Volume 03: Captain Britain: A Crooked World

Captain Britain: A Crooked World

Author: Alan Moore | Illustrator: Alan Davis

"I hit one of you and ten of you get nose-bleeds! What are you people?"

Author extraordinaire Alan Moore's only work for Marvel was for their Marvel UK imprint. For too short a time he took over author duties of the unimaginatively named Captain Britain.

The bearded-one plays it safe for the first few issues, but being Moore means he can't contain himself for long. Early in his run he chucked the manual out the window, rewrote the character's origin story in a convincing manner, making the manipulative Merlyn and his daughter Roma more instrumental in decision making, and turned the Captain into a fully fledged Moore-esque character. It turned out to be just what was needed to revive the series. At times it feels like an episode of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. He even slips in a vision of a dystopian England, much like his V for Vendetta (1988).

It's very British. The Captain gets deeply frustrated when things don't turn out as expected, and characters display the quirks that define the quintessential Englishman. However, rather than reinforce stereotypes it succeeds in turning them into comical strengths. More than once I found myself in hysterics at the behavioural traits of the group.

The villains are equally ridiculous, with names to match: The Omniversal Majestrix Saturnyne; the Special Executive; the Avant Guard; and Jim Jaspers (with a name like that it sounds like he should be teaching high school Chemistry, not destroying entire worlds).

As the scripts got more insane so too did artist Alan Davis' panels grow more adventurous. Some of the expressions he uses are really fantastic. It's refreshing to see someone break from a regular routine and admirably rise to meet a challenge.

A Crooked World is noteworthy for also featuring the first appearance of the Captain's twin sister, Betsy Braddock, who works for S.T.R.I.K.E, the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D. You maybe know the purple-haired Betsy better as Psylocke of the X-Men.

The book collects together stories from Marvel Super-Heroes (UK) #387-388, Daredevils #1-11,
and Mighty World of Marvel V2 #7-13.

Verdict:

Volume 02: Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix

Uncanny X-Men: Dark Phoenix
Author: Chris Claremont  |  Illustrator: John Byrne

"I can pick your mind clean in the blink of an eye — "

I like the X-Men, but not to the extent that I'm unable to acknowledge the collective's many flaws. Scott Summers is a bore. Jean Grey is overpowered. Wolverine overshadows all the others. (Actually, that last point is also a strength; they'd be less interesting without him.)

It's only my second post and already I'm going against popular opinion because, as you've probably guessed, Volume 02 is mostly about Jean and while it's much-loved by fans of Jean it bores the shit out of me.

John Byrne's art is excellent and there's a potentially great storyline smothered beneath the rigid text, but it's a victim of the Marvel need to make the team seem more mature by having them be super-serious even during times of outright stupidity. That approach coupled with the usual complex-nearing-convoluted events that have come to define the X-Men series over the years make it difficult to connect to the characters. Or maybe that applies only to me? I don't know. I read the book twice to try and overcome any kind of unfair dislike that I may have unconsciously created. It didn't help. It mostly served to make me cringe even more at the overuse of self-commentary.

Some positives to end with: Prior to the book's central arc, Jean had died but hadn't, the team were killed but weren't, and the world was saved. Because together they're so powerful, a pattern develops where over time the enemies have to get bigger and stronger in order to seem threatening. For a while the primary villain in the Dark Phoenix saga instead goes smaller, attacking from afar, quietly and unnoticed. It was absolutely the correct approach to take in order to achieve the specific goal that the author was hoping to address.
I thought the design of the Black Queen was fantastic.
Wolverine is seen reading Penthouse; that's good characterisation.

The book collects together Uncanny X-Men #129-137.

Verdict:

Volume 01: Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle

Authors: David Michelinie / Bob Layton  |  Illustrators: John Romita, Jr. / Carmine Infantino

"I'd grown up in a small town that'd grown up into a big city. They called it 'progress'. I called it a shame."

If you read the books in their final numbered order, as opposed to the strange order they were released to shops and subscribers, then the collection kicks off with a 'Bronze Age' Iron Man tale exploring Tony Stark's alcoholism. Damn billionaire first world problems, eh, Stark?

Lightly incorporating real-world problems into fictional settings had proved beneficial to the stories of other Marvel heroes, but it was time to take it to another level. That goal was achieved with Iron Man.

It helped the man who could buy an island if he chose to seem a little more relatable. All it required of the reader was a putting aside of external trappings and a focus on the underlying fragility of the man beneath the impenetrable suit. In short, an understanding that the suit protects Tony from harm but in no way protects Tony from Tony.

Before it can get to the heart of the topic, however, it has to satisfy the story-telling devices and expectations of the era, which it does in exaggerated comic-book style with action that's fast-paced and at the upper end of the 'super heroics' scale (i.e. ridiculous but fun).

The spoken dialogue and thought bubbles are standard stuff for the most part, but Michelinie and Layton occasionally put more effort into what's placed in the text boxes; at times they're like something you'd expect to find in a novel, not a mass market off-the-shelf comic from 1979, which was the year it was first published.

The chapter from which the collection takes its name doesn't appear until the end, but, in hindsight, much of what happens prior to it is affected by the root cause, i.e. the 'demon' of the title, and even allows for both it and the 'bottle' to be interpreted in different ways.

The book collects together Invincible Iron Man #120-128.

Verdict: