Worthwhile, but if Marvel publishes a collection of just the Moore stuff, jump on that instead, unless you HAVE to have everything, like me. In particular, I of course loved all of the stuff written by Alan Moore, being an unabashed fanboy of his work, and developed a love for Alan Davis's artwork. Jamie Delano tries to make keep things interesting, even using threads left by Moore's run, but ultimately comes up with 14 issues of just okay comics. This omnibus begins right after the “Siege of Camelot” epic; Merlin sends Brian Braddock back to his universe, and gives him some new threads and powers. After Moore, the quality stays strong with Davis writing as well as drawing, before Delano comes in and takes us to the end of the Captain's run as a solo story.

In one of them, Brian Braddock gets tempted with his heart's desire - a quiet, boring life as an English Dad. the series weakens substantially but that does not make it bad just a little less interesting and more episodic. The pre-Moore issues are surprisingly good, with a first look at Captain Britain alternate realities and the introduction of some pivotal characters [7/10]; except the out-of-sequence Paul Neary issue which can pretty much be skipped [3/10].The silver age stuff, especially that featuring Captain America is cheesy as hell, with only the biggest silver age fans likely able to stomach it, yet its decent for what it is. The 1985 Captain Britain series, by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis, came out just when I was getting into Marvel Comics. But there was another reason I shunned it, unrelated to quality: Captain Britain was kind of a loser. Sure Alan Davis on the artwork makes every page a joy to experience, but that can only last for so long. Despite Captain Britain's atrocious original costume, I really enjoyed all of the early stories written by Chris Claremont.

He was a figure of intense national pride who appeared just when the generations who read 'Commando' were giving way to a more liberal generations of kids. A short story by Grant Morrison ("Captain Granbretagne") offers an interesting and eerie variation on Captain Britain's origin story that also makes this volume worthwhile reading. Perhaps that doesn't matter, because it *is* thrilling: as a craftsman Moore already knew how to pace a page and an episode ruthlessly well, using prose to bully the story into line, establish a cadence, play it out through the episode then end on a cliffhanging payoff. Claremont's stories are stodgy superhero fare with a mild level of British flavouring: when he leaves the book, Gary Friedrich turns that level fully up, the vindaloo to Claremont's tikka masala.This is the first Captain Britain by a British team and the first that feels like it's trying to do something unique with the character - delving into the folkloric elements Claremont gestured at by having Merlin involved with the origin, and adding in CS Lewis or Alan Garner portal fantasy elements. The most straightforward of these is Captain Britain's creator, Chris Claremont, who landed the gig because he'd been born here (Herb Trimpe, the artist, supposedly got the job on the strength of one holiday in Cornwall).