What do you think?
Rate this book
Captain Britain US & UK collections
Captain Britain: Legacy of a Legend
Collects Captain Britain (1976) #1-2, Marvel Team-Up (1972) #65-66, and material from Hulk Comic #1 and #3-5, Incredible Hulk Weekly #57-59, Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #377-384 And #386, Daredevils #3-4, Mighty World Of Marvel (1983) #8-12 And Captain Britain (1985) #14.
Honor four decades of myth and majesty with the United Kingdom's greatest hero! Follow Brian Braddock — handpicked for greatness by the sorcerer Merlyn — from the fateful decision that imbues him with the might of right on the path to glory that will make him protector of the Omniverse! Along the way, he'll make a splash stateside in a team-up with Spider-Man and fight alongside the Black Knight in the name of King Arthur! Things go from fantasy to far-out as Brian goes Multiversal — facing Slaymaster, the Crazy Gang, Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury! He's Britain's champion — now and forever!
Honor four decades of myth and majesty with the United Kingdom's greatest hero! Follow Brian Braddock — handpicked for greatness by the sorcerer Merlyn — from the fateful decision that imbues him with the might of right on the path to glory that will make him protector of the Omniverse! Along the way, he'll make a splash stateside in a team-up with Spider-Man and fight alongside the Black Knight in the name of King Arthur! Things go from fantasy to far-out as Brian goes Multiversal — facing Slaymaster, the Crazy Gang, Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury! He's Britain's champion — now and forever!
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 2016
About the author
Chris Claremont
3,296 books902 followersChris Claremont is a writer of American comic books, best known for his 16-year (1975-1991) stint on Uncanny X-Men, during which the series became one of the comic book industry's most successful properties.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
Claremont has written many stories for other publishers including the Star Trek Debt of Honor graphic novel, his creator-owned Sovereign Seven for DC Comics and Aliens vs Predator for Dark Horse Comics. He also wrote a few issues of the series WildC.A.T.s (volume 1, issues #10-13) at Image Comics, which introduced his creator-owned character, Huntsman.
Outside of comics, Claremont co-wrote the Chronicles of the Shadow War trilogy, Shadow Moon (1995), Shadow Dawn (1996), and Shadow Star (1999), with George Lucas. This trilogy continues the story of Elora Danan from the movie Willow. In the 1980s, he also wrote a science fiction trilogy about female starship pilot Nicole Shea, consisting of First Flight (1987), Grounded! (1991), and Sundowner (1994). Claremont was also a contributor to the Wild Cards anthology series.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 11, 2022
Reading Captain Britain is remarkably difficult.
Published by Marvel UK, Captain Britain started out in the weekly Captain Britain magazine which otherwise consisted of reprints of US comics. After it was cancelled, Captain Britain's story continued in Super Spider-Man, followed by Hulk Comic, Marvel Super-Heroes, Daredevils, and Mighty World of Marvel. After this it finally got a self-titled Captain Britain monthly comic.
Marvel Unlimited only has the two Captain Britain series without any of the in-between stuff. On top of this, all of the collected editions are out of print aside from an expensive omnibus hardcover.
Fortunately I was able to find this, which consists of a smattering of Captain Britain stories from across all the above-listed comics. It feels very incomplete, sometimes throwing you straight into climaxes without the build-up, and other times not concluding the stories it begins. However, it did succeed in giving me a general grasp for Captain Britain's story and characters, which is pretty much all I was hoping for.
Published by Marvel UK, Captain Britain started out in the weekly Captain Britain magazine which otherwise consisted of reprints of US comics. After it was cancelled, Captain Britain's story continued in Super Spider-Man, followed by Hulk Comic, Marvel Super-Heroes, Daredevils, and Mighty World of Marvel. After this it finally got a self-titled Captain Britain monthly comic.
Marvel Unlimited only has the two Captain Britain series without any of the in-between stuff. On top of this, all of the collected editions are out of print aside from an expensive omnibus hardcover.
Fortunately I was able to find this, which consists of a smattering of Captain Britain stories from across all the above-listed comics. It feels very incomplete, sometimes throwing you straight into climaxes without the build-up, and other times not concluding the stories it begins. However, it did succeed in giving me a general grasp for Captain Britain's story and characters, which is pretty much all I was hoping for.
April 6, 2022
A frustrating Collection, which switches to a different part of the characters history just as you are getting invested.
June 10, 2020
I am a big fan of Captain Britain's, an American-created character for British comics. His publication history is all over the place, though, from a self-titled book of his own to having his strip in reprint magazines, to being the main feature in other anthology titles before being popular enough (again) to get his own self-titled book (again).
This collection feels similarly disjointed.
Some of the material collected here I had read previously, some in the original books, some in reprints or older collections. Some is new to me.
We start with Brian Braddock's two-part origin by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, and get his (also) two-part Team-Up story with Spider-Man, which introduced the character to an American audience (it was fun to compare the origin story as initially presented with its retelling here, as John Byrne faithfully redraws Trimpe's take before elements of the story get rewritten here). The Team-Up also introduces the character of Arcade.
We get the short (and short-lived) black-and-white Black Knight feature, which has an amnesiac Captain Britain as a secondary character and propels the two of them into the Otherworld without giving any context. Why is BK in Britain? Why does he talk the way he does and why does Brian (CB) not know who he - or anybody - is?
I'll probably never know.
They fight some dragons (why?), get a thousand-year old telepathic elven archer sidekick (Jackdaw) and find and revive King Arthur.
Next CB and Jackdaw fall through dimensions to (an) Earth. During that fall Brian's costume changes and his powers from then on work differently (many aspects of which later fall by the wayside).
That takes...two panels?
No explanation.
(Just like Jackdaw's completely changed appearance.)
But from then on he wears his best-known costume (not the one on the cover) and is, artwise, firmly in the hands of Alan Davis where he will mostly stay for the next few decades.
This storyline introduces many elements and characters that will be fleshed more out and accompany the good Captain throughout his career and even influence the greater Marvel Universe (like the numbering of universes - he lands in 238; later Moore - during his run - has the "normal" Marvel Universe be known as 616, which ever since has been the designation for "the" Marvel Universe).
Instead of finishing this story, its next chapter, "Crooked World" - which also would have been where Alan Moore takes over the wrinting part! -gets left out, inexplicably jumping in much later into Alan Moore's run to the reintroduction of Brian's sister Betsy, later Psylocke of the X-Men, who so far hasn't even been mentioned in this collection.
(Initially, these were the stories I fell in love with, though. My first introduction to Alans Moore and Davis in the pages of the British mag "The Daredevils".)
We get the showdown with The Fury and James Jaspers (but not who or what they are) and the redemption of Captain UK (I know who she is, but for the purposes of this collection: who?!) before closing this book with the epilogue of Alan Davis' final British Captain Britain story, which again might leave the casual reader baffled as to who Brian's flying girlfriend is, why Betsy is blind, and so on.
While I liked many parts of this collection and found it very interesting to follow Alan Davis' progress as a visual artist who has been at the top of his field for a very long time now, this volume is too disjointed to be read as anything resembling an actual story (and considering what's being left out it is baffling that some stuff that at best could be referred to as filler gets actual screen-time). So three stars only.
This collection feels similarly disjointed.
Some of the material collected here I had read previously, some in the original books, some in reprints or older collections. Some is new to me.
We start with Brian Braddock's two-part origin by Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe, and get his (also) two-part Team-Up story with Spider-Man, which introduced the character to an American audience (it was fun to compare the origin story as initially presented with its retelling here, as John Byrne faithfully redraws Trimpe's take before elements of the story get rewritten here). The Team-Up also introduces the character of Arcade.
We get the short (and short-lived) black-and-white Black Knight feature, which has an amnesiac Captain Britain as a secondary character and propels the two of them into the Otherworld without giving any context. Why is BK in Britain? Why does he talk the way he does and why does Brian (CB) not know who he - or anybody - is?
I'll probably never know.
They fight some dragons (why?), get a thousand-year old telepathic elven archer sidekick (Jackdaw) and find and revive King Arthur.
Next CB and Jackdaw fall through dimensions to (an) Earth. During that fall Brian's costume changes and his powers from then on work differently (many aspects of which later fall by the wayside).
That takes...two panels?
No explanation.
(Just like Jackdaw's completely changed appearance.)
But from then on he wears his best-known costume (not the one on the cover) and is, artwise, firmly in the hands of Alan Davis where he will mostly stay for the next few decades.
This storyline introduces many elements and characters that will be fleshed more out and accompany the good Captain throughout his career and even influence the greater Marvel Universe (like the numbering of universes - he lands in 238; later Moore - during his run - has the "normal" Marvel Universe be known as 616, which ever since has been the designation for "the" Marvel Universe).
Instead of finishing this story, its next chapter, "Crooked World" - which also would have been where Alan Moore takes over the wrinting part! -gets left out, inexplicably jumping in much later into Alan Moore's run to the reintroduction of Brian's sister Betsy, later Psylocke of the X-Men, who so far hasn't even been mentioned in this collection.
(Initially, these were the stories I fell in love with, though. My first introduction to Alans Moore and Davis in the pages of the British mag "The Daredevils".)
We get the showdown with The Fury and James Jaspers (but not who or what they are) and the redemption of Captain UK (I know who she is, but for the purposes of this collection: who?!) before closing this book with the epilogue of Alan Davis' final British Captain Britain story, which again might leave the casual reader baffled as to who Brian's flying girlfriend is, why Betsy is blind, and so on.
While I liked many parts of this collection and found it very interesting to follow Alan Davis' progress as a visual artist who has been at the top of his field for a very long time now, this volume is too disjointed to be read as anything resembling an actual story (and considering what's being left out it is baffling that some stuff that at best could be referred to as filler gets actual screen-time). So three stars only.
May 30, 2020
A highlights compilation not a collection. A bit of the origin story, the Spiderman team up, some of the Black Knight team upon, the start of the multiverse hop, some of Alan Moore's run and a little Alan Davis. The skips between eras can be jarring but here's some good stuff but half of it has been in the proper hardback collections. What I want is the complete Alan Moore and Alan Davis runs.
August 16, 2018
I really wish I had read this first. It is a solid introduction to the rebirth of captain Britain.
November 27, 2024
Good selection of issues to highlight this classic comic book character.
December 2, 2023
The biggest, baddest British superhero of them all in his earliest tales!
I was first exposed to Captain Britain by a college friend and his massive collection of comic books and SF/fantasy magazines back in the early 1980s. Being a lifelong Anglophile and fan of superhero comics, Cap's early adventures--crudely drawn though they seemed, in comparison to the work of U.S. artists I was more familiar with--were catnip to my 19-year-old budding artist's taste.
Once the gifted team of Alan Davis and Paul Neary took over, however, together with the writing of X-Men legend Chris Claremont, I was well and truly hooked. And when Cap and his supporting cast joined forces with some of my favorite American mutants in EXCALIBUR...well, I was in four-color nirvana.
This collection of some of those seminal stories from Cap's history--including some that are new to me, despite decades of reading every CB title I could lay my grimy paws on--takes me back to those days of first discovering that two great tastes (British culture and super-heroics) could taste so great together. And the foreword and sketches are added background material that makes it all go down that much more smoothly.
Thanks, Steve, Paul, the two Alans (Moore and Davis), Chris, Herb and all the rest, for a delightful flight down Memory Lane. And if you, dear Amazon customer, are as entertained as I am by mythic heroes, slam-bang action, gaudy costumes, fantastic powers, colorful villains and beautiful artwork, all delivered with impeccable British style, you'll definitely want to get this volume into your own Kindle library. And as the late, great and dearly missed Stan "The Man" Lee would say, "Excelsior!"
I was first exposed to Captain Britain by a college friend and his massive collection of comic books and SF/fantasy magazines back in the early 1980s. Being a lifelong Anglophile and fan of superhero comics, Cap's early adventures--crudely drawn though they seemed, in comparison to the work of U.S. artists I was more familiar with--were catnip to my 19-year-old budding artist's taste.
Once the gifted team of Alan Davis and Paul Neary took over, however, together with the writing of X-Men legend Chris Claremont, I was well and truly hooked. And when Cap and his supporting cast joined forces with some of my favorite American mutants in EXCALIBUR...well, I was in four-color nirvana.
This collection of some of those seminal stories from Cap's history--including some that are new to me, despite decades of reading every CB title I could lay my grimy paws on--takes me back to those days of first discovering that two great tastes (British culture and super-heroics) could taste so great together. And the foreword and sketches are added background material that makes it all go down that much more smoothly.
Thanks, Steve, Paul, the two Alans (Moore and Davis), Chris, Herb and all the rest, for a delightful flight down Memory Lane. And if you, dear Amazon customer, are as entertained as I am by mythic heroes, slam-bang action, gaudy costumes, fantastic powers, colorful villains and beautiful artwork, all delivered with impeccable British style, you'll definitely want to get this volume into your own Kindle library. And as the late, great and dearly missed Stan "The Man" Lee would say, "Excelsior!"
February 15, 2017
Wow. that was the oddest mish mosh collection of stories ever. I was looking forward to reading the Alan Moore part but it was forgettable. All of the stories are disconnected with each one depicting such a different version of Captain Britain they might as well have been completely different characters. Shame. I really would have preferred just a collection of the first stories by Chris Claremont. I liked his version the best. Alan Davis' version is just too weird for my liking.
October 23, 2021
It's nice to see some early artwork by such comics luminaries as John Byrne and Alan Davis, but the stories in this collection start out as uninspired and mediocre and end up a disjointed, convoluted mess, certainly not helped by the fact that this collection skips huge chunks of material from Marvel UK's hard-to-find Daredevils and Mighty World of Marvel series.
October 5, 2021
This is a good collection for someone getting introduced to Captain Beitain.
It has the origin and his early American appearances as well.
It has the origin and his early American appearances as well.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews