The Comicon Advent Calendar: Day 21 – Should Auld Acquaintance – A Captain Britain Christmas Tale…
by Richard Bruton
Here we go again, another entry in the Comicon Advent Calendar. Today, it’s a seasonal tale from Alan Davis‘ run on Captain Britain.
Okay, so the cover date is February, but this is very much a seasonal tale, from Captain Britain issue #14, February 1986, written and illustrated by Davis, with inks by Mark Farmer.
After the Alan Moore and Alan Davis years, with Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury, Alan Davis took over writing the good Captain with the end of the run in the Marvel UK monthly, Mighty World of Marvel, and in the 14 issues of Captain Britain monthly. And he did a damn fine job of it, adding to the whole mythology of the good Captain.
Here, in the final issue of the Captain Britain Monthly, we had a festive tale with Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) and Meggan spending a quiet Christmas at home. At least until Dai Thomas comes by, the copper who’s known that Brian is Captain Britain, the copper so desperate that he comes to the man he really doesn’t like…
After this, it’s off to Glasgow for Brian and Meggan to deal with the terrifying threat that Dai came to Brian with.
And in between all this, we get Davis’ neat wrapping up of so many of the plot threads from the Moore/Davis series, with Captain UK and Roma…
And that, dear reader, was that. No more Captain Britain. Well, at least no more Captain Britain in the same vein as what we had with the Alan Moore and Alan Davis years. Sure, we had the Chris Claremont and Alan Davis Excalibur series and then we got the Captain integrated into the Marvel Universe. But, at least from my point of view, it wasn’t quite the same.
But, as a send-off, this Alan Davis tale was a nice thing, sentimental sure, but rounding everything off so nicely.
So farewell, dear reader, Merry Christmas, happy festive times. Anything Captain Britain with the names Alan Moore and/or Alan Davis attached, especially these Marvel UK series (Marvel Superheroes, Daredevils, then Mighty World of Marvel again, and finally this Captain Britain monthly) should be essential reading for any superhero fan, for any fan of damn fine comics.