Comic Book Review Spiderman AND Captain Britain

MIC BOOK REVIEW SPIDERMAN AND CAPTAIN BRITAIN 1977 / 1978 (2009 Reprint). Marvel.

The Marvel Team up series was a crucial series in which heroes were paired up in the hope that the fans of an established hero, like Spiderman, would take well to the new and lesser known characters, like Captain Britain, who comes along in this adventure, dominated by the senior hero. This episode was crucial in selling Captain Britain to the US Market. The Captain Britain stories had been initially created specifically for Marvel’s UK readers.

As with many team up and cross over stories, this is in two parts, with the heroes mistaking one another for enemies to allow readers to compare their abilities in a top trumps conflict, before they unite against a genuine villain and learn to work together.

Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) is sent to the US as an exchange student, and finds he sharing an apartment with Peter (Spiderman) Parker. When Braddock sees Spiderman leaving Parker’s rooms, he doesn’t assume the two are one and the same man, but that Spiderman has abducted Parker (Spiderman was often vilified as a villain due to a crusading newspaper hate campaign).  Braddock dons his own heroic garb and gives chase, with the two heroes slugging it out for a time over the streets of New York, though with Spiderman generally faring better. So far so formulaic.

While Braddock is easily identified by Parker due to his accent, Braddock never gets to identify Spiderman and Parker are one and the same man. 

The story really takes off in the second half, with the heroes abducted by a garbage truck and dumped into a giant pinball machine, filled with booby traps. The assassin is called Arcade, and even his own allies criticise him for not just killing the heroes when he caught them rather than subjecting them to his fairground and arcade game death traps.

The heroes are split up, with Spiderman again faring best in getting to the controls behind the apparatus used by Arcade. The good Captain finds himself desperately trying to rescue his girlfriend, (pre-captured by Arcade and brought to the US specially). Ultimately, Spiderman will save them both.

Arcade is assigned to kill Braddock as one of dozens of Britons who might be Captain Britain, but wisely goes after the masked hero directly to save time. After his defeat, he clearly loses all interest in Braddock and Britain, vowing vengeance on Spiderman alone. 

Captain Britain would have only modest success stateside or in the UK, and remains an obscure figure in the Marvel catalogue of heroes. Even in his US debut he was not allowed to outclass or beat Spiderman, and this may have contributed to why Braddock remains such a low-key figure in Comic Book halls of fame.

Arthur Chappell.