Captain Britain #4

Week Ending Oct 27, 1976
Cover Price: 10 pence

Characters: Captain Britain / Brian Braddock, Jacko Tanner and his cronies (one is named Charley), Courtney Ross

First Appearance: Hurricane

Content Note: violence, bullying, head trauma, and as you might expect from the name of the villain, extreme weather

It’s Hurricane time! But first, Brian is screwing around in the gym at his university. (We’re also reminded that he’s a physics student, and I really would like to know how he has ANY time for superhero stuff). And as these come out weekly, and this is #4, and so he’s been doing this for a month – but apparently it’s so easy, it’s like he’s been doing it for years.

Buddy, you haven’t dealt with anything yet.

However…

It’s Jacko Tanner, the jock from last time, who thinks Brian is a wimp, despite having basically the same body type. Jacko’s cronies are silent, although one of them points at Brian the whole time, while Jacko gives Brian shit over nothing.

And we get Brian grousing about Jocko and his dork friends. Apparently Brian won’t fight them because of something that happened to his parents that made him promise something? I don’t think this has been mentioned before? *checks* Nope. I mean, it’s only been three issues, but it sure feels like a device to keep Brian the underdog. Bets on when it comes up again?

In any case, Courtney Ross invites him to breakfast and he does the smart thing and accepts.

But then HURRICANE attacks, with the mission to DESTROY CAPTAIN BRITAIN. For some unstated reason.

I think his costume is pretty good honestly – clear iconic symbol, clean lines, good color scheme – but, uh, buddy…

… you’re supposed to test these things before you go public. He’s got thrusters, invincible body armor, and wrist blasters that can “focus the total force of a full-blown hurricane into a bean mere inches in diameter” and “create suction of irrestible proportions”. Handy, I guess?

Oh…

Oh boy…

Mad science alert!

Apparently he’s right that hurricanes are more powerful than h-bombs (Source 1: The heat release from a hurricane is equivalent to a 10-megaton nuclear bomb exploding every 20 minutes, NOAA calculates. Source 2: during its life cycle a hurricane can expend as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs!) – Which, um, HOLY SHIT. But, still gravity and, like the other three of the fundamental forces? But, y’know what, I’ll give it to him. Because Holy Shit, I did not grasp the full extent of hurricanes.

Brian gets Courtney to a safe(r) spot and then runs to transform and stop Hurricane. … And immediately gets battered, as is required by comic book law.

Jocko and his goons see Captain Britain doing his thing and Brian wonders why he’s bothering to save them. Because. That’s. Your. Job.

And apparently Hurricane can also form mini-hurricanes. Brian pole vaults into the eye of the storm, right on top of Hurricane, but also gets caught in the winds and flattened.

We still don’t know why Hurricane specifically wanted to defeat Captain Britain, but we can definitely make some guesses. And I guess it’d be far to say Brian’s dealt with something now, and definitely didn’t come off well.

You suppose he’ll hang up his mask and go back to his physics studies? I guess we’ll find out next time (but I wouldn’t count on it)!

Icons

As always, feel free to do anything you want with the icons, including editing them. Credit Silvercat and Marvel Comics

Credits: writer: Chris Claremont, artists: Herb Trimpe & Fred Kida, letterer: I. Watanabe, colorist: Marie Severin, editor: Larry Lieber

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