Chris Claremont talks Captain Britain/Excalibur movie

Over on the Hollywood Reporter website, X-Men scribe and Captain Britain creator Chris Claremont has been talking Marvel movies, and has stated his opinion on a Captain Britain/Excalibur film.

Talk turned to Cap and Excalibur when Claremont was asked about possible directions for new Marvel films, to which he replied:

” With Excalibur, you have the option of leaping literally out of this world – I mean they have a pan-dimensional train, for heaven’s sake – to other star systems or possibly even other dimensions.”

With Claremont behind a possible Captain Britain/Excalibur movie it raises this blog’s hopes that one day Cap might come to movie theatres. The use of Excalibur as a vehicle to launch a Cap franchise is a great idea as they can literally travel anywhere and do anything, leaving scripting possibilities wide open.

Maybe the film will be like my previous speculation on what a Captain Britain movie might be like which you can read here or here.

What do you think of Claremont’s views? Do you want an Excalibur movie? Sound off in the comments below.

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When Captain Britain and ROM crossed over.

Years ago when I was a bigger Captain Britain comic collector than I was now I used to love to chase down Cap crossovers. As this was before the internet reared its silicon head my bible for all things Cap was the Overstreet comics pricing guide.

Overstreet was my guide of choice as among its many listings it often took the time to tell the reader if a certain character could be found in another comic. Armed with the guide I bought if I remember correctly Ambush Bug comics that were reputed to have Cerebus the Aardvark in, issues of 2000AD which featured the Sisters Of Mercy and issue 65 of ROM which the guide swore blind had a Captain Britain appearance.

What do you mean you’ve never heard of ROM, does this help?

Check out that great line up, Mantlo, Ditko and P.Craig Russell, but enough of that you want to see Captain Britain, so here he is.

Yes appearing with Sinbad and Captain Ireland aka Shamrock, Cap rushes to help ROM fight the evil wraiths. To be honest it looks like Cap was caught out by the call to arms as he has forgotten his star sceptre, but it does look like he has been working out, so he should have no trouble in the fight? Well we’ll never know, as the panel above is the only time you see Captain Britain in ROM 65.

Do I care that I bought a comic to see Captain Britain and he is only in one panel? No, as if I remember correctly it cost about ten pence, which was hardly bank breaking then, and ROM is a fun read.

Sadly ROM was never reprinted due to copyright and ownership concerns, which means you can only hunt down the issue via eBay or back issue bins. It also means we will never get to see reprinted the issue of ROM where he teams up with Luke Cage in a sort of Shaft meets Robocop crossover.

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As there’s no Captain Britain in Time Runs Out this week here’s some puzzles to help you pass the time.

This week in Avengers 38 and New Avengers 26 Time Runs Out continues, but sadly without any Captain Britain appearances. So to help you pass the time until Cap does show up here are some puzzle pages from the pages of Seventies Captain Britain weekly.

I’m not sure how Cap lost his shadow and why you need to be careful finding it again but that tag line for next weeks puzzle of A Lion in Winter sounds intriguing doesn’t it?

Oh it’s just a maze. Would Richard the Lionheart be afraid of it? Sadly that answer is lost to history, unlike the terrible lion pun.

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Captain Britain across the multiverse part 2.

Earlier this week I published a list of five superheroes from across the vast multiverse of comics that I felt had influenced or been influenced by Captain Britain. Today I look at my final five choices and some runners-up, part one can be read here.

Rock star, superhero and slayer of elder gods Grant Morrison’s Zenith has something for everyone. Created for UK weekly sci-fi mag 2000AD in 1987 Zenith’s legal shenanigans were only sorted out last year allowing fans to finally see his adventures reprinted in an affordable format. Zenith was a mix of slack behaviour, superhero style action and Morrison using him and the cast to make attacks on the Conservative party. Interestingly enough another hero with Captain Britain similarities named Maximan turns up in a flashback set during the war, sadly he is quickly dispatched by his Nazi counterpart Masterman.

The self-styled Man with no Time for Crime Big Ben was a supporting character in Alan Moore’s Miracleman run – interestingly like Zenith only now out of legal obscurity and with affordable reprints. Big Ben was a deluded superhero who saw all his adventures in a comic book style, sadly he had his arse well and truly kicked by Miracleman. But still you have to admire his style, the bowler, brolly and natty suit combo clearly showing where his loyalties lie.

Dan Dare the squared jawed, clean-cut astronaut and all round hero debuted in UK magazine Eagle in 1950 and is still going strong today. Reimagined by Grant Morrison and Garth Ennis, Dan has always been a popular hero and he still has new adventures printed three times a month in the fan publication Spaceship Away, showing you can’t keep a good hero down. Dan was famous for his stiff upper lip, never breaking his word, being an ace pilot and roundly thrashing his arch-enemy the Mekon every time they met.

Washed up on the shores of Scotland Garth’s nationality is suspect, but as Superman is often referred to as American as his rocket crashed there I’d like to think we can apply this theory of nationality to Garth. Garth debuted in UK newspaper the Mirror in 1943 and began his interdimensional quest to thwart evildoers and right wrongs which continued up until 1997. During the Seventies and Eighties when I read Garth every day in my dad’s newspaper I certainly remember him as a daring hero who battled evil often with the help of a nubile lady who would have difficulty keeping her top on.

Last on my list in World War One veteran Charley Bourne from the definitive war comic book tale Charley’s War published by Battle comics from 1979 to 1985. Charley had no superpowers except some might say luck, perseverance and bravery, and his story is often hailed as the best war comic ever written and is now collected for all to enjoy.

So I hope you have enjoyed my look across the multiverse of comics at Captain Britain’s ancestors and “family” , here’s the runner-up list of more heroes I could have discussed if I’d had the time.

Codename Warlord – Lord Peter Flint

Rat Pack

Tough of the track – Alf Tupper

Johnny Red

Blade

Kelly’s Eye

Pete Wisdom

Janus Stark

Major Easy

I’ve no doubt there’s many more UK influenced superheroes out there and if I’ve missed any off please feel free to drop them into the comments section below.

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Marvel’s Tom Brevoort talks Captain Britain and New Avengers 30

In an interview on the Marvel website, Marvel Executive Editor and Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort has let slip some information about Captain Britain in the current Avenger’s event, Time Runs Out, due to take place in New Avengers 30.

Spoilers after picture…

 

It seems in New Avengers 30 due soon we shall learn the fate of The Captain Britain Corps and maybe what happend to Cap’s eye. Check out the cover below.

This looks like a great Cap issue coming up and you can keep up to date with Time Runs Out and other Captain Britain news by following The Captain Britain Blog on Facebook, on Pinterest, or subscribe to this blog by entering your email in the link top right.

Is this the rudest piece of Captain Britain merchandise?

Hats off to friend of The Captain Britain Blog @arbitrarygenius who has found what might be the rudest piece of Captain Britain merchandise ever.

Take a peek at the rude light switch below.

Fancy one, then click here to order, while I won’t be decorating my version of Braddock Manor with one soon the light switch certainly raised a smile.

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Captain Britain across the multiverse, part 1

Captain Britain is a great hero, but he’s not that unique in the superhero world. Why? Well, if you take a look across the many different comics universes that exist there are plenty of heroes who have influenced Captain Britain or been influenced by him. So I thought it would be interesting to cast an eye across this multiverse of superheroes and see what other UK heroes we could find.

Let’s start with Marvel Comic’s Union Jack, who on first examination bears a very close resemblance to Cap from his name to his costume, however if Captain Britain is comparable on a super power level to Superman then Union Jack is more like Batman. Unlike Batman though many heroes have worn the Union Jack costume one who even fought alongside Captain Britain in the Knights of Pendragon series.

Talking of Superman, in the Elseworlds graphic novel entitled True Brit by John Cleese and Kim Howard Johnson we get to see what might have happened if Superman had crashed in England and been raised as a UK citizen. The book is loved by some as a unique take on Superman, and hated by others due to what they feel are the outdated stereotypes it portrays. If I can ever overcome my dislike of the majority of Superman stories I might read it some day and give you my opinion.

DC Comic’s Knight and Squire are their UK version of Batman and Robin, whose modern versions were created by Grant Morrison – more from him later –  based on old DC characters. The UK writer influence doesn’t end there as Captain Britain scribe Paul Cornell wrote a magnificent mini series about them, which should be still available. Sadly after the DC Universe reboot Knight was killed off, but still when has death ever been permanent in comics.

I don’t have much information on Kurt Busiek’s UK heroes Lion and the Unicorn from his Astro City series other than the picture above. However outside of DC and Marvel Busiek’s creator owned ongoing series is to me one of the best superhero universes ever created, and if you have never read any my advice is get stuck in immediately and make up for all that lost time.

Marvel’s Captain Granbretan was created by Grant Morrison for a backup text piece in Captain Britain weekly. The story sees Paul Peltier find a strange suit on Darkmoor which he hopes to exploit to make money as a superhero, sadly the suit is sentient and kills Peltier and carries on utilizing his body to fight crime. However the suit soon consumes all of its owners remains so is forced to return to Darkmoor hoping someone will find it again soon.

Join me soon for more UK influenced superheroes from the obscure to the mega popular all of who have in my opinion influenced or been influenced by Captain Britain.

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It’s Captain Britain’s “sidekick” Spider-UK in this weeks Amazing Spider-Man 9 as Spider-Verse kicks off

Following on from Amazing Spider-Man issue 7, this weeks Amazing Spider-Man issue 9 see’s the launch of Spider-Verse starring Spider-UK from the Captain Britain Corps.

This new Spider-Man event Spider-Verse sees Spider-Villain Morlun and his group of evil side kicks called The Inheritors set out to kill every single version of Spider-Man that exists across the Marvel multiverse. Spider-UK when we last saw him was travelling across the dimensions to help Spidey fight the good fight.

I don’t want to say too much in case folks are avoiding spoilers so if you haven’t read this weeks Amazing Spider-Man issue 9 please don’t continue to read past the picture below.

So despite there being multiple versions of Spider-Man in this weeks Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-UK instead of being relegated to the sidelines actually plays a major part in the story.

The reason behind Spider-UK’s almost headline role is that Spider-Man doesn’t know what’s going on; so Spider-UK after this sterling entrance helping Spidey stop a bank robbery….

…quickly becomes the go to person to explain whats going on.

And no your eyes on not deceiving you that is Spider-Ham you can see. Anyway as the forces of good gather it seems even Spider-Man’s sense of humor can’t stop Spider-UK from making sure everyone knows what’s happening, and generally looking like he is in charge.

So Spider-Verse’s first installment sees Spider-UK stepping up and not being just drawn into the background as I feared, whether this will continue or even if he will survive his first encounter with Morlun is something that we will have to wait to see. My hopes are high for Spider-UK to continue to play a big role in this event as he is certainly unique among the Spider ensemble, and also because I really want him to meet Captain Britain for some team-up/sidekick shenanigans.

It’s really is a great time for Captain Britain as our hero takes – almost – center stage in the Avenger’s current event, Time Runs Out – covered here and here, plus Spider-UK makes his debut. It’s great to see both characters taking their rightful place in the Marvel Universe, and here’s hoping after the events are over we get a Cap and Spider-UK mini or even an ongoing series.

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Some minor faults can’t spoil my new Captain Britain action figure.

I’m always on the lookout for Captain Britain bargains on eBay, be they cards, art, badges or action figures. So imagine my delight when I not only came across a Captain Britain action figure from 1999 I hadn’t seen before, but then won the item as well.

Here’s the figure.

Instantly there are a couple of things on the figure that leap out at you, firstly it’s labelled Previews exclusive, Previews referring to the monthly comic book catalogue, so I’m imagining the figure might have been scarce or even non-existent outside of comic shops.

The next thing that caught my eye was just who is Captain Britain packaged with?

It’s sort of hard to see from this angle but I’m 99.9% certain it’s Lockheed the companion of Kitty Pryde Caps’ Excalibur team-mate, whose inclusion is suspect, which I will get to later.

Why Lockheed? Well the jury is still out on that one. Anyway the figure also comes with an exclusive trading card which because I won’t open the packet this is about as close as we’re going to get to it.

Now Captain Britain merchandise to me lives or fails on how they describe Cap, so let’s flip the box and see how this one does.

Not to bad though Captain Britain is not powerless without his suit but as this was 1999 that might not have been in Cap continuity at the time so I’m going to ignore it.

Finally I’m always intrigued to see what other superheroes were part of this range. The box lists Wolverine – who I believe Marvel are contractually bound to always release as an action figure – Black Bolt, and Shang-Chi. Interestingly if you study the first picture of the Cap figure you will notice Wolverine and the other heroes figures are all based on comics; whereas Captain Britain is based on a trade paperback which collects his adventures. This collection is the series of adventures from before Cap joined Excalibur and met Kitty Pryde and Lockheed, so as I said earlier the dragon’s inclusion is suspect to say the least.

Despite these two minor errors I’m quite taken with the new addition to my Captain Britain merchandise collection and considering the figure is 15 years old it’s in very good condition and now sits proudly on my shelf – out of direct sunlight don’t worry.

If you want to read about my other odd Captain Britain figure then click here.

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