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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 14:25:50 GMT -5
Really nice to see Orion's masked superhero look again. That's how he looked when I first encountered him, and I've always preferred it to Kirby's original design.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 13:10:52 GMT -5
Curious as to how well Claremont went over in the UK, on this series, especially with the dialogue. He may have been born in the UK, but left at the age of 3. I wonder how much it read as Britain via an American viewpoint, or whether he still had enough connection to make it sound British? As I understand it, he still had family over here and he certainly knew the country well enough to casually reference geographical details which make me suspect he was pretty familiar with West London, at least. It never sounded conspicuously 'foreign' to me under Claremont, although in any case, any glaring errors would have been corrected by the London editor before it went to print. Herb Trimpe's art, on the other hand, is very definitely Britain through the eyes of an American; I gather part of the reason he was given the assignment was because he'd spent some time here, but since the Captain Britain strip was mostly based around London and Trimpe had apparently stayed in Cornwall, I doubt it helped much. Alan Moore, in an article on the subject a few years later, described London as drawn by Americans as inevitably resembling "either modern day Chicago or beautiful downtown Bulgaria around the turn of the century", or something similar, and he wasn't far off in Trimpe's case.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 9:30:04 GMT -5
Alright so I have been reading some Warlock stuff and I really like this character. I have a smattering of issues from his Strange Tales and want to eventually get all of these, along with his solo series from the 70's. Some questions though in terms of his chronology. 1) I know he first appeared in FF #66 and 67. He then later appeared in some Thor issues (forget which ones exactly). Did he disappear until his own series and his appearances in Strange Tales? 2) What happens to Adam Warlock? Warlock #15 does not really conclude (he is trying to gain insight into his emerald jewel on his head). Where does this continue? I know he pops up in Marvel Two In One but I believe this is 4-5 years after his solo series ended. Is there anything in between? And where does he pick back up in terms of stories? Following the conclusion of his own series, Warlock makes one appearance in Marvel Team-Up #55, then appears in a crossover storyline in Avengers Annual #7 and Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, in which he dies. He then doesn't appear anywhere until his posthumous appearance in MTIO #63. His death in the Avengers Annual is the closing point in a time loop that began in his own series, when his past self kills his future self, and the later scene mirrors the earlier one perfectly.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 5:16:26 GMT -5
So, when will you actually know who's won?
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 4:16:02 GMT -5
Captain Britain #3 (Oct '76)Script: Chris Claremont Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida "Mayhem on a Monday Morning" Issue three picks up our story an undetermined time after the Reaver incident, as a group of armed men in green body armour storm the Chambers St. Bank in London, which is (we are told) "crowded with the usual mix of Thames University students and dockyard labourers". One of the students is Brian Braddock, who silently agonizes "they're smashing thru here like something out of Kojak. Captain Britain could stop them, but so long as I'm in my Brian Braddock identity, I'm helpless!" (this seems to indicate that Brian has no powers when he's not in costume, though this is not made clear) before adopting the risky strategy of getting one of them to club him down so that he can feign unconsciousness until the gang have passed him by. The possibility that the guy would simply shoot him seems not to occur to Brian; luckily, fortune favours the stupid and, as the gang proceed towards the vault, Brian ruminates that "all it takes is a touch of my amulet and a mental image of the ring of Darkmoor stones...and presto, enter the UK's one and only superhero!" Having accomplished his magical transformation, Brian then rather spoils it by thinking "if only I were sure I wanted the job", but nevertheless charges into action against the gang. At this point, we meet the first member of the Captain's supporting cast, as we cut to a police cordon outside the bank manned by Chief Inspector Dai Thomas, who is wondering which police unit got inside to cause the sounds of chaos he's hearing. Thomas is not actually a new character; he'd debuted back in 1975 in the third issue of the black & white American magazine Marvel Preview, where he'd had a rather strained relationship with Blade the vampire slayer. That isn't mentioned here, though; as quickly becomes apparent, Dai's role in this book is to be CB's nemesis in much the same way J.Jonah Jameson is Spider-Man's, since Thomas has a passionate hatred of vigilantes. We also learn that the would-be bank robbers work for a female gangster called Vixen, but it's not really crucial to remember this, as despite CB's assurance to one of her hirelings that he'll be "coming after her next", she won't actually be mentioned again until 1983... Curiously, as the scene shifts to later in the day, we learn that in a strange breach of superhero protocol, the Captain has spent much of the day allowing himself to be questioned over the bank robbery by the police. Obviously, he hasn't quite worked out yet how this vigilante thing works. Equally clearly, Chief Inspector Thomas hasn't quite worked out yet how this police thing works, as he's seemingly made no attempt to unmask the Captain or learn his real name! Anyway, Brian quite sensibly decides to end what must have been an extremely trying day at the University's local pub, The Flying Finish, where we meet a few more of the supporting cast: Brian's friend Sandy York; potential love interest Courtney Ross; and the boorish Jacko Tanner, whose introductory line is "Brian Braddock is a spineless wimp, an' that's all there is to it". If this all sounds rather familiar, it's possibly because, rather like the setup in Nova (which had been launched a couple of months earlier) it's pretty much a carbon copy of Spider-Man's early supporting cast: where Peter Parker had Gwen Stacy, Nova's Richard Rider has Ginger Jaye and now Brian Braddock has Courtney Ross; for Harry Osborn, read Bernie Dillon in Nova and Sandy York here; and of course, like Nova's Mike Burley, Jacko Tanner is basically just Flash Thompson with darker hair! I don't know if Marvel had some kind of handbook for writers to use when creating a supporting cast, but it's tempting to think so...although it's really not worth worrying about, as in the event, we'll hear very little from any of these three in the future (in fact, Sandy will be basically forgotten about after two issues) so their impact on the book is negligible. Once again, it really seems as though Claremont isn't sure where he's going with the book, as he just seems to be chucking stuff at the wall to see what sticks. Still, following the pointless six panel interlude at the pub (which ends with Courtney, Sandy and Jacko going to see a movie which Brian ducks out of because he's too tired, the poor baby) things get rather more interesting as we cut to "a shabby industrial street just off Heathrow", where a hulking figure glances at a story about "Britain's own superhero" in a newspaper, and delightedly thinks to himself "if this story is true, perhaps I won't have to travel to America after all!" Entering the safety of his hideout, our shadowy skulker removes one of those cunning latex face masks tht only work in comics and sixties TV shows and announces to his "long deserted warehouse" lair "So beware Captain Britain, for if you are Britain's first superhero, it is only fitting that you be destroyed by her first supervillain: Hurricane!" Yes, this pillock was actually going to travel to America just to find a superhero to fight. Now that's just stupid. And has nobody in this book ever heard of Union Jack or Baron Blood? Have to admit though, I'm still loving it...
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 8, 2016 2:42:51 GMT -5
codystarbuck
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 13:04:58 GMT -5
He messed up pretty much everyone in Excalibur... Except for Nightcrawler! Who shined like the brightest star in the universe. I love it for that reason, and the stories were a blast, except for when he wrote Captain Britain like a failing, flighty alcoholic, by taking his occasional drink, and running with it according to American standards and views on drinking alcohol.That really annoyed me, too. Brian was an occasional drinker, like most of us I would guess, in the Marvel UK stories. He was not an alcoholic. There was one issue of Excalibur in particular, a really messy sequel to MTU #65-66, which retconned him as having had a drink problem early in his career which was never there in any of his original appearances (and it also totally screwed up his personal continuity by rewriting the circumstances of his return to the UK). Unnecessary and irritating. Though I think that was post-Claremont...
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 12:43:01 GMT -5
He messed up pretty much everyone in Excalibur...
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 12:33:31 GMT -5
I love Captain Britain, but those first Claremont issues were rough for me. Rough is an understatement, but to me, they have a certain charm. It's probably a nostalgia thing, this was the first series I ever seriously tried to collect. I'd have been about seven years old at the time...I actually attended a street party for the Queen's Silver Jubilee dressed as Captain Britain!
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 10:38:07 GMT -5
Captain Britain #2 (Oct '76)Script: Chris Claremont Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida "From the Holocaust--a Hero!" The concluding chaper of Captain Britain's origin begins with a splash panel reiterating what happened at the end of issue one, though with subtle differences: the big beardy guy and his pretty cohort are still hanging in the sky over the Siege Perilous (sorry, I forgot to mention that's what our stone circle is called) exhorting baffled Brian to choose between sword and amulet, but Braddock is now on his feet, having apparently forgotten that a few moments ago he was "all...broken...inside" and couldn't breathe, while Reaver (now referred to in the caption box as Jason Stragg rather than Joshua) and his men have caught up with him and entered the circle. Some people, caught up in such a situation and given a choice between a bloody great sword and a pretty necklace with which to fight the murderous villains closing in on them, might automatically reach for the obvious weapon. Brian, however, is clearly not a man to be bound by conventional thinking, so despite its obvious lack of any offensive capability, he goes for the amulet! immediately, as Brian "touches a mystic stone that has lain untouched within the Siege Perilous for a thousand years" (since the Circle is quite close to both a road and a nuclear research facility, this seems unlikely, but what the hell) "an infinity away a bolt of purest energy arcs across the face of the universe" and smacks right into him. As Brian reels from the energies surrounding him he hears the Goddess's voice in his head, "louder than I can stand", congratulating him on having chosen the Amulet of Right over the Sword of Might and telling him to "be one with thy brothers of the Round Table, Arthur, Lancelot, Gawain and Galahad"...and then, of course, he's suddenly wearing a superhero outfit. Because nothing says medieval knights more than red spandex and a mask! Naturally, Stragg (who is now referred to as Joshua again) isn't going to take this lying down and, displaying rather more presence of mind than Brian one feels, pulls the sword from the stone, instantly-and with rather less accompanying hysteria than Brian-being transformed into an actual golden armoured knight! This brings us to pretty much where we were at the beginning of issue one, as we see the Captain polish off the Reaver's men with his quarterstaff before challenging the villain himself. Unfortunately for Brian, while his staff is handily telescopic, Reaver's sword now fires energy blasts, leading once again to the inevitable conclusion that our boy really didn't think his choice through. Still, Bri is a physicist, as he's already told us, and although magic weapons are notorious for not actually behaving in a predictable manner, he correctly guesses that the powers of the sword and the staff will be impervious to each other. Tricking Stragg into blasting the staff, he deflects the beam back at the villain, seemingly killing him (this is the beginning of a pattern, of sorts; very few of CB's early foes seem to make it past their first appearance). The Lady of the Northern Skies informs Brian that he has passed the test set for him, and asks if he will "pick up the gauntlet" and become a champion of good, or "refuse such noble service". Naturally unwilling to look like a bit of a wimp to the pretty lady, Brian declares that he'll "be your champion, milady, now and forever"...as Captain Britain! Now, I'm not one to criticize such obvious nobility, but I can't help thinking that the Lady and her bearded colleague (still not named, here) have rather browbeaten poor Bri into all this, but I suppose we can't complain. I just hope he doesn't have a hard time explaining it all to the authorities when those poor people at the research centre wake up...not that that will ever be touched upon again, of course! An interesting start to the series, even if it does seem rather as though Claremont is making it up as he goes along with no clear idea of what he's actually going for. Stragg was a fairly one dimensional villain, so it's perhaps no great loss that we'll never see him again, but it would have been nice to have gotten a bit more explanation of the motivation of Beard Boy and Declaiming Damsel, not to mention a bit more insight into Brian Braddock himself, who seems to spend much of his origin story being hysterical and the rest just going along with whatever the voices in the sky tell him to do (hardly the attitude one would expect of a serious scientist, even if he is only on work experience). Still, the obligatory setup is now out of the way, so things can only get better, right?
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 9:13:36 GMT -5
OK, despite having done overviews of other subjects before, I've never tried an actual formalized issue by issue review thread until now, but I was prompted to reread the Captain's early adventures by his recent fortieth anniversary. No idea how regular I'll be able to make these, but here goes...oh, and while all the character's adventures were published in otherwise reprint weekly anthology titles, I'm concerned only with his own strip, so don't expect to hear what was going on with Nick Fury that week! Captain Britain #1 (Oct '76)
Script: Chris Claremont Art: Herb Trimpe/Fred Kida
Our story begins, somewhat oddly, with Captain Britain (who we've never seen before) fighting a group of armoured goons in the employ of a character called the Reaver "in the remote fastness of the Cheviot Hills, just south of the Scottish border". We're left in no doubt, though, that our hero is new to his job (and considers himself less than qualified to do it) as he is amazed by his own strength when he knocks one of them out, and then equally overwhelmed at the realization that "I-I'm reacting with the speed of thought!" He is also more than a little confused to find himself using the name 'Captain Britain' without having the faintest idea where it came from...but luckily for the equally confused readers, decides that his best way of surviving the fight is by forcing himself to remember what presumably only happened to him minutes before by going into a prolonged flashback. Not sure that would have been my choice of action at that point, but still... Once we actually reach the beginning of our story, it starts with Brian Braddock (a young man smoking a pipe, an affectation we will mercifully never see again) chatting to his employer, Dr. Travis, at Darkmoor Research Centre, which we are told is a "top secret nuclear complex, half hidden on the lonely moor". Travis is pleased with the way Braddock is working out as his new assistant, though Brian reminds him that "it's only temporary, just until the new term starts at Thames University". So: pipe smoking Brian is, in fact, a student on some sort of work experience placement at a top secret government project where they are on the verge of developing "a safe, practical fusion reactor system". On the face of it, this seems rather unlikely (and, given some students I've met, rather worrying) but before we are given too much time to think about it, the centre is attacked by Joshua Stragg, the Reaver, a seemingly slightly unbalanced gentleman with an exotic flying craft, a one man assault vehicle capable of blasting its way through concrete walls, and an army of goons in armour carrying laser guns. Stragg intends to stun all of the scientists, kidnap them, and force them to serve him rather than the Crown. Unfortunately, Brian escapes through the brand new hole in the wall and flees on his motorbike (which we will also never see again) much to the frustration of Stragg, since "the success of our operation depends on everyone believing that the Darkmoor staff all died in a reactor accident!" (one might be tempted to suggest that in this case, his method of entering the complex was possibly a little unwise since he's undoubtedly left a fairly obvious trail, but never mind) Brian, meanwhile, is racing across the moor, musing that Stragg (whom he's clearly heard of) obviously intends to "hijack the finest nuclear minds in the UK" so that Stragg Atomics can "corner the energy market". So, our notorious criminal mastermind has his own company, a good ten years before John Byrne gave us Lexcorp! Before Brian can speculate further, though, Stragg's high tech hovercraft appears in front of him, blinding him and causing him to ride off the road and over a cliff! Brian survives (though his bike does not) and, though apparently suffering from internal injuries, drags himself from the wreckage only to find himself "in a most ancient circle of power" where gigantic visions of an as yet unidentified wizardy looking bloke with a beard and a rather attractive but seemingly otherwise fairly pointless individual called "the Lady of the Northern Skies" are looking down on him. Heedless of Brian's injuries and understandable confusion, beardy bloke first orders Brian to shut up ("be silent mortal, thou hast not been given leave to speak") and then informs him that "thou art here to be judged, on peril of thy immortal soul"...all of which seems a little unfair given the kind of day Brian's been having so far! This opening episode ends with Brian being shown two standing stones, one with a sword stuck in it and the other with an amulet draped around it, and informed that "you must choose, the amulet or the sword-life, or death! For thee, and mayhap for thy world as well!" So, no pressure, then... On the whole, given that all of the above is packed into just seven pages, and the first two are a fight scene (the beginning of which we still haven't reached by the end of this installment) it's all a bit overwhelming, but that's possibly no bad thing as it distracts the reader from some of the obvious absurdities in the plot. However, it certainly grabs the reader's attention, and what little we see of Captain Britain pre-flashback is certainly intriguing (still love his original costume, and his red, white and blue striped quarterstaff, a truly ridiculous weapon). All in all, a promising-if bewildering-beginning...
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 4:41:30 GMT -5
I read your reply before the edit. Some folks look at the banality of their life and get defensive. Thanks for sharing There is nothing banal about my life. I live in a beautiful area, where I walk daily. I'm heavily involved in my local community, as a volunteer at the community shop amongst other things and, until recently, in local government. I have a number of hobbies, including creating a wikia on British comics. I have a wife who drives me mad but who I love to bits, friends who bring me joy, and a houseful of pets. But I am still very much a collector, and see that as one of the most indespensible parts of my life. Indeed, without it, I wouldn't have met a couple of my best friends.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 2:38:11 GMT -5
So, in non-U.S. news, did anything interesting happen in the UK for Guy Fawkes Day -- Brexit and all? Very little seems to be happening as regards Brexit, and it's becoming deeply irritating to those on both sides of the fence. The EU says no negotiations can begin until the British government has triggered Article 50. The courts have ruled that this cannot be done without a full consultation with Parliament. Theresa May is appealing against this decision and says she intends to stick to her original plan to begin the process by next March no matter what, but it's hard to see how she can. We are in limbo. Lincolnshire MP Stephen Phillips resigned on Friday over the government's handling of the situation.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 7, 2016 2:29:59 GMT -5
My Kabbible senses began to tingle, a sign that someone invoked my name. Well briefly, I had a collection (my 2nd in fact) that I started to amass in 1976 and soon grew to about 60,000 issues-and no doubles at all. I was consumed by collecting and maintaining full runs even when the books where complete crap and I'd never read them. Even had to rent expensive storage space since my apartment's floor would have caved in by the sheer weight Well, I guess it's between 3-4 years now and I had an spiritual awakening as in-what the hell am I doing? Why do I need to collect? Why do I think I want to keep re-reading all this repetitious superhero hogwash when there is so much other things out there I'll never get the time to enjoy before I kick off. Yes, I'm referring to books, movies,music and even new comics not out yet-but the question is-Why collect? So, finally I sold my complete collect in one fell swoop-another story I told before and won't repeat again. Gone was the albatross of all those comics and the month;y rent of storage space. And hello to some cool cash which helped sooth any parting sorrows. But I felt so relieved without the collection, I felt I could breathe. I no longer cared about late comics, re-booted comics, re-numbered comics, done-to-death superhero comics. And not once since then have I bought a comic nor entered a comic store But I still like the comic format. And thankfully in NYC we have a massive library system with a lifetime supply of hardbacks and tradebooks of classic & new, independent and big 2, and every genre there is available. And all for free. And no longer cluttering up my home. And no more worries of tape on comic bags and little dings from reading that -oh my god might lose me a decimal point of grading. So again-why collect? Keep your brain active. Seek out new and never tried. Borrow for free, not own. Download if you must, don't kill trees. You have a limited amount of time on this planet, use it to explore new experiences. There's a reason why not many people collect comics anymore. Of course, that's my perspective. If you feel you need to keep reading the same stories over and over, go right aheadI do feel I need to read the same stories over and over, because I happen to like them. And I collect because I am a collector, and it brings me joy. I see ex comics collectors can be as irritatingly holier than thou as ex smokers... My collection currently runs to around 100 short boxes, seven long boxes and about 80 magazine boxes (for British comics) plus a large bookcase full of trades, and I would not willingly part with any of it. I've also read almost all of it, in a lot of cases many times over. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a collector.
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Post by tingramretro on Nov 6, 2016 13:01:43 GMT -5
Personally, I think I'd rather lose the election.
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