You’ve Never Read Captain Britain by Alan Moore and Alan Davis?!
Before Miracleman and Watchmen there was Captain Britain
Any dedicated comic book reader is almost certainly familiar with the works of Alan Moore and Alan Davis. Moore has written some of the most critically acclaimed comics of all time such as Watchmen, The Saga of Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta, and Batman: The Killing Joke. Davis is best known for his artwork on comics such as Uncanny X-Men, Excalibur, Batman: Full Circle, and a series of Thanos original graphic novels. Moore and Davis also collaborated in 1982 on some of the early issues of a comic book now known as Miracleman (though it was originally known as a “Marvelman” story published in the UK magazine Warrior). It is frequently held up as Moore’s first foray into the deconstruction of the superhero mythos as it explores what the real world would be like if nigh omnipotent super powered beings actually inhabited it.
It’s one of my personal favorite comic book stories ever published, but it isn’t actually Moore’s first attempt at deconstructing superhero comics. In fact, it isn’t even his first time doing so while partnered with Davis. The two joined forces on an ongoing “Captain Britain” story that appeared in various magazines published by Marvel UK from 1981-84. While the story and themes explored are fascinating, the way the story was published is almost equally interesting. At this point in comics history, comics published by Marvel in the United States were not simultaneously published in the United Kingdom. Instead, a division of Marvel known as Marvel UK would publish oversized magazines that collected reprints of popular comics (usually in black and white) in five page chunks spread out over multiple issues. This allowed Marvel UK to publish reprinted stories from multiple comics as well as brand new stories from local British creators (also in five page chunks). The most popular ongoing story featuring a local writers and artists was one starring Captain Britain. Alan Davis first started illustrating these stories in a magazine called Marvel Super-Heroes beginning with issue #377 in which he created Captain Britain’s most famous and recognizable costume. Alan Moore took on writing duties with Marvel Super-Heroes #387. Their story would appear in Marvel Super-Heroes #387-388, The Daredevils #1-11, and The Mighty World of Marvel #7-13. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must have been for fans to jump from one ongoing magazine to another in an attempt to keep up with this particular story, but I can vouch for the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to track down physical copies of these magazines in the United States these days.
So what kind of story was being told by the two young Alans? Often referred to as “Jaspers’ Warp,” the story features the heroic Captain Britain (Brian Braddock) and his tiny elf sidekick Jackdaw (I’m not making any of this up) as they are flung into an alternate universe designated as Earth-238 that has become a fascist hellscape where all beings with superpowers have been rounded up and exterminated. This world is ruled over by a psychotic mutant with reality warping powers named Jim Jaspers (often referred to as Mad Jim Jaspers) and his “cybiote” killing machine dubbed the Fury. The Fury is utterly terrifying. To quote one of the fascist thugs from the story, “The Fury is a cybiote, an unstoppable amalgam of flesh and metal. It kills superheroes.” Boy does it ever. The first thing it does is unleash its firepower on poor Jackdaw. The little elf dies in Captain Britain’s arms, and then the genocidal machine does the same to Captain Britain himself.
It should be clear at this point that this is not your traditional superhero story. Would you expect anything different from these two creators? All of this takes place within the first ten pages of the story. From there, Moore and Davis tackle some very interesting concepts. Captain Britain is quickly resurrected by Merlin and Roma of Arthurian lore to continue his quest to contain Jaspers and his nightmarish Fury before they can spillover into other universes within the multiverse. If you think this all sounds similar to the current direction of the MCU, then you would be right. The designation of the primary universe as Earth-616 with an infinite number of other universes within the multiverse is established by Moore and Davis in this story.
Some other topics addressed in this story that would reappear in later works by Moore include examining how societies can quickly devolve into fascism when there is a perceived internal threat (superheroes in this case), how supposedly benevolent power structures can be morally ambiguous (Merlin and Roma being prime examples here), and how Englishmen with mustaches and bad suits can cause heretofore unparalleled damage to the multiverse. I’m being a bit facetious with that last point, but Jim Jaspers is a clear allegory for the Thatcherite policies of the United Kingdom at the time (one of Moore’s favorite targets).
Ultimately this story is one with far reaching ramifications within the main continuity for Marvel Comics and an early example of the kind of mature storytelling that would permeate the industry later in the decade. Many of the characters, locations, and concepts introduced in this story would play an integral role in the massive X-Men event X of Swords in 2020. One would think that such an important and impactful story would be easy to find today. Unfortunately, that is not the case. As I previously mentioned, it is exceedingly difficult to track down the original Marvel UK magazines where this story was originally published. They were once collected (and colored!) in a trade paperback edition that was published in 2002, but it is currently out of print due to legal disputes between Marvel and Alan Moore. For years there just has not been an easy way to read this story. But just when it seemed that all hope was lost, Marvel published a brand new Captain Britain Omnibus this year. This behemoth contains 1,360 pages of Captain Britain stories including the “Jaspers’ Warp” arc from Alan Moore and Alan Davis. If you want a thorough deep dive into all things Captain Britain, then this is the collection for you. If you only wish to read the “Jaspers’ Warp” story, then your best bet would probably be to track down the out of print trade from 2002 (though you might end up paying the same amount you would for the omnibus). Either way, this is a story worth reading. I hope the publication of this new omnibus is indicative of Marvel’s intent to make this story even more easily accessible both digitally and in print in the near future.
I hate the term ‘deconstruction…’