

Revolutionary War co-creators Andy Lanning and Alan Cowsill have outlined in several places how the Battle was intended to be a fictional “wrap” to Marvel UK continuity, which, in the real world, was cut painfully short by the demise of Marvel UK in the mid 1990s, leaving many characters storylines hanging, unfinished.

For Mark, the Battle, revealed in Revolutionary War: Alpha, was a great ‘finale’ to the original Marvel UK adventure – but it did leave him wondering if (as it seemed) Motormouth’s sidekick, Killpower had gotten trapped on the other side of a portal, then how could he have taken part in the events of Captain Britain & MI13?

Motormouth’s partner Killpower is lost in an otherworldly dimension in a flashback scene in Revolutionary War: Alpha. © Marvel Comics

In Revolutionary War: Alpha, Mark notes, we see “Killpower charging towards the mass of tentacles which are coming out of that other-dimensional portal, the fading text of Motormouth’s words perhaps suggesting that Julius has crossed over into that other dimension.

Killpower features in Captain Britain and MI13, a victim of Dracula (but not, it turns out for very long. Go find the issues digitally or in a back issue box or the collection to find out why).

Wotcha Mark,

Just thought I’d pop in and clarify the confusion about the timeline in Revolutionary War.

I’ve noticed a few comments about when it is set and probable continuity errors regarding Killpower.
This is a problem facing most creators when dealing with long running continuity in any established comic universe. We had to make a call early on as to when this story was set and how it slotted into on-going story continuity.

I’ve always tried to respect continuity as much as possible – out of respect for previous creators and for the fans who have been reading a title for a long time.

Sometimes this can be difficult; especially when you want to bring in new readers who may be put off because of the weight of established continuity as well as dealing with the complete illogical nature of story time verses real time.

So, bearing in mind all the above, here’s our approach for revolutionary War:

It’s been 20 years since the last Marvel UK title was published in 1994.

The last time we saw any Marvel UK characters was in Paul Cornell’s excellent Captain Britain & MI13 series which was published in 2008-2009. That’s five years ago, real time.

Death’s Head II and other characters have popped up recently in Iron Man and other Marvel titles but MI13 was the last time we saw anything that could be considered ‘Marvel UK’ continuity.

In the Marvel Universe story continuity the events in MI13 were during and after the Skrull Invasion. There’s been a lot of Events in the Marvel Universe since then but no real sense of how long has passed since the Invasion and now. Just that time has passed because of the changes to various characters in the Marvel Universe.

We took it that at most five years has passed in the Marvel Universe since the events in MI13 and the start of Revolutionary War (because this is fact based on real time) but were careful not to be specific as it may cause problems down the line and we want to keep our options open should we get the chance to tell more stories in the Marvel UK Universe (one of which would almost certainly be revisiting the events surrounding the fall of Mys-TECH).

During those years, the Battle for London Bridge has taken place and Mys-TECH have been defeated, setting the scene for the story we’re telling and the changes in the characters when we meet them now.

It may not be ideal but it’s the best we have and, more importantly, allows us to once and for all establish that the events and characters from Marvel UK take place in the bigger Marvel Universe.
Hope this clears things up.

Thanks for all the support and kind comments

Hope you keep enjoying the story and fingers crossed we get enough buzz from it to do some more in the future!

Cheers
Andy

Like Mark, we  hope that helps clear a few things up for folks. It means we should think of Captain Britain & MI13, with its guest appearances of Motormouth, Killpower, Death’s Head, Digitek and Dark Angel as the last Marvel UK story.

“The flashbacks you are seeing from the Battle of London Bridge happen a while after that,” Mark outlines. “Mys-TECH are taken down, S.H.I.E.L.D. take some element of control, characters get trapped in another dimension, but all some time after that series had concluded.

“So, yes, Killpower may well be trapped in another dimension. We’ll just have to wait an see…

“… Does it effect the story? No. All you need to know is that Mys-TECH have been gone a long time, and they were defeated a while after Captain Britain & MI13 wrapped.”

But of course there will still be many Marvel fans, their brains already partially melted perhaps by the unsurprising return of Peter Parker as Spider-Man (what do you mean, you didn’t even know/believe he was dead?) who absolutely need to place the Battle of London Bridge in amongst all those Marvel status quo periods? Mark happily explains.

“Captain Britain & MI13 started during Secret Invasion but wrapped during Dark Reign. Dark Reign ended with Siege, which then began the period of focus upon Heroes coming back, getting together and winning the day named ‘The Heroic Age’.

“Now it is purely my own opinion here, but a day where all the heroes of Marvel UK got together, in one coordinated attack, and took down their greatest enemies once and for all? Well. Does that just sound in step with the Heroic Age, now? It even, roughly, fits time wise too.”

There. That clears the whole matter up nicely as far as we’re concerned. Now we’re off to explain Doctor Who continuity to Star Trek fans….

• Read Mark’s full article on Revolutionary War continuity here on It Came From Darkmoor

• Revolutionary War Part Three: Knights of Pendragon #1 is on sale now in all good comic shops and via digital outlets. We’re still trying to work out exactly what’s going on in that, too.

• About the Author
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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

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Categories: British Comics, US Comics

Tags: Alan Cowsill, Andy Lanning, It Came from Darkmoor, Killpower, Mark Roberts, Marvel UK, Mys-Tech, Revolutionary War