Captain America is only hours away from making his big-screen debut, and if tracking and word of mouth holds true, he’ll be a smash hit with Americans and international audiences alike. The summer of superheroes will go out with a patriotic bang, which will undoubtedly encourage studios to dig into their comic book rights catalog and see if they have a nationalistic hero or heroine that’s ripe for adaptation. (Reportedly, Warner Bros and DC Comics have already started, and have dusted off Sgt. Rock as their answer to Steve Rogers.)
If I may be so bold, Marvel, why not jump into another character of red, white, and blue, and make a Captain Britain movie?
Unlike his Yankee cousin, Captain Britain has languished in pop culture obscurity. I’m not even sure he’s very popular in his homeland. If my visits to Forbidden Planet were an accurate assessment of UK geekery, the usual suspects like Batman, Superman, Wolverine, and Green Lantern dominate the market. (There was probably some Thor and Iron Man in there too, but who can find anything with all the Doctor Who displays?) Captain Britain just kicks around, dust collecting on his Amulet of Power, wondering why he’s so unloved. After all, he’s the only Marvel hero to have ever been penned by Alan “I’m sure you’ve heard of me” Moore. It’s downright unusual for a Moore character to be abandoned; even his run on Swamp Thing is spoken of in hushed whispers.
Sure, Captain Britain’s background is a little convoluted and cryptic. It starts out typical and marketable enough. An ordinary English boy named Brian Braddock loses his parents to hideous circumstances, he’s troubled and guilt-ridden, dodges death thanks to supernatural intervention, and is promptly gifted with superpowers by the universal guardians, Merlyn and Roma. (Isn’t that great? Roma may have nothing to do with Rome, but it still has that great Eagle and Dragon mythos going.) Naturally, things get bizarre with multiple Earths, confusion as to where his powers reside (His suit? His amulet? His scepter? His sense of self worth?), multiple deaths and resurrections, and a twin sister who actually switched races. But this is comic mythology, and these things happen. A good movie can cherry pick the good storylines and iron it all out.
And Captain Britain does have some great storylines and imagery. There’s a moment in Britain’s heroic run when he’s returning to England after doing a student exchange in America (where he roomed with Spider-Man!), and his plane is attacked by otherworldly forces. He attempts to save his fellow passengers and goes mad in the process. He experiences a vision of standing stones, which are — naturally — standing on the Isle of Avalon, where Arthur isn’t dead, but captive. Arthur reaches out to his fellow hero, and tries to guide him to safety and sanity. It’s probably these staid trappings which makes him boring to the UK, but really, how do you make a patriotic superhero without referring to the king who will someday return in England’s most desperate hour?
Mr. Braddock also has a good, Batmanish well of sorrow to draw on. As he suffers the slings and arrows of superhero fortune, he slowly discovers that his life has never really been his own. Merlyn and Roma plotted out his destiny long before he was born. He had no choice but to become Captain Britain. Even death is no escape, as they simply reconstitute him from whatever DNA bits they have left. What is a superhero to do? Suffer nobly? Try to buck the system? This is the stuff of great drama, and it’s not exactly the story Marvel has told before as all of their heroes have chosen to become something special. (Yes, Thor is born a god, but he has to choose whether he’ll be a powerful leader, or a powerless buffoon. Britain doesn’t have that choice. He’s constantly manipulated back into his suit.)
And the costume! Britain’s uniform may be the one superhero getup that doesn’t need major tweaking to work on a three-dimensional human. It’s sleek, stylish, and modern, and the Union Jack just flows on it, making it look like something a rock star could wear. (How did Captain America wind up with chainmail and a shield, and Britain walk away in motorcycle leather? It should be reversed.)
I can go on and on, and make your eyes swim with “and then, he teamed up with SHIELD!”, but there’s really no need. The best reason to make a Captain Britain movie is this: America hogs the superheroes. We’ve got them all. The only ones who loudly and proudly retain their “otherness” are Thor, Wonder Woman, and Wolverine, and even they tend to spend more time in New York than their homelands. I love America, but it seems unfair to demand Superman fight for only our ways, Wonder Woman bedeck her bosom with our eagle, and Thor to relocate Asgard above Oklahoma. (This happened.) Wouldn’t it be nice if England had Captain Britain, and Russia had Black Widow, and Japan had the Silver Samurai, and they were all good (if occasionally at odds) guys and girls? Shouldn’t a global, save-the-world blockbuster actually include other citizens of the planet?
Perhaps that’s a little maudlin and It’s-A-Small Worldish. Maybe it’s enough solidarity that we’ve got British and Australian men playing all the superheroes. That’s fine. I just want Captain Britain to rock that costume and fly the rainy English skies. I want him to join forces with Captain America in a show of solidarity, and be on call for the Avengers when they fly into another time zone. I want him to lose his memory and go live in Cornwall as a hermit, forcing Tony Stark to come after him with a been there, done that, put the suit back on pep talk. Introducing forgotten or lonely characters is what a crossover universe is meant for, and I can’t think of a more worthy candidate for an update than Captain Britain.
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