Captain Britain strip
By then Skinn had quit Marvel UK, with Neary taking over as the offshoot's editor-in-chief.[15] He wanted to keep producing new material but there was very little money to fund it.[10][16] Neary paused commissioning covers to free up resources to make a new Captain Britain feature for flagship anthology Marvel Superheroes (renamed from Mighty World of Marvel in September 1979). Even then he was only able to hire newcomers and turned to editor Dave Thorpe, who had never written before, and Alan Davis, an acquaintance of Neary's who had only recently turned professional with some short pieces published in Rampage and 2000 AD.[10] Thorpe and Neary had already devised the idea of sending the character to a parallel Earth when Davis came on board, while the character of Jackdaw from The Black Knight was kept on at the editor's suggestion.[4] Davis was tasked with redesigning the lead character's costume with the stipulation to lose the clumsy sceptre, with the artist taking a cues from military uniforms in the new look and bulky out his physique. His unused concepts for the character would later be used for some of the Captain Britain Corps. The new team debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #377, in September 1981;[10] it had initially been advertised as appearing in #375, but was hit by delays.[1]
The combination of Thorpe and Davis initially seemed to work well, though Davis would later recall Thorpe's work was very experimental for the genre, reflecting he was ahead of his time. Among Thorpe's creations were the Crazy Gang, Mad Jim Jaspers and Saturnyne, as well as coining the use of the title "Earth-616" as the Marvel Universe's 'home' dimension (though it would not be used in print until after he had left). However, Thorpe would fall out with Davis and Marvel after only a few months when he wrote a story featuring Captain Britain resolving the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Davis felt this trivialised the issue to the point of offensiveness; Neary agreed and ordered Thorpe to re-write the story. The writer turned in the same script, modified only to use obvious anagrams in place of real names associated with the Troubles. Davis was infuriated and Neary again backed the artist, leading to Thorpe leaving the strip.[10] It would be his only published comics work.[4] His replacement was Alan Moore, who had contributed stories to Marvel UK's Doctor Who Weekly and Star Wars Weekly licensed titles.[10] The new team moved the strip in a darker tone, reconfiguring Jaspers as a powerful reality-warping mutant and introducing the unstoppable hero-killing cybiote The Fury.[1]
This allowed the strip to cover the character's resurrection and history in a new title, The Daredevils, in January 1983. The title's critical success allowed for an increase in the page-count of the Captain Britain strip.[16] In keeping with the heavier tone of the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline at the time, the anthology also featured reprints of Frank Miller's acclaimed Daredevil run and appearances by Marvel UK's masked vigilante Night Raven. Despite both the new title and the ongoing strip receiving good notices,[2] including an Eagle Award, The Daredevils was a sales disappointment and was cancelled after 11 issues in November 1983, with Captain Britain transferring back to the relaunched Mighty World of Marvel. Following the conclusion of the "Jaspers' Warp" storyline in June 1984, Moore left the series.[1] The writer has stated that this was due to Marvel firing editor Bernie Jaye; however, Davis recalled that Jaye had resigned on her own terms, and that Moore had departed due to a financial dispute. Despite this, Moore still recalled enjoying the results of his work on the title, feeling it was overshadowed at the time by his work on Marvelman and V for Vendetta.[17]
Meanwhile the character was also selected for a sizeable role in Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, a crossover limited series published by Marvel UK's parent company. However, delays saw the title - originally created as to tie in with the 1980 Summer Olympics - held back until 1982. Captain Britain was parachuted in to take the place of Captain Marvel in the story after the latter had been killed off in The Death of Captain Marvel; however, at the time Marvel's New York bullpen was unaware of the redesign of the character, who appeared in his original costume throughout.[18] A similar error was committed by Steve Ditko when Captain Britain made a brief cameo in 1985's ROM: Spaceknight #65.[1]
Davis would briefly take over writing the story himself until being joined by Jamie Delano, an up-and-coming writer recommended by Moore, and Meggan was incorporated as a major supporting character. Neary had also left Marvel UK, being replaced by Ian Rimmer.[10] In January 1985 the serial was transferred back to a new Captain Britain monthly series; due to a growing interest in the resurgent British industry issues of this series were exported to America, unlike the first series.[19] The series is notable for Betsy Braddock briefly taking over the role of Captain Britain - which would become a permanent change in 2019 - and for Captain Britain killing the villain Slaymaster by crushing his head with a large rock. Davis defended this, feeling it was justified due to the villain showing he would kill again - something he contrasted with Batman's unwillingness to kill The Joker.[20]
Sales were initially respectable but began to fall, while Davis felt Delano wasn't interested in the superhero genre and was also finding his own time to be taken up by a lucrative role as artist for DC's Batman and the Outsiders. As a result, he was given extra pages in Captain Britain #14 to tie up the storyline as the series ended in February 1986.[10] The serial's acclaim[2] and the growing reputation of its creators saw Marvel plan a reprint of the revival in anthology title Marvel Premiere. However, British copyright law at the time was different to that of America; while Marvel owned Captain Britain, their British employees owned copyright to the stories they created for the title, and had to give permission for reprints. Moore, irritated to find out this had been bypassed for some of his Doctor Who work and a dispute over the character of Marvelman, refused to sign off on the reprints, ending both the plans for American reprints and his professional relationship with Davis. As a reconciliatory gesture, Moore would eventually give permission for the material to be reprinted in 1995, and his storylines along with Thorpe's would be reprinted in the deluxe mini-series X-Men Archives featuring Captain Britain.[21] The strips were coloured, and have since been collected in trade paperback form. Captain Britain meanwhile would appear as a guest character in Captain America #305-306, with art from Neary.[1]
