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.

A great deal of the story in this collected edition is about Jean Grey's eventual breakdown into Dark Phoenix, including a couple of side adventures that may seem superfluous. But stay keen for signs of Grey's stress and increasing loss of control. Once she goes "full Dark," the writing takes on a grandiose tone that fits the situation perfectly - hey, we're talking about the annihilation of the universe, here! If Professor Xavier is going to hold a psychic feud with Dark Phoenix, you're show more darn right there will be painterly, center-frame images of a handicapped man lying in the wake of Phoenix's all-consuming flames. show less

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

The X-Men franchise has exploded since its inception. Every year we witness series, after series, of new orientations and mythologies gracing pop culture with the adventures of Charles Xavier's maverick do-gooders who live in a flawed world fearful of their powers.

So what makes God Loves, Man Kills one of the most cardinal texts in the entire X universe? Hints can be gauged when one learns that the 2003 X2 film derived fundamental inspiration from it. Here's the answer, the X-Men live in a show more world plagued by the fear of its very protectors. What happens when this fear is cultivated, heightened and finally unleashed against mutant kind and that too in the name of religion? God Loves, Man Kills answers this pointed query in all its visceral glory. The chief antagonist here is not some superhuman rogue but Reverend William Stryker; a common man of the cloth armed with a Bible and inspired by a Vendetta against Mutantkind.

While many critics have argued that the ending is highly anticlimactic, I believe it sticks firmly to the highly symbolic nature of the story. What Claremont has done is that he has transposed our fears of racial differences within the X-verse and amplified them for our own observation. God Loves, Man Kills is one for the history books. show less