Captain Britain

So often American comics and American culture can seem like there's this funny Todestrieb thing going on that won't be satisfied until everything's--in the oddly insightful words of Denis Leary--a six-foot erection with a giant cheeseburger on the end of it. You know? Like, Rambo has his place, but does it all have to be Rambo? Davis and Delano's Captain Britain is one of the early "by Brits for Brits" superhero offerings from the Big Two, and from the carping posture adopted by the old punter the Captain saves at the very beginning, to the touching visit to the family of a boy killed by superheroics (the relevant American phrase would be "collateral damage") and their stellar response to the destruction of their flat ("Well, now the show more Council will have to get us a new one, won't they?" and everyone laughs), to Braddock's casual drinking (held up not like Tony Stark's as all salacious or evidence of his broken soul, but as entirely understandable and a little irresponsible and a little funny), to the moderate use of uncool things like (fairy, not fantasy) elves and changelings, to that moment where civil unrest threatens the government and Brian says "But--this is ENGLAND!" and everyone makes fun of him, to his put-upon nobless-oblige thing in general, to the ludicrous-yet-deadly Technet and Crazy Gang, but most of all in the constant minor fuckups and getting back on of feet--they do the most British thing of all: they muddle on. Where the Americans, in genre fiction or comics or film, would be all out-cheeseburger-erection-that-shoots-armour-piercing-bullets-painted-with-the-stars-and-stripesing each other, and the only suspense would be who ends up the MOST WICKED BAD, the Brits do something a hell of a lot healthier: they remain calm (mostly) and carry on (more or less) and drink and fight together, and the bad guys end up mostly reformed or incarcerated instead of WASTED BY CHEEEBURGER ERECTION BULLETS. It makes you wistful, a bit.


Also, good story, good art. show less

It's so much fun to read these comics, since as an American, it's a universe with which I am totally unfamiliar. Besides the typically beautiful art of Alan Davis, the stories also show a plethora of new and creative concepts and characters. Fun!