Captain Britain question

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Richn
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:42 pm

Captain Britain question

Post by Richn »

This is going to require you to stretch your memory a bit, but do you remember why Captain Britain's force-field was ditched?

Back when CB was revamped and relaunched by you and Dave Thorpe, one of the big changes to Captain Britain was that he was protected by a personal force-field which he could use rather like Green Lantern's ring; when Alan Moore took over he limited the field so it merely protected Brian, and no longer could be shaped or extended to use as a weapon.

Later still, at the end of your stint as writer, CB tangles with a razor-sharp warpie in "Should Auld Acquaintance..." and ends up bleeding, so by that point I guess the field is completely gone, as it is not mentioned in Excalibur and Brian just seems to have tough skin.

I'm just curious to know why? Was it Alan Moore who decided that he didn't want Captain Britain to use his force-field aggressively, or did you request it be limited because you'd rather draw Brian punching people (I know the great Gil Kane had a similar problem with Green Lantern) ? And did you get rid of it completely because you thought it was more dramatic to have Brian bleed occasionally, or was there another reason?
Alan Davis
Creator
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Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Re: Captain Britain question

Post by Alan Davis »

An instance of creativity through bluff perhaps.
The original ‘Lion rampant’ CB had a staff (that became a sceptre and then a rune covered staff sceptre—essentially morphing from DD’s billy club, to Mjolinr and then into a magic stick. One of the original staff’s functions was to generate a forcefield (while the sceptre granted flight).
When I redesigned the CB costume I ditched the staff/sceptre/staff-sceptre because I didn’t like it and assumed (due to the number of muddled reinventions) nobody else would. But the lack of staff was picked up as a major ‘design flaw’ by an opponent of the ‘new’ costume. I had already explained my idea that the staff (and its circuitry) had been integrated into the CB’s costume (so that he could fly) as part of my design concept and, thinking on my feet, suggested the forcefield might manifest like a mix of Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man Meta-vest projection and Green Lantern’s ring. I was a fan of both Shade and Green Lantern, and of the visual possibilities their powers offered, but the concept really didn’t fit with Captain Britain (And it most definitely wouldn’t be as practical or attractive in a b/w strip).
My suggestion was purely a desperate (even thoughtless) attempt to protect/validate my CB redesign.
I put myself into the position of having to try to make the idea work but as the series continued I developed the idea that, unlike other CB’s across the Multiverse, Brian Braddock would only need his costume as a booster (training wheels) until he achieved his true potential.

Alan
Richn
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Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:42 pm

Re: Captain Britain question

Post by Richn »

Thanks, Alan.
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