Captain Britain vs. Captain America in their weirdest team-up.

Who would win in a Captain Britain vs. Captain America clash has been a subject of debate for fans of the two heroes and Marvel Comic’s writers for a long time. Throughout their long careers the two Caps have faced off against each other numerous times, but only once have they faced off outside of comics in what might be their weirdest team-up yet.

This strange clash of the spandex titans was down to Technics – a branch of the Panasonic electric goods corporation – who a few years ago did a licensing deal with Marvel Comics to use their heroes to promote a new range of hi-fi goods.

Part of the deal was the use of Captain America and Captain Britain in this promotional image.

Now I’m no expert, but it looks to me like the good Captains are engaged in some sort of musical duel – I’m too old to know the exact term to use here – and the advert just strikes me as looking slightly odd, though I do like Captain America’s replacement shield.

Donning a metaphorical deerstalker I started to track down the original image, fairly certain it had the style of the great Bryan Hitch, and for once I was right.

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Here is the comic cover the Technics image was taken from; it’s Ultimates Volume 2 issue 4 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. This explains why in the Technics advert I felt Captain Britain didn’t look quite right as the Ultimate universe is a parallel one, and their Captain Britain is slightly different to the one we know and love.

I imagine Hitch’s art was chosen for this piece simply because the Ultimates was one of Marvel’s most popular comics during the time the Technics campaign was running, but the undramatic look of Captain Britain compared to Captain America just makes the advert look a little flat to me. It’s almost as if Captain Britain is not interested in the product or “getting down“ with Captain America, either that or he has taken some high-class hallucinogenic and now is ready to rave. Hey, it’s the Ultimate universe and if you have ever read any of Mark Millar’s series then you know this behavior is certainly more commonplace then in the regular Marvel Universe.

Anyway what I know about advertising could be written on the back of a stamp; as the image was that popular it was even made into a t-shirt, not one I would add to my collection though.

If you want more Captain Britain vs. Captain America action that doesn’t involve the Technics company then check out my article here about the first time the two ever met. It contains Nick Fury as James Bond, the kidnapping of the Prime Minister and Captain Britain and the Red Skull fighting on Big Ben, and is one of my favorite Cap cross overs.

Join me later in the week for a look at the Ultimate version of Captain Britain.