The Queen, a super villain!

By John Freeman on 18 January 2011

Following up on our story about Markosia’s new Royal Wedding tie-in comic, Kate and William – A Very Public Love Story, we were reminded that the Royal family has made appearances in comics on many occasions, but perhaps only once as a potential supervillain.

Back in 1977, when the weekly comic’s American writers of Captain Britain Weekly might have heard about the Royal Jubilee even across the pond, they came up with the idea of having her take central stage, the hypnotised pawn of a supervillain known as the Highwayman — and order the invasion of Africa.

But first, the Highwayman had to gain the Queen’s trust – and to do this, he brainwashes the hapless young Captain Britain and orders him to attack the Queen. When he does, the Highwayman rides in to defend her, and her “saviour” asks if he could be allowed a look inside Buckingham Palace as a reward.Once there, of course, the dastardly villain soon has our sovereign in his power.

All this was a prelude to a relaunch of Captain Britain’s adventures as part of a new comic, Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain, and in the first issue disaster seems to loom, as the Highwayman not only controls the monarch, but also the entire Royal Navy.

Eventually of course, Captain Britain saves the day and defeats the plans of the Manipulator, the Highwayman’s boss.

It’s all tremendous but hokey fun, and, as the International Hero web site points out, the Highwayman marks a truly awful attempt by an American writer of Captain Britain to mimic a British accent!

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as 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.