Issue(s): Captain Britain #3, Captain Britain #4, Captain Britain #5, Captain Britain #6, Captain Britain #7, Captain Britain #8, Captain Britain #9, Captain Britain #10, Captain Britain #11, Captain Britain #12, Captain Britain #13, Captain Britain #14, Captain Britain #15, Captain Britain #16, Captain Britain #17, Captain Britain #18, Captain Britain #19, Captain Britain #20, Captain Britain #21, Captain Britain #22, Captain Britain #23, Captain Britain #24, Captain Britain #25, Captain Britain #26, Captain Britain #27, Captain Britain #28, Captain Britain #29, Captain Britain #30, Captain Britain #31, Captain Britain #32, Captain Britain #33, Captain Britain #34, Captain Britain #35, Captain Britain #36, Captain Britain #37, Captain Britain #38, Captain Britain #39, Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231, Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #232
Cover Date: Oct 76-Jul 77
Title: "Mayhem on a Monday morning!" / "Hour of the Hurricane!" / "Captain Britain has been beaten!" / "Havoc at Heathrow!" / "Wind of death!" / "Riot on Regent Street!" / "Demon-Fire!" / "Dagger of the mind!" / "Burn, witch, burn!" / "...To die a superhero!" / "...From the ashes!" / "The malevolent menace of Mastermind!" / "...Once upon a death wish!" / "A hero unmasked!" / "The revenge of the Red Skull!" / "S.H.I.E.L.D. strikes out!" / "Two died with honour!" / "While the world gently weeps!" / "They've kidnapped the Prime Minister!" / "Mayhem at midnight!" / "The night Big Ben stood still!" / "The fall of the Fourth Reich?" / "...Gathering of gladiators!" / "Hickory, Dickory... Death!" / "--Will you never win?" / "Night of the Hawk!" / "Lonely are the hunted!" / "Panic in Piccadilly!" / "In the shadow of the Hawk!" / "Only the strong survive!" / "Even heroes bleed!" / "An Odyssey of the mind!" / "...That Camelot might live!" / "The Star Sceptre!" / "And the Highwayman came riding, riding...!" / "When hero turns villain!" / "A throne threatened!" / "Sea fury" / "Death duel!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont / Gary Friedrich / Gary Friedrich & Larry Lieber / Bob Budiansky, Larry Lieber, & Len Wein / Bob Budiansky & Jim Lawrence - Writer
Herb Trimpe / John Buscema / Ron Wilson - Penciler
Fred Kida / Tom Palmer / Fred Kida & Bob Budiansky / Tom Palmer & Bob Budiansky / Pablo Marcos - Inker
Larry Lieber - Editor
Review/plot:
Gary Friedrich replaces Chris Claremont as writer with issue #11. Larry Lieber begins scripting on issue #24, and that's when John Buscema replaces Herb Trimpe, with Tom Palmer alternating inking with Fred Kida. Ron Wilson replaces Buscema on #31 and that's when Bob Budiansky begins getting a co-inking credit. Pablo Marcos becomes the regular and sole inker with #37. At that point Budiansky is plotting the book, with Len Wien replacing Larry Lieber on scripting for just #37 and giving way to Jim Lawrence beginning with issue #38. The series is in color for the first 23 issues (except the final page of issue #3, which is left black & white as a cheeky "do-it-yourself colour page").
It may seem a ton of issues but we're really just looking at less than a year's worth of stories here. Captain Britain was a weekly book and the stories were 7 pages each, with the rest of the book being devoted to reprints of US Marvel comics. When the Captain Britain series is cancelled with issue #39, the reprint book Super Spider-Man and the Titans was renamed to Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain and the story was moved to there.
I'll try to break these down into logical story arcs, but one thing to keep in mind is that, especially after the first few issues, these stories move at a breakneck pace from one plot to another with no pause. We're definitely in a serial format where every 7 pages there's a cliffhanger that is quickly resolved at the beginning of the next issue and there is little to no time for subplots or character development. That makes things a bit tedious since it means, for example, that Captain Britain fights a mechanical hawk for 5 issues in a row with little variation before going right into the next crisis.
Things start off a little more leisurely with the Claremont issues, and issue #3 is pretty much a complete story by itself. It starts with Brian Braddock in a bank that is being robbed by goons in high tech gear
Brian is in his civilian "identity" which doesn't just mean a change of clothing. When he's Brian, he has none of his Captain Britain powers. Luckily, after trying to help out and getting a WHUK! in the head for it...
...he has an opportunity to touch his amulet and mentally picture the stones of Darkmoor...
...and become Captain Britain.
Also responding to the robbery is Chief Inspector Dai Thomas, who previously appeared in the Claremont-written Marvel Preview #3.
Thomas delivers the information that the gang robbing the bank are working for someone named Vixen. Vixen will later become a regular villain for Captain Britain, but she won't be seen for some time. Her gang will have another appearance in these issues, though.
Captain Britain is able to stop the robbers, but he finds that Dai Thomas does not appreciate help from super-heroes.
Thomas was willing to work with Blade in the Marvel Preview issue, but granted he's not really a super-hero in the sense that Captain Britain is. The problem is that Thomas becomes an increasingly one note character as this series goes on until Jamie Delano & Alan Davis break him out of that rut much later.
Claremont also introduces us to a cast of supporting characters for Brian while he's at school, including love interest Courtney Ross and rival Jacko Tanner. Sandy York won't have as many appearances as the others and doesn't appear outside the issues listed in this entry.
From what i know of him from later appearances, it's hard for me to accept Brian Braddock as a Peter Parker "never made it with the ladies" type, but that's the set-up here. It's kind of clumsily done. Too weak to go to the movies and sit in a dark theater for a couple hours?
Meanwhile, Claremont sets up the villain for the next story, a guy named Hurricane that claims to be Britain's first super-villain.
If you are feeling nitpicky, you can note that the Invaders series had been running at this point, and issue #7, which showed that a Union Jack had been operative since World War I, and that the British John Falsworth has been operating as Baron Blood, was published prior to these issues, but only just barely. In any event, i guess Captain Britain and Hurricane get to claim to be the first modern era British hero and villain (in the Marvel universe).
Between issue #3 and the origin from issues #1-2, it's actually a decent set-up, or at least you can see how Claremont was establishing a typical comic book scenario that could develop over time. Instead, thanks to the pace of the comic going forward, every character will basically be stuck exactly the way they are throughout the series.
Issues #4-7 are the Hurricane story, beginning a "week" after issue #3 but otherwise all taking place on the same day. We get the first mention of Brian's parents, and a potentially better explanation for why Brian plays the role of a "weakling" in his confrontations with Jacko.
Then Hurricane attacks.
Courtney begins to show signs of being a strong - or at least plucky - Claremont female character, but it's really the only instance we'll see of that.
Issue #5 introduces Kate Fraser, another Claremont-created character from various Dracula titles, to the cast, but her ESP powers are not mentioned at all and she won't have more than a couple of appearances in this series.
Captain Britain is repeatedly beaten by Hurricane...
...until he eventually spills his "i was laughed at by the other scientists because of my hurricane ideas" origin (Captain Britain does at least ask the smart question of why a guy who can design such high tech equipment would waste his life being a lame-o super-villain, but the response is just "revenge") and Captain Britain eventually figures out that Hurricane's backpack is containing his powers, not providing them.
Actually even that takes a full two issues to get to; the biggest problem with this series is exemplified by flipping through the covers and going "He's still fighting Hurricane!?" (or whoever). Granted the issues are only 7 pages each, but the format (fight, lose / fight, lose / fight, lose / fight, win) is not exactly sophisticated storytelling. At least Claremont is able to do little things with Courtney Ross and Dai Thomas in between, and the introduction of Kate Fraser may have been interesting if her ESPer powers were eventually remembered.
Issues #8-15 begin a story with a villain called Dr. Synne who turns out to be the dupe of a computer called Mastermind. Issue #8 begins promisingly. It teases Vixen as a long term villain again.
Kate Fraser is in pursuit, but she has no back-up (or mental powers!) until Captain Britain arrives.
Fraser does make a weird comment about having "died too many times" to wish death on anyone else.
She also gives us the lowdown on Dai Thomas' super-hero hatred, which is based on the fact that his wife was killed in a super-battle during a visit to New York.
A little odd to see SHIELD and Hydra getting lumped into the "super" category.
Later that day, we're introduced to Brian's sister Betsy, who needs him to come home quickly to help with their brother Jamie.
Betsy is Brian's twin sister, and she's a charter pilot. She'll also later become the mutant super-hero Psylocke, so when i see her having a vision of monsters attacking, i think it might be a sign of precognition.
But they're presented in this story as an attack from the villain, Dr. Synne.
Note Betsy's changing hair color. She's got a plan to solve that problem, eventually.
After issue #8 we're basically back into fight, lose / fight, lose territory...
...but it is used to continue to tease the idea that Brian has guilt over his parents' death.
We do also meet Jamie Braddock and learn that the Braddocks live in a mansion.
Dr. Synne keeps going to Betsy with his mental attacks, which again may be interpreted as a sign that she's psi-sensitive, but there's nothing in these issues that says that.
Jamie learns Brian's secret ID very quickly, a nice change of pace from the usual secret ID drama.
After Synee's second attack on Betsy, they take her to a clinic with some suspiciously high tech machinery.
I was already aware of the Braddock super-computer known as Mastermind, and thought maybe that's what this was, but if anything i've actually got it backwards. The Mastermind computer is already in Braddock manor, and the computer here is supervised by the local psychologist who is mentally controlled by Dr. Synne, who we'll learn is controlled by Mastermind.
Mastermind is a Gary Friedrich idea. After issue #10, Claremont is gone due to conflict with editor Larry Lieber, and Friedrich has replaced him. There's nothing great about Claremont's run. It's notable for introducing a number of important supporting characters and developing them as much as possible within the constraints of the 7 page format. But at the same time his villains Hurricane and Dr. Synne are incredibly lame. It's easy to see the supporting characters as a Claremontian element while blaming the villains on Lieber but there's really no evidence of that, especially since it's Friedrich that shows us that the lame Synne is really a pawn of the much cooler Mastermind.
But Friedrich also succumbs to the serial format and from this point on we'll be going from one threat to another with no breaks. Coincidentally, Friedrich starts his run with a scene of Captain Britain considering killing off his civilian identity.
That doesn't really happen, but it's a good symbol of the abandonment of any kind of subplots or character development going forward.
We start off seeing a computer observing the fight between Captain Britain and Synne while Betsy makes a miraculous recovery.
Captain Britain winds up getting thrown in a fire, but luckily discovers that a second button on his staff creates a forcefield (we've already learned that the first button extends the staff).
As the fight continues, we cut away to a hilariously determined cleaning lady...
...who thinks it's ok to just shut down a giant super computer by flipping the master power switch for a little while.
And that basically deactivates Dr. Synne.
Captain Britain hears that the computer Synne is talking about was at Braddock manor, so he leaps his way there.
You can see Friedrich playing with Captain Britain's powers, first with the forcefield and then the leaping. His powers will continue to get tweaked throughout the series.
When he gets to Braddock manor, he finds the awesome Mastermind (if you haven't figured me out by now, the words "awesome" and "giant head" are synonymous in my mind).
After a quick physical fight...
...Mastermind switches tactics and goes for a psychological assault, explaining his origins while giving us the reason why Brian always feels so guilty hanging around Courtney.
Nothing like a familial tragedy to amplify the guilt of an adolescent's first sexual experience.
The untimely return of the cleaning lady is what shakes Brian out of his self-pity stupor.
Captain Britain figures out that Mastermind is really just a hologram created by the computer, so he throws his staff at the projector.
And then he calls an ambulance for the cleaning lady and carries her upstairs, figuring that the computer will be ok "at least for the moment".
Man, even the cleaning lady turned the power off, but Brian just keeps it running. In the long run, Mastermind will reform and even feel regret about the housekeeper (Emma Collins) and take care of her. But for now, leaving that computer running is a problem, because we are diving directly into our next plot, which runs from issues #16-27, but really begins at the end of issue #15.
It turns out that SHIELD thinks Communists are building a computer complex in Britain, and Nick Fury sends Captain America to check out the computer at Braddock Manor. This is the last mention of Commies; that's quickly abandoned for the Red Skull.
Brian's call for an ambulance also brings Dai Thomas and the police, and Thomas tries to arrest and de-mask Captain Britain.
Captain America shows up and assaults Thomas.
This results in Captain Britain attacking Captain America, with Captain America shocked that Captain Britain won't go to any measure to protect his secret identity. In fact, are you sure you're a real super-hero, Captain Britain?
While the two Caps fight, the Red Skull sneaks into Braddock manor and starts reprogramming the computer.
The fight eventually ends with Captain America giving Captain Britain his official seal of approval.
While the two Captains fight Nazis...
...Nick Fury is introduced to a Tod Radcliffe, the head of STRIKE (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies), the British counterpart to SHIELD.
Radcliffe's rude questioning of Fury isn't just a gratuitous knock on old Nick. Radcliffe is actually an agent of the Red Skull's. And of course even though issue #17 ended with the Red Skull taking out Captains Britain and America with poison gas that not even Captain Britain's forcefield can repel, the Red Skull opts to not kill them when he has the chance, opting instead for a more elaborate plan of having Radcliffe bomb the Braddock manor.
Before the bomb strike, Captain Britain tries pushing the third button on his staff, and learns that it makes him tingle and generates an explosion.
But even that doesn't save them from Radcliffe's attack.
For the short term, we're not shown how Captain Britain and Captain America survive. We'll later learn that they ducked into a WWII era bomb shelter that was in the mansion. Much later, we'll learn that Mastermind actually protected the Mansion while faking its explosion.
Fury managed to defeat Radcliffe with an exploding cigar from Q-Branch...
...and he later meets the new director of STRIKE, Lance Hunter.
And then Dum Dum Dugan messes with Nick Fury's head by building LMDs of the two Captains.
That scene seems like a cheap way to get Captain Britain and America into an issue while they are thought to be dead, but in light of much later revelations that Dum Dum Dugan is actually an LMD himself, it takes on a different meaning, like a "why won't you just let me die?" cry for help.
Anyway, the Captains spend a couple of issues with everyone thinking they are dead while a histrionic Nick Fury and a much calmer Lance Hunter...
...try to stop the Red Skull, who has kidnapped the Prime Minister and planted a germ bomb on the face of Big Ben. Nick eventually gets so out of control that Lance has to drug him.
The funny thing is that i'm so used to Nick Fury that i identify with him and his "we need to actually DO something" attitude over Lancer. I wonder if it was really different for a British audience. It does seem like Lancer was being set up as a potential action hero character in his own right.
For what it's worth, the Steranko Nick Furys were being reprinted in these issues at the same time as this story, which may explain Fury's prominence (but not why he's getting sidelined).
The Captains meanwhile rescue Brian's siblings from agents of the Red Skull, and Captain Britain reveals his secret ID in front of Captain America.
But they're subsequently captured by the Red Skull again (fight, lose / fight, lose).
Captain Britain manages to escape. He initially runs afoul of Dai Thomas...
...but manages to get away and contact SHIELD, although he nearly blows it thanks to a stray dog.
Randomly contrived action as you like it!
As you can hopefully tell, the book is now in black & white format (we're at issue #24), and we're also into the Buscema penciled issues. Lieber is also scripting, and it's a marked decline in quality on the dialogue front. Bah! Excuses!
There's also a heavier sell on Captain Britain being awesome, so much so that Captain America remains behind in captivity and sings his accolades.
At least Fury stops getting sidelined.
But Captain Britain is definitely the hero of the series.
And that's fine. It's his book. Frankly the Cap guest appearance is dragging on way too long. It's just that Captain America's demotion comes on really strong, as if it, along with the art change and editor Larry Lieber deciding to take on scripting responsibilities for himself, was a reaction to fan complaints. But i don't see anything in the lettercols.
My favorite moment is when the Red Skull teleports away from his base to Big Ben...
...and he's just seen sitting on the clock next to poor Lance Hunter, who has been hanging there for the past two issues.
Issue #26 is when we go back in time to see how the two Captains survived the Braddock Mansion explosion, and then the fight between Captain Britain and the Red Skull...
...which ends with the Red Skull taking a fall.
Captain Britain makes the rookie mistake of assuming that super-villains can die.
More accolades all around for Captain Britain and Lance Hunter.
But Lance Hunter gets a little creepy in a Superhero Registration Act sort of way.
The rest of issue #27, in the aftermath of the Red Skull story, includes a brief retelling of Captain Britain's origin while Captain Britain is taking a cab ride back to his dorm room at school (and he's got no pockets to pay the driver), and then, "Shortly" after that, Captain Britain goes to sleep while wondering about a professor friend of his that he gave a radio-controlled hawk to.
So yes, we're going immediately, and i do mean immediately, from the Red Skull to a hippie/retro-chivalry villain whose only power is a mechanical hawk that someone else made for him. The Lord Hawk story lasts from issues #28-32 (and really begins in #27) .
For what it's worth, Brian is said to have built the hawk two months ago. It's unclear if he started working on it before he became Captain Britain, but he did test it out in the end by becoming Captain Britain and fighting it for a bit. At that point he determined it would be a menace in the wrong hands, so he turned it over to his crazy professor that all the kids made fun of because he was such a kook.
To be totally fair, i'll mention that Professor Scott, aka Lord Hawk, had a criminal mechanic guy do some additional work on the hawk afterwards. But it's still not a very sane origin story.
And this is how much time is devoted to the supporting cast between arcs.
So the Hawk story follows the format we've seen before, with multiple fights with the villain that Captain Britain loses.
Meanwhile, all our supporting characters watch on TV with - at first! - predictable reactions, like Dai Thomas cursing Captain Britain as if he were responsible for the destruction the battles are causing, and the Braddock siblings hoping Brian will be ok. But then two really weird things happen. The first is Jamie Braddock showing up to try to help Brian, and here's the response:
Holy crap! And i love that it's not just enough to punch him out with your super-strength. You have to tie him up like a super-villain, too.
Brian doesn't even go out to fight Lord Hawk after that. He falls asleep with his brother tied up in the room.
"My enthusiasm has waned!" No kidding! No wonder Jamie Braddock eventually turns into a crazy bad guy.
Dai Thomas is also getting increasingly crazy...
...but that's not the second weird thing i mentioned. It's Jacko Tanner, who comes out of nowhere to attack Captain Britain!
That distracts Captain Britain long enough for Lord Hawk to get his hawk to attack again.
And it gets even better, because Jacko does what Brian, with all his intense studying of the hawk's blueprints, never managed to do, which is just take the stupid remote control away from Lord Hawk.
So it's actually Jacko Tanner that manages to defeat Captain Britain using the mechanical hawk.
Captain Britain is taken away by STRIKE before Dai Thomas can unmask him.
We are now into issues #33-36. While Captain Britain is on the operating table at STRIKE, his astral form is whisked into Merlin's dimension for some testing.
Betsy has a nightmare about it.
But Brian passes his test, and gets an upgraded staff for his trouble.
We also learn the origin of Merlin, and the origin of the amulet and the sword that were part of Captain Britain's origin, and that his daughter is named Roma.
In the past, people have always chosen the sword, which, to be fair, is the more reliably practical option if you're in trouble.
Captain Britain's new Star Sceptre increases his power. It's heavier but more balanced and easier to hold...
...and it allows him to fly for up to 15 minutes at a time.
The reason that Captain Britain had to pass all these tests before getting the good stick is that in the wrong hands it could be a deadly weapon.
In fact Captain Britain has to help fight off an evil wizard demon named Nykonn while he's in Merlin's dimension.
Note Nykonn referring to the Nether-Gods. That stray phrase will be developed in Captain Britain's appearances in the Black Knight series that runs in the British Hulk comic. The villain Hurricane above will also be said to be an agent of the Nether-gods.
Merlin uses up all his power fighting Nykonn and then tells Captain Britain that he therefore can't send him home, so he's stuck in Merlin's dimension forever! But that's just the usual pointless cliffhanger for the end of issue #36. Brian wakes up fine of his own accord in issue #37.
Issues #37 to #39 and Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231-232 are the final arc in this story. A "short while" after Brian sneaks out of STRIKE's headquarters, he bumps into Jacko Tanner, and instead of pounding him into the ground for attacking him with the hawk, he asks to accompany him to the hospital to visit Courtney Ross, who was injured during the hawk's rampages.
On their way to the hospital, they come across a motorcyclist that just sliced through a truck. His names is the Highwayman (not to be confused with the future US1 villain, sadly).
Jacko tries to stop the Highwayman but it doesn't work out.
The Highwayman was actually on his way to meet another bad guy called the Manipulator. The Manipulator planned on capturing the Queen during the Silver Jubilee.
As Basil Crushstone (!), he used to be the ruler of an African country called Ubazi.
And his plan was to kidnap the Queen and manipulate her into supporting him in a counter-revolution.
The Highwayman is delayed when Captain Britain attacks him, but the Highwayman defeats Captain Britain...
...and brings him to the Manipulator. So the plan now is for Captain Britain to get brainwashed into kidnapping the Queen.
By the way, we are into the Jim Lawrence scripted issues now. I can't say much for the plot (mostly by Bud Budiansky, but Len Wein was involved in the first part), although it's definitely very specifically British with this Queen's Jubilee theme (the tie-in to the Jubilee was thought to be enough of a selling point to be advertised on the cover as an Action-Packed Silver Jubilee Epic, and you could also send in for a Captain Britain costume so that you could "wear Britain's colours in Jubilee Year!"). I had thought that Jim Lawrence was British (he worked previously on a British James Bond comic strip), but see Mark's comment below (and for what it's worth, he did a few issues of Dr. Strange's Strange Tales at Marvel back in the late 60s). If nothing else, the scripting is a step up from Larry Lieber, and it definitely makes an increased attempt to add British slang ("I'll have his guts for garters", "Stone me!", "Off his chump, I expect!", "I'm the bloke wot rescued the Queen!"). A lot of that comes from the Highwayman, who may be intended to have a specific type of accent, but it's not just him (a police officer also says "Stone me!", and the "guts for garters" quote comes from Dai Thomas). I wonder if the switch to Lawrence and the Jubilee plot was based on complaints that the Captain Britain comic wasn't coming across as British enough, but again i don't see anything in the letters.
Anyway, Captain Britain tries to capture the Queen for the Manipulator...
...but the Highwayman comes out to stop him, playing the super-hero role and getting invited to the palace where he's able to swap out one of the Queen's rings for one that the Manipulator can use to control her. Brian is captured by the police but snaps back to his senses thanks to bright lights from the press taking photos, and he escapes. The issue, and the series, ends with Brian trying to figure out how he's going to take on the British navy as the Queen leads them to reconquer Umbazi.
The final two parts of the story continue directly in Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #231-232, without a gap in publication (SSM&CB #231 was published the week after CB #39). But the story is demoted to the second feature of the issue, with a Spider-Man reprint coming first.
Someone must have figured out that the Queen can't launch a war all on her own, so we're shown that people just assume that the Prime Minister must have been behind the Queen. We're also shown Parliament in uproar.
Captain Britain attacks the ship, using his forcefield to repel the flak and rocket blasts...
...and, separately, Dai Thomas decides that something odd is going on so he sneaks on board.
Also, Highwayman does some awesome motorcycle stunts just for the hell of it.
Captain Britain fights and loses again, but for the final issue convinces Dai to set off flares that disrupt the Manipulator's controls.
This time Captain Britain is able to defeat the Highwayman...
...but he actually loses one final time to the Manipulator.
Luckily, Dai Thomas had all the fuel drained from his escape jet.
Working together to save the Queen does nothing to change Dai "One Note" Thomas' hatred for Captain Britain. But the Queen feels differently and it's said that he'll be put on her next Honours List. But for Captain Britain, saving the Silver Jubilee is reward enough.
And with that, we can finally take a breath. Next issue's Loch Ness Monster story, for once since issue #8, does not continue directly from this issue. Whew!
Ok, that was exhausting. With no subplots, no character development, and a blur of lame villains, there's not a lot to keep your interest here. For me, reading these was mostly about seeing the tweaks to Captain Britain's powers and the possible hints about Betsy Braddock potentially having mental abilities. As Marvel UK's only original feature at the time, Captain Britain will continue to get developed, allowing for better creative teams to come along and do more with him which in turn makes him interesting enough to be more integrated into the larger Marvel universe. In the short term, he doesn't remain in publication much longer, but more on that when i get to the second trade.
Quality Rating: D+
Historical Significance Rating: 8 - formative Captain Britain stories. First Psylocke. First Courtney Ross, Jamie Braddock, and Mastermind. First STRIKE.
Chronological Placement Considerations: I've covered Captain Britain #1-2 in a separate entry because i have the reprints of those issues that were published in Marvel Tales. Based on where i've placed this entry, there's a large amount of space between issues #2 and #3, but issue #3 doesn't have any direct connection to #2 and it's most likely that some time has passed since Brian is back at school. Issue #4 then begins with Brian saying that he's been cooped up in classrooms for a "week" with no action. That issue starts the battle with Hurricane that lasts until issue #7. At the beginning of issue #8, Captain Britain observes Vixen's goons and recognizes them as similar to the ones he fought "a few weeks ago" in issue #3. The references to "weeks" is really about publication time, but those references also serve as breakpoints if you wanted to break this entry up into smaller arcs. After that, though, you would be out of luck, since issue #8 begins the Dr. Synne/Mastermind story that transforms directly into the Red Skull story in issue #16. The Red Skull story concludes in issue #27 but the end of that issue, after a "shortly" caption, shows Brian going to sleep thinking about Lord Hawk and then waking up to say that he had been battling the Red Skull for the "past three days", and then getting involved in the Lord Hawk story, which concludes in issue #32 with Captain Britain being taken into STRIKE custody, which is when his astral form has the battle in Merlin's dimension. After Captain Britain wakes up in issue #37, it's only "a short while later" that Brian bumps into Jack Tanner and joins him on the way to the hospital to visit Courtney Ross (injured during the Hawk attack), and on his way to the hospital he's attacked by the Highwayman, beginning the final storyline covered in this entry, ending in Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #232. So a lot happens in direct succession! There is a sufficient gap between Super Spider-Man and Captain Britain #232 - 233 since Courtney is out of the hospital by #233, so at least we don't have to go directly into the next Captain Britain trade yet. To summarize, issues #8-39 and #231-232 all take place in quick succession, If you really needed to, you could interpret one or both of the "short" captions liberally, although the "past three days" comment is a little harder. But the good news is that Captain Britain is pretty isolated from the rest of the Marvel universe at this point, and since i don't really want to break up this trade anyway, that works for me. It's therefore the appearances of Captain America, Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan, and the Red Skull that are the main anchor points. Their appearances are really context free, but the MCP places Captain America here between Captain America #215-217 (#216 was a reprint). That winds up causing this entry to be placed just a little bit later than the publication date of the final issue in this run, which isn't too bad. It's worth noting that Dum Dum Dugan was appearing regularly in Godzilla around this time, but that doesn't mean that he couldn't break away for another assignment. Due to some dependencies with the SHIELD Helicarrier, which appears here, i've placed this prior to both Hulk #216 and Godzilla #3. I should note that a couple of the characters that i've listed - the Manipulator and STRIKE leader Lance Hunter - don't ever appear anywhere else as far as i know (Hunter is mentioned in a Civil War handbook), but i've listed them since they are (broadly speaking) super-characters that appear over a fair number of the issues here (and Hunter will be used in the SHIELD TV show, although he's nothing like the character here).
References: N/A
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: Captain Britain vol. 1: Birth of a Legend