Interesting characters created in the 70's

[tony ingram]

I thought that too for a long time, but she was a regular supporting character int he 70's Captain Britain weekly, beginning in late 1976. Her first appearance is in #8:



Here's one little, completely out of context scan of her first panels:



She honestly doesn't do a whole hell of a lot at the beginning; I have a TPB that collects the first 23 issues or so of this comic and she basically crashes a plane or something and has a couple weird psychic episodes and that's more or less it.

She played a much larger role later on, in Alan Moore's Captain Britain series in the early 80s (which is also where she got purple hair).

Copies of this comic can be occasionally found at comic shows for like $50. They are kind of hard to find and hard to store as well because they are oversized format.

No, they're in the standard British weekly format. I think you lot have comics in an undersized format (though admittedly, you had full colour comics when most of ours were still black & white, which made them rather more appealing to some people). Captain Britain's first series is now available in the US in a hardcover reprint collection, I believe.

[dr chimp]

And BTW, Marvel UK was not "Marvel's England branch". It did actually sell comics in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, too (in case anyone missed it, that's my not very subtle way of pointing out that "England" and "Britain" are not the same thing).

you meant the UK here.

[tony ingram]

you meant the UK here.

I could have listed every individual island in the British Isles but it would have taken awhile.

[dr chimp]

I could have listed every individual island in the British Isles but it would have taken awhile.

great britain is mainland (+ sometimes the islands). UK is Great Britain + Northern Ireland.

[tony ingram]

great britain is mainland (+ sometimes the islands). UK is Great Britain + Northern Ireland.

Fair point. Shall we just say "the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Berwick Upon Tweed and all British dominions"? That should just about cover it...

[Sonofspam]

I have been reading some late 70's ish Spider-man and Will-o- the -Wisp intrigues me tho looking at it now his costume could use some work cause it looks kind of plain.

[tony ingram]

A couple of those were close but not quite in the 70's.

Just to say something I meant to point out earlier (but got sidetracked by the Psylocke thing): Rocket Raccoon actually first appeared in Marvel Preview #7 in 1976. He was a supporting character in The Sword in the Star.

[Mormel]

Fair point. Shall we just say "the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Berwick Upon Tweed and all British dominions"? That should just about cover it...

I'm just jonesin' for a Gibraltar-based superhero team.

[tony ingram]

I'm just jonesin' for a Gibraltar-based superhero team.

Well, Marvel already has a character who'd be an obvious fit to lead it, even if he is an American: Samuel LaRoquette, AKA 'Rock'!

[dan bailey]

Fair point. Shall we just say "the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, Berwick Upon Tweed and all British dominions"? That should just about cover it...

Captain Berwick Upon Tweed, come on down!

[dr chimp]

Captain Berwick Upon Tweed, come on down!

Anointed at birth with mystical waters created from some unexplained event on the river tweed C B. is sworn to clean up the teeming cesspit and den of inequity that is berwick and to protect fisherman wherever they may fish (as long as it's on the north east coast of england)

[tony ingram]

Anointed at birth with mystical waters created from some unexplained event on the river tweed C B. is sworn to clean up the teeming cesspit and den of inequity that is berwick and to protect fisherman wherever they may fish (as long as it's on the north east coast of england)

And if the Russians ever become a problem again, he'll be there to rip up that damn peace treaty and act as Britain's first line of defence!

[Scott Harris]

N
And BTW, Marvel UK was not "Marvel's England branch". It did actually sell comics in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, too (in case anyone missed it, that's my not very subtle way of pointing out that "England" and "Britain" are not the same thing).

Eh, same diff.

[hondobrode]

Just to say something I meant to point out earlier (but got sidetracked by the Psylocke thing): Rocket Raccoon actually first appeared in Marvel Preview #7 in 1976. He was a supporting character in The Sword in the Star.

I haven't updated my ComicBase program in a couple of years. The last version I have showed that issue of the Incredible Hulk I cited. When I looked up Marvel Preview # 7, it indeed shows Rocket Raccoon but fails to list it as his first appearance. The credits show Bill Mantlo in that issue, and he was the writer of the Hulk issue as well as the RR mini.

Nice catch there Tony.

Edit : I just checked their live database and it now correctly shows MP # 7 as the character's first appearance.

[tony ingram]

Eh, same diff.

No, it really isn't. And many Britons find that attitude quite offensive. Try walking into a pub in Glasgow on a Friday night and telling the clientele they're English, and see how many limbs you manage to keep. England is a country located on a landmass called Great Britain, as are Scotland and Wales. Each has a separate national identity despite being a part of the United Kingdom.