Chris Claremont

The plot is by Steve Gerber, but it's Christ Claremont who's actually doing the writing, and I can tell. Thoroughly enjoyable, solid issue. Natasha is written like she's competent at her job of being a spy, and she and Matt aren't constantly sniping at each other. I wouldn't dislike Matt and Natasha as a couple so much if they'd been written like this the entire time.

There is a minor bit of weirdness in the 2021 edition of this Captain Britain Omnibus, the apparent writing out of Alan Moore as significant player in the commentary despite Moore producing the most impressive run of issues in the eventual development of the 'Jaspers Warp' story line.

Both Alan Davis' Forward and Jim Krueger's Afterwards and Afterwords contain the same cryptic 'Edited for Content' which may or may not be relevant. Maybe it was a matter of squabbles over 'unpaid invoices' show more surviving forty years on. Who knows and who honestly cares any more?

Be all that as it may, although an incomplete representation of Britain's answer to Captain America, this Omnibus has enough to provide sufficient lore, to show a distinctive British tone to the hero and to mark out the character as Marvel UK rather than Marvel stateside.

He is a creature very much of the early 1980s where there were genuine fears of fascist takeover. Political themes are surprisingly dominant even after Thorpe was displaced for being too political (ironically) by the perhaps more subtle Moore.

Thorpe's story lines from the 1981 re-boot begin the Omnibus which could be seen a mash-up between Valiant, Marvel and 2000AD [founded in 1977] in style (very British). The troubled history of the creative activity behind the character can be read on Wikipedia for those interested enough.

The bottom line is that Marvel allowed and sponsored (no doubt under pressure from young British creatives) a unique and stand-alone super-hero who could be periodically integrated into the Marvel Universe and has been ever since.

Brian Braddock as Captain Britain (and his many multiverse iterations) has the virtue of always being the same essential representative of a national ideal while he or she transmutes constantly into new variants of national destiny and dies and resurrects as magic competes with science.

Moore introduces a cosmic element with a Moorcockian omniverse and set of multiverses. Merlin represents Clarke's oft-cited notion of magic being merely undiscovered science and the relationship between magic and science with rebellious politics suits Moore to the ground.

It also suits the British national character (certainly of that period) where gloomy dystopian fears, a dislike of bullies, a penchant for the supernatural, a respect for practical science, a relative lack of interest in space-faring and a sense of history can co-exist in uneasy balance.

When Moore leaves (over 'unpaid invoices'?) the series weakens substantially but that does not make it bad just a little less interesting and more episodic. Eventually it declines into an X-men 'riff' on intolerance as the logic of Moore's world is explored to its natural limits.

The final two entries have Chris Claremont (Captain Britain's creator) giving Captain Britain a role in exploring the X-juniors' 'teenage angst' in creditable stories whose main purpose seems to be transfer Braddock's sister to the New Mutants story line as Psylocke.

Captain Britain is a character who probably never got his full due but this might be because of his internal contradictions. He was a figure of intense national pride who appeared just when the generations who read 'Commando' were giving way to a more liberal generations of kids.

Some later iterations seem to avoid 'politics' by emphasising the magical elements of his origin story although he subsequently gets integrated into the Avengers' story lines and is certainly not allowed to die off as an integral character although never again one of the top-liners.

Captain Britain will eventually become like a pair of well worn and comfortable carpet slippers no one wants to chuck out for sentimental reasons but where no one is prepared to go out and invest in new slippers with any conviction.

Moore bridges the early contradictions by making Captain Britain a determined fighter against fascism and intolerance while retaining his link to Albion. Grant Morrison subverted this with a prose horror story about Captain Gran Bretan (1986) where the magic is malign.

At least Morrison thought he was worth subverting!

Today, Captain Britain is possible but problematic. To be true to his creation could place him unwittingly somewhere on the nice side of the national populist camp but to deny his 'national meaning' could be to make him a laughable 'woke' nonentity, an add-on to a plethora of US heroes.

So, this book is like a snapshot of a culture when it was still possible to be anti-facist, patriotic and good, a self-questioning fighter against intolerance, all at the same time, before cultures started to divide. He is still in the top 100 in terms of aesthetic appreciation but not popularity.

Moore followers should certainly include it in their reading. Many of the themes of 'V for Vendetta' (1988-1989) and perhaps, Americanised, 'Watchmen' (1986-1987) are to be found in his Captain Britain work from 1982-1984.

Claremont's fertile attempt to Anglicise Captain America and trigger a British allegiance to the Marvel Universe was only a very small part of his formidable output but we should note that, out of it, he created a 'plausible' narrative for Psylocke that enhanced his X-men Universe.

From a British perspective, I suppose we can see 'Captain Britain' as a noble failure and, if we were sour, as both the product and victim of American cultural colonialism. But the core story line stands and could even have future legs under a serious creative hand who could escape the 'woke'.

Yes, he still appears and is dealt with creatively when he does even if he is not the figure that he was in the early 1980s. Despite more recent attempts at revival, he has not broken the barrier that would let him back into superhero eminence. Perhaps the UK market is simply not large enough. show less

I'm going to admit to a small love affair with this story. It may be completely dated, but to me it remains one of the most defining X-Men stories. Ever.

Back in the day, the Chris Claremont and John Byrne run on X-Men was one of the most exciting eras in the comic's history. Quite a bit of what we see happening in the X-Men stories of today are direct results of what these two men did with the characters back then, and nothing seemed to be bigger during that time than the Dark Phoenix Saga. show more Jean Grey had been reborn as Phoenix after saving her teammates at the apparent cost of her own life. It quickly became clear that her powers had grown tremendously, and seemed to continue growing exponentially. Eventually, through the manipulations of Mastermind, the true overwhelming potential of her power became evident and Dark Phoenix was born, a being with powers of a cosmic proportion. To sate her hunger, she consumed a star, causing it to go supernova and destroying an inhabited world. Upon arriving back to Earth, the X-Men attacked Jean and tried to diffuse her power. When they were unable to accomplish this, Professor X took matters in his own hands and challenged Dark Phoenix on the psychic level, and won, supposedly locking Dark Phoenix back away in Jean's mind. However at that moment, in order to pay for her transgressions, Lilandra kidnapped the X-Men and sentenced Phoenix to death. Professor X challenged his X-Men against Lilandra's Imperial Guard for the life of Jean Grey, and both teams were sent to the Blue Area of the moon to battle. During the course of the battle, Jean began to feel Dark Phoenix taking control, and instead of allowing that to happen and to have more blood on her hands, she decides to take her own life, thus ending the battle.

There were so many other great moments in this storyline: the introduction of Emma Frost, the Hellfire Club, Kitty Pryde, Dazzler. All of this was paving the road for some great stories through the rest of the 80s. Like I said before, it it definitely dated. The need to re-introduce a characters name and their power and/or weakness, ever single issue, becomes even more tiring when you're reading a collected edition like this, but even so, I still love to pull this off the shelf every couple of years to give it a reread. This new 30th Anniversary Edition is gorgeous, and the coloring is nice and crisp.

Now, for the only complaint about the collection: charging $75 for this edition is ridiculous. The two Inferno collections cost $75 each, and they each collect roughly 600 pages of story each, where The Dark Phoenix Saga is only 350 pages. To me, this is something of a ripoff. This new edition does collect a short story from Classic X-Men and Bizarre Adventures, the Phoenix: The Untold Story one-shot (which is the original version of the story where Jean Grey lives) and a What If? story about what would have happened if Jean Grey lived, but still, $75 is a steep price for this collection. It is so nicely presented that I can almost forgive them the price, but just barely; obviously, it didn't stop me from buying the edition.

I would highly recommend this edition to any X-Men fans, but for somebody who is just looking for a quick read and is not as interested in all the extras with this edition, spend the lesser money and get the trade paperback edition. This edition is really only for the hard-core fans. show less

Just about every one of these little jewels brought a tear to my eye. Then I went to the store and read some new comics and they made me nervous and upset. The characters in this book are people, not paramilitary footsoldiers, and they have a message: While there's life, there's hope; while there's hope, there's possibilities; and your past doesn't determine your future. I miss feeling that way.