KID KLASSICS: THE GREATEST BRITISH SUPERHERO OF ALL?

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

How could I forget?  And how could I forget I'd forgotten?  If I'd

not seen the above cover staring out at me from a previous post on this

very blog, I wouldn't have remembered that I'd forgotten to remember

I'd forgotten.  All clear?  Good.  (You know how I hate confusion.)

Back on October 6th, 1976 (wow, fortyyears ago), MARVEL's

U.K. answer to CAPTAIN AMERICA went on sale in newsagents all

across the country.  The accompanying scans come from the very copy

I purchased from JOHN MENZIES in my local shopping centre on

the way to work that morning all those years ago.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN was a first for Marvel U.K. - the debut of an

all-new, specially created superhero, as opposed to the diet of reprints

from across the pond we had hitherto enjoyed with rabid appreciation.

The strip was still produced in America ('though writer CHRIS CLARE-

MONT and artist HERB TRIMPE had British connections), but set in

England, and featured the kind of mockney-Cockney dialogue that

our Yankee cousins imagine we all speak like.  (Think DICK VAN

DYKE in MARY POPPINS and you've got the picture.)

Various hands have guided the LONDON LION in different and

diverse directions since his first humble beginnings in '76, but despite

basically being a SPIDEY knock-off, there was an unconvoluted in-

nocence about CB's early tales which was refreshing.  But don't take

my word for it.  Judge for yourself as BRIAN BRADDOCK's initial

voyage of discovery now unfolds before you for your reading

pleasure.  Ready?  Hold on to your hats and off we go!

Unfortunately, the budget didn't stretch to full-colour throughout the
mag, so the FANTASTIC FOUR reprint had to settle for Letratone,

although by now the printing standard was good enough to reproduce the

grey hues without turning them into the muddy mess that had blighted

many earlier weekly titles.  NICK FURY, AGENT Of S.H.I.E.L.D.

brought up the rear of the comic, which had returned to colour for
JIM STERANKO's classic tales of super-espionage.

So there you have it!  Britain's Brian Braddock battling the

bombastic baddies of the brutal JOSHUA STRAGG - The REAVER -

for the very first time in a classic tale from the vaults.  Now don't say

I'm not good to you, 'cos it simply wouldn't be true.

Posted in: Cartoons