Anniversaries are always a big deal, but there is something especially exciting when it comes to milestone years. Five, ten, fifteen-year marks are all worth celebrating, a time to acknowledge accomplishment and look ahead to more years to come but when you get to the big anniversaries, those moments are truly special and become as much about history and legacy as they do accomplishment and this year, Marvel Comics is celebrating quite a few big 50th anniversaries. Just this week, Marvel Gold ’76 marked the 50th for Bullseye, Nova, Jack of Hearts, and Star-Lord with a wild, unexpected adventure and next month another comics icon marks their 50th anniversary as well, two actually: Captain Britain and Betsy Braddock.
First debuting in Captain Britain #1 in 1976, Brian Braddock and his twin sister Betsy have grown to be beloved characters over the decades with deep ties to plenty of major Marvel teams, including the X-Men, the Avengers, and even a literal league of their own, the Captain Britain Corps. To celebrate this major milestone moment for the characters, an all-new special, Captain Britain 50th Anniversary Special #1 hits shelves on October 14th, featuring stories Dan Abnett, Chris Claremont, and Alan Davis celebrating the past, present, and future of the heroes and ComicBook had a chance to chat with Davis, looking back on his place in Captain Britain history — and a little tease of his new story in the upcoming special.
One of the things that is interesting about any major comics milestone is looking back at where things were at any given point in the character’s timeline. For Davis, Captain Britain’s story is a big part of his own story as a creator as Davis wasn’t a full-time comics creator at the time. Davis explained that when he started, the work was just for fun — and uncertain.
“When I started working on Captain Britain, it was just for fun,” Davis said. “I had a full-time job and Marvel UK could only afford to produce five or six pages a month so it never felt like Captain Britain would survive for too long. Paul Neary was the mastermind behind the relaunch and he chose myself and Dave Thorpe because of our enthusiasm — and the fact that we would work for cheap.”
Being a good bargain aside, however, Davis did say that he feels lucky that he got to be such an important part of Captain Britain’s history with his work on the character’s major redesign in 1981.
“I feel lucky to have been in the right place at the right time to be offered the chance to work on and redesign Captain Britain,” Davis said, though he also noted that he isn’t one to guess where the future goes, having been surprised by the character’s continued longevity.
“As for the future, who knows,” he added. “I figured Captain Britain would have fizzled out over forty years ago.”
Of course, Captain Britain isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The upcoming anniversary special is offering up three stories for Brian and Betsy. Davis’s story has been described as showing readers what happens when you try to rein in a Braddock and Davis offered up a bit of insight as to what fans can expect from Brian Braddock.
“Brian Braddock is an old-fashioned patriot.” he said. “He respects tradition and the values of his forbears but he hates the bureaucrats who use their positions within the ‘System’ for personal gain. Brain doesn’t challenge the system head on but he does score points whenever the opportunity presents itself.”
Here’s how Marvel describes Captain Britain 50th Anniversary Special #1: “Live by the sword! Join us for a golden jubilee to commemorate fifty years of Brian and Betsy Braddock, champions of the multiversal Captain Britain Corps! Chris Claremong & Paul Davidson weave a tale of Brian’s earliest days defending the realm! Alan Davis shows what happens when you try to rein in a Braddock! And Dan Abnett and Kelsey Ramsay pit Betsy against the forces of Otherworld. Witness a can’t-miss glimpse at the past, present, and future of these powerhouse twins.”
The three stories will offer up that past, present, future approach to celebrating the iconic characters. Chris Claremont and Paul Davidson bring “Braddock Business” to the book, while Davis’s story is “Chains of Command.” Rounding out the trio is “Another Day, An Otherworld” by Dan Abnett and Kelsey Ramsay. You can check out pages from each story for yourself above. The book itself will go on sale October 14th.
